Last night I spent the night on the floor of Crouse-Hinds Hall, along with dozens of other students.  If I am being honest, I usually don’t participate in actions like these — movements that point out injustices and seek to remedy them, because I am very comfortable being an onlooker.  I prefer to watch things unfold from a distance, to see all the moving parts and predict, for my own benefit, what is going to happen.  However, the actions, demands and requests of THE General Body, are so incredibly important, that I felt compelled to join.

A university is meant to be a flourishing community where every single member feels comfortable to be who they are, challenge their beliefs so that they may become stronger and grow individually as a human being and as a member of a larger society.  For me, this means the creation of decision-making processes that involve proportional representation of all stakeholders at all times.

What I have seen here at SU, however, is a dated, non-inclusive, hierarchical and, frankly, shameful top-down corporate style of conducting activity.  Priorities and goals are set at the top of the SU pyramid, and are implemented with seemingly little regard for human well-being.  From what I can tell, this type of decision making stems from an overwhelming focus on the bottom line, causing different members of the community to be given monetary values: some with a red number, indicating an expenditure, and some with a black number, indicating a revenue source.

When an organization puts money first, humans, take a back seat.  I went to Crouse-Hinds, and will continue to participate until our voices are not only heard but our opinions heeded, to advocate for human-based decisions.  Yes, we can be cognizant of the bottom line, but life, and certainly education, is not about money.  It is about humanity.

If we place our people first, in every decision we make, then all of our problems will not only be addressed, but there should be no need for protesting in the future.  When issues arise, our systems will be fully capable of resolving them.  Indeed, more likely than not, a human-first decision making process will yield very few issues affecting humans.  I can assure you that the bottom line will follow, people will line up to be a part of what we will have created.

Jason Ashley ‘16
Political science
Citizenship and Civic Engagement