It’s that time of the year: report card season. You may have dreaded it in your younger years, but apparently some people never learned their lesson. It’s been a rough semester for many groups, and there don’t seem to be many redeeming qualities in this semester’s antics.
Student government: F
If there were something notable to separate the Assembly and the Student Association e-board from one another, we would’ve given them separate grades. There wasn’t. Both ended up as embarrassments, and sealed their own fates at the end of April when members of both groups were involved in situations that involved racial slurs. The Assembly and SA were paralyzed at the end of this year, and next year’s e-board’s first task sadly won’t be advocating for students, because it won’t be able to. It’ll be regaining credibility. There were good things this year: some fun shows, a forum with the mayor, a vigil after the American Civic Association shootings, the pressure to release SOOT surveys. But it doesn’t nearly add up to a passing grade.
Administration: C
While the regular e-mails from Lois DeFleur about the budget have been informative, the absence of useful information during the attack at the American Civic Association renders them less meaningful. We are also concerned that we will be here long enough to see our worst fears confirmed: Utter disregard of current students in favor of prospective ones. This may surprise administrators, but it’s unlikely there will be a shortage of prospective Binghamton University students in the near future. With the economy looking perpetually miserable, everybody’s looking at the cost of a college education in a whole new light. Show a little love for the students that are making you look good presently, BU. Make efforts to construct things that will help students who are already here, and do so in a timely fashion. Find ways to make up for the closings that current students will be forced to endure by relaxing requirements in other areas. You’ve done well so far, but don’t get too far ahead of yourself now.
BU Men’s Basketball: A-
While its reputation has had some mud thrown on it from time to time, we’re proud of our D1 team. We made it all the way to the Big Dance, and even if we had the misfortune to face off with Duke, at least we all got to see major news networks scramble to find an appropriate abbreviation for Binghamton University, nevermind a correct pronunciation. (On that note, we hope they can do better than “Bingham” in the future. “Bing” doesn’t seem like too much to ask for.)
Writing 111: D
We’re convinced that this program will do nothing to solve the problems of undergraduate students, and if anything, will only lead to more heartache. The tremendous number of responses we’ve received since we began our coverage of this program leads us to believe that the class is hotly contested even within the faculty, so the fact that something is broken is clear. The only answer seems to be a change of plans. The current one doesn’t seem to be working, and English majors shouldn’t have to suffer because of it. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, which we believe this program began with, but the concerns of those involved with the program must be answered.
Housing Commission: B-
The commissison’s final report included something that should make every BU student excited: an area Downtown that will essentially cater to us. The commission still took missteps: most notably, the absence of a real student voice on it. Mayor Matt Ryan visited the campus for a forum on the issue, but he wasn’t even a part of the commission. Because students are the ones who are most adversely affected by the report’s final outcome, next to local landlords, we should’ve been given a direct line in. Dave Husch of OCCT was involved, but it’s not like he was spamming B-Line every day asking for student opinion. The presence of Ken Kamleton on the commission, who works for a housing development company that’s planning a complex Downtown, was a public relations gaffe. Kamlet may not have done anything improper, but the semblance of impropriety should’ve been enough to keep him away.
Harpur Advising: F
While Harpur students have been mostly trained out of expecting the same funding, recruiting efforts and resources that are dedicated to schools like SOM, we did hold out some hope that our advisers would at the very least be more helpful this year. They weren’t. Despite the office’s move to a larger location this past August, little has changed in the services being offered. There are still too few advisers responsible for too many students, and they still can’t offer the truly helpful and comprehensive advice we need from them. We need information about careers in the fields we chose, not how to turn our liberal arts degree into an MBA. Being told we should do whatever makes us happy may have been good enough in high school; in college, it no longer cuts it.