September has come to an end after having marked the first Faculty Senate and Board of Trustee meetings of the year.

Our campus is riddled with “committees,” “task forces,” boards, administrators and senates. These administrative vaults are the places where decisions about the university are truly made. Unfortunately, students constitute a stark minority within this bureaucratic machine. On the contrary, students make up a clear majority in the university populace.

Granted, the inner workings of any institution require a certain degree of anonymity and confidentiality. I recognize, furthermore, that the University’s most constant unit – the student – is also its most transient.

We will all be gone in four years. Moreover, the University is not a democracy. I understand.

Nevertheless, the university is an institution, and any institution requires the investment of individuals.

Every student invests at least $18,615 in Southern Methodist University every semester. Every student invests these precious collegiate years in the hands of this institution. Every student invests his or her reputation and our future success in the educative hands of this university.

Yet, decisions are constantly made without our knowledge. The answers about how to best run the University are made without our even knowing the question. The Board of Trustees meets behind closed doors. The Faculty Senate allows non-faculty visitors only upon invitation of the president or Faculty Senate. Neither the Faculty Senate nor the Board of Trustees publish the minutes from their meetings.

Current documents about the university budget, the agendas for Faculty Senate, and countless task force and committee reports are not available online or otherwise. Instead, there are outdated files, password protected web pages and links that don’t work.  The University is content with keeping students in the dark. AARO, Mustang Corral and the GEC certainly don’t cover how to keep your university officials accountable.

We find out about policies being made when they affect us. We always receive a polite letter about the degree to which our tuition will be raised. We receive university calendars that reflect removed reading days. We are bombarded with e-mails about the requirement for undergraduate insurance when it requires our payment.

I in no way argue that every decision made by the University is made for the worse and will lead to the detriment of the institution. In fact, I have no way of making such a judgment because I don’t have the proper information to do so.

Instead, I argue that we deserve to know the content of these decisions. Every student has the right to know at least what issues all of these boards, committees and task forces will be considering and the subsequent decisions they make.

We deserve these most fundamental rights because of the extent of our investment in this institution.

We deserve the protection that is afforded by an informed opinion. We deserve awareness of the changes, resolutions and judgments arrived at on this campus.

This demand, dare I say, presents no administrative challenge. It requires no further task force or committee. The University could easily inform the student body about the decisions made or topics considered within the mire of administrative meetings held behind closed doors. The University has never failed to remind us when there was a hold on our accounts, when our library books were due or when we needed to move our cars for a football game.

We are not the subjects of this University. We are the participants. As such, we deserve the right to full participation in the institution. We deserve the right to know what decisions our alma mater is considering.

Student opinion has for too long been treated like an expendable resource on this campus. We deserve respect from the administrative bodies at SMU. We have a voice. The “decision-makers” ought not be afraid to inform it, ought not be afraid to listen to it.

Drew Konow is a senior religious studies, foreign languages and literatures triple major. He can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected].