This is not your university, a fact that became clearer than ever this December. If you don’t know why I would make such a bold statement, I urge you to take a few moments and continue reading.
At the December meeting of the State Board of Education, a motion passed that effectively removed the requirement for student vote from the process of changing the Statement of Student Rights. While you may not be familiar with the Statement of Student Rights, it outlines boundaries that the University of Idaho cannot cross, thereby protecting our freedoms of association, expression and privacy to name a few.
In a broader sense, this decision removed the last place in university policy where student input had a guaranteed impact on institutional decision-making.
This frustrates me, not because of the loss of the student vote, which is indeed a cause of some ire.
I am frustrated by the ability of the state board to make such a decision. I am frustrated that they could make such an important change after only a few minute conversations with myself — the only student representative present at the meeting — 300 miles away from our campus.
The State Board of Education has a scope that is both broad and deep, covering institutions all across Idaho from kindergarten to doctoral programs. Such an expansive area of jurisdiction contains more policy considerations than one governing board can possibly hope to understand and effectively govern all the time.
As students, we are but one of many voices. In order for the issues at each institution to be brought to the board, like the Statement of Student Rights, they must be condensed into brief conversations. This distillation often reduces or removes student input.
Our small place in board policy contradicts our ever-growing role here at UI. Beyond the often-overlooked fact that without students there would be no university, we play an ever-important role in funding. While the majority of funding used to come from the state, much has changed, and we’ve seen our tuition almost double in the past 10 years. We contribute more to our own educations than any previous generation, and yet we see our influence shrinking.
We, at this time more than ever, need to have the opportunity to impact our own educations. We need to be able to influence the policy of the educations that we pay for.
Other states have moved beyond a state board of education. Our Washington neighbors use individual boards of regents to address the concerns of each institution, with an oversight council to ensure these efforts are compatible. If we were to have such a system, the decision-making bodies would be more closely tied to our schools, and could even have a student regent on the board. We as students could play a larger role.
I know that consensus is near impossible in a student body as large as ours, but I would hope that we can all agree that we want our university to put students first. Our university should trust students to be a part of the policy-making process. Our university should listen to our voice. Unfortunately, this is not our university.
I urge you to take up the call and demand that decisions are made close to home. Moving to a system of regents is the way to accomplish this goal. Go online to uidaho.edu/asui, and learn more about the Student Voice Petition. If you are so inclined, lend your voice to demand a system that represents us as students.
Max Cowan can be reached at [email protected]