As both a student and a student advocate, I was troubled to see an editorial in [the Oct. 4 issue of] The News detailing some major problems with on-campus services, particularly in the areas of the housing selection process and dining, among other more minor concerns that are equally valid and deserving of attention.
As [Student Government Association]’s VP for Student Services, I serve to address concerns in all of the areas mentioned in last week’s editorial and am more than happy to hear about all of the author’s concerns in more detail so we can address the specific issues. But I’d also like to detail some of SGA’s efforts to prevent many of the problems that the author described. In fact, in many cases, initiatives we’ve worked on in the past year or so have completely mitigated a few of the concerns brought up in last week’s column.
First, there was a detailed discussion of the housing placement process. Of course, I don’t know the specifics of the author’s experiences with applying for housing, but I can speak to the general process.
Housing and Residential Life works with students on a task force that meets year-round to try to hash out a housing placement process that works for everyone. That said, no system ever works perfectly.
Unfortunately, because of the sheer size of our university’s student population relative to the amount of on-campus housing options, not every student is going to get exactly their roommate and building preferences as outlined on the preference sheet. And yes, the notification process is also staggered such that many students (including myself, last year) don’t find out their placement until early summer.
When it comes to dining, we certainly realize that no one ever has a perfect experience in the dining halls. That said, I welcome students to submit their complaints about dining on campus; I’m in regular touch with administrators from Dining Services who I assure you are absolutely focused on ensuring a positive experience for students. For more immediate and minor concerns, SGA has recently worked with Dining to put up signs with the photos and names of the manager on duty in each respective dining hall. This will enable students who have unfortunate experiences (like with dry chicken and long lines) to bring them up to the manager on the spot, instead of bringing it up to SGA several days later when we can’t fix your experience.
The sign-in process is obviously less than ideal, and we’re well aware of that fact. SGA recently suggested and saw implemented some minor changes to the guest sign-in sheet that will make the process quicker for both proctors and guests. And because of a recent referendum passed by the students last spring, SGA has a renewed focus on trying to upgrade the sign-in technology, with the goal of moving toward a digitized process. We’ll be updating students on our progress with this effort throughout the year.
As far as the many facilities-related complaints about on-campus housing, everyone acknowledges that any building in Boston will encounter problems, even though that makes the situations described in [Oct. 4]’s editorial unacceptable. What is great about on-campus housing is the ability to submit a work request that Facilities can usually resolve pretty quickly. SGA is working to publicize how to submit a work request with an email you’ll hopefully see shortly.
We absolutely welcome and encourage all types of feedback – you can email, call, stop by our office or head to our website at www.sga.neu.edu/feedback. If I can be of any help, I’d encourage you to email me at [email protected]. Know that we’re here to help and to fix as many problems as we can.
-Terry MacCormack is a middler political science major and the Student Government Association’s Vice President for Student Services.
