A Residence Hall Association (RHA) forum was held on Tuesday, April 1, and some of the questions raised were no joke.  Many of the administrators who run this campus answered questions from students.  This forum—during which students raised their hands  to ask questions—was quite different from an earlier forum where students wrote questions on cards beforehand and the respondents came prepared with predetermined answers.

  
Someone wondered whether there would ever be a Verizon cell phone tower installed because of the poor service the students receive opposed to the well-functioning Cingular or Centennial services.

  
The answer was that the Verizon people just would not get the tower up.  Michael Case, head of ITS, said, “We are too small of a school.”  If MC had more students then maybe Verizon would erect the tower.  The college even offered Verizon a lease to build a tower for students, but still nothing.  Then MC even them to build a tower here without charge and still did not succeed. 

Another student asked what could be done to better improve the food service on campus.  Specifically, why can’t students have food on Sundays and could students possibly get more money on their accounts for Oaks meals?  The response to the lack of Sunday dinners was that it was done out of tradition and that it gives students a break on Sundays since students help run Chartwells.  The break down of the meal plan was also answered according by a Chartwells representative, who said the math behind meals is extremely complicated.  Some students offered their opinions on how they could improve food services and were asked to fill out a survey which will be released at a later date.

  
As for residence halls, it was noted that Schwalm and Garver will be rented at the same prices next year, though Schwalm is significantly older than Garver. Someone asked why, especially since Schwalm doesn’t have air conditioning and can very uncomfortable to live in during the hotter days.  The answer was that since Schwalm had received 400,000 dollars in repairs and renovations years back it is now more expensive to live there.

Some other things that were brought up by the administration was that we will be switching from Blackboard to a new program called Angel which is the same exact thing, but has a lot more to offer at a cheaper cost.

  
Also, the administration noted that it is planning to make the entire campus wireless soon—whenever they get the funding to do so.

  
All in all, the RHA forum brought some serious questions to the table and the students got some answers.

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