EDITORIAL: FA media problems could hinder student understanding
To say much of the student body is confused by the current state of affairs between CMU and the Faculty Association would be an understatement.
As echoed by Thursday's student leaders meeting with University President George Ross, students want answers and a possible solution to this issue.
Much credit is deserved by both sides for sitting down with students and planning events to address the dispute's possible implications.
Wednesday night featured one of those events, with FA President Laura Frey talking to more than 150 students in the Bovee University Center Auditorium.
But a peculiar thing happened there — Frey attempted to kick out media, including a cameraman from a local NBC affiliate.
It's interesting Frey chose this route, because the media is one of the only sources attempting to aid people in understanding the issue.
The auditorium holds only several hundred people, in comparison to the more than 20,000 students these negotiations affect. If the room was at capacity, by what means would students unable to attend gather the information?
Frey began the meeting by saying its entirety was "off the record." While it's a different approach to an open meeting, both sides must agree for a discussion to go off the record, and she failed to ask the permission of all 150 people.
Frey was in a public building, paid for by public and student funds. The event was open to all students and no identification was asked for at the door, giving the attendees the impression the meeting was open to the public.
A CM Life reporter was in the auditorium, who afterward met with Frey to inform her of the plan to write a story covering topics discussed at this open meeting.
Frey responded to the reporter with hostility and the conversation ended with Frey trying to tell the reporter what could and could not printed.
Earlier in the week, CMU President George Ross referred to the argument as a discussion between "grown-ups," and this move by the FA similarly excluded students.
In this situation, the media is acting as a means of communication between the FA and students who were unable to attend.
When only a fraction of the students can hear opinions and concerns by both sides of this argument that means trouble for the whole student body.
