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Students must be vigilant on budget concerns, cuts

Jonathan Gair

In the Salon of 1785, French painter Jacques-Louis David would display what many retrospectively see as the epitomy of Neo-Classic style. This painting, Oath of the Horatii, depicts a pledge of duty to society, a pledge that would take its followers away from the security of calm status quo compliance in order to defend the values and principles that those hold dear to their hearts. When Parisians saw Horatii in what is now the Louvre Museum, they were instantly able to recognize its importance, which was supercharged by the social context of the time. Four years and a couple more important David paintings later, the French Revolution became the culminating call for the people of France to shake off their complacency and empower themselves with a means for change.

What represents today's Horatii? It seems that through the cacophony of death metal music, the blogosphere and endless streams of college work we have lost the ability to be taken by these monumental moments of singularity. But to marvel without purpose is to buy into the looming threat of intellectual apathy; what has become of us as students? Why does there seem to be no sense of ownership in the Miami University experience? Sure there is disagreement and dissatisfaction with the handling of current fiscal issues, but what is this displeasure without action? Every week there seem to be a plethora of comments on The Student's Web site complaining about what many see as alarming long-term trends in Miami's educational development, and yet only a few brave souls seem willing to make their issues with university policy public. The changes that come with this financial situation will affect every student at Miami, and every future student who would ever want to come to the campus that poet Robert Frost once described as the most beautiful college he'd ever seen.

But looks aren't everything, and action does not mean a reprisal of the Blackout 2008 demonstration. For one, if over 50 squad cars meet frivolous student action, imagine the disaster that a real protest would bring. Second, such a student reaction could be an easy out to avoid answering honest student concerns. No, what is needed is a personal movement against passivity, making sure that as a student of this university you seek to discover not only what changes will affect your own classes, but also the grander picture of responses to the fiscal crisis.

This is not to suppose that decisions made in the corridors of Roudebush Hall are negative, wrong or "evil." However, there should be no reason that we as students should not be actively engaged in following the developments of the budget crisis at the university in the same way that we follow state and national developments. Whereas a tanking national economy can kill your job prospects, so too can a university that has gone bankrupt five years after you graduate-that's an extreme example, of course. The point is that university fiscal decisions matter just as much as any other fiscal decision, and will continue to matter even after we graduate.

It would be beneficial for every student on campus to learn about the possible problems that their departments and programs are facing in order to prevent being blind sided. By staying personally up-to-date with Miami's fiscal developments, students can improve their own position at the university by presenting themselves as a supervisory check on budget cuts. While cuts will have to be made, we must ensure that responsibility for previous, troubling budgeting trends does not evaporate simply because we have a larger problem on our hands. We cannot displace our traditional educational strengths for budget-saving maneuvers that do little more than cut corners, and there must be an open dialogue between students and administration to clearly define beneficial and wasteful areas of current spending.