Guns, parking, retention issues pop up at forum

I was pleased that a UNI 101 class came to a portion of my open forum today. The students asked good questions. I'll follow up on some of them on my blog or web site, and with other questions, I'll pass along the concerns to the UIS administrators who need to hear what was said. Other people were there besides students, and that was most welcome. Among the issues I will follow up on are: how do we enforce our "designated smoking areas" policy? Are we concerned about retention, which was mentioned in a column in this week's student newspaper? There were also questions and comments about the Food Emporium food, library hours, meal plan, an expanded foreign language program, and others. Two questions I can answer right now:

If Illinois gets a concealed carry gun law, would we allow students to carry guns on campus to protect themselves? I said I doubt it. Guns are not allowed on campus at all, and I can't imagine we would want to change that policy.

Another question: Might we ever get a parking deck/garage? Not in the near future. Our parking operation has to be self-supporting, and I'm confident the campus community would not be willing to pay the considerably higher parking fees that we would need to build a parking garage. ... Watch this space for updates on other issues.

My first open forum

I left the first "Ed's Campus Forum" less than an hour ago. I thought it was a good conversation, with good questions and comments. The topics included our search for an LGBTQ coordinator, why UIS doesn't have a student union, why we don't recycle glass (I'll have to check into that), the location of the Public Safety Building, Styrofoam cups in our cafeteria, Karen Hasara and the Board of Trustees. I'll add links to this post and additional comments in the next few days. Oh yeah, about 15 people were there -- students, staff and faculty. I should have counted, but I was listening and responding. How did it go? I'll await feedback on that. I enjoyed it and was glad that people came.

Regular open forums? What about "Talk to Ed"?

Last week at the Civil Service Advisory Committee meeting, I suggested that I'd like to be available regularly for small open forums for UIS staff to talk about what's on their minds. The forums would be called something simple like "Talk to Ed." It would be very informal, and NOT on the PAC 5th floor. I'd go to different places on campus. (I'm also thinking some people would not want to say publicly what's on their mind. I'd be available for that, too, privately, at a different time.) Probably, only a small number of people would come each time, but I think it would be worthwhile. What do you think?

Budget issues - come to the campus forum

We're trying to do two things: (1) manage a difficult budget period and (2) keep an open conversation going about what it all means at UIS. Chancellor Richard Ringeisen issued a statement to the campus community about this last week. The chancellor and Provost Harry Berman will lead a campus forum at 11 a.m. Wednesday, January 21, in Brookens Auditorium. Ask whatever you'd like about our financial situation or the budget. Or give us your perspective. Or add your comments right now by clicking on the comments link just below this post.