Ranting to /dev/null

On bureaucracy

Well, the techs came down this morning and connected me. And it was good. A huge section of my life - online culture - is now restored. Kind of. The network is still kind of wonky, and certain things - like games - are not allowed. But I've some thoughts on both this and other issues that I think are worth discussing.

A lot of the frustration I've been experiencing in the past few days has had to do with a perceived increase in the restrictions placed upon Covenant students in the past years, especially this coming semester. We are being told where we can and can't wear clothes, where we can and can't play sports, and now the network being installed has enough restrictions on it to make wading through knee-deep sand seem mild in comparison.

Yet the more I think about it, the more I think that the normal fall-guys for these restrictions aren't quite as culpable as might be thought, Tech Services especially. They're always been in favor of wiring the dorms. It's someone farther up the chain who makes the decisions they have to enforce. So Tech Services is left to take all the flak from the students for enforcing brain-damaged policies that they never liked in the first place. Sounds quite a bit like the job of RA around here: those with authority have no responsibility to the students, and those with responsibility to the students are no authority. Whee.

Student Development, on the other hand, sounds to me to be a lot more at fault for some of the restrictions, yet I'm sure that even they are acting under pressure from both higher-ups and people who really, really shouldn't have a say at all (whack-job parents, etc.).

So what I want to know, is who the hell is making these decisions? I mean seriously now, some of these things must have been made by people with no connection whatsoever to daily life on campus. None of the students have any idea how or why these decisions are made, and in many cases, are only made aware of these decisions when they get in trouble for violating them. Sounds like a great system to me. I want to know who is holding the bag here. It's hard to smear the guy with the ball when he won't show himself. Is it the Board? Could be. We as students really have no idea the nature of their authority, only that for one weekend a semester a bunch of guys in suits show up, and there's a temporary increase in the quality of food. Is it President Nielson? It very well could be, but we never hear about his decisions regarding student life until they're implemented, and his reasons for making decisions are totally opaque. I just want some accountability here. I and others are spending one hell of a lot of money to live and learn here for several years, and it stands to reason that we, not nervous parents, should be at least able to know what's going on, even if we don't have a say.