If the University is looking to better represent the undergraduate experience to prospective Cornellians, there may be a more effective way of accomplishing that goal. On Monday, Cornell added six student blogs to its website, each intended to give outsiders a glimpse into life on The Hill through weekly anecdotes. Lisa Cameron-Norfleet, program manager for developer relations at the Office of Web Communications, told The Sun that the blogging project was meant to spice up Cornell’s website.
Indeed, a blog would be a great way to spice up the website — if the students selected were likely to write anything spicy.
Instead, what we will see on the website will probably be bland, near-advertisements for the University. The criticism here is not of the writing ability of the students chosen or that we expect a lack of sincerity; rather, it is that the applicant pool was limited only to students who already promote the Big Red on a regular basis. Only those who serve as campus tour guides, members of the Cornell Tradition or Undergraduate Admissions employees were eligible for the job.
Tour guides go through a three-round competitive screening process to see who can spread the most Cornell cheer. And Undergraduate Admissions employees are redundant, since they act as liaisons to the very people these blogs are intended to attract.
Admittedly, the decision to impose such tight requirements on who could hold the post was partly to assuage the administration’s concerns about what “uncensored” students might write on Cornell’s most visible face to the world. (“Uncensored” in this case being a relative term, as bloggers have been warned to “not cross the line” lest they want to deal with senior Cornell administration. They are also being paid to blog.) But in trying to maintain a positive face for the student body, they’ve chosen a group that does not truly represent the breadth of that body.
The portion of undergraduates who have made speaking for the University one of their chief extracurricular activities is very, very small. Using six of them to represent the C.U. student life will not likely attract the diversity of viewpoints Cornell typically strives for.
Cornell’s variety of viewpoints was the topic of President Skorton’s first address in Ithaca. Last week, Skorton challenged the Class of 2010 to “put themselves in an uncomfortable situation.” He said that nothing would broaden their horizons more than going to hear a speaker whose political view differed from their own; speaking with a dorm mate who has a different background; or spending time around someone with whom they did not see eye-to-eye. To then use as a recruiting mechanism a group with such filtered interests is somewhat hypocritical.
In order to truly embody the variety abounding in the Cornell community, the opportunity to write one of these blogs should be extended to the campus at large. While it would be unreasonable to expect the University to allow itself to be slandered on its own website, it is similarly unreasonable to expect that tour guides are the only students able to avoid doing so.
Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Blogs, right?