Student newspaper of Illinois Institute ofTechnology since 19 8

President Provost Forum sparks debate,

By Ryan Kamphuis
EDITORIN-CHIEF

With rumors about the future plans
of the university spreading like wildfire and stu7
dent questions regarding the actions of admin,
istration beginning to pile up, it was time for
the Student Government Association (SGA)
to hold their semesterly President and Provost
Open Forums Students and faculty converged
upon the McCormick Tribune Campus Center
Ballroom during the lunch hour of Tuesday,
April 10 to engage the President and Provost of
the University in an afternoon of questions and
answers regarding everything from university
policy to future plans to curriculum changes to
commencement

The event was welleattended by uni,
versity faculty and student leaders Moderated
by members of SGA’s executive board, ques7
tions to the President and Provost were taken
from attendees of the event and through an on,
line form ran for those who were watching the
online stream of the event

After an initial opening statement
delivered by the President and Provost, the
floor was opened for student questions An
early question topic that brought forth con,
siderable discussion was the upcoming moves
that many university offices were going to need
to make due to the recent news that Main
Building was sinking into the ground A stu7
dent expressed concern that with all the move,
ment that was required, the Office of Campus
Life may have to move out ofthe MTCCt This
rumor was quickly dispelled by Dean of Stu,
dents Katie MurphyeStetz MurphyeStetz said
that the Office of Campus Life will be staying
in the MTCC throughout these moves, and it
was never even considered to move it out of the

MTCCt Provost Alan Cramb also explained
that the university was using this opportu7
nity to move all of the university offices that
deal directly with students into the MTCC,
creating what he called a, “one stop shop," for
student affairs MurphyeStetz also confirmed
that throughout all of these oflice movements,
student organizations such as SGA, UB, Tech,
News, and others would not be losing their
spaces in the Office of Campus Life

An early question that seemed to
catch both the President and the Provost off
guard was a student’s inquiry as to why no Afe
ricaneAmericans were members of the HT Hall
of Fame The student argued that many Afrie
caneAmerican HT students were trailblazers in
their fields, who made many positive changes
both at HT and in the professional world, and
deserved to be in the Hall of Fame President
John Anderson explained that he didn’t know
why no AfricaneAmericans were members of
the Hall of Fame, and in fact, he didn’t know
what must be done to add people to the HT
Hall of Fame Cramb explained that even
though no AfricaneAmericans were members
of the Hall of Fame, many had recently won
awards given out by the University to alumni
Cramb said that this may be a sign that it is
time to update the process by which people are
added to the HT Hall of Fame

A topic that received thorough dis,
cussion was making HT friendlier for commute
er students A student expressed concern over
how commuter students were often left out of
university activities He talked about how stu7
dent organization meetings and campus events
were often in the evening, making it difiicult
for commuter students to attend Murphy,
Stetz responded to this question, highlighting
the new commuter lounge in The Bog and the
availability of guest suites on weekends as steps

the school is taking to make life as a commuter
student easier The Provost also used this op,
portunity to say that it is his goal to have all HT
students living on campus in order to foster a
better university community

Also discussed were HT’s recent eff
forts to establish an interdisciplinary degree
programs Anderson explained that although
an interdisciplinary degree program can be
very advantageous for some students, it poses a
risk because many employers don’t know what
it means Cramb explained that HT had an
interdisciplinary degree program in the past,
and that the school is looking to bring back
this program in the right fashion so that it is
respected by industry and other universities

Another issue brought up was HT’s
recent efforts to establish a foreign language
programs When asked about the state of the
program and the lack of courses, Anderson
frankly replied that he didn’t understand why
HT doesn’t have a comprehensive language
programs Anderson commented that HT
needs more language courses which augment
the diversity present at HT He also said that
while the recent introduction of Spanish lan
guage courses is excellent, much more progress
needs to be made Cramb then took the floor,
explaining that a priority he has regarding lan
guage programs is ensuring that any language
courses at HT not only teach language, but also
culture He explained that this ensures that HT
students are balanced individuals, and that this
takes advantage of the diversity of the student
body at HT

The President then began to discuss
plans to construct a modern athletics facile
ity to augment the existing facilities available
in Keating Halli Anderson explained that the
main priority on the university’s radar was to
build an “Innovation Center" on campus, and

 

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their second priority was to build a new athe
letics facility The President elaborated, saying
that this proposed facility would probably be
a fieldhouse, and would be located across 31st
street from Keating Anderson concluded his
remarks on Keating by saying that the only
thing holding the school back from beginning
construction was that they are currently look,
ing for a $35 million to $40 million donation
to pay for the facility, and that this new facility
would begin to take shape within the next 10
years

A topic that created heated discus,
sion was the university administration’s recent
ban on hookahs An online question was posed
regarding the administration’s view towards
hookahs President Anderson gave the floor to
Provost Cramb on this issue, who gave a very
heated responses Cramb seemed exasperated
as he expressed his confusion over what sce7
nario made it acceptable to discuss whether it
should be allowed for people to communally
smoke and, by doing so, kill themselves over
time He explained that Illinois and Chicago
law made it illegal for people to smoke hoof
kahs, or anything for that matter, indoors and
inside university dormitories Cramb also ex,
pressed his desire to see no smoking on cam,
pus, explaining that students have a right to
not have to breathe secondhand smoke Dean
MurphyeStetz ended the discussion on the new
hookah policy by saying that it would be easier
for all parties involved if those who wished
to smoke hookah went to offcampus hookah
bars to do so She said that by doing this the
university wouldn’t have to hound those smoke
ing, and those smoking wouldn’t have to deal
with administration trying to stop them

One of the final topics discussed was
the upcoming move of the Stuart School of
Business into HT Tower and back onto Main
Campus President Anderson explained that
the entire Stuart School, except for its part7
time graduate program, was moving into HT
Towers The goal of doing this, said Anderson,
was to expand Stuart School enrollment to ap
proximately 400 students, turning it into one of
the largest colleges at HT Cramb took an op,
portunity to express his excitement regarding
the Stuart School move, saying that with the
move, the school was taking an opportunity to
update and redo their curriculum, making it
modern and competitive Cramb ecstatically
described how much of a gameechanger this
was, and how excited everyone in administra7
tion is, about the potential of this new curricu7
lum and of the moves

As the final concluding comments
were made and people began to leave the
Ballroom, it was clear that the overall experi7
ence of the Forum was a good one While the
environment of the Forum was tense at some
points while controversial topics were being
discussed, the forum was always able to move
onto lighter discussion afterwards The com,
mon theme of the afternoon seemed to be the
future of student life and the future of HT’s cure
riculumi Many apt questions were asked and
answered regarding these issues, which could
lead to further exploration on how to improve
aspects of these issues This exploration will
most likely lead to a more focused discussion
on these topics at the President and Provost foe
rum next semester, and more detailed answers
being able to be provided to students regarding
these topics

Photo by Ryan Kamphuis