Letters to the Editor | Then as now, Vassar College fails to integrate student voices

It’s sad to see Vassar’s administration up to the same deceitful tricks as years ago when I was a student. At the time, the school bookstore was turned over to the control of Barnes & Noble (with essentially no student input), effectively funneling money out of the campus and local community while ignoring students. The process by which this “decision” arose was nothing short of shameful on the part of the administration. While many of the key players have moved on from Vassar, it’s clear the current administration upholds the legacy of placing prestige and profit over educational integrity.

Students have been and will continue to be shut up through a series of closed-door meetings by administrators despite the relevance to the decisions on each of you. Is the solution to really form yet another subcommittee after the deal has been made? Of course not! By the time your non-binding suggestions are made from a subcommittee to another committee and then to the hands of the actual individuals in power, you will have graduated. It happens pretty much every time. Vassar peddles itself on the world as a bastion of progressive ideology, yet the administration fails to integrate student voices in any meaningful way.

As a student, you are the reason Vassar exists. I encourage you to get involved in the dialogue about the bookstore and space on and around campus. The administration needs to be proactive in seeking out student participation when it comes to decisions that impact them on a daily basis. Whether it has been the bookstore or any other important decision for as far back as I can remember, students are always patronized by the administration.

I hope the school’s reprehensible conduct will inspire you all to view the administration more critically and empower yourselves in the decision-making process.

—Pulin Modi ’02