Presidential Conversation

Dear Blog Readers,

Today College Council hosted President Zimmer for a Student Conversation concerning Undergraduate Aid as part of an attempt by both SG and the President's office to find a new forum beyond the old Brown Bag model.

Now I know there are many people who are real fans of the Brown Bag's but in the experience of the administrators they either attract too few people or too many to make them really meaningful. That's why we tried this new RSVP model (although everyone who RSVPed got to attend) in an attempt to keep the number of people in the room down to a level where we could have conversations.

I'd give the whole experience a seven out of ten. Ten being everyone walked out of the room hugging each other and One being everyone in tears (including our President and myself).

While many students have commented that the event was full of "soft ball" questions, I think the conversation did clear up many pressing issues for students concerning the organization and structural concerns behind Undergraduate Aid. While some of these could have been answered by a deeper look at the College Aid website or some of the University's Financial Statements, having the President or Vice President Behnke answer the questions showed the administrators that students were concerned and thinking about these problems.

And despite the criticisms of softball ism, I didn't exactly see any Randy Johnsons step up and throw a fastball (for anyone who knows baseball, is this a good metaphor? I just loves the mullet). Now maybe Zimmer wouldn't even have taken a swing, but at least you could have brought some heat. (No more baseball, I promise).

I'd say it was a seven because we had a good, albeit not ideal, conversation with the President. I felt like he got to hear from many students, albeit not everyone in the room due to shyness/time constraints. One thing I'd definitely change in the future is a 'who are you' moment to let people to get accustomed to each other before the President came in. Because if you have a question there should be nothing holding you back.

But all and all I felt like the event was a success. President Zimmer is an interesting guy and I think if we're going to make his time as President successful we need to get him out among students as much as possible.

Questions, Comments, Criticism, please post here.


-Scott