University address unfairly excludes students

By Staff Editorial     10/29/09 7:00pm

On Monday, President David Leebron spoke to nearly 100 students at the Student Association meeting, displaying his wit and charm to an attentive and concerned audience. After touching on Rice's rise through the rankings, Leebron reached the meat of his presentation: the discussion surrounding the proposed merger between Rice and the Baylor College of Medicine. He handily fielded the subsequent questions, and students left the meeting feeling confident their concerns had been answered.Unfortunately, one question remained: How did this speech and the ensuing discussion differ from the one that occurred just a few days earlier at his State of the University address?

As Thresher senior editor Sarah Rutledge points out in her Op-Ed piece, the State of the University address, traditionally open to both public and media, shut its doors to all but the faculty this year (see story, page 3). The announcement of the closure came only after the meeting began - a failure of communication in and of itself. However, waiting until the last moment to announce the closure is not the main reason we are chiding the Faculty Senate for its decision to eliminate access to the vast majority of the Rice community.

We understand that there is certain sensitive, classified material that should not be privy to the public just yet. But this does not give the Faculty Senate the right to cut off a vital and traditional means of communication between the university administration and the students who elected to spend three or more years under their guidance.

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Furthermore, we have come to understand that only a portion of the slides presented to the faculty will be made available to the public. It seems it is not simply enough that we are to be kept from the discussion - we are also to be kept without the full basis for the discussion. Picture, if you will, President Obama holding his State of the Union address solely for members of Congress and displaying a watered-down version for the American public. Would you not, as a law-abiding taxpayer, be in a furor over this slight? Would you not demand accountability and access to the discussion going on with those leading a nation in which you elected to live?

Just because some of the material is classified should not preclude the public from the information conferred in the State of the University address. If the administration and faculty wish to discuss matters in a confidential setting, they should not usurp the State of the University address for such a purpose. The Faculty Senate needs to cease wielding its stick of silence, and let students in on the direction of the university.

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