Opinions of students should count
Adam Roberts
Issue date: 8/21/08 Section: Opinion
The 2008-09 school year is finally under way, so I'd like to begin by welcoming our brand new chancellor, G. David Gearhart, to the UA. Chancellor Gearhart has pledged to "put students first." His arrival marks a tremendous opportunity for the UA administration to heal the rifts that have developed between the decision-makers and the students.
Since I started attending the UA in 2004, student opinion has seemingly become meaningless. A recent example we are all familiar with is the new UA tobacco ban. Mary Alice Serafini, the assistant vice chancellor for student affairs and director of the Pat Walker Health Center, announced the ban last fall. It was a unilateral decision made without input from the Associated Student Government or from the student body at large. Letters poured into the Traveler and callers kept the UATV phone lines ringing, nearly all of them expressing disapproval with the new tobacco policy.
It didn't matter.
The UA hosted town hall meetings and debates, at which Serafini was lambasted with verbal abuse from angry students. The Residents' Interhall Congress conducted a poll of its members and found that the majority of students who lived on campus were opposed to the policy. Even the Staff Senate voted in disapproval of the ban.
It still didn't matter. The policy was going into effect whether students liked it or not. Student opinion was deemed completely irrelevant.
Or, take another example. The modular math classes at the UA are notorious for their frustrating computer-based "teaching" methods. (Freshmen, you'll learn what I mean soon enough… Too soon…) So, ASG passed the Education Reform Act of 2007. ASG asked the math department to offer an equal number of traditionally taught classes and modular math classes simultaneously to allow students to choose between them.
Of course, it didn't matter.
Instead of listening to the problem and attempting to solve it, the math department responded defensively. Allan Cochran, the department chair at the time, refused to release information on drop rates to student journalists. Although the department will finally use new, slightly less frustrating software for the modular programs this year, there are still no traditional alternatives for finite mathematics students.
Since I started attending the UA in 2004, student opinion has seemingly become meaningless. A recent example we are all familiar with is the new UA tobacco ban. Mary Alice Serafini, the assistant vice chancellor for student affairs and director of the Pat Walker Health Center, announced the ban last fall. It was a unilateral decision made without input from the Associated Student Government or from the student body at large. Letters poured into the Traveler and callers kept the UATV phone lines ringing, nearly all of them expressing disapproval with the new tobacco policy.
It didn't matter.
The UA hosted town hall meetings and debates, at which Serafini was lambasted with verbal abuse from angry students. The Residents' Interhall Congress conducted a poll of its members and found that the majority of students who lived on campus were opposed to the policy. Even the Staff Senate voted in disapproval of the ban.
It still didn't matter. The policy was going into effect whether students liked it or not. Student opinion was deemed completely irrelevant.
Or, take another example. The modular math classes at the UA are notorious for their frustrating computer-based "teaching" methods. (Freshmen, you'll learn what I mean soon enough… Too soon…) So, ASG passed the Education Reform Act of 2007. ASG asked the math department to offer an equal number of traditionally taught classes and modular math classes simultaneously to allow students to choose between them.
Of course, it didn't matter.
Instead of listening to the problem and attempting to solve it, the math department responded defensively. Allan Cochran, the department chair at the time, refused to release information on drop rates to student journalists. Although the department will finally use new, slightly less frustrating software for the modular programs this year, there are still no traditional alternatives for finite mathematics students.
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Becky
posted 8/21/08 @ 12:29 PM CST
This is a well written article. I hope the new chancellor takes the student voice seriously.
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