Word: students
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...gained such prominence on campus. We are in the middle of a national recession, and yet the majority of complaints given to the UC in the past six months have been about the inadequacies of cold cuts and hard-boiled eggs. I have attended countless meetings with administrators discussing student dissatisfaction on this issue, but each conversation comes back to the question of why students care so much. What I finally realized is that hot breakfast symbolizes much more than food. The frustration is indicative of a greater misunderstanding about the budget-cut process—and a greater distrust...
...administration heard the message and brainstormed ways to effectively incorporate student concerns starting in May. When the UC asked Dean Hammonds to create a feedback system modeled off an online Idea Bank at MIT, she immediately found a way to develop a similar site for Harvard. The Idea Bank was created to guide the community discussion on the next round of budget reductions. The website launched in September and allowed all members of the Harvard community to include ideas on how to make Harvard more efficient. Not only could people submit recommendations, but they could also rate the quality...
...Idea Bank is an important step in the budget-cut process and one that should be further utilized. Dean Smith and Dean Hammonds responded to student complaints and created an online forum that is meant to guide and influence the recommendations of the working groups on Student Life and Education. Eight students serve on these committees, and as one of those representatives, I can testify how seriously the Idea Bank is taken every week in our discussions...
This is not to say that students are at fault, for the working groups must also take seriously student concerns that their deliberative process is not transparent. But as students ask for more involvement in the College’s decision-making process, it is hard to argue for greater student input when students do not use the communication avenues already available to them...
Admittedly, there are still a number of ways that student input should be increased in College governance, and we have to take advantage to participate when the opportunities are there—such as the Idea Bank and working groups. Let’s stop focusing on scrambled eggs unless we are prepared to sacrifice something else in return...