Buzzwords seem to be ingrained in our society these days. In fact, Wikipedia has an article devoted to listing common ones. Some of the more popular buzzwords include green, paradigm, synergy, metrics, offshoring, value-added, 3G, cloud computing, and web 2.0. These words tend to invoke a strong predetermined reaction from a wide number of people who may otherwise be ignorant about a subject. It seems that the generally understood meaning of these words can fall far from the words’ technical roots as they enter the world of naïve media and the general public.
Unfortunately, the culture and current events surrounding RPI have not been impervious to the phenomenon of buzzwords. Perhaps the most recent and pertinent of these words is “transparency,” used to encapsulate the ideals of the student body and their desire to see the inner workings of RPI’s administrative actions in a timely manner. In some cases, the word describes exactly what we need. In other cases, it is being thrown around by administration and students alike without thought.
I think that it is a proper time for us all to step back and give some thought to what words like “transparency,” “openness,” and “communication” really mean to the RPI community. Students, professors, administration, and staff all want the Institute to succeed as a superb learning and living environment for current and future students.
RPI is a private institution; the student body is a collection of paying customers, and they are not unlike customers buying software from Microsoft or airplanes from Boeing. The Institute’s administration has only a minimal obligation to tell its students about its inner workings or about changes it is making to policy ahead of time, pending some sort of contractual agreement to affected students. Ultimately, administrative and policy decisions here do fall into the hands of the administration and the Board of Trustees. It is, however, generally understood that solid communication between students and administration is desirable and necessary to allow mutually beneficial decisions to be made.
Student input about decisions directly affecting them is essential to a happy student body. While running a college is not a democratic process, as the school’s customers, we do form a group of intellectual individuals who would like to have a voice and be heard. Unfortunately, the word “transparency” sounds like a one-way solution where one can watch the process unfold but not interact with it or impact it. While this may be better than the current situation for many issues, it is not what students really want. Students want a voice; they want to be listened to and they want to be able to impact decisions.
Signs currently suggest that the administration is indeed working toward more openness with students, but it is up to us to make sure that we have a voice, something more than a sneak peek at the next unpopular decision. It is up to us to make sure that our opinions last more than the four years we are here. It is up to us to make sure that words like “openness,” “student voice,” and “communication” become a reality, and not just the next dime-a-dozen buzzwords.
