I was one of a handful of undergraduates who attended Monday’s Open Forum with Provost Rosenbaum.

Overall, I was really disappointed with the way that the provost addressed the numerous questions that he received about graduate student’s position in the budgetary process. He continually referenced the fact that he has to make decisions about university priorities: crumbling buildings, security, three gymnasiums south of the Midway, etc.  However, what I think gets to the core of the issue is that the issues of graduate student funding have an immediate effect on the lives of hundreds of people.  These are students in their mid or late twenties, thirties, and beyond, who have chosen to sacrifice the ability to almost certainly make significantly more money in the private sector for the opportunity to engage fruitfully in the life of the mind.  Shouldn’t this sacrifice and dedication to the intellectual principles of the university warrant more than a hand-wave as a passing gesture?  Don’t current graduate students constitute a meaningful part of the campus environment in which we all engage?

While I applaud the efforts of the administration to speak publicly about these issues, I urge them to consider the transparency of their decision making process, and their faltering rhetoric about institutional priorities.