Students descended on the administration last semester demanding transparency amid budget cuts, furloughs, Cordell Black’s dismissal from his position as associate provost for equity and diversity and the first tuition hike in four years. As SGA presidential candidates look for ways to distinguish themselves from the pack this week, there’s one thing they all agree on: Students’ transparency push isn’t over yet.
But with a new university president yet to be named, the candidates differ on how they think students should set the tone next semester.
SKYY party candidate and Student Government Association Vice President of Finance Andrew Steinberg and Your Party candidate and SGA president Steve Glickman agree that establishing relationships with administrators is key in getting tangible results for students. STARE candidate and North Hill legislator Natalia Cuadra-Saez said empowering students is essential to facilitating a meaningful push for transparency and that it’s the SGA’s job to inform the student body.
Glickman said he’s already begun to build strong relationships with administrators this year that will serve as the most effective push for transparency.
“I plan on continuing my relationship with the provost,” he said, adding that student input on department mergers and potential cuts to academic programs will be a priority. “We’ve established a lot of trust with the administration this year and we want to continue that.”
Steinberg and Cuadra-Saez said although relationships are important, this year’s SGA has failed to attack the issue effectively.
“Administrators haven’t been approached in the right way,” Steinberg said.
“Our platform also demands to take transparency a step further,” Cuadra-Saez said. “We’re paying tuition money, and there’s taxpayer dollars that are paying for this university, and we want to know how that’s being allocated so we can have a say in how that affects our education.”
The push was not without reaction from the administration, however. Last semester, SGA legislator Kenton Stalder posted online a copy of the university budget, which was previously only available for students to peruse in Hornbake Library. Later, the university unveiled a website last month aimed at addressing budget concerns.
“Part of being informed is transparency, and the new budget website is a step in that direction,” Cuadra-Saez said.
SGA Director of Student Groups Kaiyi Xie, who is the undergraduate student member of the presidential search committee, said concerns about transparency have come up numerous times during the public forums committee members have been holding.
“In every listening session, you can hear the word ‘transparency’ mentioned at least once or twice … in the student session, one of the major things people talked about was transparency — making the new president accessible,” Xie said.
“We’re talking about precedent-setting behavior in how the new president is going to be interacting with students,” student activist and Diamondback columnist Malcolm Harris said. “If we don’t know what’s happening, we can’t do anything about it.”
In the end, Steinberg said, simply sitting down and having a conversation with administrators will be the best means of achieving transparency.
“I think the most important part of getting transparency is to establish relationships that matter. If you’re not on the table, you’re on the menu,” he said. “Information that may be confidential — [administrators] should be having student input at that level. … That process needs to be transparent to the extent that administrators are willing to discuss this information with students and student leaders.”
Harris disagreed, saying the type of communication that has been established this year has yet to bear tangible results.
“Asking nicely clearly isn’t working,” he said. “I think students need to take a hard line on it.”
Cuadra-Saez said students need the SGA to redirect the enthusiasm displayed during campaigning to informing and directing student engagement throughout the entire year.
“I mean, look at us during elections: We’re knocking on doors like crazy, trying to meet every single student, and then you don’t see us for the rest of the year,” she said. “I mean, that’s fine; students don’t want to be bothered. But at the same time, we can be out there more, introducing freshmen to this campus … creating and distributing pamphlets that give students a sense of history of student activism on campus … and a sense of how this university works — basic stuff students should know coming in.”
All three candidates said that transparency goals aren’t just aimed at infiltrating administration processes — it’s about the SGA, too.
“We are planning on putting the [legislature’s] votes online … and continuing our outreach toward students,” Glickman said. “I’d like to make committees to have students participate in the discussion on the bills we pass.”
Steinberg said he has already taken steps as vice president of finance to make the SGA processes more open to students, such as creating a new finance website that shows what the finance committee does, who is a part of it and what the SGA is spending money on. But he said he has more plans, if elected, to eliminate students’ lack of understanding of what the SGA does.
“Simple steps like making the SGA website more interactive and accessible … are incredibly helpful to students who want to get involved,” he said. “I think the biggest thing is the SGA should … compile an annual report and a semesterly report [of activities].”
“The university needs to be committed to sharing information with students,” he added. “This is about a right to know.”
aisaacs@umdbk.com
