This month, the Columbia administration reached out to all students via email, inviting input on the search for the university’s new president. Previously, the administration has faced criticism because of their disregard for student feedback, so, to many, this seemed like a breath of fresh air. Additionally, in an email update today, the Presidential Search Committee announced an even bigger step forward: students’ survey responses will now be marked as read before they are immediately moved to the garbage.
Wow! Shared governance, here we come!
While the student poll ahead of Minouche Shafik’s selection simply directed every student response feedback directly into the trash bin, this time, things will be different. “We have learned from our mistakes,” Andrew Barth, Co-Chair of the Presidential Search Committee, proudly told our reporters. “Our students feel they no longer have a voice in the Columbia community, and this disconnect between the administration and the student body is completely unacceptable.”
For this reason, Barth announced an entirely new approach to receiving student feedback: “Every survey response will now be held in our inbox for 24 hours. Then they will be marked as read, promptly moved to the trash bin, and permanently deleted. It is vital that our students feel we are listening to them, and I hope this policy change will help us achieve that goal without having to actually spend any time reading that bullshit.”
It’s unclear how the Columbia student body will respond to this progressive new action from the administration, but one has to imagine that this thoughtful change likely signals the dawn of a whole new era of cooperation and mutual respect between students and administrators.
