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.

Food at UIS

There has been quite a discussion started today about the UIS food. I want to offer people an alternative format -- this blog, which is the perfect place for such a discussion. Click on the "Post a Comment" link at the bottom of the "comments" section below this post to add your two cents.