On Jan. 21, Student Government Association held its biannual Town Hall meeting to give students a chance to talk to the Administration. Despite important figures like University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J. being in attendance, only 10 regular students attended the event.
“I don’t know how to explain this lack of student activism or this lack of student willingness to participate,” SGA President Michael Harris said. “We really have to better define what the problem is to better be able to solve it. We need to give students faith that the system works.”
Those in attendance interacted with several administrators in three, round-table style sessions.
During each session, various topics were suggested for discussion, such as the actual value of a SLU degree, the recent increase in tuition and the decentralization of the graduate school.
“We use about $100 million a year for scholarship,” Biondi said, on the state of the University’s tuition. He also spoke about the strength of the “alumni revolving fund,” a program in which a medical school graduate helps current medical students pay for tuition, in hopes that, when they graduate, they will participate in the program. He also mentioned that, out of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the U.S., SLU ranked 27th on the list of whose tuition increased the most. At the same time, the school’s endowment has gone up in the last six months.
Students were also given the opportunity to pose their own questions about anything else they felt concerned about at the University.
“I think the Town Hall went very well,” Vice President for Diversity and Social Justice Jamie James said. “The Administration was very cooperative with the issues that came up. I wish more students would have attended.”
The students who did attend were also pleased with how the event went.
“It’s a really good idea,” Priya Sirohi, one of the freshmen in attendance, said. “There should be better advertising so more students could come. It’s really important that they come talk to these administrators.”