{"id":2605,"date":"2011-04-04T22:56:11","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T03:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=2605"},"modified":"2011-04-06T15:35:35","modified_gmt":"2011-04-06T20:35:35","slug":"student-government-hosts-biannual-town-hall-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/2605","title":{"rendered":"Student Government hosts biannual town hall meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" By Nick Buth–
\n<\/strong>The biggest concerns brought to the attention of administrators at a recent Town Hall meeting included conflicts scheduling classes (including when classes are offered), and security of students\u2019 belongings in their dorms and their cars while parked on campus.<\/p>\n

The biannual meeting March 29 allowed students to express their concerns to seven administrators and staff members.\u00a0Present were: President John Reynders; Dean Bill Deeds; Vice President for Student Services and Admissions Terri Curry; Dean of Students Robbie Rohlena; Executive Director of Information Services Andy Heiser; Director of the Physical Plant Kirk Johnson; and Director of Student Financial Planning Karen Gagnon.<\/p>\n

Responding to scheduling concerns, President Reynders said, \u201cIf you have questions about your academic program or about staffing, you ought to go to see Bill right away.\u00a0 He has the same open door policy that we all do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question of the security of the doors in Dimmitt was brought up by one of Dimmitt\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n

Robbie Rohlena helped respond to this by emphasizing the need for a resident to report to a member of the residence life staff if his or her door isn\u2019t latching or locking properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times it\u2019s just an adjustment,\u201d said Kirk Johnson, backing up Rohlena\u2019s statement.\u00a0 \u201cAll we need is a phone call and we can get there and try to help you out.\u00a0 Some of them are loose and we just have to know about it and we can correct most of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karen Gagnon addressed questions that arose about financial aid, saying that the amount you receive based on athletics or academics will not change over your four years at Morningside.\u00a0 This helps a student and his or her family when they are trying to figure out budgeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good or bad, but you have to pre-plan a little bit,\u201d said Gagnon.\u00a0 \u201cOn the same token, if you\u2019ve got the Dean\u2019s scholarship and your grades aren\u2019t quite where we want to see them, we won\u2019t take that away either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Security within the parking lots came up as an issue, with Dustin Potter, an RA from the Plex, informing the panel that some students had confronted one of the people breaking into a car, not knowing what else to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cCall 9-1-1,\u201d Reynders responded to this anecdote, showing the same surprise as the rest of the panel.<\/p>\n

Potter then expressed concern that the lot behind the building seems extremely vulnerable.\u00a0 This was backed up by Claire Gibbons, a freshman tenant of the Plex and student government representative.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t really have people parking there anymore because it\u2019s not properly lighted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll look at lighting,\u201d Reynders replied to this concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, they had the light up almost immediately, behind the HPER,\u201d added Student Body President, Heather Nielsen.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mentioned the HPER a year ago, and we took care of that right away,\u201d said Reynders.\u00a0 He and Johnson both commented, \u201cIf you have any of those areas, let us know.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meeting wrapped up with the panel members reiterating that students should not hesitate to come ask for assistance if they need it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nick Buth– The biggest concerns brought to the attention of administrators at a recent Town Hall meeting included conflicts scheduling classes (including when classes are offered), and security of students\u2019 belongings in their dorms and their cars while parked on campus. The biannual meeting March 29 allowed students to express their concerns to seven…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":2606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[203],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2605"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2611,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions\/2611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}