President Ross to seek student input Monday with forum

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University President George Ross will be all ears Monday at the Student Priorities subcommittee forum.

The forum begins at 7 p.m. in the Charles V. Park Library Auditorium and is open to all Central Michigan University students and faculty.

“This is an opportunity for students to have access to (our) president,” said Stan Shingles, director of University Recreation.

Brittany Mouzourakis, newly-elected Student Government Association president and committee member, highlighted several issues that may come up, including tuition, student parking, budget cuts and the Leadership Institute possibly being cut from CMU’s academic program. She said student expectations of transparency may also be a point of discussion.

“I hope to see a lot of students come out and voice their concerns,” the Garden City senior said.

Mount Pleasant senior Jason Nichol is the subcommittee’s co-chairman.

Though the co-chair position is reserved for THE SGA president, Mouzourakis said Nichol will continue until the end of the semester.

Kim Voisin, assistant director of Residence Life and a committee member, said she hopes at least 100 students attend the forum.

Voisin said the forum has been planned since the end of March.

“(We) wanted to get the president connected with students as soon as possible,” she said. “There may be some bigger issues that (we’re) hoping to find out.”

Shingles said Monday is an attempt to engage as many students as possible.

He said identifying the issues on students’ minds is important, especially with the university president around to hear the discussion.

“(We) want to hear straight from the students,” he said. “This is an opportunity for students to have access to (our) president.”

Other plans

The subcommittee also hopes to conduct an electronic student survey to gauge thoughts on various issues.

“The idea is to gather a list of concerns on campus and create a survey based on those concerns,” Mouzourakis said.

She said the subcommittee hopes to have the survey available by the end of the semester.

“After the forum, (we) will take all the information and try to prioritize some of the students’ issues and concerns,” Shingles said.

If the survey is complete by the end of the semester, it will be included in the subcommittee’s initial progress report for Ross, Mouzourakis said.

The report is due June 1 and will include the results from the survey, at least ten priorities of students, how they were handled in the past and how they are currently handled.