Staff Editorial: Summer homework for school administration should be to work on openness

It seems that this year, St. Joe's has made a greater effort to be honest and open about its relationship with students.

Whether it's this afternoon's unprecedented town hall-style meeting between the student body and President Timothy Lannon, S.J., or the presentation of fiscal year 2011's budget earlier this semester, the university has been relatively responsive to the concerns of its students.

This is not to say that the administration has suddenly become a paragon of openness or transparency.

There is still a troubling refusal to give out even the most basic financial information, such as the salaries of administrators, faculty, and staff; a comprehensive breakdown of the yearly budget that makes sense to students; and information on the budgets of student organizations. The unwillingness to share information has extended further, too—although required by law to collect statistics on instances of sexual harassment, for example, the administration is often reluctant to disseminate that information to the community in terms of sharing how many cases occur each year in university offices.

Even information on current controversies is often unavailable. We are, for instance, unable to get any information about court costs (including the costs of lawyers and expert witnesses) involved in the university's legal battle with the Merion Community Coalition (MCC). The average student has no idea how the university is doing in its court battle to properly use the Maguire Campus, even when the situation will determine the future opportunities for classrooms, athletic fields, and student centers.

Sometimes the administration, when asked for information, merely asserts its right as a private university to keep some information private. Sometimes, though, they use the lack of student interest as an excuse—and in this they are correct. Students do not make use of even the opportunities afforded to them to learn what is going on. Often, the only student at budget meetings will be a reporter from The Hawk. If students showed more interest, demanding that the university give more information and actually showing up when they do, additional openness might be achieved.

But at the same time, the university cannot just use lack of student interest as an excuse. The budget is not portrayed in terms students care about—their tuition dollars. If the budget were presented in terms of how much of their tuition check goes where, broken down by organizations, salary expenses, etc., students might care much more. It is important that we know how much money goes to the Student Union Board (SUB), for instance. Students would like to know how much of their money goes toward the University Student Senate (U.S.S.), lawyers, and vice presidents' salaries. The university should respect that, and make an attempt to assuage our concerns.

It is especially important in a difficult economic time for St. Joe's finances that they be honest and open with the entire university community. Financial transparency could help to lessen criticism from both students and faculty about budget cuts.

The bottom line, though, is that 80 percent of this university's revenues come from tuition. We pay for this university, and we should be able to find out exactly what we are spending those dollars on each year.