A Chronicle editorial today notes that starting next year, students will no longer be able to subscribe to cable TV in their dorm rooms -- but TV signals will be available through other means. The newspaper said this impacts particularly on Central Campus.
Good day, Fact Checker here.
Chronicle, today you proclaim "This sets a dangerous precedent for the removal of student services without clear communication and proper cooperation with the student body."
This action does not set a precedent at all. It merely continues the sad way the Brodhead Administration has dealt with students all along.
Editors, don't you remember the "merger" of International House and the Multi-Cultural Center. Or the imposition of a dining fee. Or the closing of the student health pharmacy. Or the ending of coverage of STD testing by student insurance?
Or telling students they have a role in designing the new K-4 dorm -- just 10 days before another administrator said the architect's work was almost done. How about planning, originally, construction from 7AM to 7PM seven days a week -- oblivious to the disruption to thousands of students in other dorms.
And changing policies about having dorms accessible during university vacations and Commencement.
Oh yes, the elimination of weekend housekeeping in the dorms, so puke from Friday night could mature until Monday morning.
There was no input from students on any of those decisions.
Here's a good one: no discussion with students on eliminating less popular classes as part of the budget crunch, and the surprising admission from Dean Lee Baker that Allen Building tried to keep this "under the radar."
That only begins the student list.
Perhaps the editors should also have noted that this past week, there was an editorial and a letter to the editor on how the Kunshan express has run right over faculty participation.
Think back to Mr Brodhead's comments on the happy day in 2003 when he left Yale and became our President-elect. Turning to his predecessor, Nan Keohane, he said, "Nan has shaped a university where the faculty trusts the administration (and even likes the president) and feels that we are all working toward common goals. I am lucky to inherit this achievement."
Dick, you blew it.
