A top Binghamton University official denied protesters’ claims that the administration had left students ‘out of the loop’ on important information and decision-making for the establishment of the recently opened Downtown Center.
‘It was always our objective to provide as much information as we could,’ said Patricia Ingraham, founding dean of the Center’s College of Community and Public Affairs. ‘There are a variety of ways and have always been a variety of ways for students to participate.’
About 30 demonstrators ‘ mostly undergraduate human development students ‘ marched at the UDC Friday, rallying for administrators to hear their concerns about parking, safety, transportation, food, budget cuts, and staff and curriculum changes. Higher administration at CCPA, they said, gave minimal opportunities for students to provide input and was largely unresponsive and dismissive to legitimate concerns of undergraduate students.
‘OPEN DOOR POLICY’
But according to Ingraham, the University informed students about the move to the $29 million Center through personal conversations, information sessions and fact sheets.
‘I have an open door policy,’ Ingraham told Pipe Dream on Tuesday. ‘If students wish to speak to me, it’s not very hard.’
But some students said their concerns, which were vocalized and written, weren’t met after conversations with the dean.
‘If you talk to the dean, she’ll defer responsibility,’ said Nicole Murphy, a senior human development major. ‘She’ll act like she’ll have no idea we didn’t know.’
A draft of faculty by-laws for the college also call for a student advisory committee which would serve as a bridge between students and school officials. But according to Ingraham, those by-laws have yet to be passed and there is no deadline.
‘It’s at the president’s and provost’s discretion,’ she said. ‘But I’m assuming that it will be relatively shortly that it will be approved [sic].’
But according to Ingraham, students were included in planning for the Downtown Center through various campus-wide committees.
‘There were multiple coordinating committees, all of which I couldn’t name for you,’ she said. The groups oversaw different elements of the building, like technology and classrooms.
‘We have been sending nearly all non-curricular concerns to the Personal Safety Advisory Committee (because of the priority of this issue and its overlap with other issues, like parking),’ said Gail Glover, a University spokesperson.
According to Tony Preus, the chair of the Personal Safety Advisory Committee, the group’s makeup is ‘dictated by the central administration mandate,’ and includes student representatives.
‘OUT OF THE LOOP’
Ingraham held a town hall meeting in April to respond to students’ questions after being ‘a little puzzled that students hadn’t gotten the information from their departments and their faculty,’ she said.
But students said the meeting was the first and only held for undergraduates regarding the move, and that a majority of the decisions had already been made. According the students, their concerns were largely dismissed.
‘The dean basically avoided all responsibility. She tried to throw responsibility on other people,’ said Jenna Grisar, a senior human development major. ‘It was a miserable meeting.’
The dean disagreed.
‘We had a good discussion,’ she said.
The University mailed and e-mailed information sheets ‘ which included details on the Downtown campus, bus routes and parking ‘ while CCPA was moving to the Center over the summer. The dean’s office did not send out any other official notification of the move before the info sheets and e-mails.
Grisar said she initially heard about the move ‘through rumors.’ ‘It was very frustrating to hear about such a huge change from people in your classes.’
STAYING SAFE
Concerns about safety heightened after a student was assaulted and robbed in September while walking to her car after a night class at the Downtown Center. The two lots adjacent to the UDC are reserved for staff and faculty. The dean did not give a direct answer as to whether she heard any student concerns about safety before the robbery.
‘As I said at the town hall meeting, some of the students expressed concerns about going some place other than the Vestal campus,’ she said. ‘That’s basically what they said, that we were moving from a leafy green suburban campus to a campus that we don’t know about.’
When asked again about hearing of safety concerns, the dean started, ‘In those terms.’ She added, ‘it was an unknown, and I think that’s the fundamental. Change is change and is always rather scary. And people were frightened by the prospects of change. And I think some students felt quite strongly that is not how they anticipated their undergraduate career being. That’s just a reality.’
The UDC, which houses the CCPA, is located in Downtown Binghamton. Planning for the Center has evolved over the past six years, Ingraham said.