The Badger Herald: Opinion: Students deserve Halloween voice

Opinion

Students deserve Halloween voice

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Also by Janell Wise:

Students deserve Halloween voice (September 23, 2005)
One-stop riders cause bus overcrowding (October 3, 2005)
Questions on referendum remain (October 25, 2005)
Student orgs abuse SSFC fund requests (November 10, 2005)
Wiley Facebook profile hurts debate (November 28, 2005)

Friday, September 23, 2005 12:00 a.m.

11 Vote 0 Votes

In the coming weeks, this year's Halloween celebration in Madison will continue to be a hot-button issue. Unfortunately for students, while the majority of the attention has been paid to decisions and discussions of the City's Halloween Planning Committee, several extremely suspect decisions made at the University level regarding Halloween have gone unnoticed by most of the student body.

Unbeknownst to most students, this summer a secret "Halloween Task Force," was formed in order to draft the University's policy regarding this year's Halloween celebration. After meeting for most of the summer, this committee, composed of top administrators and staff at the university, ranging from the interim Dean of Students to representatives from UHS, housing and the Wisconsin Union has drafted and approved what the University is calling the "Official UW-Madison stance regarding Halloween."

I don't dispute the fact that the University has an interest in a peaceful and safe Halloween celebration and that it should lay out clear expectations for an event that thousands of students take part in. In fact, on the surface, there are many positive aspects about the University's policy, including its main goals and objectives: "To work in partnership with the UW-Madison students and support their efforts for a safer, less destructive Halloween weekend" and "To reduce or eliminate disruptive and destructive behavior during Halloween weekend."

However, any positive aspects of the policy are quickly obscured by the fact that during its key drafting and approval phases, UW Madison students' rights to shared governance were severely undermined.

Though this policy places several significant restrictions on student life and activities, including banning University Housing residents from having guests and forbidding student organizations to hold late night events in the Unions and around campus, it was drafted and approved without any involvement, participation and/or decision making from students.

In response to the outcry that shared governance was ignored during the writing of this policy, the Dean of Students Office has retreated behind the line that the University's Halloween stance is not a shared-governance issue, but a "health and safety issue." However, no matter how hard you search, if one actually reads Wisconsin State Statute 36.09(5), which clearly states, "Students shall have the primary responsibility for the formulation and review of policies concerning student life, services and interests," you won't find the caveat "except for health and safety issues."

Though they have tried valiantly to use the front of "health and safety" as a rationale for excluding students from the process, the fact remains that yet again, the administration has overstepped the bounds of shared governance and has violated our rights by making significant decisions about student interests, student life and student services without including students. All students are obviously directly affected by this policy — not just the students who live in dorms, but also the students who pay segregated fees to keep Memorial Union and Union South open and are not allowed to hold events in the facilities.

Perhaps what is most troublesome is that the efforts to shut students out of Halloween decision making appear fairly intentional. Though all it would have taken was a phone call or e-mail to find several students eager and available to sit at the table and participate in the discussions throughout the summer, administrators made no efforts to contact ASM or any other student leaders to invite them to attend the meetings and give their input. In fact, when both students and staff stepped up and voiced concern that students were not at the table, these concerns were pushed aside or ignored with the promise that opportunities for students to "give input," would arise later on in the process. Not surprisingly, this generous offer was not extended to students until after decisions were made, and input, though nice, is not the same as shared governance. Shared governance allows students a voice and a seat at the table when decisions are being made, not after the fact.

It's time for students to step up and make it clear to administrators that they will not tolerate being shut out of decisions made on campus regarding Halloween. Though one forum should in no way be mistaken for shared governance, attending the Halloween Forum sponsored by ASM on October 6th is a great first step to voicing your concerns over the process. ASM should be commended for making Halloween one of their key issues of the semester and hopefully they will continue to pressure the administration to address its wanton disregard for shared governance and convince it to involve students in the decision-making for Halloween. No matter the ultimate outcome, the only way the Dean's Office can expect students to buy into and support decisions made about Halloween is if they have a voice at the table when they are created.

It is my hope that the issue of Halloween will continue to be discussed by the city, students and UW administrators, and that the decisions made will lead to a fun, safe and responsible celebration that will ensure the continuance of a time-honored Madison tradition. Unfortunately, at the University level, this kind of honest, open debate regarding Halloween has yet to take place. If the University hopes to achieve its first Halloween goal, to work in partnership with and support UW-Madison students, actually talking to students might be a good place to start.

Janel Wise (jwise@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in political science and journalism.

11 Comments | Leave a comment

Anonymous | September 23, 2005 6:33 AM | Reply

Janell, what difference does it make if students have any input? Come Halloween night, they'll all be drunk out of their minds. They'll be carousing up and down State Street looking for trouble. Then the cops will come in with mace and firehoses to disburse the mob and that'll be it. The next day, all the UW-Madison students will try to claim that the troublemakers weren't students, even though we've heard it all before. Then comes the onslaught of crybaby complaints about police brutality, blah-blah-blah, wah-wah-wah!

Same thing every year. Just because you're college dtudents doesn't mean you're mature yet. It just means you're in a phase in your life where you'll either sink or swim.

Dave Kludt | September 23, 2005 8:38 AM | Reply

Janel,

Thanks for this article on Halloween. As a senior, this will be my last Halloween here in Madison, and Halloween was defined for me, and all others in my freshman class, in 2002, with the large scale rioting and vandalism. That's just the culture that any student entering the University in the last 4 years has experienced. Since that year, the city and the UW have been actively trying to "reinstate" the past
Halloween - memorable and fun, yet not destructive and dangerous. This is obviously the city and the UW doing its job, and I applaud them for their efforts. They are fulfilling their role as elected
officials and paid representatives of the city and the UW.

