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The State of Change at the University
by Jacqueline Couillard
Change is a way of life at the University, but rarely has it been more so than this season. Things have been happening that affect us.
One example of change on campus is our new University President and his Beautiful U campaign. This long-overdue idea finally addressed the discontinuity between decrepit kiosks, peeling paint on the Washington Avenue Bridge and seemingly intangible concepts behind the University, such as a sense of pride in what we do here despite our different disciplines.
Another example of change is a plan included in the University budget for a digital technology center in Walter Library, helping carry IT into the 21st century in the growing computer industry along with a planned computer engineering program. Also in the capital budget are monies for a molecular materials lab in Amundson Hall and for improved air quality in Smith Hall. This reflects an overall change at the University from spending more on new buildings than the old to trying to preserve existing buildings before constructing new ones.
The caveat to all this popular change is that an equal or greater undercurrent of potentially unpopular change is sweeping the University, affecting students.
In a telling example of this second sort of change, a committee in the Minnesota legislature has been considering proposals that advocate elimination of the student seat on the Board of Regents as well as all other constituency-based seating. If one of these proposals were to become law, it could mean that students would still be allowed to address the regents, but would no longer have a voting voice. This voting voice is important because, as current student regent, Jessica Phillips, views her job, the student regent brings a recent perspective into the board that might otherwise be lacking. Her maturity and track record on the Board of Regents shows that students can be effective members of policy-forming groups at the University.
Thankfully, it seems unlikely that enough support exists in either the Minnesota legislature or the University for the student seat on the Board of Regents to be eliminated, said both Jigar Madia, president of the Minnesota Student Association, and Darrin Rosha, Phillips' predecessor as student Regent who testified before the Minnesota legislature on November 12.
But Rosha brought up a key point to the notion of an undercurrent of change when he noted that the Minnesota Alumni Association and the Faculty Consultative Committee both support elimination of all constituency-based seating.
Even Victor Bloomfield, chair of the FCC, agreed that such elimination would make it unlikely that a student would ever serve on the Board again. He feels it would be a conflict of interest for students or faculty to serve, anyway. But then one could argue that most federal legislators have a conflict of interest and shouldn't vote. The logic doesnÕt hold.
And the timing is off. The FCC and the UMAA saw the Presidential change coming. In this change-filled transition after the Board has just selected a new University President who seems to be well-liked, it seems strange that members of the University community would start a power struggle over who should serve on one of the main sources of constancy and continuation of vision at the University, the Board of Regents.
There's going to be change. It's a part of life. We, like Phillips, must find our voices and use our minds to offer suggestions that might not occur to those not in our situation.
Amid all this change, the Minnesota Technolog is a staying force. We aim to continue our 78-year, award winning style of bringing you information you need to get through the University and to find your way back to what brought you into IT in the first place.
