Student blogs would help show MSU's real image

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, student bloggers have found themselves officially sanctioned to offer their viewpoints on the school’s Web site.

The bloggers are paid $10 per hour for up to four hours of work per week. In addition, their blogs are posted on the undergraduate admissions front page.

We think MSU should adopt similar student blogs for the university admissions page — as Amherst College, Yale University and Vassar College already have. Allowing students to represent themselves and the university to the outside world would be an effective way of interjecting honest viewpoints into the admissions process.

Student blogs would be a welcome respite from brochures featuring the world’s happiest, most diverse group of friends studying together in the shade of an oak tree. In other words, a relief from fake “we’re so diverse” shenanigans.

If handled correctly, the blogs would allow potential students to gauge the kind of experience they might have at MSU. Future undergraduates could converse — via the comments section or e-mail — with the writer of their choice to get a better feel of what attending MSU would mean for them socially, academically or spiritually.

MSU would be sending a signal to current and future students that the university had enough faith in their services to allow people to speak freely.

Even so, there probably would have to be some conditions attached to blog content. Overall, the university would have to agree not to censor the writers.

Censoring completely would defeat the purpose of having blogs in the first place. If only university-approved opinions were allowed, then the voices would not be representative of the student body.

We would like to note that blogs wouldn’t simply be for potential students seeking information. The university could take the opportunity to listen to the unfiltered opinions of the campus populace.

In advertising, word-of-mouth is considered the most effective way of selling a product. It establishes creditability through familiarity. Potential
undergraduates could build rapport with the university through actual students.

There is a potential risk in letting students freely speak their mind on the MSU Web site. MIT probably has less to worry about because it is one of the premiere institutions in the world. For MIT, putting up student blogs is less of a risk because the majority of the competition is a major step down.

MSU would be putting some of its recruiting power in the hands of students who might inadvertently convince students to go to Central Michigan University, Western Michigan University or even University of Michigan.

It’s possible — probable, even — that a blogger or two will send some potential students running for the hills. We’re willing to bet student bloggers would
exercise diligence when approaching their
subject matter.

The MSU administration has put tremendous effort into removing the “party school” tag from the university.

Letting students tell the world how far we’ve come would be a major step forward.