President Bridges,

I am writing in response to evidence that indicates that your office is shifting financial support from students to teachers. If, by my counsel, you can be persuaded to do otherwise, I will have succeeded beyond any expectations.

I should first cite examples of the grievance I am referencing here. I note that each of these examples has been conveyed to me in person.
First, I am told on good authority that your office turned away a Whitman Direct Action request to fund their upcoming goodwill efforts in Mumbai, India. Mr. President, I’m sure I don’t have to inform you that Whitman Direct Action, or WDA as it has become commonly known, is an outstanding student organization that undertakes projects of massive sociological significance all over the world.

The upcoming conference they will be hosting with regard to water sanitation in Mumbai is only the most recent of their projects. I’m told that said conference will boast the attendance of a member of the Indian Parliament. But more importantly: The reason I’m sure that I don’t need to give you the résumé of WDA is because you have cited them as an example of great things that Whitman students do. Significantly, you have done so in a publication sent to past and potential donors.

Furthermore, I have been informed that you have denied funding to a group of senior studio art majors who requested money to fulfill a pseudo-requirement of their major. Their trip to New York in order to study the art scene is “strongly recommended” by the studio art department, and they receive insufficient funding to meet that recommendation. This denial came even after those artists promised to make an installation on the Whitman Campus: something that would clearly benefit the campus as a whole.

These are only two examples, and there have been more. I know there have been more because I sit on the finance committee of the Associated Students of Whitman College. Your refusal to fund student groups has resulted in a vacuum of money that students have had no alternative but to fill. This means that the finance committee (and student moneys in general) has had to fill the gap left by the President’s shift in priorities.

Because that’s what I see this move as: A shift in priorities away from students and towards research. Let me introduce a caveat here: I have been told that these moneys, previously allocated to student initiatives, have been shifted to cover teachers’ research. The veracity of that statement is unclear.

Regardless of where these funds are currently being spent, the important point is that they are not being spent on students. Not only have students lost an important source of funding from your office, sir, but they have also had no warning about such a drastic financial shift. Neither the finance committee, ASWC or the student population at large was made aware of this situation in time to make alternative arrangements. This money is discretionary, and therefore allocated at your disposal. However, it is my general opinion that when you are about to undercut the financial stability of student initiatives, you could at least warn someone.

The situation has been established, and as (again, only having been told this secondhand) these moneys have already been spent elsewhere, there is nothing that we can do for the present. However, I do think that it would behoove your office, Mr. President, to respond to several concerns:

1. Where exactly is this money being spent? Is it, as I have been told, funding teacher initiatives and research?

2. What recourse does the President’s Administration suggest to those students who have (in the past) so frequently depended on funding from the President’s Office?

3. Does the President’s Administration plan to continue prioritizing faculty above students?
These questions are not only mine, Mr. President, but they are shared by a large number of students: at the least, they are shared by those to whom you have already denied money. In doing so, your administration has passed on a chance to empower students.

Sincerely,
Bryce Alan McKay