We noticed, a little too late, that there is barely any coverage of the board of trustees in these pages. The super-administrative group of alumni investors will be visiting campus beginning the end of this week and through Old Gold Weekend.
That spells a reoccuring issue of poor communication between the board and the students - the latter hardly knows who the group is.
Ask any student walking along Burkhart walk: "Who are the trustees? What do they do?" Our guess is that you would get an incomplete answer. Students aren't informed about their roles on and off campus.
They leave a path of yellow tulips and campus renovations in their wake, and we are grateful for the time, committment and money the board puts into our university. We know how dedicated DePauw alumni are to this university and do not doubt the board's hard work to make our school represent their belief in the DePauw education.
But part of giving a sincere 'thank you' is addressing what someone has given or done for you, and that is a question none of us really know how to answer.
We know the trustees are active; every now and then we hear in passing that "this was a gift from the board" or "the board voted on this new guideline," yet there is no official release from the university on their activities.
We respect the board's right to meet in private, however, we would like to know what goes on in these seemingly sacred, closed-door meetings.
It is important to point out though that The DePauw could work harder to extend lines of correspondence with the board to overcome this issue of communication. Because of brief news conferences and little heads-up on issues being covered, we, The DePauw, have a weak history of coverage.
Take this as our formal attempt to rectify that.
In the past, we generally have had to speculate on what was discussed during meetings based on reoccuring conversations or issues on campus. We cannot accurately cover what goes on during these meetings with one-source stories or taken from hindsight.
Our suggestion is to let the student news outlet attend certain encompassing meetings or to give us more insight into what was discussed. Create a detailed agenda; don't only list the good stuff. Talk to us more frequently; we'd be happy to listen.
Give us the opportunity to broadcast the hard work the trustees are doing for the campus.
Trustees should step into the spotlight every once in a while, instead of always directing behind stage.