Editorial: Bottom-up dialogue
Staff Editorial Board
Issue date: 3/9/10 Section: Opinion
As students, we have vested interests in the future of Hamline. This university will figure prominently in all of our resumés after we leave. As alumni, we may chose to donate, even after spending a four-year total often topping $100,000. Now and after we graduate, we remain connected to this school; its reputation will continue to affect us.
We have every reason to be concerned and curious about Hamline's future. What is absolutely mandatory for the continued strength of our university is dialogue with students and transparency of university bureaucracy.
What is going on with the university center? How about the re-branding? What about the methods in which Hamline will attempt to quell the tide of financial insolvency? These are all questions students need answers to. It's not just that we're curious, and it's not just that we don't trust the administration - it's most importantly that our university will only function if there is transparency between students and administrators, including the ever-omnipotent board of trustees. Students have a right to this transparency because of our financial and intellectual investment in this community.
Before you say, "What about the numerous opportunities the President offers for students to ask her questions?," it's important to keep in mind those opportunities are insignificant platitudes to a much bigger issue.
That issue is the inability of the student body to have access to information and the inability to have conversations with individuals who make vital decisions about Hamline. In the past, these forums have not been as useful to students as they could be.
Sure, President Hanson graces our community with two faculty and staff addresses and two community-wide addresses each year. But all of these opportunities are staged, organized and structured based on the whims of upper administrators. Simply allowing students to attend does not constitute creating and fostering dialogue. It's a step in the right direction, but one lacking the vital elements of a truly two-way relationship. A real 'open forum' would include student organization and instrumental participation in creating it.
Additionally, students typically do not have everyday access to Hamline community members like the board of trustees, department chairs or office representatives. Because of this, The Oracle has the unique opportunity to serve as the mouthpiece of communication between those who make Hamline's biggest decisions and its students. But for this to work, we require cooperation from the upper echelons.
Hamline will not survive without its student body, and our interests and questions deserve to be heard. Without a comprehensive relationship that enables each side to initiate dialogue, we face a dreadful outlook for our future.
To assert our status as invested students and participants in our community, we urge students to attend the "Conversation with the President" on Thursday, March 11, from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Sundin Music Hall. Come to show your investment in our community and to ask questions about Hamline's future. We urge President Hanson to answer the difficult questions that her students deserve to know at this event. We urge students to take this step, and all the steps necessary to initiate a truly multi-directional relationship between students and their university.
The Oracle
Staff Editorial Board
Serri Graslie - Editor in Chief
Adam Zagoria - Opinion Editor
Sara Shellenbarger - Managing Editor
We have every reason to be concerned and curious about Hamline's future. What is absolutely mandatory for the continued strength of our university is dialogue with students and transparency of university bureaucracy.
What is going on with the university center? How about the re-branding? What about the methods in which Hamline will attempt to quell the tide of financial insolvency? These are all questions students need answers to. It's not just that we're curious, and it's not just that we don't trust the administration - it's most importantly that our university will only function if there is transparency between students and administrators, including the ever-omnipotent board of trustees. Students have a right to this transparency because of our financial and intellectual investment in this community.
Before you say, "What about the numerous opportunities the President offers for students to ask her questions?," it's important to keep in mind those opportunities are insignificant platitudes to a much bigger issue.
That issue is the inability of the student body to have access to information and the inability to have conversations with individuals who make vital decisions about Hamline. In the past, these forums have not been as useful to students as they could be.
Sure, President Hanson graces our community with two faculty and staff addresses and two community-wide addresses each year. But all of these opportunities are staged, organized and structured based on the whims of upper administrators. Simply allowing students to attend does not constitute creating and fostering dialogue. It's a step in the right direction, but one lacking the vital elements of a truly two-way relationship. A real 'open forum' would include student organization and instrumental participation in creating it.
Additionally, students typically do not have everyday access to Hamline community members like the board of trustees, department chairs or office representatives. Because of this, The Oracle has the unique opportunity to serve as the mouthpiece of communication between those who make Hamline's biggest decisions and its students. But for this to work, we require cooperation from the upper echelons.
Hamline will not survive without its student body, and our interests and questions deserve to be heard. Without a comprehensive relationship that enables each side to initiate dialogue, we face a dreadful outlook for our future.
To assert our status as invested students and participants in our community, we urge students to attend the "Conversation with the President" on Thursday, March 11, from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Sundin Music Hall. Come to show your investment in our community and to ask questions about Hamline's future. We urge President Hanson to answer the difficult questions that her students deserve to know at this event. We urge students to take this step, and all the steps necessary to initiate a truly multi-directional relationship between students and their university.
The Oracle
Staff Editorial Board
Serri Graslie - Editor in Chief
Adam Zagoria - Opinion Editor
Sara Shellenbarger - Managing Editor
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