The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) union hosted a meet-and-greet on Tuesday during common hour to allow student leaders to voice their concerns in an open forum style.
Itzi Metzli, English professor and public relations chair of APSCUF, said every semester APSCUF hosts a meet and greet to provide a social interaction between students and faculty.
“We provide food and refreshments during the noon hour,” he said. “This semester’s meet and greet theme was ‘Making Student-Faculty Connections,’ thus allowing student leaders to speak to faculty about their respective issues and campus concerns.”
Students voiced concerns about the Student Success Center, the status of the renovations of Spotts World Culture Building and the status of the renovations of Miller Auditorium.
President of RockOUT Morgan Scott expressed that he is happy that the offices are staying within The Suite, but that he is upset with the lack of communication between the administration and the student body.
Sara Naughton represented Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honorary Society, and she expressed her concerns with the status of the renovations of Spotts World Culture Building, saying that she feels uncomfortable in the building every day.
“I spend a lot of my time in Spotts World Culture building,” she said. “Spotts is a high traffic area for the community of this school. Unfortunately the condition of Spotts World Culture Building, to me, shows how unappreciated these subjects, such as English, history, philosophy and others are at the university.”
She said that she believes faculty who work in Spotts are left with inadequate lounges and offices and that often while in classes, professors must ask loud construction workers to quiet down so that they can finish their lecture.
“The SLAB (Literary Magazine) office has just been asked last week to move their office belongings to a corner in a room in Spotts because of unsafe conditions,” Naughton said.
Naugton said she would like to see more transparency and that the administration finish projects before starting new ones.
“While I think that the Student Success Center could bring a lot of great things to campus, I also am really unhappy with the fact that we are planning such a project, when in Spotts, I’ve actually pictured my death a lot of times,” she said. “If there is a fire in that building, I’m probably not going to make it out.”
Other student expressed their concerns about the status of the renovations with Miller Auditorium, as it is another building on campus that remains unfinished.
Cassandra Holub, Building D senator for the Student Government Association (SGA), said that she is not even studying theatre, but that she feels it is a shame that the students who are studying theatre will not perform on Miller Stage any time soon. She said that the old Student Union is not a proper place for these students to be performing.
“I would just like to ask for APSCUF’s support in kind of pushing for the development of Miller Auditorium to be complete so that these students will be able to perform in an actual theatre space,” Holub said.
Jenna Temple, vice president of Internal Affairs for SGA, updated the audience on the status of the conversation between students and the administration in regards to the Student Success Center.
“The [Student Success Committee] is still planning on meeting with administration on a biweekly or monthly basis,” she said, noting that the committee plans to stay active.
Commuter Senator for SGA, Brian Welsh, said that he is extremely passionate about SRU, which is why he is getting involved with the conversation in regards to the Student Success Center.
“I don’t want generations of students of this university to feel as though they were lost and left out of the picture on the grand scheme of things,” Welsh said.
Before the meet and greet concluded, Metzli announced that the budget for next year’s academic school year has not been passed, but that this year’s budget was finally passed.
