Officials defend Council decision

Although some graduate students are unhappy that next week's University Council meeting has been cancelled, some members of University community -- who have longer institutional memories than most students -- said yesterday that this is nothing out of the ordinary. Faculty Senate Chairperson David Hildebrand said last night that the body's Steering Committee cancelled the January Council meeting when it met in December, a decision made unanimously by the student, faculty and administrative representatives. Yet members of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly complained at their Wednesday night meeting that Steering overstepped its bounds when it cancelled the monthly meeting -- the only formal and routine dialogue between students, faculty members and administrators, including President Sheldon Hackney and Provost Michael Aiken. Hildebrand said that Steering could not formulate an agenda that people were "ready to think about" because of hectic schedules at the end of last semester and the beginning of this one. "We weren't ready to do anything useful," said Hildebrand, who has been a member of Council off and on for the past 20 years. "I just don't see the point of having a meeting just to have a meeting." Administrators said that in past years, Council meetings have been cancelled, though Hildebrand said he could not "quote chapter and verse" the last time this happened. Executive Assistant to the Provost Linda Koons said that although she does not attend Council meetings, the cancellation of this month's meeting is "not unusual." "It's been cancelled many times in January [and] sometimes in April," Koons said. "[About] once a year there's a meeting cancelled." Both Koons and Hildebrand said they think the cancellation is not a big deal. Stephen Steinberg, assistant to the president, said the decision to cancel next Wednesday's meeting was a "collective decision" made by Steering and was not an effort to limit dialogue at the University. "My understanding is it was not something the president instigated," said Steinberg, who attends Steering meetings with Hackney. "Our office certainly didn't promote this." Although administrators insist the cancellation is routine, Michael Goldstein, last year's GAPSA chairperson, said Steering "acted beyond its own authority." Goldstein, who is not a Council member, said the cancellation of the meeting is an infringement of Council by-laws and an infringement of open expression. And although current GAPSA Chairperson and Steering representative Allen Orsi was present at the December meeting -- where members say he did not object to the decision -- Goldstein said last night this is irrelevant. "It doesn't matter if you have any representatives," said Goldstein, who has been a University student for eight of the last ten years. "Rules are rules, [and] people violated the rules." Goldstein and other graduate students said there are issues which could have been raised at a January Council meeting, such as diversity on campus, in light next week's celebration of Martin Luther King Day. Hildebrand agreed that there are issues to be discussed, but said when Steering met last month, "we just sat and looked at each other" when trying to formulate an agenda. Hildebrand said Steering representatives decided in December "we weren't ready to do anything useful" at a January meeting.