Students, faculty attempt to resolve issues facing campus life

This archived article was written by: Maren King

Students, faculty and administration gathered on November 2 for a campus forum in hopes to solve some student issues on the College of Eastern Utah campus.
Susan Polster, served as moderator for the two-hour discussion, with President Ryan Thomas, vice presidents Brad King and Dan Allen as well as Dean Russell Goodrich representing the administration. Representative from food service were also in attendance. Students discussed concerns they had with campus life. While students asked questions, school leaders tried to pose some solutions that would satisfy not only students but faculty as well. Some of the main concerns students had included activity and scheduling conflicts, residential life issues and food service problems.
Students asked the administration if graduating sophomores were allowed to register early to assure graduation. Thomas thought that only sophomores registered the first day to assure their classes were available. Most students like the schedule of classes.
Parking was addressed with the president explaining that additional parking is planned. The Institute lot is always available as is the Milky Way lot which is being leased by the college.
Some students wanted to know how they could receive a better turnout to activities and try to get more students involved in some of the things that are going on around campus. It was suggested that maybe those who are planning the activities should look at the quality of activities, not the quantity. They should look back on some of the bigger activities such as the Light-Bright Dance, and plan bigger activities like that instead of having a lot of minor activities going on all the time.
It was also a concern that the Sun Center as well as other club activities are not getting posted on the master calendar. If anyone has questions about posting their activities, they should let Sharon Jones know, Allen said.
Some felt the master calendar was more “facility-based activities” and not “activities based.” A suggestion was made to have the campus-planning committee meet monthly to keep “all” activities up to date on the master calendar. Students felt a better handle of scheduling activities could be made if there is a more concerted effort to update and add every activity in a timelier manner than is currently being utilized.
ASCEU is planning to place marquees around campus to let more students and community members know about activities.
Another concern was from students who live in the dorms and about who they should call if they have any questions or if there is an emergency. Flyers were passed around at the beginning of the year to let them know the chain of command on who to call. The help-line is available from eight a.m. to five p.m. If it is an emergency call either the R.A.s or campus police.
There was also a concern in Tucker about wall outlets that are falling out and could be creating a fire hazard. Those can be fixed if needed; however, they can’t totally replace all of them because it is too expensive. The A.J. dorms also had a problem with their refrigerators and with them falling apart.
Hank Savage was at the meeting and said he has the parts to fix the refrigerators. Students have to call the help line, to have maintenance in the dorms.
There have been many issues concerning food services. Students are becoming distressed over the lack of the quality of food for what they are paying for it. Amy Anderson felt that for the money the students were paying on their food cards, that the cafeteria should offer better quality food.
There has also been a problem for students when sometimes the cafeteria closes down earlier than posted hours. There were many suggestions thrown out such as buying food in bulk, buying already prepackaged food, having vending machines that students could use their cards on, and even having the cafeteria staying open longer. Students felt if they could buy prepackaged food that they could actually use all of the funds remaining on their cards each semester. They also liked the idea of prepackaged food because if they had a class when the cafeteria was open, they could buy the food and eat it at their convenience. They also requested fresh fruit and even yogurt be available at the snack bar.
Students have a list of prepackaged food to present to food service in hopes of have it available for students to purchase with their meal cards.
This forum answered a lot of questions and concerns that the students and faculty had, said representatives from ASCEU. A follow-up forum will be held on November 30 at 6 p.m. in the JLSC. Those involved in this first meeting will update the progress of student’s concerns and issues that were suggested from this meeting.