The Board of Trustees is the highest decision-making authority here at Marquette University. These thirty or so people – alumni, community leaders, and Jesuit fathers – are the ultimate custodians of our institution. It has long been clear that adding a student or two as full Board members is simply out of the question.
So Brock Banks, MUSG president, went for a baby step in the right direction and asked for students to serve as non-voting members, “guests,” of each of the Board’s seven committees. MUSG put together a nice proposal showing the role students play in governance at other Jesuit institutions.
The Board has rejected even this small measure of respect, a courtesy shown students at Holy Cross and Gonzaga, among others.
In a letter to Mr. Banks, the Rev. Robert A. Wild, S.J., president of the University, gave an answer and explanation on behalf of the Board. He said that the presence of non-voting student members would, “preclude the type of conversation necessary to ensure that the business of the committee is accomplished effectively.”
Two concerns seem to underlie this response. First, they do not trust students with private information. The Board’s committees consider sensitive matters, including the performance of senior university administrators. It is rather paternalistic to believe that student-leaders cannot be trusted with sensitive information.
The second part of the rationale, as I read it, is that the committees generally run on a consensus basis, and even a student without a vote could sometimes upset this consensus.
This is, of course, the point. In nine out of ten cases, the committee’s course will be clear, and the student will add some ideas to the discussion. Of course, the student’s presence will also yield “buy-in” – students will respect a decision more if they feel they had a voice, even if the decision was easy.
There will be those cases, though, where the interests of students may diverge from the agenda of the Administration. These situations will be relatively rare, and I have my reservations that the non-voting student members would stand up for students against the Administration.
Still, these occasions will arise, and students should have a voice in these decisions. For an institution that worships dialogue on public policy and social questions, its value should be evident in this context as well.
In addition to fitting well with our Ignatian ideals of community and empowerment, and with our commitment to raising up students as leaders, the reality is that students will add great value to the work of the committees. Their contributions will improve the discussions and decisions of the committees.
There are several reasons to pause before adding students to the Board of Trustees. The convenience of the committees is a very weak one.
This whole experience exposes one reality above all else: the logical application of the professed values and rhetoric of the University stop as soon as they conflict with the convenience of the Administration.
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