It has been said that growth for its own sake is the philosophy of a cancer cell, and in recent years it is easy to envision our school that way. As a ravenous and malignant tumor, devouring everything in its path, burning through all its funding, only to further expand itself physically.
Make no mistake about it, this expansion is almost entirely physical. It seems that Colorado Mesa University (CMU) has entirely forgotten that it is a university that is supposed to offer a well rounded program of education, and not just a set of ever expanding construction projects.
Who benefits from this near constant growth? Certainly not the students. As school records show, student enrollment over the past few years has remained at a relatively stable level and in some cases it has even dipped below that. Nor does it benefit the rest of the town. For example, CMU recently began the construction of a $39.5 million theater and performing arts center. Normally this is something I would applaud, but is the cost really worth it?
From a purely utilitarian perspective, the construction of such a theater (no matter how nice it happens to be) simply doesn’t serve the needs of the vast majority of people who study at CMU. From the perspective of image, it makes perfect sense. What says sophistication and class more than the frivolous waste of school funding? If there’s one thing that CMU has in common with other universities across the country, it’s a total lack of financial competence and common sense, which is coupled, as it always is, with a complete disregard for the needs and wants of the students and faculty.
Sure, the new theater isn’t practical and doesn’t suit the current needs of the student body, but who cares? It suits the needs of the university, and like many big institutions, it just assumes that its needs are more important than the needs of the people that it actually exists for. As long as the university looks good from the outside and to funders, everyone else can go to hell.
This is of course only a symptom of a larger problem that exists in universities all across the country and the globe: a lack of democracy. Students and faculty are never consulted about these projects and when they are, it is almost always in a way that is patronizing, disingenuous and quite disrespectful. It is reminiscent of the way an annoyed parent may tell a child that while their feelings matter, they are still wrong and will be ignored.
Until the day that CMU (and universities in general) begins involving students and faculty in the decision making process, continue to expect more and more senseless, backwards and even downright incompetent administrative decisions.
We, as the students and faculty, are the ones who know what this university needs the most. The wealthy donors are trying to guide CMU in a direction that serves their own ends. The the administrators do very little to actually engage with students and faculty beyond setting rules and regulations and do not always know what this school needs. It is the students who work, study and live here. We are the heart of this institution, and we shouldn’t be ignored.
