The lights are up in the Dallas Hall quad, which means only one thing: the holidays are very close. It always amuses me how the preparation for Celebration of Lights begins around the end of October. I always love attending every year, bundled in warm clothes with a hot chocolate in hand, singing Christmas carols with my fellow SMU students. However, I found an interesting tidbit of information when I did a news package last year on the preparation process for the Celebration of Lights:
It costs $30,000 for the Celebration of Lights, each and every year. That's basically the cost of my entire tuition for a year at SMU. Don't get me wrong, I love Celebration of Lights. I think that it's a tradition at SMU that should stay because it brings our university together and lifts up everyone's spirits before finals kick in. But the cost of this makes me wonder how many other things our school spends money on that may not necessarily be, well, necessary.
I read an investigative article in one of my journalism classes last week about the SMU Board of Trustees and its oath to secrecy. The Board meets in a room in the business school and the windows are even covered so nobody can look in. The Board has never released any public records for what it talks about during meetings. There is only one member from the student body on the Board, and that member was selected by the Board for his or her ability to keep confidentiality. So basically, the Board makes decisions that the student body and the rest of the SMU community has no say in because everything discussed in the meetings will never be revealed to the outside world.
It makes me wonder if the Board had anything to do with making the decision to plant winter grass all over the university every year. Necessary? I think not.
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