My uncle always taught me “with great power comes great responsibility.” Ok, technically he wasn’t my uncle, and he never existed in the first place. Either way, on Feb. 11, Provost Frank taught me otherwise.
At the board of trustees meeting, the topic of the evening was clearly the open forum about the change in activity-hour. Why else would the Golden Eagles conference room have been so packed, that there weren’t even enough chairs to seat students? While some may have left for class by the time the activity-hour change issue arose, it was clear that it was the reason that many had stayed.
When the issue was finally brought up, many people spoke including five students, several board members, and a handful of staff members. Noticeably silent, however, was Provost Lawrence Frank.
Now, call me crazy, but I would think that the man who caused such a heated discussion would certainly want speak on his own behalf to justify the change. Provost Frank on the other hand, not so much. While Chairman Dudycz was defending the change, Provost Frank sat in his corner instead, letting the surly look of disgust say more than any words could.
I’m not saying that he had to say any one thing in particular about his decision but the least he could have done was say something. It may have been because Victoria Tullock, Miguel Loeza and Stephan McCollom came prepared to discredit anything he had to say and he knew it, but that’s just speculation. Then again, speculation is what everyone knows to be true, but can’t prove. Like OJ murdering his wife.
Frank wasn’t the only one with an agenda at the meeting that day. While Dudycz was defending the change, he insulted everyone’s intelligence by bringing up schools such as Eastern, U of I, and Western’s decision to get rid of their version of activity-hour altogether. Of course, what is the factor that Northeastern doesn’t share with these schools? Oh, that’s right; Northeastern is a commuter school with no dorms. Pretty sneaky, Dudycz. Oh wait, it wasn’t.
And what was going on after the discussion couldn’t have been ethical either. After everyone was eschewed out, the vote by the board of trustees, which was supposed to have been open to the public, was for some reason being blocked by a woman who told people that they weren’t allowed in. Now, I realize that I am but a simple college student ready to graduate from this fine institution, and my deductive reasoning skills can’t possibly be as brilliant as the likes of crotchety self-serving old men, but I’m pretty sure that when something is open, that means that it is in fact, not closed.
Tactical thinking is never a wrong thing, but don’t underestimate your audience, and this is clearly what has been happening. Provost Frank thought that he could pull the wool over the student body’s eyes, and he’s finding that it’s not going to be as simple as he thought. He may be able to hide behind Dudycz, but only for so long. We students have been given the tools to fight against “strategic” oppression, and the administration is wrong if they think we don’t know how to use them.