If you have attended The University of Alabama for long enough, you have more than likely developed the same learned helplessness that plagues the University and the state of Alabama. It’s as if society and the status quo are quicksand pits: you can yell, fight, act, write and pontificate until your limbs are numb and your voice is gone, but all you will hear in response is “Sweetheart, you are only making things worse for yourself.” Eventually, we all sink in and accept that the status quo is just fine.
That’s been the stark reality at The University of Alabama for the past several years: passionate, intelligent and driven students learning how to acquiesce and relinquish control. Of course, the major and singular exception is the sorority integration events of last fall, which was more the byproduct of immense public shaming than anything else. Perhaps as this hellacious week comes to an end, the administration will learn to recognize that the greatest asset at this University is, and always will be, the students.
Unfortunately, the administration for the past several years has consistently and frequently ignored or disregarded the voices of students. It is a tragedy that the few voices they choose to hear are those from the SGA, which has been ineffective and, well, pointless for several years. Yes, the SGA is full of smart, intelligent leaders, but the systematic failures of the SGA have crippled them from being truly representative of students. The SGA had an amazing opportunity to bring the campus together this week, but they remained in the quicksand complacently waiting for the future. The failure by the SGA to act and represent the student’s concerns and fears earlier this week adds to their long list of failures.
What the administration should know is student input at every level is not being heard, respected or valued, despite the SGA. Wake Forest University recognized this problem six years ago and created the Wake Forest Fellows. The Fellows are recent Wake Forest graduates that accept a yearlong occupation as full-time staff members of the University in the higher administration. They have proven track records of academic excellence and leadership with diverse backgrounds and experiences in vastly different areas. The program is successful for several reasons: The fellows are closer in age to the students, the administrators actually want to hear from the fellows, and the fellows are passionate about helping the administrators improve Wake Forest. In times of emergency and crisis, the Wake Forest administration has a dedicated group of fellows to offer advice and counsel.
For now, the creation of a University of Alabama Fellows akin to the Wake Forest’s Fellows is a pipe dream. Still, now more than ever, there needs to be more efficient avenues for students to have impactful input into the administration’s decisions and plans, but right now they just don’t exist and the SGA is insufficient. The history of The University of Alabama, and of the State, to apply former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ powerful words is, “littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate – people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful.” We can either stand together as members of the UA community and move past the calamities of earlier this week towards a better, brighter future, or we can stay in the quicksand like the rest of the state and watch our future progress move by without us. The choice is clear.
Patrick Crowley is the Opinions Editor of The Crimson White. He is a senior majoring in mathematics, finance and economics.
