On a campus where officials were honest with students, pictures of homecoming events in the administration’s newsletter would include the throngs of protesters who turned up at the dedication of the University Downtown Center.

Instead, yesterday’s edition of Inside BU mirrored the image administrators have been subtly and steadily projecting to students concerned with the Downtown Center: that everything is going to be fine, that students are in fact being listened to and that the administration cares.

This is not to say that we would relegate every Binghamton University official to the ninth ring of hell, or that they are all inaccessible and callous. Indeed, we have often collaborated with eager and generous administrators who want to get their message across to students.

But if there has been any trend in the tensions on this campus over the last few years, it has been the increasingly widespread outcry from students calling for more inclusion from the administration at this University. From changing the add/drop deadline to forums on a controversial art exhibit last fall, to last week’s protest outside the University Downtown Center, members of the student body have expressed sentiments of disenfranchisement at the hands of its administration.

At a University of this size and population, some degree of miscommunication is inevitable and it is commendable that some officials choose to break down some of those boundaries.

But for Patricia Ingraham, founding dean of the College of Community and Public Affairs, to quip about her ‘open door’ policy and say that she is accessible to students is laughable at best ‘ and dishonest at worst.

It took the dean nearly a month (since before the Sept. 21 issue where we first reported on a mugging near the Center) to respond to requests for an interview with our reporters and editors, and we must question her assertions ‘ and those of other BU officials ‘ that she is approachable and available to students.

Indeed, President Lois B. DeFleur’s notable absence from campus events has turned her rare appearances into ‘sightings.’

It is unfortunate that so many students feel disconnected and ignored by administrators who run this University. It is even regrettable that the dedication of BU’s newest building ‘ what would otherwise be a cause for celebration ‘ was marked by protest. But the most poignant moment of the ceremony was watching two senior administration officials, one of whom was the president, completely ignore students holding signs and asking to be heard.

Admitting there’s a problem in relating to students’ concerns is the first step. And there is most assuredly a problem; citing bureaucratic committees, ‘channels’ and ‘avenues’ students can go through to be heard obfuscates the reality: this University’s politicos have little interest in hearing us, and we, as students, often feel ignored and belittled.

And we know we’re not alone.

Such sallow rhetoric demeans this institution by pretending that the scores of concerned students are delusional.

Honesty is, after all, the best policy.