Letter to the Editor — Sandy West
March 31, 2018
From
The
Sunflower (Wichita State University):
As a Wichita
State alumnus, who worked closely with the university administration and
Student Government Association in a variety of capacities as a student,
including as a reporter for The Sunflower, I have to say I have never been so
disgusted with my alma mater as I am now.
Perhaps it is
because back then, WSU administrators and the SGA understood that WSU is a
public institution – that taxpayers and tuition-paying students are
stakeholders, and that as such, backroom deals and the ominous threats more
common in private industry have no place on a college campus. Perhaps it is
because the administration lacked hubris and did not believe that they and they
alone controlled the narrative. Perhaps it is because the administration
respected the independent press and wasn’t threatened by oversight.
Let’s put to
rest the notion that the SGA vote, planned and plotted by university officials
— including Vice President of Student Affairs Teri Hall, and the SGA President
— financially knee-capping The Sunflower was anything but retaliation for the
excellent work of the student staffers, who despite ongoing threats from
administrators, reported on financial deal-making intentionally kept from the
public eye. Those students had the courage to report on arrangements between
university officials and private developers – including a member of the State
Board of Regents – that this year will see a transfer of millions of dollars
from university coffers to the pockets of those developers. Student reporters
have pursued stories about the development of publicly owned land to the
benefit of corporate interests and private-sector financial benefactors. They
wrote about artificially inflated enrollment figures.
Student
reporters also wrote human interest stories, covered sports, clubs, events and
recorded the daily history at Wichita State.
Student
reporters wrote stories that informed us – the taxpaying public, tuition-paying
students, and alumni who poured our hearts and souls into WSU long before Hall,
John Bardo, or any current administrator set foot on campus – because we are
entitled to know, because WE paid the bills.
After repeated
threats over the past year to withdraw student fee funding from The Sunflower –
a revenue stream that is historically non-controversial due its status as a
STUDENT-RUN newspaper – Hall promised in an email (addressed to administrators
at WSU) to “fix” the (funding) problem that is The Sunflower. That would be the
same Hall, who: after one year on the job, secured a $100,000 increase in the
student fee allocation to heroffice while simultaneously
stripping The Sunflower of $80,000; reportedly said in an SGA meeting on
Wednesday, March 28, 2018, that students have no business questioning how her
student fee allocation is spent; who appears to lack a fundamental
understanding of how The Sunflower fits into the structure at WSU; who seemed
unable to comprehend the difference between KU/Lawrence and WSU/Wichita in a
telephone conversation with me; and who belligerently defends the initial
decision to conduct an SGA Student Fees Committee meeting behind closed doors.
Hall has repeatedly sworn that stripping funding for The Sunflower was not
retribution despite her email promise to “fix” The Sunflower problem, and
despite it being single largest cut to a campus organization – which
coincidentally is the entity most reviled by university administrators.
Apparently, Hall, the SGA and WSU administrators expect everyone to disbelieve
the truth plainly before their eyes.
If this really
is all about fiscal responsibility, perhaps someone can explain how the SGA
passed its own $256,000 allocation? Or why Hall deserves an extra $100,000 –
and why no one is allowed to question it?
I hope Mr. Bardo
takes some time to reflect on this situation before forwarding a student fees
budget designed to destroy the 123-year-old campus institution that is The
Sunflower.
No vibrant,
exciting and welcoming university in America lacks a student newspaper. The
majority of those papers, whether strategically independent or not, rely on
student fees. Most universities are run by intellectually honest people who understand
their campus and community market enough to know when there are limitations on
the prospects for ad revenue. The argument that The Sunflower can simply make
up lost student fees in ad revenue is specious and stupid.
Most university
administrations don’t, in conjunction with the student government, declare war
on student newspapers they don’t like in order to justify destroying those
organizations. Regardless of all claims to the contrary, that is EXACTLY what
has happened at WSU.
Hall and others
may think they have “fixed” their problem. They would be wise to realize those
of us standing with The Sunflower and on the side of good and open governance
aren’t going anywhere.
—Sandy West, WSU
’89 ’91
Professional
journalist (Arkansas City Traveler, Wichita Business Journal, Orange
County Business Journal, Associated Press, Money), writer
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