The new Strategic Plan Task Force could serve as a perfect symbol for Ball State's greatest shortcomings, accepting feedback from students and learning from such information. The selections for this all-important committee are far from inclusive or representative of the student body with only two students on this 26-member task force, Ben Tietz, the former SGA president and Kimberly Miller, a distinguished graduate student.
The selection of Tietz to the committee is disappointing for several reasons. Not only does his record as president of SGA show him to be much more closely aligned with the administration than working on the behalf of the students, but having served as SGA president, he has already had his time to influence the administration. Thus his inclusion on this committee further limits the opportunities other students have to be involved with their university.
Another disappointing aspect of this task force is the familiar faces on the committee: Nearly all the members of this current task force were on board for the 2001 version of this committee. It would seem to better serve the university to include as many new, different and diverse voices as possible; however, only one of the 26 members of this task force is non-caucasian and over 60 percent are male. This is certainly not representative of the Ball State community, and while I certainly believe people are much more than their race or gender, Dr. Gora's published memo to Beverly Pitts, the chairman of this task force says, "The task force should be broadly representative of the university community." By no measure of race, gender or even student/faculty status is this task force representative of the university as a whole.
Make no mistakes, this task force is important and powerful as Dr. Gora clearly spells out to Dr. Pitts: "Once approved by the Board of Trustees, this plan will drive the budgeting process. Fiscal planning and resource allocation decisions will reflect the priorities of the plan. Future plans for physical plant development, technology, and academic program development will be expected to conform to the goals of the plan."
Obviously, this plan carries a great deal of weight in planning the future of our university. However, it seems some of the members of this task force don't find this opportunity to be all that important. After all, it's just the future of your education, and you're only paying $5,000 (tuition) a year for it. So far, 12 of the 26 members have missed at least one session and some have missed as many as four (half of the meetings). Fortunately, the student representatives have not missed a single session. This task force has the incredible opportunity to mold and define what Ball State can and will be. It is because of this awesome responsibility that the unrepresentative nature of the task force and the notably high rate of absenteeism at their meetings is so unacceptable.
This task force has the opportunity to make Ball State an even greater university and an even greater community. I urge those dignified, qualified and fortunate enough to be selected to this task force to reach out to those groups who are not adequately represented in your membership and listen to them. I also pray you will take these opinions under consideration and, most importantly, attend these meetings -- the future of this university is in your hands. I trust that you will make us proud.
Write to Robb at
robb614@aol.com
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