President's forum draws crowd

Rezoning, club sports, parking issues raised

February 20, 2006 —

President Eric R. Gilbertson and an unusually high number of students and staff members discussed several topics at the President's Open Forum on Wednesday.

The well-attended forum saw such topics as diversity in the academic curriculum, funding of club sports and organizations, commercial development near SVSU, and the questionable institutional support of nutritional and environmental awareness brought up.

Student Dan Schlink was among the first to voice a concern. He noted that while the University provided an adequate number of parking spaces for handicapped people, there were too few spaces that were van-accessible, and the spaces that were properly equipped were often occupied by handicapped students that did not require the use of the lifting block.

Schlink suggested that the University do something to better differentiate between the two types of handicapped spaces. Ron Trepkowski, the University Police Chief of Police, called the suggestion "an excellent idea."

Another issue was raised by student Julie Phenis. She mentioned to the president that the proposed rezoning of the area south of SVSU on Davis and Pierce roads would not attract the "classiest" of businesses.

Gilbertson agreed with her - to an extent. He argued that while he would enjoy seeing independent shops, nicer restaurants, and more pedestrian-accessible businesses, the University has little control over zoning issues and that market forces ultimately dictate what businesses succeed and what businesses fail.

"It's not our job to identify which stores go in there," he said.

Gilbertson made note of the difficulties that Cardinal Deli was having, illustrating that student preference does not seem to encourage independent establishments to break new ground around SVSU.

Student Joselyn Jordan raised yet another concern: her experience in some of her courses troubled her, as she felt they did not address diversity adequately.

Gilbertson's reply was multi-layered: first, he responded by noting that Michigan's accreditation policy requires the presence of a diversity element; and second, the University has determined that diversity is better treated in a student's major, as students have historically reacted overwhelmingly negatively to additional General Education requirements.

Student Jessica Dorion also addressed Gilbertson. She was concerned that the University was doing a poor job of promoting nutrition in the curriculum.

"We don't have a requirement for lifelong wellness," she explained.

The President responded to Jessica in much the same way he addressed Jordan's concern: General Education requirements are minimized to such a degree where they can best reflect student interest.

According to Gilbertson, inserting a wellness program into the curriculum would not accurately mirror student desire: the backlash against General Education is too strong.

International student Suzanne Edmonds brought up another issue: she was concerned that the University was not putting forth enough effort to recycle items.

She argued that there simply were not enough recycling bins on campus to service the University, and that there was not enough effort on SVSU's part to encourage recycling and re-usage.

Matt Wilton, director of Dining Services, responded to her concerns by citing current efforts being made to recycle and preserve. He made notice of three specific efforts: first, SVSU recycles massive amounts of cardboard; second, the RFoC does not use disposable dishware; and third, the University recently purchased a $95,000 dishwasher that cuts water usage by approximately 50 percent.

Following the meeting, Gilbertson e-mailed Steve Hocquard, assistant vice president for Campus Facilities, regarding the subject. Hocquard responded, explaining the situation further.

"We have recycling campus wide for paper products," he wrote. "We also have a recycling program for most other products for housing, the bookstore, and food service. We do not collect plastic and cardboard throughout the remainder of campus because we have not decided to devote the space in buildings and the manpower to deal with the collection program. The paper program already takes up quite a bit of space and time."

Hocquard added that having a campus-wide, complete recycling program would require the University to store recyclable materials in the same fashion as they are at everyone's home, like the garage.

"The Fire Marshall would not let us store this material in corridors," he said. "If you recycle at home, you probably store the items in your garage until it is time to have a service haul it away. It would be the same process here."

The liveliest discussion was over student programs and their funding. The struggling club hockey program was the first to be brought up by a number of students. They collectively argued that if the University would institute hockey as a varsity sport it would naturally draw interest.

Gilbertson countered, saying that club sports are club sports for a reason: student interest surveys, given every three years, have not indicated that enough people would participate in the program to make it worth the cost that would be passed on to students.

"We take seriously what we are going to tax our students for," he said.

He went on to say that if the program proved to be sustainable, the University would take implementation into consideration.

Another student asked Gilbertson why the University does not have a TV or radio station, like many other colleges.

The President responded by reiterating the same argument: if significant student interest existed, the SVSU would take that interest into consideration.

"We can't just say 'Look, we have this,'" he explained.