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Student newspaper of lllinois institute of Technology since 1928

TUESDAY.
MARCH 10,
2015

Volume 181 | Issue 7

technewsiit.com

SGA 2
CAMPUS 2-4
ABE 5
SLIPSTICK 6
SPORTS 7

Students seek answers at President, Provost oFrum

Kori Downs
EDITOR—IN-CHIEF

The President and Provost Forum is
an event hosted by Student Government Asso—
ciation (SGA) every semester at Illinois Insti-
tute of Technology that provides students the
opportunity to ask questions they have regard-
ing university policy to the top two university
administrators, President John Anderson and
Provost Alan Cramb, who was recently chosen
to succeed Anderson as the next university
president later this year.

This semester’s President and Pro-
vost Forum was hosted over the lunch hour
on Friday, March 6, in the Hermann Hall Ball-
room. Free sandwiches, fruit, chips, and des-
serts were offered to those in attendance as
they arrived. -

The event got started with opening
remarks from SGA President Akinade Aderele.
He thanked those in attendance and explained
the purpose of the event. He then passed com-
mand of the stage over to Gabriel Connors, an
SGA Senator who served as the moderator for
the event. Connors explained the format of the
event and dove right into providing questions
to the president and provost.

This semester’s President and Pro-
vost Forum saw considerably more questions
than those hosted in recent semesters; over 40
questions were submitted via an online form
that was made available for students to submit
their questions prior to the event.

The first question came from the
online form and asked the reasons for Presi—
dent Anderson leaving the position of Presi-
dent of the university and what plans Provost
Cramb has for the position. “I have been in
the job for almost eight years, which is quite
a long time for the president of a university,”

said Anderson. He also added that a variety of
personal and professional circumstances con-
tributed to the decision. “I feel comfortable
about stepping down at this particular point.
I feel like we’ve done great things over the past
eight years. I think the university will do very
well in this transition.” Provost Cramb added
the following: “If I look forward to what’s re-
ally important to the university, growth of the
undergraduate body is probably the most im—
portant thing we can do for the stability and
strength of the university. We have to have a
current undergraduate body that enjoys their
experience while they’re here. The student
experience in the classroom, I think, is excel-
lent, however the student experience out of the
classroom needs to be improved significantly.
I’ll be focusing out the out-of-the classroom
experience.” Cramb also mentioned that ad-
ministration plans to improve student reten-
tion and graduation rates as well as placement
in careers or graduate school after graduation.

The next question also came from
the online form regarding decisions from ad-
ministration regarding policies related to can-
celling class and preparing campus after snow
or other severe weather. “As long as it’s not
snowing inside the classroom, we’re going to
have classes,” began Anderson. “I thought our
staff has done a great job this year of cleaning
the sidewalks.” He added that students miss
out on value of their tuition by having a day
of class cancelled. Provost Cramb added that if
he can’t make it to campus from his residence
in Lincoln Park, it would be a time to consider
cancelling classes.

Another question from the online
form asked for elaboration regarding the up-
dates and changes to the HT Public Safety
escort policy, which was modified in mid-
February to end on—demand safety escorts to

off-campus locations and replaced them with
regular escorts by a security van at scheduled
intervals to limited off-campus locations. Pres-
ident Anderson says that the update to the pol-
icy makes the service more predictable and re-
flects the concerns that students have brought
up over previous years. The floor was opened
up to additional questions, one of which asked
about the options for students who do not live
in designated areas where Public Safety will
be dropping off students. President Anderson
says that the policy is still new and open to
feedback from students. “If changes have to be
made, they’ll be made, but it will not be fea-
sible to stop at every location where a student
lives,” said Anderson.

The floor was opened up to ad-
ditional questions from students. A student
representative from TEDxIIT asked about
scheduling a meeting with the president of the
university, to which President Anderson sug—
gested calling his oflice and simply asking to
schedule a meeting with him. An additional
question asked about the keys to fundraising
for university events. Provost Cramb suggests
students speak with the deans of their colleges,
ask for Student Activity Fund money, and so-
licit donations from alumni.

An additional question from the
floor came from Maria Garcia, a representative
from Commuter Student Association. Garcia
asked for some additional information regard-
ing the requirements for classes to be cancelled
due to weather conditions. Provost Cramb
answered that class would be cancelled if there
was a legitimate concern for safety of students
or if state or local authorities asked people to
not travel “Decisions are not based on think-
ing of individuals. They’re based on thinking of
the university as a whole. People have to make
a decision themselves. If they feel it’s not safe

for them to do something, they shouldn’t do
it.” Provost Cramb adds that, if students can’t
make it to class because of weather and they
travel a far distance, our faculty are asked to
take that into account and make sure students
are able to make up anything they missed.

Another question from the audi-
ence came from a student regarding the food
services at IIT. The student asked what admin—
istrators plan to do regarding quality of food
on campus. “The administration takes any is-
sue raised by people about quality of any of
our services very seriously,” said Cramb. He
says that a full analysis by a variety of people is
initiated when issues are brought up. “Sodexo
is a large corporation that is under a lot of re-
quirements by the city and the state for qual-
ity control. They are not allowed by the city
or state to get out of quality control, and they
are inspected not only by us but also the city
and the state to make sure they are meeting the
quality requirements to serve food to anyone,”
added Cramb. Katherine Stetz, IIT’s Dean of
Students, also added that weekly meetings take
place between Sodexo and her office to address
student concerns.

Several of the questions submitted
through the online form asked for transpar-
ency regarding tuition increases and where the
revenue from tuition goes. President Anderson
says that only about 40% of tuition money goes
to paying faculty; other money goes toward
facility improvements and other operational
costs. Anderson added that tuition goes up
every year because things get more expensive
every year. He also added that students will not
be made able to see a breakdown of salaries of
individuals or other costs like they are able to
at public universities. A few additional ques-
tions regarding tuition increases were asked,
and related answers were provided, saying that

Continued on Page 4

Photo by Kevin’Zheng