A continued call for democracy on campus

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

We, the student body, have continued to call for democracy on campus with little acknowledgement. The policies that are created at this institution continue to fail students with no solutions.

Despite best efforts to convince you otherwise, true democracy does not exist on college campuses. Even with seemingly democratic institutions on campus, such as the concept and practice of shared governance, the existence of the Student Association and College Senate, etc., the administration does not have a culture or respect for an honest, representative democracy. The Student Association can only suggest, not implement, policies that directly govern students' rights and responsibilities. 

Any policies, moreover, that directly affect the student body must be approved by the College Council. As stated in a previous article, On Campus Democracy Does Not Exist, only one student sits on this council. According to the Fall 2024 Geneseo Fast Facts numbers, there are 3,902 undergraduate students at SUNY Geneseo. This means the percentage of students who have the power to approve or deny said policies is 0.023 percent. Even if any student, whether in the Student Association (and their committees) or not, can suggest policies, 99.977 percent of the student body cannot implement them. Does this sound democratic? We need more students to serve on the College Council or require a better system. 

Shared governance without equal approval and disapproval implementation power is not governance. It’s a series of faux rubber stamps or letters of dissent that the College Council and President’s Cabinet can choose to ignore. This is especially true when policies come from the top down. Where was the university-wide, community input on the Assembly Policy updates pushed through days before students moved in for the Fall 2024 Semester? 

Other higher education institutions within the State University of New York system, both big and small, have policy review periods. To name a few, check out Monroe Community College and the University at Buffalo’s procedures for policy development. Why doesn’t SUNY Geneseo have a formalized, multi-day university-wide community review period for proposed new and amended policies? Even if more students, faculty, and staff are not given implementation power, we all deserve the right to express our opinions on proposed policies before they are enshrined in an organized fashion. If university members are permitted to ask questions, raise concerns, and express support to potential new hires, the same should be applied to the policies that govern the university.

Throughout my college career, I have grown more fond of researching institutional structures, student movements, and the overall struggle for democracy on university campuses and the world. At one of my previous institutions, Monroe Community College, I asked the Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Development, “Do you like democracy?” This was in response to proposing the Office of Student Life and Leadership Development be re-structured to allow for a greater chance for students to voice their opinions. 

His response? “I actually like the hierarchy.” Systems using hierarchical structures, when done right, have the potential for high levels of democratic principles. It seems, however, that universities use hierarchy as a tool of oppression against those not in administrative positions.

As colleges and universities nationwide continue to shift organizationally to run more like businesses, education becomes less important. Dr. Chad Wellmon, a professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Virginia, posted on X, “Columbia University is a hedge fund with a library no one can use,” in response to the university locking the campus out to the general public and certain university members due to last spring semester’s demonstrations. The dangerous path toward ‘hedge fund-over-academy’ within many higher education institutions should, if not already, alarm everyone, most notably democracy-enjoyers.  

With higher education institutional structures becoming more business-like and bureaucratic, democracy begins to crumble—if it was even there in the first place. Administrators with the sign-off power—rather than those with the power to make decisions without passing it up the line— often rarely see students. 

Back when I was at Monroe Community College, there was a time I had a grievance with an administrator. After figuring out the organizational structure, I went one step up the chain of command. When requesting a meeting, I was told by the secretary, “I haven’t seen a student here in a long time.” Yet, this administrator was maybe a third-tier administrator, not even holding the title of “Vice President.”

At SUNY Geneseo, many Presidents’ Cabinet members do not publicly list their office locations or emails directly in their biographies. Is this because they are so used to not seeing or talking with students, a way to deter students from seeking information, or simply an oversight? University community members deserve the right to know directly where senior-level administrators' offices are and how to contact them. On Campus Democracy Does Not Exist coins the term “accessible transparency.” Without this, democracy, rather than democratic principles, cannot exist. 

With democracy being an afterthought on college and university campuses, it calls into question the legitimacy of whether our country, our jobs, etc., are democratic at all. If a job can fire you with no cause on the spot, is that democratic? If our members of Congress continue to ignore our demands, is that democratic? If universities continue to suppress student activism, is that democratic? The struggle for democracy is worldwide. We must continue the call for democracy here on campus before our right to speak is taken too.