The Student Council passed a strongly worded resolution Tuesday that calls for a complete overhaul of its relations with University administrators.
The resolution was passed with a nearly unanimous vote, criticizing administrators for impeding or ignoring a number of the Council's initiatives.
The resolution comes after a rocky start to the year, which included the senior class council having their funding frozen at one point last fall due to what Council President Scott Bierbryer termed "counter-productiveness" in an e-mail to the class presidents.
The resolution cites a number of failures in the administration's communication with the Council - including one which made it impossible for them to bring the rapper Ludacris to campus this weekend - along with numerous demands for improvements.
"I feel like none of these are unreasonable," he told the Council. "And most of these were actually recommended by the administration," he added, citing a report in 2002 by Paula Burger, dean of undergraduate education.
Although the administration had not been formally presented with the resolution by press time, Burger and Susan Boswell, dean of student life, said that they would be open to looking at a complete reformatting of the relationship between the administration and the Council.
"I think it's fair to say that relationships with Scott and some members of his executive staff are currently strained at best," Boswell said in an e-mail to the News-Letter.
The resolution points to a number of communication failures between the administration and the Council, including a lack of transparency, failure to provide students with sufficient advanced notice of policy changes, ignoring the representative input of the Council, and a failure to provide a system of governance that allows for undergraduates to impact decisions or enact change on campus.
Specifically, the Council was frustrated by the administration's decisions to change the academic course schedule, the study abroad programs, some Housing and Dining Services policies, internship credit policies, student group allocations and event planning policies. None of these, the Council said, was made with sufficient input from the student body.
Boswell and Burger both denied a number of the allegations against the administration. The resolution alleged that administrative officers had failed "to make themselves available in a timely manner to the members of the representative organizations of the Student Body."
To this, Burger simply replied that she was "puzzled by why there would be a view that [they] do not." She cited several instances since last semester when she met with various members of The Council.
Bierbryer was adamant that the level of availability Burger and Boswell boast was exaggerated.
"We have trouble scheduling meetings with them," he said. "It is difficult for us to keep the administrative decisions in check."
Burger said that early last fall, she met with the executive board of the Council "and volunteered to come to any student council meeting at any time." She said that she is disappointed not to have been invited to them.
While he denies that Burger has never been invited, Bierbryer echoed this sentiment and believes that the idea needs to be taken further.
"I should also have an opportunity to meet with the trustees and voice student concerns," he said.
As a general rule, Bierbryer believes that administrators make decisions of their own volition with minimal input from undergraduates. Only after they have implemented these decisions, he contends, do they inform the affected parties. Within this format, he noted, students are forced to act retroactively if they want to have any effect on the decisions.
He feels that it is the Council's responsibility to represent the interests of the undergraduates and believes the administration has been a hindrance in their attempts to do their elected duty.
"If the administration is not concerned with the concerns that the undergrads have, we'll inform the people that they do care about," said senior Andrew Gerba, vice president for activities, who has been passionately involved with this process. He went on to cite a number of alumni and donors who, he believes, will support Student Council's resolution if they do not receive the administration's support.
"If this doesn't work, then there is going to be a redefinition of what student government is," he said.
Boswell met with Bierbryer and Gerba yesterday to briefly discuss specific communication challenges. All parties involved were content with this first step toward improved relations. They have a meeting scheduled with more administrators in the near future.
A recent attempt by the Council to bring in the rapper Ludacris is one example of poor communication between the administrators and the Council.
On Jan. 25, Bierbryer and Gerba had a meeting with Burger in which they discussed putting on a concert for Founders Day, which takes place this weekend.
Gerba worked with Council advisors and the Hopkins Organization for Programming to garner the funds and organization that would be required to put on a concert in such a short period of time.
According to Gerba and Bierbryer, the vast majority of their planning was in place by Feb. 6. At that time, they made Boswell aware of the full costs of the event, which were estimated at about $90,000.
Two days later, Boswell e-mailed them with the information that she and some other administrators would deny their funding.
In the e-mail, Boswell cited inadequate time to plan "a concert of this magnitude." Instead, she asked that they start planning a concert for the fall.
Gerba was extremely disappointed with this decision, which he feels was unwarranted since the funds were all available and the planning was so nearly complete. He was also frustrated with what he considered a delay in informing him of the decision to deny the funding.
Gerba and Bierbryer were told that Boswell had consulted with administrators who had extensive experience in concert planning, and that they had determined that the timeline was simply too short to pull off a concert - especially one which required such a significant investment.
As the representative for activities, Gerba was especially disappointed with the decision. He believed that the student body, as a whole, would prefer to have one big event like the Ludacris concert as opposed to a series of smaller, less attended events.
His frustration also extended to the budget allocation process. All of the funds to pay for the concert would have come from the Council, the HOP and a small donation by Burger's office - all funds that they already had, and much of which they would have made back in ticket sales.
"Why do we need approval for the budget that we've already been allocated?" he said.
Bierbryer is convinced that the administrators are unaware of the ways that the administration, in the Council's opinion, is being counter-productive.
"I think they think they're doing the right thing," he said. "Maybe it's just from being on the campus for so long."
Naturally, administrators disagree, but are still open to change.
"I believe strongly in having an effective student government organization on campus and having student input in matters that affect them," Burger said. She listed a number of student advisory committees for Housing, Dining, Residential Life, the Career Center, Health and Wellness and many more that she believes represent the students.
As the students' elected representatives, Bierbryer questioned why The Council members were not included on these boards in addition to other students.
At the same time, Bierbryer readily admitted that he has turned down offers to sit on some university committees. ?
"I'm honestly so ashamed of some of the committees that I've been [involved with] on campus that I don't include them on my resume," he said.
With yesterday's meeting behind him, Gerba has hope that in the future, relations between the Council and the administration will allow him to do his job.
"As vice president of entertainment, all I want to do is have really cool events," he said.
