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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Recently on the UIS website, Ed Wojiciki, Associate Chancellor for Constituent Relations, debuted a “community blog” where people can comment on some of the issues around campus.
This blog, billed as: “A new kind of conversation addressing issues that UIS students and staff care about” tries to address publicly (well, as public as anonymous blog responses can get) some of the issues of concern around UIS.
This is a step in the right direction for the administration; at least the questions and responses posed are honest and unfiltered. But, as can be seen below, sometimes the administration may not like what it hears…
You can read more at http://www.uis.edu/newsbureau/community/. Here is a selection of comments from the blog on a variety of subjects:
anonymous said....Retention is certainly an area we need to work on. We have faculty and AP’s who put in long hours and considerable effort and expertise to develop a learning community, and to ease students over the bumps, but serious bumps remain. For instance, when I was a student many years ago, I would go to my faculty advisor with questions about what courses I needed to take, and they would simply be answered. No second guessing, no referring or double-checking with half a dozen other people. Traditionally, degrees were granted by faculty. Since then, some disempowerment, some fracturing of the traditional system has occurred. We got simultaneously creative and stringent with the rules for the general education requirements, the colloquia, the ECCE’s, and they outgrew us. Nobody seems to have a handle on them anymore, and the faculty are becoming hesitant to tell their advisees, “This is the requirement you need to take.” In that kind of environment, students will either flounder or try to take advantage. We need to reempower the faculty in our programs, and restore our students’ faith in oursystem.
anonymous said…I believe that an agreement should be made with the SMTD to allow students, faculty, and staff to show their I-card and get rides for free on any of the bus routes throughout Springfield. I just transferred from the Urbana campus as an employee there and that is what they had setup.
anonymous said…I feel having SMTD bus service (Bus No: 11) to UIS campus after 6.00 PM is very important, as students are forced to return or stay back at the campus. Atleast having SMTD run a bus for every one hour till 9.00 PM will be a great help to students at UIS. Its high time that the UIS administration understand the need of public transportation to UIS students and work with SMTD to resolve this problem.
anonymous said…I think that the UIS Journal was harsh. I mean yeah they could get some students on there or do a LIVE show. I’ve seen the show and it’s not like he’s dancing around the questions that are being asked of him. If people don’t like the questions that he is being asked there is a simple way to solve that problem, and that is send their own questions in.
anonymous said…I read the editorial in UIS Journal about the Chancellor, but I have not watched his show on the campus channel. I do believe that students deserve to ask and receive a response about different things that go on around campus. But it seems that some people are unhappy that the Chancellor’s questions are not filmed live. If he would just have an event where students could come and ask him questions then maybe this would be away to show the campus that not all of his responses are rehearsed. He is only human and if he can’t answer a question right away I am sure he will look to for the answer and get back to campus community on the issue.
anonymous said…I have not watched an entire show, but I did read the editorial in the Journal. I think the Chancellor’s Chat is a great idea, and I don’t see what the big deal is about it being live or not. The point of the show is not to put the Chancellor on the spot with sensitive questions and see how he responds. The point is to give him one more outlet to be connected to the campus community. But then again, I find it extremely difficult to take anything the Journal writes seriously. Between poor grammar, frequent misspellings and such mistakes as referring to the University of Illinois at Champaign as UIC, it is ridiculous...
anonymous said…As to the person above: One more outlet as a talking head? If he truly wanted to become more connected to the community he would’ve made an effort to have students on the show before he was blasted in the Journal. It just seems like a massive PR campaign (which is pretty much his entire job). “Oh look at that lovely campus, what a nice old man talking about his love of Frank Sinatra and other outdated pop culture references!” Does anyone know any self-respecting 18 and older student who would willingly watch Chancellor Chat and not laugh at the awkwardly pre-meditated fluff answers? I don’t.
Kudos to the Journal for questioning administration rather than blindly following. After all isn’t that what a ‘liberal arts’ education is supposed to provide us?
anonymous said…5 star comment about above referring to the Chancellor’s PR campaign. The Journal is getting more independent and risk-taking by the issue, and it is great.
anonymous said…I agree that the chat seems to be a PR move by the administration...I’m a student and I feel that if the Chancellor was really interested in me, he would take the time to learn what the students care about. I also thought it was thoughtless for him to talk about sexual assaults on campus by saying that there aren’t men jumping out from behind trees....as obviously when people are raped by people they know, that is not how it happens.
anonymous said…Thank God this school finally has a real student newspaper. I love how Ed Wojiciki, the Chancellor, hell, every admin type always say “Criticism is a good thing.” As if we needed permission to dissent from their sheltered viewpoints about campus issues
anonymous said…As I’ve discussed the parking issue withmany people on campus, I can without a doubt say that there really needs to be a new system put in place. It is very frustrating as a student to not know exactly where I can park on campus. It’s even more confusing for those visiting UIS. Parking signs need to updated so there is a clear understanding of where students and visitors can park. Without a clear understanding of parking regulations visitors will get discouraged and feel unwelcome on our campus because of the $25 ticket they’ll receive when parking in a lot that doesn’t specify they can’t park there.
anonymous said...I think in some areas parking is fine where as in other areas there isn’t enough. There is no place for guests and over night guests to park without getting a ticket. Even then if you call the police and tell them about someone coming to campus they say that’s fine. If they get a ticket they’ll take care of it. By that they just rip it up. What is even the point then of giving them the ticket? They need to have something that they can either sign in or put something up in there window saying who they are.
anonymous said…This is indeed a frustrating topic, but it is one that can be easily resolved if there were signs that specify the rules for parking. I hope this is taken into consideration.
anonymous said…As a staff member planning/helping with day/evening events for visiting contributors, it seems very disorganized to me that people we solicit for gifts/funds are getting parking tickets while attending an evening event. We have no idea who has been given a ticket unless people make us aware and we wonder who feels too cheap to mention it. Are we losing donations to the $25 parking ticket? Another example of appearing disorganized are interview candidates we invite to UIS who get parking tickets. UIS really needs to implement a visitor parking pass that we can send ahead to visitors and look more efficient. It simply makes more sense. UIS printed card stock with a space for a written date is a small cost that probably more than covers the cost of writing a ticket that is later voided.
