Raising the students voice on campus
Ryan Johnson
Issue date: 12/4/07 Section: Opinion
Sometimes, I look back at my college education and feel like I'm an old man already. I know it's 'only' my fifth year, but it starts getting to you when you take classes full of your little brother's high school classmates.
One thing that makes me feel the effect of this rapid aging is just how much UND has changed since I began in 2003. Back in my day, we didn't have fancy Wellness Centers or Segways patrolling expensive parking ramps.
For the most part, these changes have been positive. Enrollment has gone up, our national presence has increased, and they even painted a few classrooms in Merrifield Hall.
Not everything has been so great, though. I could name some of the usual suspects - parking issues or the increasing tuition and student fees - but instead will talk about a larger issue: a lack of transparency in how this university is run.
As time has gone on, UND has been given the opportunity to make big advancements in the institution overall. There was quite a bit of fanfare when we began the transition to Division I athletics.
Controversial moves that seem to be for the benefit of students and faculty, like the smoking ban, can also be interpreted as the university making important decisions that will help everyone.
But with all these grand ideas and innovations, those in the UND community have simultaneously been losing the right to help decide or even be informed of important things that the university faces.
The most disturbing trend on campus is the overall lack of knowledge of what is going on. Most people would know that Tom Buning, our athletic director, recently resigned - but ask them why this happened, or who decided that this needed to happen, and they wouldn't have an answer.
A bigger issue on the statewide level was resolved, for the time being, when the NCAA and UND approved a settlement to their lawsuit. People would know that we now have three years to gain tribal approval in order to keep the nickname. But who decides if we have tribal approval or not? What is the university's plan to gain this support or to agree on changing the nickname? Good luck on finding an answer to those questions.
The thing that worries me is that this year has been full of surprises on campus. Coming into the role of news editor in August, I figured that the lawsuit would be big news, as well as the transition to Division I and the upcoming retirement of President Kupchella.
These have all been important, as predicted, but the most surprising stories have been moments that seemingly result from poor leadership or poor planning. Who would have thought that UND would end up giving our athletic director over $100,000 to resign after taking a lengthy absence?
Or that the resignation and loss of the director of the whole department would come during the crucial time of the exploratory year of our move to higher athletic competition, especially when Buning helped create and establish the very plan that is getting us to the next level?
SourceI'm glad that someone else sees things the way I do.
There's no way to have any sort of say in anything unless the student body is educated about what is going on. It's too bad he's graduating though, we should have had him on board with Campus Dakota a long time ago.
Topic: Raising the voices of students on campus (Read 3389 times)
