By Kimberly Chin
The administration hosted a town hall meeting in the Monroe Lecture Hall that brought students, parents, faculty members and the Hempstead community under the same roof to discuss concerns regarding the University.
“The University will improve everything about the University educational experience for the benefit of students and the society at large,” said University president, Stuart Rabinowitz. He said he believed that the University is moving at a reasonably quick pace toward this goal.
Among the topics discussed were the Lackmann Culinary services contract, which is expiring this year. The administration announced its Request for Proposals plan so that students can provide suggestions on the food services available that can not only improve the quality of food, but cheapen prices.
One University student spoke about what he felt was the bad bureaucracy among the University’s administrators and asked that the staff “know what to do at the University, which is such a huge problem when it comes to filing paper work.”
The head of the office of Student Activities, Sandra Johnson, spoke about forming a group along with the Student Government Association to look at how the whole process of accessing funds happen and “with the eye of making it easy for new clubs and for existing clubs so that the process is intuitive and simple.”
OSA is also looking to have someone in their office who will be an advocate for students and address concerns face to face.
“It is an opportunity for the Student Activities office to work with student groups to help think through event planning and how they can gain leadership skills through their organizations,” Johnson added.
The administration board felt strongly for more student feedback. The SGA had started a Facebook group called “Change Hofstra” a few months ago and encourages students to post their concerns be leaving messages and discussion topics. The SGA cabinet is also looking to set up a table in the Student Center to receive more feedback from the students.
Rabinowitz spoke of the University’s efforts to keep feedback in tact with the students with the yearly surveys that conducts a thorough study of students concerns at the University.
“The questions and answers are refined every year and there is an hour and a half required cabinet meeting where I sit down with every vice president of the University and go through the answers of the questions,” Rabinowitz said. “A lot of changes have come about from those responses.”
Melissa Connolly, vice president of University Relations, said she has started focus groups to get responses on what students think about their University experience. The board also pointed out the virtual suggestion box on the University’s portal where students can direct their questions, which will be answered by the office of Student Activities.
The administrators also announced their support for holding common-hour lunches, which will be attended by many administrators, including Rabinowitz.
The administrators also expressed their plans with the Recreational Center, describing it as small and outdated. They hope to expand the center or enhance and improve it in the near future. Another area of concern is the student dining area in the Student Center, which will begin extensive renovations during the summer, as well as renovations on existing academic buildings. They also announced their plan to have the new pedestrian bridge by the Netherlands to be in service by mid-March.
