Growth, safety highlight forum dialgoue between administrators, students

A forum made up of 17 Wilkes University officials and local leaders answered and asked questions at the October 10 Student Government meeting.

The forum was comprised of President Tim Gilmour, his cabinet members, support staff, the general manager of Barnes and Noble on Main Street and the Mayor of Wilkes-Barre, Thomas Leighton. The forum sat through SG's executive board meeting and then the new business during the general board meeting before asking and being asked questions.

SG President, Matt Brown, who had the idea for the forum opened the discussion by asking what members had questions for the panel. The topics ranged from safety and security to sports.

This first question came from the sophomore class asking if there was any way to get a students meal plan balance, including dining dollars, on the portal. Chris Bailey, Director of Campus Support, said that the school is already looking into that specific idea and hoped that it would be up and running by the end of the semester.

Another question dealt with the concern over the new sidewalks and that some students believe the walkways are slippery when it rains. Bailey said the school is aware of the problem and admitted that he has personally witnessed students having difficulty walking on the wet sidewalks. He said the school is taking action by putting down test strips of an epoxy resin with grit in it to allow better traction when the sidewalks get wet. Petra Carver, Vice President of Finance, said that they would keep the students posted on their progress.

Jef Bauman, SG Vice President, asked if Wilkes has room to keep growing at the rate it currently is with residence halls and classrooms. Mike Frantz, Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing, explained, "Our goal for the last fall student enrollment was 572 freshmen and 130 transfer students. It came roughly in at 620 freshmen and about 110/112 transfer students… it is an inexact science. And frankly what happened last year was that we had fewer applications and fewer accepted students and a much, much higher percentage of students who ultimately chose to attend the institution." He added that it is not the university's goal to keep growing exponentially. "Our goal is to cap at 577 freshman, 123 transfer students." He also outlined proactive measures the school will be doing to help predict class sizes and distribution.

Dr. Paul Adams, Vice President for Student Affairs, talked about how residence halls can adapt to meet the institution's needs. "We have a plan to grow our residence hall population to about 1,200… Right now we are at 1,047… When we get to that 1,200 it will most likely be a different configuration of buildings than what we currently have."

He also mentioned that as other residents leave University Towers, the school can put more and more students in that building and someday it can hold up to 400 students. In addition Adams talked about the creation of "residential clusters" around campus and moving out of the 300 block of South River Street.

SG President Matt Brown asked if, overall, the university is moving too quickly. Gilmour responded, "The fact is that it is very fast, particularly for a higher education institution of this size and history. On the other hand, the whole higher education industry or business is changing substantially and very rapidly. These changes present significant opportunities and the fact that we have been an institution that is really focused on our students frankly makes us an institution that probably has the best capability to be an institution that has real strength in the future." He also touched on the creation of a law school and the school's plan to bring in someone to coordinate that effort.

Other SG members raised questions about safety and whether or not the area was seeing a crime epidemic. This question was punctuated by an incident that happened earlier in the day when assistant football coach, Mike McCree was stabbed at Ralston Field when he confronted a man allegedly stealing from McCree's parked vehicle. Bailey sought to reassure students. "I don't think this is any major crime wave… What you are seeing is some activity on the periphery now. They are going after the easy targets… you've got to be aware of where you are, who you are around, and take care of each other." He also added that he does not believe there is a need to add any additional security officers, mentioning all of the security the school already has in place.

Other members of SG brought up the problem of cars not stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks. Some members even mentioned police cars do not stop. Mayor Leighton said he would talk to the police chief and suggested that students take license plate numbers down and report them to Public Safety who will then pass the information on to the city.

At the end of the question and answer session invited guests at the forum were invited to ask questions of SG. Frantz asked the students whether or not they felt that there was enough privacy at the desk in UCOM. Also, the GM of Barnes and Noble, John Chaump, asked how the store could get more people downtown.

The meeting concluded with Brown telling the general board how happy he was with the turnout. He mentioned that he did not plan on that many officials showing up, and Bauman mentioned that students should feel free to go to the administration anytime they want, and that they do not have to wait for an SG meeting to do it.