Chancellor Sean O’Keefe said at yesterday’s Town Hall meeting that the best analyst he had ever met was time.
We agree with his notion. Time tends to be the best way to evaluate ideas, turning out the poor ones and guiding the correct ones to universal acceptance.
So what has past the few days shown us about the decision to cancel classes Monday? We have a campus that was almost as trashed as it was following Hurricane Rita – not to mention the sheer amount of students who over-enjoyed their football experience too much despite, or perhaps because of LSU’s loss, and missed their Tuesday classes.
We have also left the nation with an image, as stated by one student during the chancellor’s town hall meeting, that we are a school who’s highest priority is not academics, but athletics – specifically our football team. Whether this is true or not is up to the beholder, but time will judge O’Keefe’s decision – the result of which will appear when the vaunted critics at U.S. News and World Report rate universities again next year.
O’Keefe’s performance, however, was masterful. He successfully answered the majority of the questions, and the few he was unable to answer completely, he was able to hand off to others in charge of their respective areas after the meeting.
What, however, was gained at a town hall meeting that was attended by less than 50 faculty, staff and students? The answer is very little, and this is another problem. While the chancellor did his best at this meeting, many students were undoubtedly unable to attend because of class, work or the fact that the meeting was moved from Dodson Auditorium to the basement of Lockett.
In the future, we would encourage the chancellor to address himself directly to the students in the open-air Free Speech Alley, an environment frequented by a greater number of students, even more than Lockett. There the Chancellor would find students who support, oppose and believe everywhere in between. He would also do wonders to revitalize open debate on a largely-apathetic campus.
By doing this he would help not only his image, by being seen as more open to student input, but also the view of our University as not only a place where, as O’Keefe mentioned, we operated the emergency medical center in the nation’s history, but where the students are informed and all decisions are open to question. We hope that the chancellor does his best to continue trying to communicate with the students – and we encourage students to meet him more than half way by attending whatever events there are in the future. We must all remember, that time will judge our actions, and the future, looking backward, will see us for what we truly were.