There is Something Rotten in the State of the University

Though Provost Joseph Morreale was referring to the Buildings and Grounds employee who turned the heating on in the Media Room during the budget review meeting when he said, "It's amazing when someone knows what to do," the statement could be used interchangeably in countless dealings with the University from the administrators to the students.

At the meeting, numerous department chairs raised concerns about the lack of proper classroom equipment and academic budgets small enough to cover only day-to-day operations such as making photocopies. The faculty to student ratio may have increased due to the oversight with the early retirement incident but that means nothing when those professors are unable to teach because the proper materials are not available. When a CSIS professor is teaching with a piece of chalk and a blackboard, there is a problem. When a film professor is assigned a classroom without a projection screen and Educational Media only has eight sets of television/VCR/DVD to distribute between hundreds of requests, there is a problem.

Subsequently, if the faculty - student ratio is so commendable, why are sections being cut instead of added? The Administration's statements lack congruity with their actions; this lack of consistency is precisely the reason students are suspicious of the Administration's motives. The Pace Press has written countless editorials on the importance of open lines of communication and the Administration has taken heed, at least superficially. Transparency is the most recent buzzword on the 18th floor of One Pace Plaza but students have little, if any idea, in regards to the state of our University.

We have a liaison between the student government and top administrators in our SGA president, but what is discussed in those meetings is never released to the greater student body. More common hours are necessary to facilitate involvement with student organizations but the student government president cannot be elected on that platform alone when there is so much more - our academics - at stake. Students Accounts and Registrar Services (SARS) has come and gone and we are still waiting on the results of the SARS survey conducted by SGA last year. Having a monthly or biweekly meeting with the SGA president is admirable of Provost Morreale but there needs to be a better mechanism to communicate student problems and solutions.

Towards the end of the budget review session, one University employee called for a review of the staff, which includes administrators, to gauge how top-heavy the bureaucracy is. Though the Provost found it to be a good idea, he was clueless when asked how he would guarantee student representation on this committee. When told about the Leaders listserv, which has the capability to e-mail the student leaders of every club and/or organization on campus, Morreale and Rick Whitfield, who presented alongside the Provost, proclaimed ignorance about the listserv and promptly moved on to the next question; however, Morreale later requested information regarding the Leaders listserv be e-mailed to him.

The University can award this tumultuous time period in our history with whatever cute name it wants, whether it is the Valley of Opportunity or the Mountain Peak of Determination, but the most appropriate choice is the Trough of Disillusionment because it most accurately conveys the sentiment of students on campus. It explains the lack of retention and the dwindling enrollment amongst international students and other full paying students. Those students are choosing to attend colleges and universities where either they are getting better student services or paying less for equally unacceptable student services.

It is really hard for a university to destroy itself. Adelphi in Long Island tried that when they hired Peter Diamondopoulos as president. Diamondopoulos was awarded a million dollar apartment in Manhattan, received $170,000 to renovate and furnish it alongside the opportunity to purchase the apartment at a discounted price and that was only the tip of the iceberg. Following numerous transgressions, the New York Regents voted to remove 18 of the 19 trustees of Adelphi because the Board cannot remove the president itself; however, it was understood that the newly appointed trustees would more or less force Diamondopoulos to resign.

With that in mind, maybe Pace won't destroy itself and, in the next five, ten, twenty years, our degrees will be worth a bit more than 20 packets of ramen bought wholesale at Costco or BJ's.