University President David Adamany addressed the Temple Student Government last Monday. Speaking for almost an hour, he addressed student concerns about various issues such as housing, work study wages, and stressed the need for faculty to be more accountable.
“[There] has been a tendency for people not to want to take ownership of problems,” Adamany said.
TSG Student Life Chair Alicia Fajardo asked why the “university is not held accountable” when students “have to go from office to office to office” to find the answer to a problem or when department advisers “have students taking classes that they do not need to graduate.”
Adamany said the university is working on developing a help center to “assist students to the right place to get help and track that student’s progress.”
He also said the information given to students during advising sessions will be recorded and soon become available to them on OWLnet.
Senior Olga Lomanovitch wanted to know why “bad teachers keep coming back” and how significant student evaluations were to the contract negotiating process.
Adamany said the view of the university is to work with faculty members and give them another opportunity to succeed before releasing them.
He said the significance of evaluations varies depending on the status of the faculty member.
“Evaluations filled out by students are taken very seriously by us when we can evaluate facts,” Adamany said.
In his opening remarks, Adamany spoke extensively about the “changing face of the campus.”
For example, Adamany said he expects the TECH Center – the state-of-the-art building which will have 700 computer stations – to open by the beginning of the spring semester.
“We expect that all of the software that is required in all of the academic programs in the university will be available to you at that site,” Adamany said.
Adamany also announced that Student Health Services and advising for University Studies, Liberal Arts and Pre-Health professions would move into the 1800 block of Liacouras Walk, also scheduled to open during the second semester.
Moving Student Health Services to a larger space was “the most urgent thing” according to Adamany.
“The student health clinic has been a source of steady complaints in recent years,” he said. “We will have much better health service facilities in the new building.”
According to Adamany, the preliminary plans for a new Fox School of Business and Management building would begin in the spring after Curtis Hall is knocked down during the winter break.
“There will not be many tears shed about that,” Adamany said referring to the demolition of Curtis Hall.
In response to previous general assembly concerns, Adamany spoke about the significance of creating the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the importance of maintaining campus diversity.
“There was a very concentrated effort made in the admissions process to recruit students from all backgrounds,” he said. “We received great help from Temple Student Government.
“Everyone’s combined effort has resulted in a larger number and a larger percentage of minority students in the entering freshman class as compared to a year ago,” Adamany said.
Chairperson and Officer Reports
Vice President of Student Affairs Cristina Ackas and President Oscar Chow urged representatives to express their opinions and voice their concerns during their weekly reports.
“The same way you grilled [Adamany] with questions, I want you to come to me also,” Ackas said, adding that she is always in the TSG office. “I’m here to answer any questions that you may have.”
Organizational representative Terrence Ragin asked Chow if he thought anything gets resolved after administrators like Adamany visit the general assembly.
“I actually feel that a lot does get done out of these meetings,” Chow said.
“A lot of us are only here for four years and sometimes [our] recommendations don’t come up for a couple of years, but your suggestions are being heard and I believe progress is being made.”
Chow also said that he is trying to invite more administrators to speak at future general assembly meetings.
Treasurer Ryan Feldman announced that a total of $74,521 was allocated to 76 student groups for the fall semester.
The 2005-2006 TSG allocations budget is $170,000.
Tyson McCloud can be reached at tyson@temple.edu.
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