Many students were displeased after speaking with administrators at an open panel discussion regarding the recommendations for changes in senior activities (no senior streak on the evening of the senior dinner, the closing of the Viking Room after the senior dinner, the elimination of university funds allocated to the consumption of alcohol at senior events, etc.) effective this year.Many students left feeling as though administrators had neglected to obtain their input concerning these new recommendations, and they had acted unilaterally without considering any input from the current senior class.
Since the forum, a committee of students has been established to address the current recommendations that have been made pertaining to senior events, make further recommendations that represent the students, and present these alternative solutions to the administration. While we still feel that student input should have been considered when this issue was first examined, we feel that retroactive action is a much better alternative to not considering the students at all.
Going forward, we must, as students, work together to generate feasible alternatives to the recommendations that have come before the administrative team thus far. We should not allow this opportunity to re-examine the issue to pass us by, or become a mere means to pacify the students’ voice.
We should, rather, invest in a solution to the problems of past senior classes and hold ourselves to a much higher standard of accountability and responsibility. When the administration can trust in its students to act responsibly, then students can be assured that they can trust the administration to value their voices.