By Megan Brewer — 

U of L has spent a fair share of time in the negative spotlight recently. It’s been a rocky road for students and staff, mostly because we are constantly being left questioning what’s happening at our university.

Aside from all of this, U of L is a university that students want to attend. There are still students that love U of L and are excited about getting accepted into the university.

U of L isn’t going to keep this good reputation if we don’t get ourselves out of the negative light soon.

The most recent example was the U of L Foundation meeting Oct. 26 which mimicked most board of trustees’ meetings by going behind closed doors twice. The meeting voted on a potential deal that’s still in draft form and wasn’t released to the public.

A few months ago, a meeting happening behind closed doors and information not being released to the public might have come as a surprise. Now it’s just the usual at U of L.

When there’s a meeting at U of L, we know there will also be information that’s not going to be shared with us.

Closed meetings are being taken advantage of and rules about what can be released to the public are being abused. How many closed meetings followed by the media getting no information will there be in the years to come at U of L?

It seems like the closed meetings just keep adding up. Media members are going to meetings to sit for hours only to be given vague information.

Will it reach the point where we aren’t told anything from U of L’s Board and Foundation?

It might. If the Board and Foundation keep abusing the rules it could reach a point where there’s no reason for anyone to go to the meetings.

It wouldn’t be a shock to anyone, though. Seeing a distasteful headline about U of L keeping something hidden isn’t surprising to anyone anymore. It’s almost expected at this point.

So, when does it stop? When does someone finally put their foot down?

Probably not until enrollment starts to decline and everyone starts to give up and walk away.

I hope it doesn’t reach this point. The students and staff that put their all into organizations at U of L don’t deserve that. The beautiful campus and outstanding people at U of L shouldn’t have to give up and walk away. U of L isn’t a school that deserves the bad reputation it’s building.

This might be the way it goes, though. If someone at U of L doesn’t take action soon, the school is going to be living with a bad reputation. There won’t be many students excited about attending U of L, but instead using it as a last resort.

U of L is known for being a diverse campus with some of the best students and staff. To have our board of trustees, foundation and others in charge ruin this is disheartening.

So, what’s next? Will U of L keep going downhill? Will things take a positive turn instead?

Who knows, but we can only hope for the positive turn.

File Photo / The Louisville Cardinal