Just as vice presidential candidates Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden are clearing their throats tonight before the big debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis University administrators will be preparing for a little dialogue of their own.

This evening at 5 p.m., SLU students, faculty and staff will gather in the Busch Student Center Ballrooms for a town hall meeting. There, they will have the opportunity to question administrators directly about their plans and policies for all things SLU, from the housing crunch to trayless lunch.

Town hall meetings at SLU serve two purposes. On one hand, they put administrators on a public stage. This means that when students ask specific questions, administrators must provide intelligible answers and must be held accountable for those answers.

Second, they create space for dialogue among those who organize the University and the thousands of others who must live within the framework of that organization.

SLU’s Student Government Association has organized town hall meetings with administrators for several years now. They’ve experimented with different formats, first having administrators field questions as a panel in front of a large audience, then encouraging them to chat with smaller groups of students.

Today’s town hall meeting combines those two methods: the panel format fulfills the first purpose of the meeting, forcing SLU’s organizers to provide cohesive answers to hot-button questions. The small-group format fulfills the second purpose, allowing students to talk with SLU’s bigwigs mano-a-mano.

On paper, this meeting seems to be an ideal mix of dialogue and accountability.

But students should be clear on one point: administrators are coming to listen and chat, not to hand over the reigns of decision-making power. Compared to old-world town halls, where town members met to influence politicians, tonight’s town hall may be more like a question-and-answer session.

The meeting will begin with a presentation about the University’s budgeting process, presented before the budget is set for next year. This means that it comes before potential price hikes in tuition and other student fees. Whether students will have a say in SLU’s budgeting is uncertain. They will have the chance to ask questions, but not necessarily influence policy.

In small-group discussion, suggested topics include budgeting and funding; environmental sustainability; and retention, recruitment and school spirit. These topics are important, but they do not reflect every student concern.

So don’t just settle for polite questions and answers. This isn’t tea-time small talk; this is our chance to voice concerns about our University’s direction.

Here’s your chance, your direct connection to SLU’s corridors of influence. Take it. Ask the tough questions and demand tough answers.