“[The Dickinsonian at faculty meetings] would
encourage transparency and would bring students
closer to a process that may be foreign to them.”
-Anonymous Dickinson Student, Buzzocracy post

Though I had -in a more informal way a few weeks ago- responded to the above Buzzocracy post, I wanted to sit down and dedicate some more time to the topic.

 
It is regretful that the idea for The Dickinsonian to have a reporting presence during the Faculty Meetings only came about after the worst of the Sexual Misconduct Policy broke. It is a failure that we are to blame for; though the administration has frequently invited us to attend these closed meetings, we have always denied. It was not that we didn’t want to. Some years The Dickinsonian was simply understaffed. Or our focus was elsewhere.

 
Our lackadaisical approach to faculty reporting wasn’t always the norm. In the past the newspaper was present at Faculty Meetings, and we were even granted the unique privilege of being able to voice concerns and questions along with the teachers and administrators. It is not a common right; by my estimates, there are only three or four other students who are able to speak at Faculty Meetings. It is a rare right that we have squandered up until this point.

 
But just because we have made a mistake does not mean we can’t work to correct it.

 
During these last few weeks, The Dickinsonian has been working to correct this error in omission. This issue marks the first time that we have included the Faculty Meeting Minutes, a step that will hopefully lead to further update for the remainder of the semester and, hopefully, throughout the years to come.

 
But because space is limited and our staff of volunteers fluctuates, our ability to report on these mid-day meetings cannot be completely assured. We – for as a graduating senior I have to gradually take myself out of the authority position – will do our best to help continue our mission of transparency of all things Dickinson.

 
The Dickinsonian is not your only source of information on these matters, however. Though students have recently begun to grumble and gripe about the lack of transparency surrounding the Faculty Meetings, remember that all materials are posted online a week in advance of each meeting. Though we will work our hardest to condense and package this information into a more readable form, know that the information is available for any student who wishes to be more active in the college decision-making process.

 
For our part, we will continue doing what we have always promised to do: Reporting what Dickinson students care about.