On the evening of March 19, NSU undergraduate students received an email from Brad Williams, vice president of student affairs and dean of the College of Undergraduate students, asking them to participate in a survey which would provide NSU information on their desired changes to Shark Dining and Housing. According to Williams, NSU “retained the services of a nationally recognized independent consulting firm, Brailsford & Dunlavey, to administer the survey.”
Now, while I can appreciate the fact that NSU seemed interested in the opinions of the undergraduate population regarding these issues, the irony was not lost on me that less than 12 hours after that email hit my inbox, students were planning to share their thoughts at an SGA hosted “Student Appreciation Day” event. How coincidental, that NSU would feel the need to solicit the opinions of students, right before this highly-publicized event. And why then, do we need to reach out to a third party — which I assume we’d have to pay — to find out what our students think when we’re right here, willing and waiting to tell NSU.
In fact, we have been voicing our frustrations, concerns, ideas and opinions for quite some time now at town halls, general body meetings, to our employers and supervisors, professors, administrative representatives and on social media platforms. Anyone who truly wanted to know what students think would only have to walk out of their office and ask them in passing by, much like what The Current does every week in the Shark Speak section of the opinion column.
Students have organized events to voice these thoughts. We’ve started petition after petition. We’ve texted into the number provided by Chartwells and used the kiosk near the Outtakes register to let Chartwells know what we think. We’ve been quoted on NSU’s television programming, radio station and newspaper.
Just by a quick glance through these mediums over the past few weeks I can see that our students want to be able to go into the University Center and buy a decent meal that is properly-cooked, caters to their needs — be it meat lover’s, vegan, vegetarian or halal — and one that doesn’t break the bank. We want to know what’s going on with our housing arrangements with enough time to make adequate plans, including possibly saving for daily transportation costs. We want to have space to collaborate with our peers during meetings with our clubs. We want to know why our tuition is raising thousands of dollars and what we can expect from that increase. Really, we want our administration to listen to us. We want to know that we matter to an institution we bleed grey and blue for, before we graduate and are solicited for donations.
There is no perfect institution on the face of the earth so I think that any realistic student will understand that there is always room for improvement and there may not be a solution for every issue that is brought up. But, we expect that institution to show us that it’s trying in a real way by being transparent. If NSU doesn’t have the answers, let us know because we have some suggestions. We don’t need another survey which we pour our little hearts into that is eventually archived, while no real changes take place. The point is that NSU students are here to speak, for free. The question is: Is NSU willing and ready to listen?
