The Lumberjack

Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: Opinion

Those of you that may have signed my emergency-response petitions or read my online-only guest column last week know that there was one prevalent issue that stirred my blood as an informed candidate whose potential office would be in direct service to student concerns. As far as we were able to assess as candidates, the reorganization plan of our University Center (the cover issue last week) had the sinister ulterior motive of turning the governance over to Advancement, a body more easily influenced by the administration. If that were in fact stealthily pushed through, President Richmond made some unprecedented recommendations in a restricted-access meeting in which the only non-board-member student allowed was Jesse Hughes, who you have also heard from as Legislative VP candidate. He has accounted a few times now that Richmond insisted on "following the lead" of other CSU's that have contracted out their services to fast food and multi-national bookstore chains. He was of course steering around the action of Chico State, which fought back and made their campus legislation say instead that administration can no longer pursue such drastic changes without informed all-university vote. In spite of that, Richmond conceded that he believes that student input here, possibly the one CSU campus more politically-active, is procedurally irrelevant. As it is confirmed that I am to be next year's Vice President of Student Affairs, let me say outright that even if I were to hold this post as something more of a corporate yes-man, as Jesse has described current situations, I would still have to admit here that the reaction I saw from the students in the short time between recommendation and the forum date would have to suggest otherwise. Granted, I wouldn't have worked hard to get the word out the rest of that week before Monday the 21st (a date that must have been suggested for the strategic value that would take advantage of the absence of the most out-spoken students at the same time as a social increase in the cannabis culture and usual mounting academic pressures), but the overwhelming majority of the students that got to hear of this reacted with understandable disgust, if a few with ambivalence and only one with enthusiasm. Not only is it against the spirit of the community, but also the local ordinance 1333, and we were going to let that be known. Fortunately for all of us ready for a fight, what we found instead at that meeting was an independent panel that, while not understanding the full implications of the President's requests, was also just as concerned about autonomy and transparency. They had already decided to limit administrative involvement and reject fully the contracting-out model. Steven Butler, the administration's VP of Student Affairs, even assured me as future holder of his student counterpart office that the food and commercial services on campus will not change. I made it quite clear that I will hold him accountable for that statement, and that will be one of my constant priorities over the next year. We can breathe a sigh of relief for now, but it is our duty to not let down our guard, especially in the age of constantly-encroaching corporate rule.

Continued...

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