First town hall meetings lack turnout

November 23, 2009 by Renata Follmann 

No students attend forum to improve Student Union

More than 150 seats open to students to give their opinions remained empty at the Student Union’s first shot at a town hall meeting.

The Student Union and Event Services planned two town hall meetings for Nov. 19 where students could talk about what improvements should be made to the SU.

Each meeting, scheduled to last one hour with a presentation of 15 minutes on a specific topic, was intended to give opportunities for general comments, questions and suggestions.

“We thought of the town hall meeting scenario and it was a form we thought would work really well to reach out for people to give us feedback,” said Kylee Thomas, assistant director of the Student Union facilities and operations division of Student Life.

That goal has not been abandoned despite the fact that no one came to the town hall meetings.

“We are not discouraged by that,” Thomas said.

She said she believes the problem is more widespread.

“To me, it takes time to change a culture,” she said.

In Thomas’ opinion, more often than not students do not really know who to talk to if they have suggestions or questions.

Thomas said students have made an impact on the SU, sharing stories about how the creation of student-only lounges and recycling efforts have been pushed forward by student involvement.

“Sometimes we can’t change, but the [efforts] we can [make], we make sure we do,” said Kelsey Harmon Finn, director of the Student Union and Events Services.

Even though not all suggestions can be used, Finn guaranteed that the staff always tries to meet students’ needs.

“We want to be sure we are providing the services students and faculty want,” Finn said.

That is why the town hall meetings were suggested.

Thomas said the publicity for the events was heavy.

“We did quite a bit to make sure everybody was aware,” Thomas said.

Student Jeanette Gutierrez said the meeting sounded interesting, but the timing was an issue for her.

“Maybe if I didn’t have class [I would have attended],” Gutierrez said.

For student Andrea Kunwald, a lack of information was the reason she did not attend.

“If I would have known, I would have gone,” she said.

Even though folks at the SU facility and operations believe students take advantage of the space the SU has to offer, student Jandery Vargas disagres.

“I didn’t know a lot of the [SU] offers,” she said, adding that students have to ask questions about the services. “It’s not an obvious thing.”

Gutierrez, Kunwald and Vargas all had something they wanted to change at the SU. More space, more comfortable sitting areas and better-organized room numbers were some of the complaints they brought up.

Additional town hall meetings are scheduled for the spring semester, on Feb. 29 and March 23.