The times, they are a-changin'

The SSU administration has spent most of the 2009-2010 school year assuring the student body, the faculty and even the Press Democrat that everything is OK. In fact, "Everything is just fine" has become President Ruben Armiñana's party line.

But it doesn't take a weatherman to look around and see the weather. After the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Administration and Finance on Thursday morning, students, faculty and community onlookers are going to find it that much more difficult to swallow Armiñana's upbeat call for sunshine.

In a University Affairs press release circulated on Thursday afternoon, Armiñana assured students that "The university welcomes the investigation and is working in full cooperation with the task force."

There are two major problems with this public statement. One, it operates under the mistaken assumption that the university's cooperation is proof of its innocence. Or, perhaps more sinisterly, it operates under the mistaken assumption that onlookers will accept the university's cooperation as proof of its innocence.

Two, once again, Armiñana has neglected to come down from his ivory tower and fulfill his responsibility to the student body. For the student body who never interact with, or even see, this elusive administrator, Armiñana is a disembodied, dictorial voice that is occasionally manifested in e-mails forwarded on by Susan Kashack. The students of SSU deserve a complete and direct explanation about why their campus was interrupted by FBI agents and they deserve it immediately. The administration should not insult them with another condescendingly optimistic press release.

The raid may have looked ugly for SSU's officials, but it is a thousand times more embarrassing for the thousands of SSU students who are paying tuition and attending class in good faith. The administration's missteps reflect poorly on the entire campus community, even those engaged in more noble pursuits. And even still, all the administration seems willing to offer them is a patronizing press release.

It is no surprise then that the current administration is regarded by the students with apathy at best and resentment at worst.

With one dramatic "No Confidence" vote behind him, and rumors of another vote in the works, Thursday's embarrassment may mark a death toll for Armiñana's administration. Something has been rotten at SSU for years now, as evidenced by the Attorney General Jerry Brown's ugly, December audit of the university's financial records, the recent Carinalli loan scandal and the three-year investigation leading to Thursday dramatic raid.

It is unlikely that the administration will ever be able to regain the student (not to mention faculty) faith that has been so carelessly squandered in this series of scandals. The only hope of doing so hinges on full disclosure in this moment of crisis. The SSU community is no longer willing to tolerate closed-door policies by officials who cannot be trusted to conduct themselves in a manner appropriate to the university.

Once upon a time, Bob Dylan warned politicians and administrators that if they couldn't get hip to the new times, they were likely going to end up casualties of change. Well, the times they are a-changin' again.