There is an old story where a cop on the late shift comes across a guy searching for his watch under a streetlamp. The cop joins him only to innocently ask the guy where he lost it. The guy points into the darkness, so the cop naturally asks, “Why are we bothering to look underneath the streetlamp?” “Well,” says the man, “the light’s better here.”

Iowa State’s cowpath issue is like the man looking for his watch in the wrong place because the light is better. The fences are not the issue; it is the underlying management principles guiding the role of undergraduates on this campus, and the antiquated paradigm undergirding the approach. The grounds department can’t solve it, the Design College can’t solve it, the Government of the Student Body can’t solve it, and some ancient executive can’t solve it. The solution has to be driven by the students themselves, but they must overcome centuries of tradition where they are typically expected to be passive recipients of education.

I would like to remind your readers that Indian and Chinese universities and their related industries are kicking our ass. Only a generation ago we were all so smug that our cultural traditions were better than any Hindu and Zen nation. Well, our Judeo-Christian, Eurocentric approach to managing students isn’t cutting it anymore. We have cheating, rampant absenteeism and lack of preparation in our classrooms, as well as the occasional party riot, but no-o-o-o, let’s focus on a bunch of fences. That’ll fix the problem.

I can just see the GSB and the ISU Executive Council throwing up their hands in disgust at yet another letter from me, but that’s the problem. Our leaders are mired in an old paradigm that might actually be sinking Iowa State and this great country. Our leaders are more concerned about things than about people. They care more about their new budget model, new buildings and making sure the food is served on brightly colored plates than making undergraduates genuinely love their time here through authentic leadership development in the dorms and in the community. Administrators are trapped by statistical models, performance-based outcomes and out-of-touch researchers and administrators. They have totally lost track of the need to create America’s next, great leaders.

Iowa State is worse than your average communist university when it comes to evolving the culture. Remember, it is easier for a bureaucrat to say no to change than to say yes, because it carries fewer risks. The idea of actually empowering undergraduates rather than using them as window dressing is countercultural. Yes, we have student leaders, but they are not the real ones and Iowa State has zero skill at identifying and developing those who can solve our problems.

Jon Shelness

Graduate Student

Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies