The town hall meeting held in November, facilitated by Sudent Government Association between students and Aramark Higher Education, the University’s dining service, has established a successful model for similar meetings in the future.
Aramark listened to the suggestions and concerns of students and implemented several of them. The food is healthier, the options are more varied, items are more easily identified and the long-broken ice cream machine has been replaced by frozen novelties.
SGA, which has been criticized in the past for its inactivity, now has the proof needed to silence any skeptics who may have questioned the effectiveness of the town hall format.
Hopefully, this is only the beginning.
There are many other aspects of the University that students are anxious to ask questions and get answers about, including housing, finances and academics.
While it is true that other forums have been held, the reason that this one was more successful than others was the absence of a dividing issue that was up for debate, where inevitably, one side would walk away disappointed.
The only agenda SGA and Aramark had was to hear the concerns of the students to find out how they could better serve them.
The rest of the University needs to follow Aramark’s lead, and the quicker it does so, the better for the students, the administration and the University.
The students will pay higher tuition and will support changes to the curriculum if they understand how it benefits them. But they often feel as if their cries have been answered with, “Let them eat cake!”
Fortunately, thanks to SGA and Aramark, the cake has gotten better. They are to be commended for opening a productive channel of communication between the students and the University.
The recipe for succesful student dialogue has been written, now the trick is following it.
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