OUR OPINION: Students must be proactive and use resources of communication to reach our leaders.
The Campus Culture Task Force, a committee in charge of determining how to improve campus climate, examines student conduct practices and improves Free Expression Tunnel and Brickyard practices and is seeking opinions about the aforementioned issues via online submission forms, but it has an underwhelming number of recommendations on its Web site, only about 50 so far.
One of the most prominent issues the task force will discuss is the University’s new policies concerning the tunnel, and it will “examine and articulate what boundaries, if any, should be imposed on the Free Expression Tunnel,” Chancellor James Oblinger stated in a letter to the task force Nov. 18.
Some of the most hotly debated issues on campus have been about the Brickyard or the Free Expression Tunnel, especially with this year’s events.
When the N.C. State Chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People hosted a discussion about the threatening and racist comments four students wrote in the Free Expression Tunnel Nov. 5 about President Barack Obama in Witherspoon Student Center, the room was packed. But why aren’t nearly as many students giving recommendations to the task force? Why isn’t there the same enthusiasm and passion on campus that there was four months ago?
Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion Jose Picart said the committee will take these student suggestions into consideration before making final recommendations.
Town hall forums are also a good opportunity to speak out about prominent issues, and Student Government is holding one in the Senate Chambers Thursday.
If you care about these issues and want to create change, encourage other students to voice opinions. You can’t complain if you didn’t try to do anything about it.
The only way to impact what decisions the University will make is to use these resources.
Feb. 16 is the deadline to give feedback, and the only way the task force can come up with a solution that fits the University is to know the opinions of students. Please visit http://www.ncsu.edu/student_affairs/cctf/form.html and let the task force know where you stand about the committee’s preliminary suggestions from its Jan. 16 meeting.
