Tower Editorial

At this week’s town hall meeting, students came prepared with questions determined to get real answers from President Garvey, but instead, he took their questions and sidestepped them with a smile.

Following Garvey’s longwinded speech about how perfectly fine everything at the university is (plans for a varsity golf team are finally in the works!), CUAllies took to the stage and commanded the center of attention for the rest of the meeting.

The age old question posed to Garvey resurfaced yet again: why can’t CUAllies become an officially recognized organization on campus?

Garvey’s response did nothing to put this question to rest or even ease the tension. But don’t worry yet, he’s willing to have a conversation about it. An open dialogue, if you will.

The purpose of the meeting was to allow students to open up to Garvey with concerns, and in return, for him to open up to them and give real answers. Instead, many students were disappointed. It seemed that a lot of topics were regarded as a conversation for another time, something for the lawyers to deal with. This was the time for those conversations. Garvey basically spent the whole time talking about how he wanted to have a town hall meeting and neglected to realize he was already at one.

These meetings, which are few and far between, are not just another opportunity for SGA to tell us how great they’ve been doing, a time for Garvey to tell us his plans and make us feel like we’re in-the-know, or a place for the public showmanship of his outreach to students. These meetings are to provide students with real and honest answers to their questions, even if they are not the answers they want to hear.

We now know what is happening with the renovation of Maloney Hall, that the university has extensive plans to expand the undergraduate student population, and that there is a cultural center on the way. But we still are left wondering if student wages will be raised, if there are any support systems for students who become pregnant, and of course, if CUAllies will ever be recognized.