By Derek Varsalona

We have all seen the symbol of justice. This is a statue of a woman with a blindfold covering her eyes. This lady is known as Themis, the Greek Goddess of Justice. For certain students at Hofstra University, myself included, we will always remember this lady and what she stands for.

On Wednesday Feb. 9 2005, Fox News Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano spoke at this University in the Axinn Library 10th floor. This event was sponsored by the communications department.

My entire Wednesday, with the exception of classes, was planned around having the honor of meeting Judge Andrew Napolitano. So I waited for the Axinn Library elevator; and waited and waited. I said to my self oh heck I’ll just take the stairs. I followed ten other students that all had the same idea. After arriving on the third floor in a cold stairwell, a student advised us to turn back. Nobody else was allowed in, the room was packed. The stairwell was also packed with students. If anyone were to fall over it would have been just like dominoes.

I overheard someone say, “this is crazy. I needed to cover this event for class.” What about the additional students that might need to cover the event for a law school paper or a communications class? Why should these students not have a paper in for extra credit or required coursework because of poor planning? Not handing in a paper might put their course grades in jeopardy. Let us not forget the students that might truly need the extra credit to obtain an acceptable grade in the class, and I don’t mean the students that have a C or B average that might want to bump their grade up to a B or an A.

This event was the main feature on the Hofstra homepage. So you would think that the administration, the communications department or student activities would arrange for the event to take place in a venue that could be easily accessible to a large group of people. Does the Adams Playhouse ring a bell? This would have been a perfect place to arrange Judge Napolitano’s speech. It has seating for everyone who would want to attend the speech, and I doubt that it would even be filled to the maximum capacity.

Accessibility to campus events is the right of all students, faculty, and staff at Hofstra University. It is not just for University employees that happen to be administrators. I planned my entire common hour around this event. I could eat lunch on the run, I have before.

I thought the purpose of college was to help liberate the mind, so students can see things in a different way. Any student, faculty member or administrator should be able to attend any college event they want, free of charge.

There are only three organizations that I blame for such inconvenience to so many students and faculty alike. That is the University administration, Student Activities and the Communications Department. In my view all three are responsible for seeing that the event is held in a venue that could fit a massive audience. All three parties should have planned out a more accessible venue for Judge Andrew Napolitano to speak at. Poor planning on their part is no excuse for students not being able to hear Judge Napolitano speak or to write a paper. In the end, the students suffer, not the administration, not the Communications Department, nor do student activities. I think that the right to hear all views expressed fairly is a benefit of higher education. It is the right to free speech and the right to have the freedom to assemble. Only a few lucky students, faculty and administrators were able to have this right granted to them when Judge Andrew Napolitano spoke on Ash Wednesday.

This in itself is an injustice that Themis would have looked down upon. The college administration, communications department and student activities must be held accountable for poor planning.