Wednesday, October 29, 1997
Are Carnesale’s office hours a PR stunt?
EDITORIAL: Individual student meetings a mere gesture unless
interaction, communication improve
Ten minutes is a very brief amount of time. It’s not enough time
to study. Or to write a paper. Or to sit down and have lunch.
And it’s hardly enough time to ask the chancellor all the
questions students have. But Chancellor Carnesale is giving it a
shot.
Carnesale held an office-hours session a couple weeks ago, which
eight students attended for about 10 minutes each. He intends to
continue doing so every week. But, is his intention to communicate
with students or to project the image of accessibility? We believe
it is the latter.
The sincerity of Carnesale’s gesture is somewhat questionable
because his effort seems more of an image booster than anything
else. If he is genuinely enthusiastic about getting to know his
constituents, then he should adopt a more effective means of doing
so. Meeting with students individually for a few minutes cannot
accomplish much.
But opening up a bigger forum to encompass a large sector of the
student body might. In his first session, Carnesale had to turn
some students away because he did not have the time to meet with
them all individually. Clearly there is a demand for meetings with
the chancellor. Now he must decide how to accommodate those
needs.
There are a few alternatives which would better achieve what
Carnesale says he’s trying to do. Organizing a town hall-type
meeting would allow students and administrators to share their
ideas. Increased interaction between the students and the
chancellor would make the meetings more productive and could have a
greater chance of effecting change.
Perhaps if the chancellor agreed to participate in e-mail
discussions with students, the level of interaction and
communication would increase and bring about positive changes.
He claims his goal is to familiarize himself with students and
let people know that he can be reached for questions or if students
have problems. But we question the sincerity of his stated goals,
because while he says he wants to reach out to all students, he has
yet to formally meet with Undergraduate Students Association
Council (USAC) President Kandea Mosley and discuss anything
important.
Mosley, the representative of the undergraduate student
population of the campus, should have been the very first person
Carnesale met with. If he believes that being in touch with
students is of paramount concern, he needs to meet with her
immediately. It’s already the fifth week of the quarter and no
meeting has taken place. Would it make sense for Russian President
Boris Yeltsin to come to the United States and wait five weeks
before meeting with President Clinton?
During the office hours, USAC Internal Vice President Carol Lee
and her chief of staff, Elizabeth Geyer, showed up to talk to
Carnesale. These elected officials should have already met with the
chancellor. They should have their own channel to speak with him,
separate from the student office hours.
Carnesale should be commended for extending his office to the
rest of us. It’s quite a departure from his predecessor. But we
need to be further convinced that he’s truly committing himself to
understanding students. The fact that he hasn’t met with campus
leaders has led us to believe his gesture is hollow. If he wants to
prove his commitment to students’ concerns, he needs to act
accordingly, rather than simply making hollow efforts which really
don’t accomplish anything. Carnesale should establish a better
medium by which students can reach him.