Students have strong opinions about abortion, free speech and the education they pay for. If we didn’t know this before the last month, it’s become extremely clear in the aftermath of General Counsel’s memo providing guidance on the No Public Funds for Abortion Act. The lack of consideration for student opinions has left some members of the University of Idaho community wondering where we stand in administrative priorities.
The memo sent out by UI General Counsel in September made national headlines. After 10 days with no statement from the university, President Scott Green and Provost Torrey Lawrence sent out clarification stating that counsel’s guidance didn’t constitute a policy change. The clarifying email specifically called out “misinformation, confusion, and emotion” in the conversations surrounding the memo.
Concerns about misinformation and confusion are valid; conversations about the memo and state law should be founded in truth. There has been a lot of misunderstanding about how counsel guidelines work, not helped by the lack of communication from the university since they were sent out. However, disregarding emotion is a good way to upset the thousands of paying students affected by Idaho’s abortion and contraception laws.
Sexual health, reproductive rights and abortion access are inherently emotional issues. Approaching staff or faculty members with questions about contraceptive resources or abortion issues is an emotional situation. Being told by elected officials what your tuition dollars can and can’t be used for is bound to spark some emotion. Emotion should not be disregarded by our administrators. It’s an insult to students and our intellect to treat emotion as a fault.
This isn’t the first time in the past two years students have been upset by administrative messaging. June 3, 2020, was Blackout Tuesday; an initiative to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement by urging individuals to post a black square and nothing else on social media.
On June 2 and 3, the official university Instagram and Facebook accounts posted reminders about the Vandal Giving Day fundraising campaign. Dozens of students, alumni and community members commented on the fundraising posts criticizing the university for its failure to reschedule Vandal Giving Day and demanding UI show support for Black Lives Matter.
This is what happens when students don’t have a seat at the table to weigh in on university decisions. Most university committees have a requirement for at least one student representative. Two undergrads report to the Faculty Senate. Several administrators have regular meetings with the ASUI president or other representatives. But there’s a difference between inclusion for the sake of fulfilling a requirement and inclusion for the sake of hearing different viewpoints.
It’s important to acknowledge that the students who have opportunities to make their voices heard by the highest levels of UI authority are not always representative of our entire campus. First-generation college students, students of color, international students and more may not have the same access to upper-level leadership opportunities that get them a high-level audience. When students don’t see themselves reflected in their own student government or university administration, it gets harder to speak up.
Students should by no means be the arbiters of university communications and policy decisions. But I can’t help but feel that closer relationships with various parts of the student body could better inform our administrators on what we’re seeking from the institution. Rather than being offered symbolic recognition, students should be valued as change-makers on campus who can impact our university’s public image.
The administration and faculty have a lot of power in curating our university’s public image, not to mention the way UI functions day-to-day. But too often, these decision-makers leave out a massive group vital to the University community: the student body. My view is that our administrators could avoid public backlash from students – and maybe even make Vandals feel valued on campus – if there was greater effort to keep in touch with student needs.
Katie Hettinga can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @katie_hettinga