Dear Editor:
I have a novel suggestion for improving the image of SIUC: improve the ways in which the University delivers its services. I have spent the last four days running from office to office for what should have been a simple task: obtaining two permits to gather petition signatures outside of University buildings. The main irony of this process is that one of the signatures required on each permit is from an official who is so high up in the hierarchy that he is tied up in policy meetings all day, and thus usually unavailable for the lowly task of signing permits. Another one of the signatures has to be issued by the respective director of the building near which petitioning is to take place. One of my days of delay came about because one of these directors first sent me to University Legal Counsel over the routine matter of a canvassing permit. In a democracy like ours, circulating petitions is part of the free flow of ideas that a university, of all things, should be promoting - not obstructing like this. Surely there must be a better way. Perhaps people who have seen more efficient procedures on other campuses should send the SIUC administration advice on where to find role models.
Lee Hartman,
professor emeritus, foreign languages and literatures
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
