It looks like university President Dan Mote and Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie are having some communication issues. At the budget issues town hall meeting, I questioned how the administration could ask everyone to pitch in while keeping the budget secret. Wylie first told me that the budget was in fact on the Internet, before Mote corrected her, saying that the budget was very accessible — on one computer in Hornbake Library.
Now the budget is online, and the two of them still can’t seem to get their message straight. In the Sept. 25 Diamondback article, “Students post university budget online,” Mote was quoted saying of the budget, “It doesn’t do you a damn bit of good when you see it.”
He does have a point; the budget is 873 pages with no table of contents and general categories such as “Outside Consultant” with no specifics.
Apparently, Wylie feels differently. In the same article, she said this was the budget they used to make cuts and we activists “haven’t studied it yet.” Uh-huh. These two statements directly contradict. At least one of them is either lying or spectacularly uninvolved in the budget cut process.
The only other possibility is the administration is using a document the president of the university says doesn’t do a “damn bit of good” to make decisions that effect every university member’s life. I desperately hope that’s not the case.
Just when the administration seems to be coming apart at the seams, students are starting to unite. The Student Government Association has teamed up with student organizers on the two major campaigns of this young semester: defending students’ free speech and pushing for greater budget transparency. I have to say I didn’t see it coming. My fellow columnist Matt Verghese — whom I’m pretty sure I once called a brainwashed tool of the ruling class in our section of GVPT100: Principles of Government and Politics — endorsed posting the budget. I’ve been in meeting after meeting with the golf-playing Republican, SGA President Steve Glickman. Say what you will about Glickman’s attendance — and I don’t know anyone who didn’t think Justin Cousson’s cartoons were hilarious — but the SGA has been moving in the right direction.
It’s a good thing too, because we’re going to need all hands on deck very soon. Annapolis has tasked the Board of Regents with making sure a porn-viewing policy is implemented by Dec. 1. What may have seemed to some like a joke or stunt last year has rapidly grown into an unprecedented threat to student speech at the university. If we don’t turn this one around, any student group that wants to show a movie might find themselves in front of a censorship board.
At the same time, it’s no secret in the administration that another round of furloughs are coming next fall, accompanied by a tuition hike.
Without comprehensive budget transparency, we can’t know if cuts are being made responsibly. I’m not OK with taking the administration’s word for it when Mote and Wylie can’t even get their stories straight. We can beat back the porn policy and get some budget accountability, but we can’t do it alone. So if you’re a student who has been waiting for the right time to get involved, the time is now.
Malcolm Harris is a junior English and government and politics major. He can be reached at harris at umdbk dot com.
