The Facts: In the coming weeks, the University will face some serious decisions concerning its future. Budget cuts along the order of 9 to 14 percent are probable and the University will inevitably be facing many tough decisions. In the past, students have been left in the dark on important decision making processes like the ones in the University’s near future.

Our Opinion: The new administration must do its best to enable and encourage feedback on the budget cuts from the student body and the faculty.

More than a week ago, former Chancellor James Oblinger announced his resignation, effective immediately.

In the media storm surrounding that spectacle, the administration on campus seemed to think time should stop while the University’s top executive positions were addressed.

But time stops for no one, especially not the state’s largest university whilst its in the midst of one of the biggest economic threats the University has ever experienced.

The faculty and staff senate’s joint budget meeting, on the same day as Oblinger’s resignation, served as evidence that there are some who still understand the big picture. Fortunately for the University, Chancellor Jim Woodward is among them.

The chancellor has indicated that his largest concern is the impact these budget cuts will have on the students.

The budgetary crisis is of colossal importance and trumps everything else currently happening at the University.

A potential double-digit budget cut would serve as a harbinger of death for so much at the University — its impending implementation and delivery methods cannot be viewed passively from a pew in the rear.

The student body, faculty, and staff must press the new administration to make this process as open as possible. The future of our own education and those of our successors is literally what’s at stake.

In the past, an air of secrecy has surrounded many top-level decisions at the University. The hiring of Oblinger, Larry Nielsen and Mary Easley all come to mind.

Those sorts of decision processes were unethical then and should definitely not be tolerated now during this budget crisis.

In the Deans’ joint statement to the University, they propose several obvious concessions tactics in defending the core of the University. These changes may include larger classes, the loss of thousands of class seats and the reduction of non-teaching staff.

What they fail to address, and what the University as a whole must be diligent on is defining what our core truly is.

As students, we constitute the human resource and the backbone of the University. The executive staff at Holladay Hall should not define the “core mission” of the University, but must take input from students and faculty alike.

If the University is to come out of this budgetary crisis trimmer and better focused on its mission to serve and educate the public of North Carolina, the students should have a fundamental role in steering this process. We are the core.