Towards the end of last year, Club Commission decided to incorporate a new artistic feature into our campus. They approached BTM Heart, a club for artistic students, and asked them to create murals for our campus. BTM Heart slowly proceeded to create blueprints of the murals, finishing in roughly three months. However, as the new school year rolled in, they were shocked to find that the administration was not very keen on incorporating their work for unclear reasons. Not only might the club’s hard work have gone to waste, but a new confusion arose.
Instead of letting something like this happen in the future, a precedent should be set. And that precedent should be a willing compromise from both sides. Generally, when it comes to settling an argument, compromise is key. Instead of going to either extremes —having our faculty handling everything versus students taking complete charge—a middle-ground is necessary. This campus is for both students and the administration, therefore both sides should have a voice.
Despite acknowledging that teachers and staff may be on campus much longer than students, four years is a considerable amount of time. Being around art stimulates the human brain and provides insight toward a larger perspective. At the same time however, administration should retain the rights to control what goes up onto our campus as it pertains to our schoolís image. Some things may have to be censored, but there should be explicit reasons behind that censorship. Artwork is freedom of expression, and cutting or disregarding certain artwork for unjustified reasons such an non-aesthetic appeal, is quite weak.
Many more solutions with the overarching theme of compromise could occur. A select few representatives from both the student body and the administration could gather and do a brief “pros-and-cons” evaluation. Either way, a “give-and-take” must occur. There should be some sort of mutual agreement reached, which would avoid discrepancy from both sides as both sides would have an equal and fair hearing.
So who should have the final say? Nobody should. It should be a 50/50 compromise.
