Staff Editorial (5/7)

For many of us, this week of finals marks our last week at USI.

Four years or more, and we can count our time left in days and not semesters or years.
But for President H. Ray Hoops, the weeks ahead will signal the end of a 15-year stay here at USI.

In this our final issue of the school year, we would like to join the long list of organizations that thank and commend Hoops for his time at the university.

Over his presidency, the university has grown in terms of enrollment, facilities and the overall net worth of the USI Foundation.

While those are all commendable things, we would like to thank Hoops for something else.
Consistently, he has been the most open and most reachable official on campus.

The Shield remembers numerous times when Hoops would call us from his personal cell phone between different events, making sure we got the comment we needed for a story.
Hoops himself always said he never turned down an invitation to talk to students, and we believe him.

As the top university official, Hoops has more room to be candid than others, but his efforts to get back to students was admirable, often times costing him precious free time he had during the day.

His example, however, stands in stark contrast to some organizations on campus.
Without fail, these organizations have one person who is allowed to speak for them.  All questions, including the most mundane, have to be asked of this lone representative.

This representative, however, hardly ever responds by e-mail and must be harassed via phone to get a response.

Yes, there are several organizations out there, namely facility operations and security, that are quick to get back with us and seem straightforward.

But others, including some that are openly hostile that will remain unnamed, continue to dam the free flow of information.

The tight-lipped nature of these organizations isn’t only The Shield’s problem.

The next time you need a complicated question answered, prepare to make several phones calls and work your way through the bureaucratic quagmire, in the hopes of reaching the one person who is allowed to think independently and critically in that organization or department.

We don’t blame the people who forward these calls or requests.  We blame the people who instill policies and make people’s livelihoods the balance for speaking out of turn.

We hope that as President-Designate Linda Bennett takes over, she will steer the university towards a freer and more open-minded campus, where people are allowed to think for themselves and make mistakes.

We’ve criticized Bennett in previous issues for her involvement in past personnel decisions, and even had problems trying to get comments on certain issues, but hope her recent openness will continue during her tenure as president.

We hope Bennett will follow Hoops’ example and become more accessible to students on a daily basis.

We wish you well, President Hoops, in your future role here at USI.

And, one last time, we thank you for what you’ve done for The Shield and for the university.