The headline reads “Student Groups Meet to Rally Behind Unions,” but the main text has a different emphasis.

“We just want transparency,” said Wes Weaver, a junior photography and urban studies major and SLAP leader. “The concern is that the way labor relations are going now is not healthy. They’re overlooking the students.”

Here’s more from the same carefully reported piece.

The rally was predominantly attended by students from the coalition of organizations in support of the unions. Approximately 40 people rallied. Many were carrying signs, some of which depicted a pink elephant, symbolic of the problem of poor labor relations at the school, the students said.

But it was the lack of transparency in the school’s actions that inspired many of the speakers the most.

Temple Student Government Senate President Jeff Dempsey gave a brief speech to the crowd at the rally reiterating the call for more student involvement in the schools affairs.

“Communication is not a luxury, it’s a necessity,” he said.

The students calling for “transparency” may be assuming more than the facts will support. Teacher unions have raised to an art form their pleas for public sympathy — without revealing any specifics on what they are actually asking for. I don’t know anything about the issues at stake in the Temple University negotiations, but Mr. Dempsey’s message is right on: communication is a necessity. That’s a message public school boards should be taking to heart.