2008 Woodie Awards
Letter to the Editor
Club Team Coalition is not getting help or attention from the administration
Justin Briley
Issue date: 11/16/07 Section: Post
- Page 1 of 1
Over the course of these past few weeks, we have had several campaigns to demonstrate student support for our cause of obtaining a new field. We have had petitions that emphasized fellow students favoring the administration prioritizing the construction of the field so that it can be ready as soon as possible. It appears that Western officials have been dragging their feet, as this whole thing has taken longer than anyone would have expected. Why is this so? We have been making weekly calls to facilities personnel for updates, as President Minahan suggested. We have faced people dodging questions, not knowing any information, and we were even asked to not call at all! It seems to me that we should have this information as we are affected by it. The information given did not even always match from caller to caller.
We have attempted to get the University to agree to a policy which we felt would be in the best interests of all parties. We spent a lot of time writing this document, and felt it represented our position while still following the understanding of the original purpose of the field. This idea was presented by Minahan himself telling us that we had the right to advocate for our cause within student affairs. What we received in return appeared to be a hastily prepared, ill-defined document that basically did not apply to anything we were looking for. It has been stated that there will be no negotiation. This creates a tricky situation because we as club teams have no say and everything to lose in this matter. If the administration does not like what is going on, we could face problems. We need the help and support of the administration, but we also need action representing our interests. This action was supposed to be started on November 8th when we had a meeting scheduled with Dr. Dukes, President Minahan, and Mark Weiss. The three of them decided not to attend for various reasons ranging from being away on business, to having a "good feel" for the situation thus making it unnecessary to attend. This meeting had been scheduled since October 12th. We had no notice. We showed up, they did not.
Why is this issue becoming so adversarial? Why, when we are trying to be civil, are we being treated this way? Are these the values that this country was built on? Is it ok to be democratic as long as we do not threaten those that are in power? We cannot believe what has been going on here. We have been trying to do everything that we can to follow a respectable and proper procedure. Why can't we just form a partnership with the administration and compromise so that everyone "wins?" We just want to be allowed the opportunity to do our best in representing the University in our respective sports.
We are only pursuing our interests based on representations made concerning the new field. Right now there is a specific group of students who need attention and help from this administration, and we are not getting it. We are looking for discussion and compromise not an adversarial situation.
-Justin Brown -Melissa Nelson
-Club Team Coalition
We have attempted to get the University to agree to a policy which we felt would be in the best interests of all parties. We spent a lot of time writing this document, and felt it represented our position while still following the understanding of the original purpose of the field. This idea was presented by Minahan himself telling us that we had the right to advocate for our cause within student affairs. What we received in return appeared to be a hastily prepared, ill-defined document that basically did not apply to anything we were looking for. It has been stated that there will be no negotiation. This creates a tricky situation because we as club teams have no say and everything to lose in this matter. If the administration does not like what is going on, we could face problems. We need the help and support of the administration, but we also need action representing our interests. This action was supposed to be started on November 8th when we had a meeting scheduled with Dr. Dukes, President Minahan, and Mark Weiss. The three of them decided not to attend for various reasons ranging from being away on business, to having a "good feel" for the situation thus making it unnecessary to attend. This meeting had been scheduled since October 12th. We had no notice. We showed up, they did not.
Why is this issue becoming so adversarial? Why, when we are trying to be civil, are we being treated this way? Are these the values that this country was built on? Is it ok to be democratic as long as we do not threaten those that are in power? We cannot believe what has been going on here. We have been trying to do everything that we can to follow a respectable and proper procedure. Why can't we just form a partnership with the administration and compromise so that everyone "wins?" We just want to be allowed the opportunity to do our best in representing the University in our respective sports.
We are only pursuing our interests based on representations made concerning the new field. Right now there is a specific group of students who need attention and help from this administration, and we are not getting it. We are looking for discussion and compromise not an adversarial situation.
-Justin Brown -Melissa Nelson
-Club Team Coalition
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