The University of Memphis' decision not to allow Rock the Voteto come to our campus is an outrage. I was under the impressionthat The University of Memphis is a public institution, andtherefore not beholden to any corporate master. Apparently this isnot the case. Fear of upsetting the Coca-Cola Corporation utterlyinfluenced The University's decision. Since when do powerfulcorporations have authority over a public university's ability tomake administrative decisions? Does Coca-Cola have any specialknowledge or insight into how universities should be run? Am Iwrong to suggest that they should not have veto power over whocomes to our school?
It is not surprising that the administration did not bother toask their corporate masters before refusing to allow a pro-votingorganization to come to our school. The authoritarian manner inwhich decisions are made here is antithetical to democracy.Encouraging students to vote might cause them to desire an activerole in The University's management. After all, if it's good tovote for your state's senator, why isn't it good to vote for yourschool's president? The people who run our school were not electedby the students or the teachers, yet they have been entrusted tomake the right decisions for all of us. I suggest that in thisinstance, as in many others, they have failed, and that thetyrannical power structure of our University all too much resemblesthat of the mega-corporations that now controls it.
Ward Huddleston,
senior, International Studies
