[Vision2020] Saving the U of I

[Joan Opyr]

Carl says:


>And after all, we liberal scoundrels need to stick together.  We need a 
>new, unifying, bonding topic with which we can agree and all come together 
>as one.  Um, how about that George W. Bush, huh?


How's about looking closer to home?  How about coming together to save the U 
of I?  The students got started last week with a well-attended 
demonstration, but we need more.  We need a massive community effort.  To 
that end, the following is meant (though I present it in my own strange way) 
to be upbeat.  Though much of it is directed at what Tom had to say, it is 
in no way meant as a criticism of him because, ultimately, we're on the same 
side.  United we stand; divided we're Bushed.  Remember that.

First, I think it's a good thing to take pride in your alma mater.  God 
knows I take pride in mine -- more now than I took when I was an 
undergraduate actually attending.  Perhaps that's because at 37 I see more 
clearly what I've gained by my education than I could have anticipated when 
I was 17.  N. C. State gave me my start in this adult life.  It offered me 
opportunities I never thought I'd have.  I'm profoundly grateful and 
frequently generous.  (The alumni gifts office is probably taking notice of 
this.  Those people are everywhere.)  Nevertheless, much as I love N. C. 
State, I think that taking a "my university right or wrong" approach is the 
road to ruin.  If I saw my alma mater taking a dramatically wrong turn, I'd 
speak up.  I'd be loud, I'd be bitter, and I'd demand to be heard -- 
especially if I had reason to believe that many of the problems stemmed not 
just from a state-funding starvation diet but from grotesque mismanagement.  
The glass might be half-full, but there are people drowning it.

The University of Idaho has a long, proud history.  Like N. C. State, it's 
one of the nation's great land grant institutions.  Since 1889, the UI has 
been dedicated to providing an excellent and affordable education for all of 
Idaho's citizens.  In pointing out that it seems to be losing sight of its 
mission; to be tossing away the things that make a UI education valuable; to 
be squandering both its heritage and its future, critics of what is 
happening on this campus at this moment are not setting fire to UI degrees.  
They're trying to ensure that those degrees will be just as valuable ten 
years from now as they are today.  As the institution loses prestige and 
reputation, so, too, do its students, its alumni, and its faculty and staff.

I hope this Caxton Press/UI deal works out.  I hope the UI Press can somehow 
be revived.  Caxton has a stellar reputation and has long produced 
beautiful, topical, highly-regarded books.  We're conflating two issues 
here, though -- this Caxton Press deal could well be a good thing.  Caxton 
is a successful, independent, Idaho-based publisher; it's not an enormous 
bone-crunching corporation like Ikon.  So that's on the plus side.  On the 
down are the things that Melynda pointed out -- UI employees, our friends 
and neighbors, now without work or health care tosed into an economy too 
enfeebled to absorb them.  More lay-offs, firings, and destruction of 
academic programs to come.  Incompetent administrators, headaches from the 
Hoover years, still hanging on like grim death, still making poor (and 
secretive and frequently costly) decisions about the university's future.

But all is not lost.  You know how to restore the University of Idaho to its 
rightful glory?  Open it up.  Shine the light on it.  Clean out the grubs 
and the moles by returning the school to legitimate faculty governance.  
Drain the swamps by recognizing that our fee-paying students have certain 
inalienable rights.  Look at the original charter and remind yourself of why 
this college exists.  The UI is worth saving, but we won't get anywhere by 
lying back and hoping for the best.  We have to fight for it.  It's time to 
stop being Boise's whipping boy.  If we don't want to lose what we've got, 
if we want the U of I to be better tomorrow than it is today, then we've got 
to stop yelling "Uncle" and start yelling "Enough."  BSU is up and coming 
but it is not the U of I.  It is not the state's pretigious land grant 
institution and it never will be.

Just to gratify Carl, let's put this thing is political terms -- it's time 
to go Howard Dean on someone's ass.  They seem to think we're dead down 
there in Boise.  If we begin to bite them, then they'll realize that we were 
only sleeping.  Any ideas?

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment

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