Staff editorial: Filling an empty seat

The more than 600 students who marched on the Main Administration Building last week had three demands. They wanted Cordell Black to be reinstated as the associate provost for equity and diversity. They wanted the public release of all budgetary and diversity documents. And they wanted a halt to all firings and academic reorganizations until students, faculty and staff are given seats at the table.

At first glance, it's hard to imagine the administration meeting these demands. Provost Nariman Farvardin has already ruled out reinstating Black. The administration stubbornly refused repeated student attempts to have the budget posted online, so for them to turn over further budget documents seems unlikely. It's questionable how useful the documents would be anyway: Although students did eventually upload the budget themselves, it's too confusing to be useful to non-bureaucrats, and the additional documents might not be any clearer. And some of the data the university has about diversity is already freely available.

The last demand, however, is more realistic. It should be a basic principle of shared governance that faculty, staff and students be kept informed of forthcoming cuts. The administration could claim the community does have a seat at the table through bodies such as the University Senate's Executive Committee. But in a time when fiscal concerns could lead to a wholesale reshaping of the university, more input from students and the university community is necessary. The administration should create a committee solely focused on gathering additional community input as the university grapples with the economic crisis.

A model for this involvement can be found about 900 miles away at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Like this university, Wisconsin faced massive budget cuts. As a result, in-state students from families making at least $80,000 a year are facing an increase of $1,000 in tuition during four years and out of state students face an increase of $3,000.

The funds raised by increasing tuition will be used to hire new faculty, expand course offerings and improve student services. But there's a catch: In exchange for student support, administrators gave students a legitimate say in exactly how the money is spent.

Wisconsin's student government refused to support a tuition jump without additional oversight. As a result, the university created a student committee to review spending proposals and added students to a committee originally consisting of just faculty, staff and administrators. Although the university chancellor has the final say in all proposals, the two committees worked to seek consensus on how funds from the tuition hike would be spent.

This example of administrators reaching out to students who truly care about the direction of their university is telling. There were no protests or angry town hall meetings, only a large dinner hosted by the chancellor to allow students and administrators to work together toward a common goal.

University officials have witnessed the widespread anger among student leaders reflected in town hall meetings about budget cuts and protests concerning diversity. Students' voices will only get louder as momentum grows. But the best way to end the administration's growing credibility problem is to give students a seat at the table. Not only would officials have a better understanding of student concerns, but perhaps students would better understand the hard choices administrators are facing.

We're not asking for students to have the authority to shoot down programs or dictate who the university can hire and fire, but there should be a formal, on-going method to take student opinions into account. This committee could also be a forum for student input on how the money from a tuition increase — one likely to come in the next year — is spent.

Having a seat at the table won't ensure students get everything they want, and it won't neuter the administration's power, but it will open officials' minds to other perspectives and give students the opportunity they've been waiting for.