Second-class treatment: paying for our mistakes
Issue date: 5/14/09 Section: Opinion
When The Index attempted to contact University Relations with a list of short questions about the selection of this year's commencement speaker, we received an e-mail reply that was sent to us by mistake. It told the recipient not to answer our questions and that if the reporter in question was smart enough, he'd be able to do his job without having to get in touch with University Relations.
In other instances, we attempted to contact Aramark for several stories throughout the year, but they refused to speak to us. One Aramark employee was overheard telling his boss, "I got rid of that Index guy for you."
The Pacific Index is a professional media outlet, no different from The Forest Grove News-Times or The Oregonian. We strive for accuracy and a level of professionalism and would appreciate the same amount in return. The idea that The Index is out to serve its own agenda is both wrong and hurtful to our organization.
For a university that sells itself on the idea that it genuinely cares about its students, the amount of secrecy Pacific operates under is killing the relationship with their students. This university does not belong to the administration. It is the students' university. We pay for this university; we keep its doors open and electricity working. To deny students the right to information is damning to the university. When students are kept in the dark because they "don't need to know" about things it sends the message that they are not as important as the higher echelon of the "Third Floor" and the administration.
Administrators: please, if you want to further your relationship with your students; if you want students to come away from this school saying "I loved my time at Pacific"; If you want them to give back to the university when Phone-A-Thon gives them a call, then open your doors. Let them be involved.
Otherwise, on behalf of those of use who've invested time and money in this university with the expectation of an education in the field of journalism, please return our investment and allow us to go elsewhere. What's the point of a school offering a media arts program, when we are not allowed to practice our chosen craft?
Chemists have labs. Optometrists have clinics. Writers have workshops. Our reporters have The Pacific Index.
We admit our mistakes. It's time for the university to admit theirs as well.
In other instances, we attempted to contact Aramark for several stories throughout the year, but they refused to speak to us. One Aramark employee was overheard telling his boss, "I got rid of that Index guy for you."
The Pacific Index is a professional media outlet, no different from The Forest Grove News-Times or The Oregonian. We strive for accuracy and a level of professionalism and would appreciate the same amount in return. The idea that The Index is out to serve its own agenda is both wrong and hurtful to our organization.
For a university that sells itself on the idea that it genuinely cares about its students, the amount of secrecy Pacific operates under is killing the relationship with their students. This university does not belong to the administration. It is the students' university. We pay for this university; we keep its doors open and electricity working. To deny students the right to information is damning to the university. When students are kept in the dark because they "don't need to know" about things it sends the message that they are not as important as the higher echelon of the "Third Floor" and the administration.
Administrators: please, if you want to further your relationship with your students; if you want students to come away from this school saying "I loved my time at Pacific"; If you want them to give back to the university when Phone-A-Thon gives them a call, then open your doors. Let them be involved.
Otherwise, on behalf of those of use who've invested time and money in this university with the expectation of an education in the field of journalism, please return our investment and allow us to go elsewhere. What's the point of a school offering a media arts program, when we are not allowed to practice our chosen craft?
Chemists have labs. Optometrists have clinics. Writers have workshops. Our reporters have The Pacific Index.
We admit our mistakes. It's time for the university to admit theirs as well.
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