In reality, town meetings and student forums have become a soapbox for administrators to stand on as they tell us the way things are. Over the past few months, we’ve seen a lot of decisions made within the administration with little or no input sought from the campus at large. In many cases, no one had even been aware that an issue was being considered before a new policy or long-range plans had been released.

The earlier plan to move the Dean of Students Office to Academy Hall is a perfect example. Once the news broke, there was an uproar from the students—not only did many believe that the move was a terrible idea, but we were furious that we had not even known a decision was being made. It quickly became obvious that the student body had something to say. It might even have been constructive. By that time, though, it was too late to do anything but delay the move.

Now we’re faced with another decision handed down from the president’s office: The new graduation policy is going to make it, at the very least, inconvenient for some seniors to walk at graduation. Seniors who are a few credits behind are suddenly affected by this policy that, until around break, was completely unknown to anyone outside the upper levels of the administration.

The Student Senate last week passed a resolution that puts into words the sentiment that has been obvious amongst the student body. It will be interesting to see how the administration reacts this time. As future issues come up, though, we hope the Senate won’t have to take action after the fact.