Editorial: Students wasted chance to address administrators

Go to a Dean’s Hour and you’ll find students lined up across the Union lobby for free popcorn and nachos.

But when the Dean’s job is on the line, only two students showed up.

Interim Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner is one of four people under consideration for the full-time role, a position that would put him in charge of the non-academic experience at Pitt. That includes student affairs, residence life, the Outside the Classroom Curriculum, student mentoring and first-year programs.

The University announced that it would hold public interviews with the candidates so students could weigh in on who represents their interests to the rest of the school’s administration. But other than our reporter and Student Government Board President Nasreen Harun, who also serves on the selection committee responsible, only one student bothered to show up.

This lack of student engagement is deeply hypocritical. For all the rallies and protests we see on campus claiming that the University doesn’t care about us, very few people seem to care about the platforms that it does provide. Pitt is offering students a chance to decide who represents them, making this potentially the most important platform of all.

Ignorance is not an excuse — Pitt sent students a Campus Connection text message about the event two hours before Bonner’s interview began, and The Pitt News reported on the interview schedule in Tuesday’s paper.

We set high expectations for the University because we pay a lot of money to go here. We trust that it will keep us safe and provide us with the stepping stones to great futures. But this is a two-way street. Students cannot criticize an institution’s management and then decide that an opportunity to speak up isn’t worth their time.

A job interview that features public Q&A time is not the ideal mode for communicating our interests, but it is a start. Only by showing that we are able and — most importantly — willing to provide constructive insight can students hope to earn a seat at the decision table.

Student activism is important, but it only goes so far. Demonstrations attract curious eyes, but we need listeners. We had them Tuesday, and we wasted it.

At its core, this isn’t even necessarily about who gets the job — it’s about who makes the call.

At the conclusion of Bonner’s interview, attendees had the option to fill out evaluation forms about what they thought of the candidate. These forms will go directly into the hands of Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, who will make the final decision on who gets the position. This is an opportunity for Pitt students to take an active role in the direction of our University and speak directly to its leadership about what matters to us.

There are three more candidate interviews this week. Joanne Vogel, who currently serves as interim vice president for student affairs at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, will attend an open meeting 11 a.m. Wednesday in the University Club. William Stackman, who currently serves as the associate vice president for student services at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, will attend an open meeting 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the University Club. And Cara Appel-Silbaugh, who currently serves as the associate dean of students at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, will attend an open meeting 3 p.m. Friday in the University Club.

If your school matters to you more than a cheap snack, we’ll see you there.