Staff editorial: The story of Glicken Little

SGA President Steve Glickman's annual State of the Campus address was marked with an underlying tone of despair. Despite rattling off a list of the Student Government Association's accomplishments, Glickman called the state of the campus "unacceptable" and lamented a "disturbing sense of distrust of the administration." Transparency was lauded as the issue of our day, and the administration was painted as the roadblock for change.

Many of Glickman's points were valid. We have argued on this page that the administrators need to dramatically increase transparency and work to involve students in budgetary decisions. But if you look up, the sky is clearly not falling.

For instance, look at the University of California System, which contains two of this university's peer institutions. The Golden State will face a $21 billion deficit, and tuition there is being raised a staggering 32 percent. The cost of attending UC Berkeley, one of the university's peer institutions, has tripled over the past decade. On Friday, 40 students barricaded themselves inside a UC Berkeley academic building to protest the increase, as well as drastic cuts and furloughs. They were arrested by riot police.

Things here will never be as bad as they are in California. While Annapolis politicians are miles from perfect, the amount of ineptitude apparently collected in Sacramento is unprecedented. But in a way, the response of students and administrators here to budget cuts mirrors what is happening on the West Coast, just on a smaller scale.

Still, there are major differences that can't be ignored. In-state tuition here has not increased a penny, and although we support a minor tuition hike, a freeze is obviously preferable to increasing tuition by a third. And the proposed mergers of various departments and colleges could be a good step, provided administrators handle it properly.

Ultimately, unless Provost Nariman Farvardin and university President Dan Mote were hawking subprime mortgages while we weren't looking, administrators did not cause the financial collapse and have done a fairly good job of handling it. While an SGA legislator had to copy the university budget onto a flashdrive from Hornbake Library and place it online, no university lawyers battled to have it taken down. And while Cordell Black was removed from his position as associate provost for Equity and Diversity, his position was not eliminated entirely.

Glickman is right to pressure the administration for more transparency and further student input. Students who are angry at the current state of things need to have their concerns heard and taken into account by the administration. However, the notion that somehow the state of the campus is completely unacceptable strays from reality. Despite whatever controversies have arisen, the university remains a fine place to receive a college education.

That said, Glickman is president of the SGA and essentially a politician. He needs to use stern rhetoric to pressure administrators and mobilize students. But as students deride the administration for being secretive or complain about cuts to programs, they should take a minute to think about students on the West Coast and the thousands who will never receive the education they deserve because of that financial situation. Riot police have not blanketed our campus nor have hundreds of university staff members lost their jobs.
Glickman should stop, take a breath and look up.