But I believe your focus on the need for student involvement in this process is completely missing the real issue here - students don't want a safe and controlled Halloween. They/we really don't. The real
article that should have been written is one that discusses why a huge majority of students, regardless of their involvement in Halloween, covet the admiration of their fellow collegiates around the country,
however misplaced that admiration is. How many UW students do you think forwarded the CNN Headline article in 2002 about the riots and vandalism? The members of the Halloween task force largely, and for good reason, are trying to protect the reputation of our university. Any poll taken of the student population (and a representative one, not one associated with ASM) would show that most students probably aren't looking for the same kind of reputation that city and school officials are trying to protect. In the long term, I think an honest assessment of the situation would show that city and school officials have the best interest of students in mind as they make these decisions.

Plus, there is the issue of you pushing for ASM student involvement. I hate to say this, but "ASM Student Leaders" do not, in any sense of the term, "lead" the student population, nor do they represent the
majority student voice. Honestly, "Shared Governance" is a joke to most UW students. What ASM "representatives" represent is a majority of perhaps 1.3% of the UW students who actually choose to vote in the annual ASM election. I think an honest assessment would reveal that having an ASM representative at one of these "task force" meetings would: a.) Not have changed any results, and b.) not have mattered whatsoever to 98.7% of UW students.

Your article ignores the reality of the situation and the real issue here - that most students want a raucous and headline-making Halloween. This mindset of UW students is the first thing that needs to change, and is the story actually worth covering. I'm disappointed that this article instead is a self-serving plug for ASM, and really comes across as ASM
whining instead of a true representative voice for the student population. But I didn't really expect anything more.

Anonymous | September 23, 2005 8:57 AM | Reply

Great points are raised here. Students, the constituency which Halloween affects most, have been shut out. And we shouldn't be surprised. My hope is that this will put a dent in the normal student apathy that ALLOWS administration to make important decisions without our say. In other words, as students, we LET them run our lives and create and implment policy that affects us when it can be drastically different.

Anonymous | September 23, 2005 9:44 AM | Reply

Janell writing opinion for the Herald now? uh oh

Anonymous | September 23, 2005 10:30 AM | Reply

Well put, Janell!

Anonymous | September 23, 2005 12:58 PM | Reply

Dave,

Thanks for the thoughtful and constructive criticism. To be honest, as I'm not affiliated with ASM, the main thrust of my article was not meant to be a plug for ASM and I hope it doesn't take away from the fact that I truly believe that this task force was remiss in not involving students.I brought up ASM for two reasons
1) Whether we like it or not, ASM is the recognized student government on campus, made up of elected representatives and responsible for shared governance appointments
2) ASM has made this one of their key issues and has stepped up to host a forum where students can talk about Halloween, which the administration hasn't done and which I think is important.

I hope this doesn't turn into a discussion about the merits of ASM or whether they represent the student voice. This article was about Halloween, yes, but also about the fact that administrators are increasingly disregarding shared governance while making decisions that significantly impact student life. Shared governance is a Wisconsin Statute that guarantees us this right, and the fact that is has been so carelessly thrown away is problematic. One shared gov violation, leads to another, which leads us down a dangerous path where we begin to lose control over making decisions that affect us.

If it is true, that Shared Governance is a joke to most students, then I think we really need to start having more campus-wide discussions about how valuable it is. Students from campuses around the nation envy us for the power we have, given to us through 36.09(5) and we need to protect it before it slowly erodes.

Finally, I agree that the mindset of students regarding Halloween needs to change, but I don't agree with your assertion that students don't want a safe Halloween celebration. In fact, that is one of my main problems with the Halloween policy, because of its restrictions on campus events, students who want to hold NON-ALCOHOLIC events at the Unions are being turned away.

You make some solid points however and they are definitely issues that should be examined further. However to go back to my first statement, the point of this article was not to be a "self-serving plug for ASM"

Anonymous | September 23, 2005 1:27 PM | Reply

"Add a regent, add a voice" (October 24, 2001),
"Departments deserve detention" (January 22, 2004),
"Police deserve respect" (October 05, 2004),
"Soldiers deserve better pay" (February 17, 2005),
"SSFC in need of new voice" (April 06, 2005), and now:
"Students deserve Halloween voice".

Apparently every headline deserves a voice.

Anonymous | September 24, 2005 12:02 AM | Reply

Students need to shut up and worry about their educations for once! Someone else is paying for it, so don't waste their money, punks!

Anonymous | September 25, 2005 5:53 PM | Reply

Those other headlines are chosen by a computer as "related" precisely because of those key-words. It's a stupid program that does that. Leads to lots of laughs, though.

J-Lou | September 25, 2005 8:54 PM | Reply

This is absolutely outrageous. UW's parental attitude toward students has been well documented by The Badger Herald (I'm thinking specifically of alcohol policies), but to not allow students to have visitors on Halloween is ridiculous, and cancelling on-campus events seems counter-productive.

What affect does the administration think these policies will have? "Oh no!" the student body cries. "We can't hold our planned late-night event in the Union. Guess we'll go home around 8 and study. I didn't want to dress up as the Trix Bunny anyway." Right.

By trying to stifle on-campus events, administrators seem to be setting Madison up for a repeat of 2002's behavior. With no supervised alternatives, students will be out in force on State Street, and the more inebriated students we can pack in there, the wilder it is going to get.

ASM? Good luck, ladies. I've got my fingers crossed real hard on that one.

Dave Kludt | September 26, 2005 9:32 AM | Reply

Janel,

Thanks for the response. I may have spoken a bit harshly based off a false assumption about your status with ASM, but I appreciate you responding to some of the larger arguments I raised.