Spring Break
Editorial: Let voices be heard
Issue date: 4/29/09 Section: Editorial/Opinion
04/29/09 - For the last editorial of the '08-'09 academic year, it's imperative one issue be addressed. Yesterday, the Cigar took its readers through the story of Robert L. Carothers, president of the University of Rhode Island.
With the completion of this last issue, the newspaper also completes its coverage of the three presidential candidates: Sona K. Andrews, Robert D. Newman and David M. Dooley. It's time for the URI community to start a new chapter in that story now.
Some students argue this campus is apathetic, but with general response received during the 14 years of Carothers' alcohol policy, it is evident many students do have something to say one way or another on issues they care about.
To start the new chapter in URI's book, students, faculty, staff and the entire community need to do something seemingly outdated in some ways: write to the candidates. It might be too much to ask for everyone to sit down and take the time to write even a one-page e-mail to a candidate.
But even a multitude of small notes about a particularly heated issue can have an effect. Find out how much they know about what you are passionate about, whether it be diversity, administrative policy, research or a certain department within the university.
The next step would be to voice opinions to the people who count: the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education. They are the people who are going to be making the final decision as to whom will be the next university president.
Just a week ago after Andrews' visit, the candidate told The Good Five-Cent Cigar she was not informed enough about the alcohol policy issue to make a statement how the administration would handle it under her reign. But it's the community that has the power to make their needs apparent to those who govern it (or might govern it.)
The power and the voice should always belong to the people. As the official student newspaper of this university, the Cigar serves as not only a tool for news, but for the voices of the community in its OpEd pages.
So as the editorial senior staff says goodbye, with it goes the hope that the people of URI will continue to make their voices heard and have a stake in their own futures.
With the completion of this last issue, the newspaper also completes its coverage of the three presidential candidates: Sona K. Andrews, Robert D. Newman and David M. Dooley. It's time for the URI community to start a new chapter in that story now.
Some students argue this campus is apathetic, but with general response received during the 14 years of Carothers' alcohol policy, it is evident many students do have something to say one way or another on issues they care about.
To start the new chapter in URI's book, students, faculty, staff and the entire community need to do something seemingly outdated in some ways: write to the candidates. It might be too much to ask for everyone to sit down and take the time to write even a one-page e-mail to a candidate.
But even a multitude of small notes about a particularly heated issue can have an effect. Find out how much they know about what you are passionate about, whether it be diversity, administrative policy, research or a certain department within the university.
The next step would be to voice opinions to the people who count: the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education. They are the people who are going to be making the final decision as to whom will be the next university president.
Just a week ago after Andrews' visit, the candidate told The Good Five-Cent Cigar she was not informed enough about the alcohol policy issue to make a statement how the administration would handle it under her reign. But it's the community that has the power to make their needs apparent to those who govern it (or might govern it.)
The power and the voice should always belong to the people. As the official student newspaper of this university, the Cigar serves as not only a tool for news, but for the voices of the community in its OpEd pages.
So as the editorial senior staff says goodbye, with it goes the hope that the people of URI will continue to make their voices heard and have a stake in their own futures.
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