President Hanbury hosted a student town hall on Jan. 19 in the Steele Auditorium in the Health Professions Division. Students and faculty gathered to listen to the latest accomplishments at NSU. Students were also able to ask Hanbury questions.
Questions addressed study space in HPD, student parking, housing issues and HPD AV carts.
When a student brought up the lack of study space in HPD due to the increasing number of students, Hanbury stated that he is working on getting more study carrels in the HPD Library as well as the Alvin Sherman Library.
During a short video at the beginning of the event, Hanbury talked about the construction of the new hospital in the University Park Plaza to allow students hands-on experience in the medical field. He also addressed the expansion of the Health Professions Division with the donation from the Patel family. Other topics addressed were hurricane relief, the growing undergraduate population and the many accomplishments of the students.
On the issue of parking, Hanbury said that he planned on updating the parking garages as well as building a new parking garage alongside the new residence hall building. Hanbury also said he would have the speed bumps fixed in the parking garages that students were fearing may damage the undersides of their cars. Hanbury and the Vice President of Facilities, Daniel Alfonso, also plan to add new technology to the structures to let students and faculty know where spots are open.
“Now that we’re building a new parking garage, we have about 8,000 parking spaces on campus [without the new garage]. The new parking garage will give us 9,200 [total] parking spaces,” said Hanbury. “To give you some idea, that’s more parking spaces than downtown Fort Lauderdale.”
In addition, a student from NSU’s Puerto Rico campus asked about the possibility of the Office of Housing to help provide students more affordable housing after a major storm, such as Hurricane Maria. Hanbury said that with the help of NSU Cares, there is a possibility of the housing office helping students in need.
“We have established NSU Cares after Irma and Harvey in Houston, but it was even more important to promote NSU Cares for the students in Puerto Rico,” Hanbury said.
When asked about AV carts, Hanbury stated that many of the old carts were recently improved within the last few weeks. The new carts were updated with the newest equipment and technology, and should no longer have problems broadcasting for students.
If you have comments or questions for President Hanbury, email askthepresident@nova.edu.
