2008 Woodie Awards
Low student turnout at Aoun forum
Kate Augusto
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: News
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The forum, held in the Curry Student Center Ballroom, was attended by about 25 to 30 students, many of them Student Government Association (SGA) members.
SGA president Joey Fiore said the low turnout was in part due to poor communication between Student Affairs, who planned the event, and SGA.
"At no point was it communicated to me that this was intended to be an SGA forum for Aoun or that SGA was responsible for advertising," Fiore said. "It's really unfortunate that this miscommunication happened because it was a fantastic opportunity for Aoun to speak to students … and because the entire senior leadership at the school was sitting in that room."
Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Klotzbier said this annual event is typically hosted by Student Affairs with involvement from SGA as a forum for student leaders. All students, however, are allowed to attend.
Typically, Klotzbier said Student Affairs "get the day in the President's calendar, venue and food, and then SGA gets the people in the chairs."
Klotzbier said he mentioned the event at an SGA meeting he attended in October, and then posted an announcement on myNEU, e-mailed SGA a flyer to help them promote the event and wrote about it on the Student Affairs blog.
Fiore, however, said the forum, referred to by Klotzbier as the "Joey and Joseph Show," was only mentioned to him in passing. Fiore said the Student Affairs office e-mailed the flyer to his faculty account, which he said he seldom checks, and the attachment with the flyer would not open.
Tony Hyppolite, a sophomore mechanical engineer major, attended the last few minutes of the forum after he heard about it through word of mouth. Hyppolite said he thinks it's unfortunate so many students missed the opportunity to ask the university president questions.
"Students see [Aoun] passing by and now he's sitting in front of them for an hour or so and it's not fair," he said. "If they value student's opinions at all, they wouldn't just set up 110 chairs. They would've set up 300. They should've been turning students away."
Hyppolite said that even if SGA had found out about the forum the day before, they should've been able to get the word out.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
Tom
posted 11/15/07 @ 2:23 PM EST
I think its sad that instead of getting President Aoun's messages out to the student body, the NU News used the space to complain. If they feel so bad that students could not hear what the President had to say, why didn't they talk about his messages in the article? I think only one may have been mentioned, and that was even brief. (Continued…)
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Sam
posted 11/16/07 @ 1:18 AM EST
It's funny how people bitch about the president not being "accessible" enough to the students - then an opportunity for anyone to ask him anything comes around and no one bothers. (Continued…)
Bill
posted 11/16/07 @ 3:14 AM EST
Hey, Tom, it's called a story. There's no story in the bullshit Aoun spit out at that pathetic meeting. Yes, I was there. Were you? Doesn't sound like it. (Continued…)
Jeff
posted 11/16/07 @ 10:59 AM EST
I honestly don't care about how the news covered the story. As a student group member who was unable to attend because of poor communication from SGA, I am appalled that things like this are allowed to continue. (Continued…)
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