In the midst of the transition from the Matt Schrimper administration to the John Nelson administration, it is important to keep in mind that student self-governance goes far beyond Student Council. For example, The Cavalier Daily is run solely by students, from editors to publishers to columnists like myself. An important reason that The Cavalier Daily stays afloat is due not only to the commitment of its workers, but also to the volume of students who contribute on a daily or weekly basis. So how should smaller University-related programs operate since they lack the manpower The Cavalier Daily is fortunate to have? The Residence Life Program serves as a model of student self-governance that many should follow because it balances student responsibilities and administrative oversight.
Since the University is an institution for higher education, students’ first — or what should be their first — priority is education. This limits the responsibilities that they should take on in extracurricular activities. Some activities, such as the Honor Committee and the University Judiciary Committee, simply give their student personnel too much work. This is especially important for these organizations because they deal with extremely serious matters.
Alternatively, the concept of student self-governance relies on at least some student participation. There are many more cases where there is not enough student input. Recent events such as President John Casteen III’s selection of Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III as the Commencement speaker bring such issues to light.
Instead of the two extremes, student self-governance should meet somewhere in the middle where students are still responsible for many program duties but also where University representatives help alleviate some of the more major issues that might come up. A program that falls in this intermediate category is the Residence Life Program.
Ian Flanagan, co-chair of resident staff for First Year Dorms, described Residence Life as a “hybrid”. On one side are the student staffers which include resident advisors, senior residents, and co-chairs to area coordinators. On the other hand are professionals that include an associate dean, two assistant deans, and four area coordinators. They work together on most issues such as cases involving individual residents, e.g. referrals to the University Judiciary Committee, but are also separate on other matters, allowing for true student self-governance.
Residence Life manages to give students enough responsibilities without overwhelming them. Flanagan noted that when parents involve themselves in residency matters, the situation goes immediately to the deans. The program realizes that professionals have more experience and are better equipped to deal with these matters. There are also some duties that are unique to students. For example, the only staff members involved in determining new Resident Advisors are senior residents and current RAs. Professionals have no involvement — e.g. interviewing or scoring candidates — in this process.
One of the most common criticisms of administrative-dominated programs is the lack of transparency that occur for programs such as promotion and tenure or the selection process for Commencement speakers. This does not apply to Residence Life. “We want the students to understand what we are doing,” said Flanagan. He stated that unresolved conflicts between residents and their senior residents are later discussed between the senior resident, area coordinator and co-chairs, and deans. This contrasts some of the other programs where differences of opinions are directly judged by one authority figure. For example, the decision to have Wilkinson as the Commencement speaker was determined solely by Casteen even though students have demonstrated their disapproval. Even though student leaders gave Casteen a list of candidates, there were no checks and balances when it came to the final decision.
A common criticism of student-run organizations is that there are many positions where students are just figureheads. Small CIOs often encounter this problem. There might be a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer when only one or two people would be sufficient at handling the responsibilities of all these positions. Even Student Council has this problem. Most students have not been impacted by Matt Shrimper’s administration, whereas almost all first years interact with their RA on a regular basis. Resident staff have actual responsibilities that have concrete consequences. As co-chair, Flanagan keeps himself very busy. His duties include supervising the Alderman Road Dorms, leading an executive team composed of only student staff, and sitting in on academic committees as a Residence Life representative, to name a few.
The way Residence Life is organized is not for every organization. Some smaller CIOs should not have any faculty interference while some closely related to the University should have more. However, other programs such as the Honor Committee could ease responsibilities put on student by increasing faculty involvement. Some processes such as the Commencement speaker selection should include more student involvement. Residence Life serves as a general template that would improve most of the current programs that either have too much, yet trivial, student involvement or an iron fist administrative program that lacks transparency.
Hung Vu’s column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at h.vu@cavalierdaily.com.
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