Forum gathers audience of 25 for panel on student voice

A push for more transparency by the university administration will be only as effective as students want it to be, Patrick Love, Richmond College Student Government Association president, said at the campus forum Tuesday.

Change is based on the students' input, hard work and diligence, he said to a gathering of about 25 students and faculty members at this year's Forum at the Forum outside Gottwald.

The Forum at the Forum is an open discussion in which all students, faculty and community members are invited to voice their concerns, comments and questions to a group of selected panelists. This year's topic was "What is the value of your voice at UR?"

Seniors Caroline Moles and Sarah Muse were the two student mediators at the speech center-sponsored tradition, directed by Linda Hobgood.

Moles would have liked to have seen a higher turnout, she said, but she appreciated the questions and answers that were exchanged.

Eight panelists prepared for hot weather and heated questions about how voice is used and valued on the University of Richmond's campus. The collection of panelists included Steve Bisese, vice president for Student Development; Dan Fabian, associate dean of Richmond College; Kerry Fankhauser, associate dean of Westhampton College; Robert Hodierne, professor of journalism; Paul Achter, professor of rhetoric and communication studies; Mimi Mudd, the new Westhampton College Government Association president; Patrick Love, the new Richmond College Student Government Association president and Scott Himelein, former member of the men's soccer team. The discussion was held in the forum with hopes that passersby might stop and join in, Muse said.

However, this year, the audience was never greater than 25 and the panelists faced questions from nine people throughout the 90-minute session.

Freshman David Ricculli said "transparency" had become a buzzword around campus, and he asked the panelists for a definition and their ideas on how to initiate effective transparency.

Love, a member of the track team and new president of RCSGA, said that transparency should start with the senate. Love said he would try to link students, the senate and the administration in open conversation by setting an example with the openness of the senate to all students.

"If we work really hard and diligently over the next year, we'll set up a successful pattern and foundation for years to come," he said. Transparency is based on students' input and desire to be successful. Love urged students to come to the open senate meetings and help with the movement.

Hodierne said there was a unique business relationship between a university and its students. As customers of the university, students should have a lot more power than they seem to have, he said.

"You have as much power as you're willing to take," he said. "No one is ever going to give you power; you've got to take it."

People assume power at a university by being smart and organized, making logical arguments and continuing to make them as loudly and publicly as possible, Hodierne said.

In response to a question about the differences between voice and action, Achter said that he thought voice was action. No community has ever achieved giving a voice to everyone, he said- there is always a fight for voice.

Student voice has the ability to change things faster at a private university than at a public university, Bisese said.

Since he started his job at the University of Richmond in 2006, there have been four major initiatives set forth because of student voice: remodeling the residence halls with a focus on single dorm rooms, giving greater attention to student organizations, remodeling the Commons for more gathering space and providing more recreational opportunities.

"That voice has to be part of an action plan for many years to come," Bisese said. "I'm amazed at what we've done in five to six years on those four fronts."

Himelein said that at a private university, students put their trust in a small body of decision makers to act in the students' best interests.

"As we've seen in the past year, that's not always going to be the case," he said. In cases like the men's soccer and track teams, money is going to have a greater impact than the student body would like, Himelein said. If students aren't going to have as much of a voice at a private institution, in an ideal world it would be compensated for by the presence of transparency, he said. Students should know what is going on, even if they can't interfere with it, Himelein said.

"I think a lot of kids on my [soccer] team coming in for their freshman year wish there had been more transparency of what was going on," he said. "That's a pretty good example of someone getting screwed over."

Himelein was surprised by the lack of people at the forum because of the priority these issues took in the fall, but he understood that it was not an opportune time of day for people, he said.

In response to a question from freshman Emily Cho about campus culture and students speaking out, Fankhauser said that Richmond was a much more passive campus than the public schools where she had previously worked.

Achter said that people would resist change even when traditions weren't positive.

"Things will never change unless people have courage to stand up," he said.

After many forums this year regarding changes on campus, Moles felt that student opinions were very seldom acknowledged, she said, and asked how to turn their right-given voice into something effective. Hodierne suggested finding specific causes to rally around. Change takes a lot of hard work and persistence, he said, and it is even harder at a university, where the student body turns over every four years.

Achter said that people needed to be ahead of the curve and not just reactive to situations. Just being reactive is a helpless position to be in so students must build a community that reflects their values and puts people in a better position to grab their voice when the time comes, Achter said.

Contact reporter Kylie McKenna at kylie.mckenna@richmond.edu