There are many things students expect from the administration. We expect it to be fair, true to its promises and, most of all, honest. As paying customers, students have every right to know the ins and outs of how the university works and the process behind every decisions that affect how we live. Unfortunately, with the decision regarding the fate of an athletics team, the administration and the athletics department are not being open with the students.
In a bulletin posted on the myNEU portal, Athletics Director Peter Roby outlined his plan for a 16-person panel to review the department and determine where, if any, it should make cuts. In the posting, Roby clearly states that the panel’s deliberations will be kept confidential to ensure a “free exchange of opinions and ideas.” The identity of the members of the panel will also, apparently, be kept confidential.
Roby says the panel will include students, but without their identities, there’s no way to know for sure. Even if there are a few students on the panel, the student body at-large will be completely left out of the process and will have no say in its decisions, or even know about them, until Roby makes his recommendations to the Senior Leadership Team in the spring.
Just where this committee falls under President Joseph Aoun’s promises for transparency, we’re not sure. Earlier this fall, the Faculty Senate passed revisions to its handbook, which included a resolution requesting more transparency from the president. As reported in an Oct. 1 article in The News, the faculty said they felt President Aoun had left them out of important decisions and operated behind closed doors.
The students now know how it feels.
Furthermore, Roby may be using the panel as a veil to hide his decision to cut an athletics team. In his myNEU bulletin, he makes it clear he has already reviewed and prepared recommendations regarding the department. If he has already made his decision, there’s no real point to having a panel. It seems it may just be a way for him to duck full responsibility of his decision.
While Roby may say the panel will review all aspects of the athletics department, it really boils down to the possibility that a sports team may be cut, and football is on the table. Northeastern may not have a sports fanbase the size of other Boston schools, but that does not mean athletics do not play an important role in the lives of many students. It is to these students Roby and the administration owe open meetings and the details of who is on the panel.
As it stands now, there is no accountability for the decision made by this panel. If students are outraged by the outcome, we have no one to register complaints with. Roby cannot possibly take the fall for the whole panel. And if the possibility of being held accountable for the decisions they come to is enough to deter them from stepping up and saying what they actually think, then maybe they are not the best people to be doing the job. Part of being a leader and making major decisions is taking responsibility for them.
The new athletics review panel is plagued by secrecy, and Roby and the administration have a responsibility to the students to be open and honest about the decisions the committee could make. By hiding the identities of the panelists and keeping the records of its meetings confidential, the administration is acting in direct contrast to the pledge passed by the Faculty Senate.
Like the faculty, we call for transparency. We pay a lot of money to go to school here, and the decisions that affect us should be open. If Roby, Aoun and the administration have nothing to hide, they should let students in. It may be easy to forget, but we are a part of this school, too.
