Forum confusion causes frustration for all of us curious students
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 11/20/2009
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Though “forums” are usually expected to be consistently open and non-confusing, some Purdue officials have made a couple aspects of today’s President’s Forum difficult to read into.
Faculty and staff have been invited to attend the President’s Forum, going on from 9-10 a.m. today in Purdue Memorial Union’s South Ballroom. According to Purdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg, the forum will feature different facets of University information: President France Córdova will give a few opening remarks; Board of Trustees chairman Keith Krach will contribute some comments; Dean Mark Smith will address the graduate school; and, to wind down (or possibly wind up), Al Diaz, executive vice president for business finance and treasurer, will give some insights on Purdue’s budget.
One thing we find a bit confusing is what will be going on at the forum past the broad blanket statement we’ve already heard.
When asked if there would be anything especially noteworthy announced at the forum regarding the budget, Diaz said nothing out of the ordinary would be discussed: “We won’t be making any specific announcements, but we will be commenting on the view of the current budget,” he said. “(We will also be) talking about a strategy about anticipating ways we ought to proceed to develop our overall budget picture for next year.”
Through all that rhetoric, the proceedings sound like they’ll be pretty standard. Yet we’ve heard otherwise: According to State Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, in a talk he had with a member of Purdue’s Board of Trustees, he was told there would be a “big announcement” at the forum about the budget. Delph said he couldn’t reveal any more about said announcement or which trustee told him this. But, later, Bill Oesterle, Board of Trustees member, told The Exponent that he was the trustee who had spoken with Delph about the announcement.
So... Is there an important announcement, or isn’t there, Purdue? We students are entrenched in desire to know about where our money is going, and rightly so. If there’s going to be something “big” happening with the University’s budget, it should be made more clear to students.
Speaking of students – the other discrepancy in regard to the forum is the issue of who is actually allowed to attend. The event will probably have come and gone by the time most students pick up the paper today, but for those of you who know about it in time: Go to the forum.
Norberg originally said the forum “is not open to the public,” meaning students would not be allowed to be present. This seemed off-kilter to me and other Exponent staff members: a forum is defined by being open and public. But, after talking to another Purdue official, I found what Norberg initially said is not the case – students have every right to be there.
According to Teri Thompson, vice president of marketing and media, while there was a “misunderstanding” as to who could attend, the event is, indeed, open to the public. “We don’t advertise to the general public, but anybody is able to come who wants to come. ... The information (at the forum) is most relevant to the campus community,” Thompson said.
I was relieved to know Thompson recognized students should get to hear about the budget, an extremely noteworthy topic to us. But the fact that Purdue has not let students know they could attend is a mite eyebrow-raising; Norberg even told me not to “make it sound like the public’s invited.”
I know the ultimate consensus of officials is that students can attend, but it’s disheartening that the University looks like it’s trying to keep us from knowing that fact. It’s not as though we’re being discouraged from attending due to lack of space; the South Ballroom is enormous.
Seems like there might be something (perhaps a “big announcement?”) Purdue is trying to keep from the students. To combat the confusion, The Exponent and I strongly encourage any students who are able to attend the forum to do so – it’s our education, and we need to stay aware of what’s happening to it.
Lydia Williams is a senior in the College of Liberal Arts and may be reached at opinions@purdueexponent.org.