Meetings, mistrust and a brand new target

Okay people, find a comfortable place to read this because I've got a lot of stuff to cover this week.

October has been the turnaround month for Cabrini. First, there was last week's meetings with Laurie Keenan-McGarvey, the director of Residence Life. Now we have Monday's student union meeting with not only Keenan-McGarvey, but Vice President of Student Development Laura Valente and the head of Public Safety Charles Schaffner.

The tum-out for the meeting was low, probably due to the extremely short notice that was given about the meeting. I don't know who was in charge of promoting the meeting, but they should have at least given people more than a day's notice.

Because most of the hot issues like visitation, party policies and campus events were addressed in the previous meeting with Keenan-McGarvey, this meeting focused on topics that weren't heavily publicized at first. This also made the meeting less volatile, aside from Schaffner going on a tirade at John Dell' Osa because he re-aired the radio show that he, Valente and Keenan-McGarvey were on, this time with live commentary by the hosts and callers. I'm not sure what the problem with that was, but apparently Schaffner felt it lacked integrity.

Campus safety was a giant ooncem and it took up much of the first half of the meeting. Schaffner addressed most of the conccms and dispelled the rumors flying around about the incidents_ Then Schaffner directed more of the responsibility of preventing crime on to the students. He said that someone had seen the House 7 attacker hanging aroundoutside House 4 minutes before the attack. Now unless the attacker was wearing a big "I'm a physical assaulter" sign on his back, I'm pretty sure no one had any clue that he was going to attack someone. Now if the guy had a weapon visible, that would have been a good reason to alert Public Safety.

The other big part of this meeting was provided by the Cabrini students at Rosemont. They voiced their concerns about getting housing on campus and bow they feel out of the loop and isolated because they are at Rosemont. This was a very powerful argument as they really are isolated from the rest of the Cabrini community. Hell, we call them the Rosemont girls, but they're Cabrini students. Although nothing immediately can be done to help these girls, they were assured that they would get on campus next year and get a good number in the housing lottery. Maybe if enough people transfer out of Cabrini they could have a chance of getting on campus, but let's not get our hopes up.

But the one part of the meeting that piqued my interest was when Valente asked the students about how they were adjusting to the new rules. During this, she mentioned that "they" told her that the new rules, like visitation, had to be in place when the Fall semester began. When I inquired on who "they" were, she replied that it was her supervisor, President Iadarola.

So now it all becomes abundantly clear. It's been Iadarola the entire time. Popular belief was that Iadarola had no clue what was going on here. Iadarola stayed out of the line of fire while we tore up Valente, Keenan-McGarvey and Schaffner. I'm not saying that they didn't deserve it, but I don't like the fact that the ringleader of all this escaped unscathed.

But now that we know Iadarola was the one behind all the rule changes, let's give her some time in the spotlight. She did a magnificent job of playing dumb. We all bought it. But now she can't play dumb anymore now that we are aware that she knows more than she leads us to believe. In fact, that's how our administration works. Let me paraphrase a line from a Chris Rock comedy routine for you. "Administrators love to not know. Nothing makes an administrator happier than not knowing the answer to your question." Ignorance is bliss. It's also a great way to shrug off responsibility and keep your ass out of the fire, even if you were the one who caused the fire in the first place.

I say we tum our focus toward our crafty President. Is this to say that we overlook Iadarola's subordinates if they do something that brings back what I like to call "Enraged September?" Absolutely not. But as for now, let us do what our administration has excelled at, especially in September: shifting the blame.

You are to blame, President Iadarola. If half the freshman class transfers out of here because they are disgusted with Cabrini, it is your fault. If thedonations from alumni and student families drop dramatically, you are the one to blame. If the word spreads out to stay away from Cabrini and enrollment falls, that's all you.

As for our past targets, Valente and Keenan-McGarvey, keep listening to the students and working with them. As much as I like this new "concern for the students," I am still not convinced that everything is on the level. Maybe it's because I'm naturally distrustful of the human race, but I still have the sneaking suspicion the administration is just throwing bones to the student body to pacify them and that they don't really care. You'll have to admit that one or two meetings is not going to immediately win the trust of a stu- dent body that was so enraged with the administration that they wanted the lot of them tarred, feathered and fired. So 1 Valente and Keenan-McGarvey, stick with the "concern for the students" tnindset and play it straight with us and we'll begin to trust you. We may not be irate anymore, but we can go from zero-to-livid very quickly if something to damage this era of good feelings were to occur. And next time, we'll remember to include Iadarola in the angry columns and letters and whatnot. But if everything truly is on the level, then all of us have nothing to worry about, which is how I prefer things. Peace!

LoqulturIs established u a forum for student expraslon and as a vol~ In the uninhibited,robust,rr.eand open dlacu!slooof w.ues.