EDITORIAL: Real leadership

Let’s all take a moment to commend one entity on campus that truly takes what students have to say into consideration: the Student Government Association.

SGA heard the student body’s concerns regarding the academic calendar change and took action as the voice of Central Michigan University’s students.

During Monday’s SGA meeting, a motion declaring their opposition to the academic calendar change was approved. The next steps in reversing the decision include gaining student support and presenting a case to senators in Academic Senate.

Now that the ball is rolling, it’s time for A-Senate to do their part and take what SGA has to say seriously. Forget Robert’s Rules of Order; forget the initial survey regarding the switch and forget bargaining. Why continue to fight for something supposedly meant to benefit students if students are overwhelmingly against it?

For once, the student body has unified against something that will impact us all, and if A-Senate chooses to ignore that, they’re setting themselves up for a complete loss of respect from the same students they claim to always have in mind.

University President George Ross called the academic calendar an issue between the Faculty Association and the administration.

In a meeting Tuesday, Ross told Central Michigan Life that he did not support the movement because he felt there hadn’t been enough research into the topic.

A valid question brought up by Ross was whether students would pay less in a truncated semester in terms of room and board. While he argued the number of credits earned would not change, effectively doing away with the lower tuition argument, he recognized that students would have a point in lowered room and board rates. And we agree: less education and time spent on campus should yield a decrease in some sort of cost for students.

But it is hard to imagine that they would.

As a result, the fight needs to continue from SGA to try and stop this proposed calendar change. Their work up to this point has been commendable.

Now it’s time to finish the job.