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Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
Administrative involvement at a university is one of those “no duh” things. Whether we like our administrators or not, they make the choices that will affect future students and ourselves. Recently, I think the University of Maine administrators have shown exceptional efforts to include students into their decision-making – and when they have chosen not to do that, they have informed the student body.
In the past two weeks alone, Vice President for Administration and Finance Janet Waldron gave a presentation to the public about next year’s budget. This included tuition increases. Sue Hunter, an associate provost, went to the General Student Senate (GSS) meeting to ask for input about their MaineStreet class signup experiences. Before that, Sue Bernier went to GSS to gather information and questions for the Tobacco-Free Campus plan. Waldron and Hunter, along with campus planners, held a meeting for the master plan. These were all public meetings – anyone could attend.
The UMaine administration is clearly trying to become more transparent. This allows students to feel they have a voice when they take these opportunities to attend the meetings.
It is easy to sit at a computer and whine about how tuition is increasing, but when you go to a meeting and learn why tuition is going up and then try to fight it, you’re in a whole new ballgame. By becoming more transparent, administrators are handing the responsibility, in part, to you. I would encourage anyone who has opinions about parking garages on campus, meal plans, 10-percent tuition increases, class sign-ups – anything – to speak up, in the right place. Don’t get me wrong, the UMaine Forum is great, but it is more powerful when you can stand in front of someone and tell them what you think face-to-face.
For all the complaints I hear on this campus, I almost never see any students at GSS meetings. These are people who have direct contact with the administration; these are people who represent you. If you aren’t in their face, you aren’t letting them do their jobs as effectively as they could.
Granted, in some of these cases, such as Tobacco-Free Campus, the university has already said in more eloquent wordage: This is going to happen no matter what you say. I’d bet money that if we had to move the GSS meeting to Hauck Auditorium to fit the student audience, the university would have thought twice about that statement. Student presence makes an impact. When there are two students in the audience held hostage by a class requirement to attend a public meeting, that also sends a message: We don’t care; do what you want.
Take advantage of the opportunities you have here. You only have four (or maybe five) years to make an impact here. Leave a legacy. Be a pain in the butt.
Heather Steeves is a third-year journalism major and a major pain in the butt.
