On Monday, Sept. 25, Saint Louis University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., participated in an informal question-and-answer session with a small crowd of students and faculty. It was the first of a series of town hall meetings between administrators and students scheduled by the Student Government Association.

Biondi answered questions on a variety of issues, including housing, parking and the status of the student union.

Biondi said of the housing situation: “That’s a decision we are holding off on, whether we should build a new residence hall.”

He continued, “I do think that we should become more and more of a national University, and to do that we have to have nice, quality residence halls.”

Vice President for Facilities Services and Civic Affairs Kathleen Brady acknowledged that students still weren’t satisfied with parking conditions, but that the problem wasn’t a shortage of parking. Rather, many students were unhappy about having to park too far away in the Olive/Compton Garage on the east end of campus.

Biondi was unwilling to make any commitments about building new structures on campus.

“The question for any new building [project] is ‘How do we pay for it?'” Biondi said. He also called the building a new student union a “wait-and-see issue.”

“[Fr. Biondi] knows that something must be done about issues like the student union,” said SGA president Jay Perry. “It is just a matter of finding out whether it should be tearing the old building down and building a new one; whether it is an extensive renovation of the current building, or something else entirely.”

During the course of the question-and-answer session, Biondi stated that he was not interested in the position of president at Georgetown University or Loyola University in Chicago.

Georgetown University is currently searching for applicants.

Fewer than 30 students and faculty attended the meeting. SGA President Jay Perry said that the meeting met its goal of establishing a line of communication between administrators and students, despite the low attendance.

“[Fr. Biondi] was more than willing to talk to students,” Perry said. “I just wish that more of them were willing to take advantage.”