Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: News

It's not just about space changes, bureaucracy, or even just about events cancelled at the last minute. It's about the underlying issues of respect, communication, and accountability in the relationship between the administration and the students, particularly the administration of Student Affairs and the students active in student organizations.

Student leaders (such as center coordinators, club presidents, and student senators) commit their time and energy to creating events and programs to engage the greater student body of UMass Boston, but are frustrated by the lack of support they receive from administrators. Brenda Tracchia, a student senator and club president, and Jessica Mesick, coordinator of the Student Wellness Center, explained that inadequate training of student leaders is part of the problem. "When I was hired as a coordinator," Mesick said, "I was handed boxes full of stuff and told to go set up my center. That was my training."

Tracchia pointed out that student leaders can't be expected to do everything from paperwork and planning campus events to community outreach and providing information resources without being trained on how to do the job. "[The administration] gives us all these expectations," she said, "but they're not allowing us to meet those because they don't give us the proper training or tools ... You're built to fail."

Communication from the administration to student leaders is another big problem. Tracchia was frustrated by the way administrators require students to go through every channel for approvals but don't trickle the same thoroughness of communication back down to the students. "We're having to go up the chain, but they don't have to go down the chain. It really creates a sense of complete lack of communication where we're trying to hit so many ends, and when we get to the end they just shrug." She described a situation last semester in which she submitted flyers to be printed for a group event, only to have the request get lost between the various channels of bureaucracy. The event went on without any materials.

Continued...

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