Transparency is something Marquette sucks at. Yeah, if you do a little poking, a little prodding you can get a scoop on the going-ons and hot gossip (tearing down McCormick, a new Rec Center — hopefully with racquetball courts — eight-story engineering building, etc.), but the majority of students are too busy with accounting tests, nursing clinicals, Water Street, Spanish papers and the like. And so most of us are surprised when big changes happen because we missed the student/administration forum or the News Briefs, like the ones that happened for the coffee switch, South Africa suspension, the Gold, etc.
Oh wait, the administration didn't ask for our input about any of those. And one of them led to some pretty hilarious remarks from Dwyane Wade on ESPN.
And while I'm on it, the Gold. People bring this up from time to time and complain: People are laughing at us, we look like idiots, and so on. But who cares? The Gold was a ridiculous moment for us, but the real tragedy in that whole saga was that we, the students, were not in on the decision-making process.
Clearly, there are those among the decision-making bodies who are at a terrible disconnect with the desires of the student population. The good news is that it can be solved pretty easily: student members on the board of trustees, actually consulting the students' opinions and not trying to sneak in changes of the summer (shame on you for that, by the way).
The bureaucracy is nauseating at times. A great example, and one of the silliest of all Marquette policies in my opinion, is the need to send everything from events to posters through the Office of Student Development for approval. Most colleges have boards in buildings and in their quad where people can put up anything they wish without approval, from ads for guitar lessons to the Bush twins on campus to looking for a Pisces who enjoys the Clash and soccer (by the way …).
Yes, I know, Marquette is a private institution and thus is well within its rights to limit free speech on campus. The College Republican's "Adopt a Sniper" table and JUSTICE's "Vagina Monologues" immediately come to mind. Both had a right to exist, both were denied. I'm reminded of a quote from Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure," which I think applies: "O, it is excellent to have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant." Basically, yeah, it is within Marquette's right to make us get every poster approved and to shut down any event on campus, but it doesn't make it right. At a time in our lives when the free flow of information and ideas is the goal, it seems silly to restrict it. There's also something to be said about putting faith in the student body.
Marquette, redeem yourself: Ask us about what to do with the old Blockbuster location.
Adams is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences.