A Call for Transparency...

With everything that's been taking place on campus this week, there have been a lot of questions posed, with very little answers given.

Some of us are scared of what lies ahead. Some of us are invigorated by the opportunity to start all over.

Now matter what end of the spectrum we fall on, there is one common thought amongst all of us...

WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?!?!

In a matter of three days, THREE DAYS, our fate was decided for us.

Sure these issues didn't just pop up over the weekend like a bad rash; they had been building for quite some time.

But keep in mind this was a decision made by a board of directors that none of us, at least to our knowledge, had the pleasure of ever meeting, let alone the opportunity to state our case.

Do not be fooled. This was a tough decision for them, to be sure, but it wasn't made with the best interests of the students of TUFW in mind. It was made for Upland.

Let's call it like it is.

We don't speak these words out of bitterness, We speak them out of what little understanding we have of the situations that have been brought to light.

It's still too early in the game to fully comprehend and understand what's happened, all the reasons for why it happened, and who really benefits the most from what's happened.

But since we haven't been given any answers as of yet, we'll let their words and actions speak for them.

First, we wish to point you towards the Chronicle-Tribune of Grant County...

Dr. Steve Bedi, provost of Taylor University, said the move will probably mean student growth in [the] Upland campus, and will help the university reach its 2016 goal of 2,500 students...

So wait, Taylor University Fort Wayne is was expandable? We knew we could find some sort of good out of this whole situation, but we didn't think about the benefits this could have for Upland. Wow, how selfish of us to not keep that in mind.

We could look at it this way, the closing of TUFW makes funding for Upland's new building projects a little easier.

Oh wait, you didn't know about those?...

Plans for a vast extension of the Nussbaum Science Center are currently under way. The proposed building extension will more than double the current size of the Nussbaum Science Building.

Doubling the size of an already adequate building is usually a good plan when another campus has been financially bringing you down.

And don't forget, it can get pretty cold in Upland...

Research is being conducted to assess the usefulness and functionality of a tunnel which would act as a campus backbone for fiver optics and other utilities. Additionally, this tunnel would be a prime pedestrian route in unfavorable weather...

We understand that we're students of the Fort Wayne campus and all, so it maybe it's just beyond our own comprehension, but that sounds like a pretty fancy tunnel.

In another article describing the ambitious science center...

Yet this building is no typical building project and it reflects much of what is distinctive about Taylor University...Our attention to value engineering opportunities, that is, to more economical ways of achieving the same goal, reflect our stewardship of material resources...

One campus is floundering in financial ruin because of poor decisions and the inability to act in a timely manner. Another campus continues its steady growth in elaborate facilities while closing down the previous campus.

Yep, sounds like good stewardship to me.

Lastly, we want to point out the "real" reason our campus is being closed down...

...the university’s president announced Monday, citing a poor business model and a “downward spiral” of enrollment as the chief causes...

Poor business model? Well, who's fault was that? Wasn't TUFW a part of Taylor University as a whole?

Who implemented the business model? Where are the decisions regarded TUFW ran through? Oh yes...the answer to those questions is simple: Taylor University Upland.

It was Upland's job to put someone in place to run this campus in a way that was "financially viable". They did that. It was just eight years too late.

Giving Dr. Kilty two years to turn this campus around, when it was already apparent for many years prior that we were on the downslope, was poor, inexcusable management.

"Whelp, we bought you with the intention of making money off of you, but that didn't work out. So, see ya later..."

As for the "downward spiral" of enrollment? Didn't this year see a huge leap in freshmen enrollment? Weren't there some positive, money-making ideas floating around the campus?

This whole semester we were led to believe of some major improvements taking place around TUFW.

Honestly, this semester had been one of the most encouraging and exciting ones for me, in light of all that was going to be taking place here. Unfortunately, we were never given enough time to prove our worth to Upland.

We understand that we may come across as "whiney, immature reactionaries" in all of this, and you would probably be right in labeling us as such.

In fact, it may even come across as hypocritical, seeing that I, Jared, wrote a post for the school's student blog, extolling the virtues of not becoming bitter and understanding that God will see us through the troubles we are now faced with.

We both still believe that. We truly do.

But God did not cause TUFW to close. We don't believe He had this plan in place all along. Did He know it was going to happen? Of course. Did He WANT it to happen? We can't imagine why, though we are not privy to His thoughts.

This was a result of men and women. The closing of TUFW was the decision a board of directors made. We believe they were sincere and good-intentioned in their search for answers, though we are not pleased one bit with their decision given the evidence that this was NOT an unavoidable outcome.

Before you even say it, we know.

We weren't in those meetings. We don't have all the facts before us. We don't know the statistics. We don't understand the business side of it.

Yada yada yada...

You're right. We don't know. And THAT is the problem. We are calling for transparency in this matter.

Complete and utter transparency.

We deserve that.

TUFW deserves that.

Jared Murray and Tyler Morningstar