A MOMENT OF YOUR TIME...
Last weekend, on the 9th and 10th of February, Goddard College held its first board meeting of the 1996 calendar year in Boston, Massachusetts. Three students, including myself, attended as observers for the student body (two other students attended as members of the board). The three of us drove to the meeting at 4 AM on Saturday morning for the weekends only open session, which was scheduled for 9 AM. The board members were already at the conference site, and hotel rooms paid for from Goddard's coffers.
Getting to that meeting was not easy. A great deal of energy was exerted in the week beforehand to ensure that both the Nudepaper and the student body would be represented there, and a great debt of gratitude is owed to Kristen Hill for coming through in a pinch for us. But not once in the five-hour session where we treated in a manner I would qualify as accommodating, and often even basic courtesies were withheld from us. We were told by one board member of the staff that, since no one had actually thought students would show up, we had not been included in the food "allotment" for the meeting, which consisted of a catered buffet breakfast.
At no time where we acknowledged by the board, nor were we invited to comment on any of the issues discussed. The only time any of us were spoken to directly was on several occasions on which I was asked to stop recording the meeting. When I pass a note to the head of the board specifically asking to be allowed to address the board, the request was grudgingly granted right before the lunch recess (another meal from which we were actively disinvited). On that occasion, I invited the board at large to an open interview for this paper and gave the members my phone number, which I could not help but notice no one wrote down. Only a handful of board members could even be bothered to look directly at me -- I couldn't help but notice that many of their gazes were leveled unwaveringly at the laden buffet tables behind me.
This is the way we are thought of by the board of our college, folks. We are an annoyance, unnecessary but lamentable side effect of being in the "business of education" (a favorite phase of many members of the board). Going over my notes, I can find only two occasions in the entire five hours when the word "students" was spoken, in contrast to the hundreds of times I heard the phrases "cost-effective", "dollars and cents", and "projected budget shortfall". Are these things important? Of course. But in the Goddard I thought I was attending, they would be the necessary but lamentable side effects, and the students would be the subject of conversation. This is not simply a matter of rampant ego. We pay a hefty sum to be the center of attention around here.
If the board wants to discuss dollars and cents, perhaps there're choosing the wrong forum to do it in. We are the financial backers of this institution, and if there's a budget question to be addressed, we ought to be, if not consulted, at least as well informed as the board is. Why is this repeatedly not the case?
Because, simply put, there is a powerful rush that comes from withholding knowledge. To know something someone else wants to know makes us smug and self-impressed. Perhaps such self-aggrandizement is the coin in which certain members of the board are paid for their time. If this is the case, I would suggest that they are on the wrong college board. They have no place in the role of adviser to the school I write my checks to.
It's been said before, but stop for a second and think about this -- WE PAY FOR THE SCHOOL. The operating budget cushion for this semester for our college is approximately $5000 -- less than a single student's tuition. We have the most responsibility for this college, and we ought to accept it. We make the most sacrifices for this college, and we ought to remember it. We have the ultimate authority on this campus.
And we ought to wield it.
