Simon's stance on transparency commendable

Recently, the State News editorial board had the opportunity to sit down with MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon and discuss a number of issues pertaining to campus.

One of the most notable things that came out of the meeting was the larger matter of transparency between the administration and students, especially regarding how MSU is dealing with major challenges in terms of its budget.

The uproar and controversy last year that surrounded the elimination of MSU’s music therapy program illustrated the perils of nontransparency, and it’s likely the administration learned a valuable lesson from that saga. Now, the university says it has adopted a model of transparency in its budget deliberations, and has even debuted a new Shaping the Future Web site to prove it.

But even in a supposed “transparent” administration, there have been more than a few hiccups as of late.

For instance, the university might have been frustrated with The State News for breaking the story about the administration’s proposed plan to move Olin Health Center to the MSU Clinical Center on Service Road. It might say we jumped the gun and that releasing the story led to unnecessary worries among the Olin staff and student body. But as a news-gathering organization, we can’t just sit around until everything is laid out in a neat little plan, especially when those issues affect student welfare.

Although it’s true all of these changes still only are in the “proposed” stage, it’s important that students know what’s at stake and make their voices heard as the university hammers out its budget.

During our meeting, Simon made the comment that she would be upset if students didn’t make their voices heard in many ways, and welcomes input from students — it just depends what format in which that input comes.

The best way for students to make their views known is to engage directly with university officials through the Shaping the Future Web site, Simon said. Facebook groups are all well and good, but usually they are just a way for students to vent and don’t often result in real change. Students can’t simply whine in their own social networks of choice and expect that they’ll be taken seriously. Whether it be opposition to moving Olin or an effort to save their own major from a moratorium, students must talk to the administration and not simply grumble amongst themselves.

We appreciate the university choosing to be more open with students and the general public, but instead of trying to convince the university of our point of view, we also would like to see and hear more of the university’s arguments and reasoning on why they believe certain measures are in the best interest of MSU. It’s one thing to make data and documents available to the public, but it’s another to publicize this fact and invite people to scrutinize it and offer suggestions. We would prefer more emphasis on the latter.

The university needs to go out to the people; it can’t expect the people to come to them. The new Shaping the Future Web site, which can be found at www.shapingthefuture.msu.edu, is a welcome first step, but the university needs to publicize it more so that students can use it the way it was intended — as tool to inform and engage the MSU community.

We hope the university continues to practice what it preaches regarding transparency, and that the larger MSU community will respond to MSU’s gesture with informed suggestions.

It might be messy for a while, but it’s our hope that by engaging both sides, the MSU administration, its students and the greater MSU community can come together and keep MSU strong throughout these tough times.