Fighting the Law

In a recent article concerning the administration’s proposal to restructure the Honors Program, Provost Ira Schwartz willingly told The Temple News how he and others, including Vice Provost Peter Jones and President David Adamany plan

In a recent article concerning the administration’s proposal to restructure the Honors Program, Provost Ira Schwartz willingly told The Temple News how he and others, including Vice Provost Peter Jones and President David Adamany plan to accomplish the reorganization.

Schwartz went on to say that the plan was influenced by other respected honors programs at the University of Pennsylvania and Arizona State University, among a host of others. The Temple News was grateful for the information, and it helped to serve the Temple community in fully understanding certain changes and the logic behind them.

However, the same cannot be said for today’s article concerning raises for certain members of the administration. Temple officials’ salaries were compared to a list of 100 public and private schools with a budget over $5 million, but The Temple News was not given the list or names of universities that were compared to Temple. Members of the administration were contacted as much as a week in advance, but our publication was repeatedly denied the information, with the argument that because the law does not require the information to be exposed, it therefore wouldn’t be revealed.

We argue that the information is relatively harmless and extremely pertinent to staff and students who are the lifeblood of this university. Students should know where Temple is trying to go, and university officials could help everyone by clarifying its direction.

Like the Honors Program, if parts of this university are being reorganized, its logic and influences must be presented so the Temple community can fully interpret relative information.

Granted, the law does not demand officials to give campus newspapers certain information regarding administrative dealings. But in this case, there’s nothing saying they can’t.

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