Thursday night, I paired up students in my Reporting class and instructed them to head to the library in search of budget information on the college. It was a multi-part assignment/project. I wanted them to:
1. Actually go through the process of finding public information.
2. Get a real look at how complex things like budget can be.
3. Spend time in groups figuring out what in a budget is important.
4. Return as a class and present group findings.
5. Formulate story ideas based on the information.
Classrooms are great, but when it comes to teaching journalism there is no replacement for actually doing it.
What students found, however, was that the Grand Rapids Community College (Michigan) library does not have basic budget documents available in the library. They were told that they haven't had things like that available in the 13 years the librarians on hand could remember. And the class was told to contact a college administrator to get a copy of the budget; assuring them that the information was readily available.
I was disappointed by the entire scenario. When information is difficult to obtain - only available in certain places, and during certain hours - that can have a similar chilling result as not making it available at all. No matter what the intention. I think that's why most colleges make these sorts of documents available at a place like the library - where the hours are longer, including evenings and weekends.
It has been researched and reported that keeping documents like these only in administrative offices (even if freely available there) can have a similar result as keeping them under lock and key. Not only is it difficult for some people to get to the offices during normal business hours, but it can also be intimidating for some in the public to approach administrative offices. And I'm addressing not only journalists here.
I am a strong believer in open and freely available access to information. Libraries often provide a fantastic venue for those; in a non-threatening atmosphere.
I hope GRCC considers a change in policy regarding documents; sooner rather than later.
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3 comments:
Steve, -this might sound dumb of me- but I didn't know you were serious, who went to look for the information? And where were they sent to?
That does surprise me that for a public institution like GRCC that the budget isn't more readily available. Kind of makes you wonder WHY they don't want it in the library? I mean, it would probably be only read by finance majors and journalist, but still!
You're exactly right Steve, and it was very disappointing. You were talking on Thursday night how they actually force us to talk to people head of the committee for basic information, I mean how many people are going to actually do that?
The school should be required to do so. Are they going to be doing anything about it? That's my next question. Probably not. They'll most likely pretend it didn't even happen.
It almost seems like they're keeping it "secret" and telling students they don't even have it, it all seems very strange to me.
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