No notifications about special board meeting did not allow public comment
In an ironic moment during Monday's special Board of Trustees meeting, Cairwoma Stephanie Comai asked for public comment from anyone attending.
There was one major problem: there was not a single member of the public in attendance.
The room was filled with administrators listening to the board discuss the land for the College of Medicine as well as University President George Ross’ goals for the next academic year. CM Life was the only media in attendance.
While Comai was attending via conference call and therefore could not see the fact that no members of the public attended, this illuminates a major problem.
The public was never directly notified.
On Saturday morning, Central Michigan Life was informed of the special session via e-mail.
Despite the fact that CM Life was the only media source to tell anybody about the session, nothing was done by the university to inform anybody about the meeting.
No e-mails were sent out to staff, faculty or students, it didn’t appear in an events calendar and did not appear on anything from CMU Public Relations.
Yet, after the meeting, an e-mail was sent via the listserv detailing what the trustees approved. Translation: we didn’t want you at the meeting but we will tell you what happened.
While it is summer and there is no doubt few people show up to a meeting announced at such short notice, the university must be consistent in its announcements to everyone through an e-mail rather than assume they won’t attend.
One thing used for budget meetings this year was live streaming video, which allowed those who could not typically attend budget meetings the ability to be involved in the ever-changing budget process.
During live steams of the budget forum several hundred people could easily participate and watch the discussion as if they were there.
This could be instituted during board meetings and would allow people to be involved as CMU’s governing board makes decisions that could change the entire face of this campus.
