Anxiety and uncertainty plague N.C. State’s campus after Chancellor Woodson’s video announcement last Tuesday. The University is preparing for a budget cut of almost $80 million, due to a 15 percent cut from State funding. The chancellor invited students to voice their opinions and concerns at the next chancellor forum this Thursday, however the planning of such an important discussion fails to accommodate the majority of students and faculty affected by this crisis.
The forum is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday, a time typically reserved for a little thing we call class. The day also acts as an inconvenience. Class schedules show that the typical classes held on Tuesdays and Thursdays consist of a 75 or even 90 minute class period. This demand cuts the amount of free time for students to attend such events.
Interestingly enough the Chancellor’s forum history displays quite a trend to such time constraints. His Free Expression Tunnel Task Force held last semester invited all members of the campus to put in their input at a meeting in the middle of a Monday. This is also reflected in the four month progress report Woodson held last September at 3 p.m. on yet another Monday. Even his installation in October was at 10:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, well after the typical class starting time. One could assume that these so-called important events are arranged at the exact time the targeted audiences cannot attend.
Alongside these scheduling conflicts, the lack of advertisement of such events have led other students in the dark. Leaving me to wonder if the chancellor is intentionally leaving out certain students.
This leads to the question about who needs to be in charge of the chancellor’s schedule so that we can get an appropriate time slot. If only there was an organization that represented the voice of the student body and was able to relay this to the University Administration? That is if Student Government would like to actually speak on our behalf instead of getting mixed up in the politics of on-campus activities. Perhaps they should be who the chancellor goes to in order to find the proper time for these important events.
If we are to truly make a difference at N.C. State, we need to own our education. We need to fight for what we want, whether that is before Student Government or the chancellor himself. However, in order to do that we must be able to have a time to do so. So before the possible “elimination of duplicate programs,” and the almost certain loss of positions across campus, we need to be heard. Since the audience in attendance at these previously inconvenient forums was not a fair sample of students, what can we do to be heard in the future? Make a time where we can talk, Chancellor Woodson. If a criminal can be tried fairly, why can’t we?
