IN THE early 1970s, then-Student Council President Larry Sabato met with University President Edgar Shannon weekly. In 2004, Student Council President Noah Sullivan recalls meeting with University President John T. Casteen, III just twice. And in 2007, Student Council President Lauren Tilton had a grand total of zero sit-down meetings with Casteen.
Obviously, there are differences between those days and these. Thirty years ago, the University “had almost no capital campaign and almost no private fundraising,” Sabato said in an interview, making the job of president much more “Grounds-focused.” Now the principal job of the University president is to raise funds, keeping him away from Grounds for long stretches. Clearly, to a certain extent, Casteen’s lack of Student Council interaction is a function of his job description.
With today’s president far less involved in everyday student life, administrative ignorance has followed. Within the athletic department, the Board of Visitors, and the upper-echelon of administrators surrounding the president, the student voice is especially silenced.
Although certain groups, like the Dean of Students and student-focused departments like Parking and Transportation, Dining and the Bookstore, hear from students on an everyday basis, their attitude is rarely shared by top decision-makers. Where the student voice is heard least, the students must speak loudest, and keep speaking until administrators grant us the respect we deserve.
This year’s most publicized student-administration showdown illuminates one area where the student voice is seldom heard. When the athletics sign ban was implemented, it was done without any advance consultation of students, specifically of Student Council. Student Council President Matt Schrimper, in a Washington Post interview, admitted that the e-mail sent to all students announcing the ban was “the first we’ve heard about it.” That lack of consultation with Student Council is unacceptable on any matter that impacts student rights.
Even when students do have a chance to weigh in, they are often ignored. The Bob Sweeney pavilion controversy shows exactly that. In the spring of 2007, just over one year ago, President Casteen made it clear that he wished for the University’s chief fundraiser, Senior Vice President for Development and Public Affairs Bob Sweeney, to get a spot on the Lawn. The pavilion residences were originally constructed for the exclusive use of professors and the existing policy prohibited administrators like Sweeney from living there. Students spoke up against such a repudiation of the Jeffersonian “Academical Village,” with Lawn residents taping signs to their doors which read, “For Sale. Inquire with [Board of Visitors]. Cozy, Rustic, Jeffersonian! No interaction with students necessary.”
What was the result of this student protest? The Board of Visitors, which handpicks their own so-called “student representative,” changed the policy secretly over the summer in a telephone vote, because the secretary said the public meeting schedule was “swamped.” In the end, Sweeney was installed onto the Lawn and student interest dissipated as a new school year began.
Flash back to the 1970s. “This was a time of enormous social change, much of it driven by the young,” Sabato said, “It was an era when students had taken on a large role in governance, in part because of strong opposition to the war in Vietnam and strong support of the civil rights movement.” That time is gone. Although a majority of students, according to almost any survey on the matter, clearly oppose the war in Iraq, very few are up in arms about it. That apathy, or at least the appearance of apathy, extends to the Grounds of the University.
Ultimately, the blame for a lack of student power falls to students. There has been plenty to get riled up about, from Bob Sweeney’s Pavilion to the sign policy. Still, we seem unable to comprehend that we will continue to be ignored until we make a concerted and sustained stand for ourselves. Although there are areas where Student Council has been successful, from dining to textbook pricing, former President Tilton said, “In other areas of the University it is a relationship that needs to be built.” It is in those areas, from athletics to the Board of Visitors to the president’s office, where students need to make themselves heard.
In this new age, President Casteen spends more time listening to rich alumni than to Student Council. That is a reality. Fortunately, there is another reality as well. Alumni pay attention to news about the University, and we, the current students, can impact that news. Our power is not in dollars, but in numbers. Massive protests like the sign protest at the University of Richmond game are a step in the right direction. For students to wield any power, we must keep it up.
Isaac Wood is a Cavalier Daily Viewpoint Writer.
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