Issue:

The student forums for the vice president of student affairs were held this week and there was limited attendance by students.

The University is filling important administrative positions such as the vice president of student affairs, the president, the chief diversity officer and the provost.  

Forums for the three finalists for the vice president of student affairs position were held during the last few weeks. One forum for each candidate is dedicated to students. Here they can ask questions, state their concerns and meet the potential candidate. 

Stance: 

The University needs to find alternative methods to reach out to students, especially with important administration decisions.

However, there is one problem at these student forums — very few students are attending. It’s not that nobody cares about forums, because the faculty forums are well attended, but a lack of student attendance is disconcerting.

Common responses to lack of student attendance at these forums? Well, who cares? Why does it matter? What is this for? Must students don’t know what the vice president of student’s affairs or any of the other higher up, administrative positions do on a typical day. 

A common response to those statements: if you don’t go, then you can’t complain when your needs are not met.

But, there is a bigger issue surrounding students not attending these forums and their apathy toward the importance of these positions — and it’s communication. 

We, at The Collegian, believe the solution is to provide students with more information about these types of events through multiple avenues.

Most students read their email, but if their interest isn’t captured in the beginning of the email or the information doesn’t pertain to them, they immediately delete it. 

They shouldn’t delete it right away, but unfortunately they do. One way to solve this is to give students multiple ways to access this information. One way The Collegian staff thinks this could be accomplished is putting an announcement banner on D2L. All students use D2L for classes; thus, they will have to look at this announcement.

Times are changing and with that the forms of communication between the university and the students should change as well. One way might be through social media. 

The student forums this week are only the beginning. Eventually, the other positions will need to be filled and those administering the searches will want student feedback. These forums and voicing your opinion is one way to directly impact some university decisions.

The people who are chosen for these administrative positions will affect your time on campus, but it will also impact the future. It will change the direction and future of South Dakota State University, as well as future Jackrabbits.

The Collegian staff meets weekly and agrees on the issue of the editorial.

The editorial represents the opinion of The Collegian.