The progress the Student Union has made this semester can hardly be talked about as sweeping, but the slow start it has had this year can only be expected.
When major changes to the university administration take place – with Robert Brown’s appointment as president of BU over the summer – the Union was forced to revamp the way it deals with student affairs. The most important task for the Union this semester was to establish its base with the administration, and meeting with President Brown, Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore and other faculty, though late in the semester, has led the Union toward establishing this base.
The Union certainly takes credit for many things it may have lobbied for, but did not achieve. Specifically in the instance of introducing cable in on-campus housing, it was the administration’s interest to instill changes in these areas, where the Union was barely involved.
It has been too long since BU students have actually had a voice in the university’s decision-making, but this was largely prevented from happening under John Silber’s administration. Then, Aram Chobanian, during his one-and-a-half-year term as president ad interim, said he did not want to facilitate any major changes until a full-time president was selected.
Now that Brown is about to end his first semester leading BU, during which time he has gotten to know the way the university operates, the Union has the ability to work more closely with his administration in determining future policies. Next semester will earn the Union its long-awaited test, now that this semester’s base-building is almost complete.
As much criticism as the Union gets, it has improved steadily over the past two years, and has removed itself from the power-hungry, bickering members of years past. The new Technology and Recycling Committees have probably accomplished more than any of the Union’s other committees this semester, but this says little about the Union as a whole, whose mission should be to represent BU’s broad spectrum of students, helping to improve their lives at the university.
The Union should welcome President Brown’s willingness to listen to students’ concerns, a characteristic not common in previous university presidents, and take advantage of the new administration and its enthusiasm for fresh, new ideas.
We hope the Union proves to the community that next semester it will make a seamless transition into debating and changing policies that deserve more than just chatter. We hope its leaders will work closely with administrators and critique certain decisions they make that are not in line with the interests of students. We hope, above all, that the Student Union becomes a more powerful liaison between students and administrators, promoting new and effective ideas, and thwarting everything else. And it is already on the right track.