When students attend Iowa State, they are putting their trust in the university. Students trust that the university shouldn’t have to worry about their voices being silenced, or their tuition dollars being used in non-traditional or suspect ways.

Over the past couple months, Iowa State has been plagued with transparency and communication issues between the administration and the students.

Earlier this semester, Iowa State sprung new trademark policies on student clubs and organizations that required them to revise names and logos. All done with little warning, in addition to lagging student input.

At the end of October, an investigative piece by K. Rambo revealed that an Iowa State attorney hired a special counsel before approval.

Prior to the election, students realized that some of the chalking promoting Republican Steve King was erased by the university.

Finally, another investigative piece by K. Rambo revealed that “as of Oct. 25, 2018, $416,016.88 has been spent on the four Title IX suits. The money going to Husch Blackwell is paid out from the general university budget, which in 2016 was composed of 58.9 percent tuition.”

Prior to the articles being published, did the average student know about these things happening? Most likely not.

Now, there are some things that are confidential and that students should not be privy to. It is also worth noting that not every student cares.

However, anything that affects either the student’s ability to express themselves on campus, or what the university is using their tuition dollars for, should be publicly disclosed — in a more transparent way ­— by the university.

The university should be as transparent as they can when it comes to actions it is taking both on campus and off. 

Now, this does not mean the university should send out emails BCCing the entire student body, but perhaps a monthly update on a website to let students know what the university is involved in would be beneficial.

That way, if students care about what is going on behind the scenes, they know where to find it. Those that don’t care won’t be bombarded with unnecessary information.

Communication breakdown can happen in any relationship, group, company or university. Hopefully, because of recent events, the university can start to prioritize communication and transparency with the students.