Students For Academic Freedom: Good Tribune Editorial

From today’s Marquette Tribune, an editorial condemning the way in which the Office for Student Development has dragged its feet in approving recognition of Students for Academic Freedom.

The Office of Student Development has once again neglected its supposed goal of transparency.

It has been 36 days since Charles Rickert, a College of Business Administration senior, submitted a constitution for the proposed group, Students for Academic Freedom. OSD has yet to approve or deny the organization.

Instead of issuing a simple “yes” or “no” decision, OSD continues dragging its feet and hiding its views behind closed-door sessions.

It’s time for OSD and the Marquette administration to learn that students deserve to know why decisions are being made — or rather, why they aren’t.

Rickert, like most Marquette students, just wants more interaction and consultation between the university and the students it intends to educate.

The worst thing about this is the fact that the Office for Student Development clearly wants to reject the group’s application, but is casting around for an acceptable excuse to do so. Unwilling to be open and honest about the basis of their dislike for the group, they stonewall.

This guarantees that, if they reject the group’s application, the explanation they give will be implausible and disingenuous. If they were willing to be honest about their opposition, they would be frank and open now.