Students at the University of Memphis will be able to voice their opinions and ask questions to a panel of administrators about any campus issues Thursday. U of M officials from parking, police, finance and technical support will be at this meeting.
The town hall meeting, held by the Student Government Association, will start at 6:45 p.m. in the University Center River Room.
Senior Ali Kingston, 21, speaker of the student senate, wants students who do not typically have a voice to attend and ask questions.
The town hall, like all student government meetings, is open to all students and faculty. This meeting will be different because it is more about the students and will not have the regular business feel to it, Kingston said.
There will be free food for everyone, then the discussion portion will begin at 7 p.m. All student government senators, freshmen senators and cabinet members will be in attendance.
There will be six different administrators at the meeting to answer questions.
“We chose these administrators based on what kind of questions we thought students might have,” Kingston said.
Rosie Bingham, vice president of student affairs, and Danny Armitage, dean of students, will be able to answer a wide range of questions because they have many different obligations with their jobs.
Robert Jackson from IT Services will also attend because there were a lot of technical questions at the last student senate meeting, Kingston said.
David Zettergren, vice president for business and finance at the U of M, will be able to answer questions about how student money is spent.
Most colleges and universities in Tennessee proposed a bill that would lower the cost of online course fees, but state officials denied it, Kingston said. That will be one question Zettergren should be able to answer.
Angela Floyd, director of parking services, and Bruce Harber, chief of police, may have some of the toughest questions with campus safety and parking problems in the front of many students’ minds.
Kingston assured every question will be answered either by one of the administrators present or with a follow up email Monday morning.
“There will be no fluff answers,” she said. “They are going to be straight forward and tell you the how and why. If the administrators are standing in a room with 100 students, they can’t dodge the questions.”
Student government will be live tweeting throughout the meeting to reach students who are unable to physically attend.
Kingston’s realistic goal is to have 50 students attend, but she said she would “jump for joy” if 100 students came.
The town hall meeting will give students a chance to interact with administrators to whom they don’t normally have direct access. The meeting will end at 8 p.m., and if students have more questions, they can email Kingston, and she will send them to the appropriate person.
Sophomore Nashville native Tyler Franklin, 20, thinks it’s a great idea but hopes students will actually see results.
“I think it’s a good idea to have a time students can ask questions that usually get avoided by the people in charge,” Franklin said. “I hope that they actually do something about the problems and not just say they will. I want to see actions to back up everything they tell us.”
There will not be any academic administrators because the town hall falls on the same night as Dinner with the Dean, so most of them will be busy, Kingston said.
