With the one-year anniversary of the September 29th Movement coming up Sunday, it’s important to keep in perspective the fact that the Catt Hall issue is not an isolated issue.

Rather, it is a part of a continuous process of pre-emption and top-down decision making by Iowa State administrators.

If you take a close look at the Catt Hall issue, Memorial Union renovations, the ISUCard giving monopoly banking to First Star Bank (a.k.a, the I-suck card), the Coca- Cola monopoly, McDonald’s in the Hub and other issues, you begin to see a pattern. Decisions are made without the significant involvement of Iowa State students, faculty, staff, and alumni (a.k.a., the ISU community).

Call it pre-emption, call it commercialization without representation, call it a plutocracy, or best of all, call it manufacturing consent.

Manufacturing consent involves non-scientific surveys, the framing of debates within certain boundaries, world class public relations spin doctors and shifting the burden of proof.

About a year ago the burden of proof for the name of a building was shifted. The burden of proof should always fall on those who want to change the status quo.

During the year prior to the Catt Hall dedication on Oct. 6, 1995, Celia Naylor-Ojurongbe, a member of the Women’s Week Committee, asked the question: “Should Iowa State students, faculty and staff be consulted about Catt’s views BEFORE going ahead with the dedication?”

Most people answered her question with a yes. However, the administration ignored reasonable requests for public forums to discuss the renaming of Old Botany Hall.

However one feels about the Catt Hall debate and other issues on campus, you might be concerned that the collective voice of the ISU community may not even matter.

How else are we to perceive the lack of public input that the administration has sought on a host of issues?

How about formal press releases as soon as major decisions are under consideration and public forums on major decisions to be held well before actual decisions are made (if you’ll remember, the McHub forum was held only after the public demanded it)?

The Graduate Student Senate, the Government of the Student Body, and the Faculty Senate should elect representatives to decision-making committees.

The representatives should be required to report back to their groups as soon as possible.

The ISU community is a community of diverse people with diverse beliefs. But in some areas we can find common ground.

For example, we all have a common interest in democratic dialogue and debate; otherwise we are merely pawns in an administrative chess game. A stifling of debate on one issue should be seen as a potential problem for all of us.

Take for instance the professors or students who are apathetic in regard to campus issues. Here’s what they might say about things that have happened on campus in the past year or so.

“First, they came for the September 29th supporters and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a September 29th supporter.

“Then they turned the Memorial Union into a shopping mall and I didn’t speak up because I didn’t care about that.

“Then they came out with the ISUCard, and I didn’t speak up because I never charge my books to my U-bill and I could care less if First Star Bank gets a monopoly contract.

“Then they tried to put a McDonald’s in the Hub and I didn’t speak up because that’s no big deal to me.”

On all of these issues our hypothetical professor or student says, “Democratic debate, ahh, who cares.

“Then they came to take away tenure for faculty,” the professor says. “Then they came to increase tuition,” the student says. Then they both get upset and say, “Wait a minute! Let’s have some democratic debate about this!”

This reminds me of a statement by Pastor Martin Niemollar about conditions in Nazi Germany.

Niemollar said, “In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me — and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

Now I realize comparing ISU to fascist Germany might be stretching it a bit, but monopoly contracts and the firing of labor leader Dona Harris on a minor charge can make you wonder sometimes.

So what are we gonna do about all this? There’s a group of students, faculty, and staff who are currently organizing a coalition to work toward a more democratic university.

If you’re interested, drop me an e-mail at [email protected]

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Drew Chebuhar is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Muscatine.