According to Office of Student Development Assistant Dean Jon Dooley, the MUSG recommendation has the purpose of telling the administration the program should be reinstated.,”

Thursday night, in an emotional and powerful Marquette Student Government Senate meeting, MUSG voted 24-0, with two abstentions, to approve a recommendation for the immediate reinstatement of the South Africa Service Learning Program.

According to Office of Student Development Assistant Dean Jon Dooley, the MUSG recommendation has the purpose of telling the administration the program should be reinstated.

MUSG President and College of Business Administration senior Dan Calandriello "guarantees" this issue will be on "MUSG's radar screen for a long time."

More than 40 students unaffiliated with MUSG filled the Alumni Memorial Union ballrooms to express their dissatisfaction with the suspension of the program. Provost Madeline Wake and Senior Vice President Greg Kliebhan also attended to explain how the decision to suspend the program was made.

Four of the students were elected to speak before the senate because there was not enough time for all students to speak at the meeting.

College of Arts & Sciences senior Maura Hagen spoke tearfully about how she felt betrayed by the university, saying "cutting this program completely undermines any integrity Marquette has in the values it proclaims.

"What the administration is essentially telling people through cutting this program for something as simple and pedestrian as money is that Marquette merely holds the values of social justice, service, leadership, scholarship and faith when it is financially responsible to do so," she said.

Hagen's words brought thunderous applause from everyone there, except Wake and Kliebhan.

Additionally, a letter from a South African girl whom Marquette students tutored was read.

In the letter, seventh grader Siphokazi Lento thanked the Marquette students who tutored her and included a poem she wrote, entitled "Achieving Your Dreams."

Lento concluded the letter by saying that a Marquette student participating in the South Africa program taught her that achieving your dreams is possible.

The letter also elicited thunderous applause from everyone there, except Wake and Kliebhan.

Wake and Kliebhan then gave their presentation on how the university came to its decision to suspend the program.

Wake began by saying, "My heart is more with you (those fighting for the South Africa Service Learning Program) than you know."

But it's possible no one believed her: It was the provost, along with College of Arts & Sciences Dean Michael McKinney, who had approved the suspension of the South Africa program.

During the presentation Kliebhan told the MUSG senate, "Hard decisions is what the budget is about. … It's as if you wanted to have a party with pizza, pretzels and beer and then found out you could only afford pizza."

The good news, according to Wake and Kliebhan's presentation, is that the cutting of the South Africa program is not yet definite, because the final budget for the 2007-'08 school year has not yet been approved by the board of trustees.

But the administration's track record suggests the probability of reinstatement is small. In the last six months the university has increased the price of soft drinks in vending machines, increased ATM fees and changed coffee vendors without soliciting any student opinion.

Moreover, when MUSG officials conveyed problems with these changes their concerns "were not well received" by the administration, according to Calandriello.

But the question remains as to whether the MUSG resolution alone will change the mind of the administration.

Students, of whom more than 650 have joined a Facebook group dedicated to the return of the program, seem to believe the university's ideals, including excellence, faith, leadership and service, were called into question with the indefinite suspension of the program.

The next forum with University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild is Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. This forum is a good venue for students to give directly to Wild their feelings about the suspension of the South Africa program, whether they are positive, negative or indifferent and calling for change.

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