Photo by Cameron Adams
Jai’Den Smith
Managing Editor
The Jackson State University Student Government Association held their 2nd Blue Table Talk Town Hall Meeting to discuss student concerns.
This time, a panel of Jackson State faculty and administrators attended and were prepared to answer important questions and concerns from the student body.
At approximately 6 p.m., students began to fill the seats of the Student Center Ballrooms. The event was moderated by Miss Jackson State Lauren Temple, as students listened carefully to administrators from different departments while they answered pre-selected questions.
The meeting took place on Feb. 7, just three weeks after residents of University Pointe were instructed to vacate their housing assignments due to the discovery of mold. All female residents were reassigned to on campus housing assignments while male residents were sent to the Hilton Hotel on E. County Road.
With some students feeling unheard and unprotected since the sudden and tragic deaths of Jalen Burns and Flynn Brown, who both lost their lives to gun violence on campus, students wanted answers on what was being done to protect them.
Senior Terrence Conley Jr. was among the students who had to abruptly vacate his housing assignment in University Pointe.
“Moving out of University Pointe showed that there is an extreme lack of communication. Communicating through emails is unacceptable when I have to move out of my housing assignment,” said Conley, Jr., an electrical engineering major from Marks, Miss., attended the Town Hall Meeting. “I just wanted to be up to date with what the university’s doing to help the students out.”
Conley feels as if the reason for the lack of communication between faculty and students is personnel issue.
“A lot of things need to change, from financial aid to the advisement centers. The communication is just not there and I feel like a lot of people are not qualified for their positions,” Conley stated.
SGA President Jason Johnson, was one of the many forces behind the Town Hall Meeting.
“I feel that the talk went well. I appreciated the fact that the administration was able to come. I know that they’re busy and have a lot going on, especially with President (Marcus) Thompson just getting sworn in,” said Johnson.
Johnson wants to encourage students to come to these events and expects bigger turnouts in the future.
“I would’ve liked to have seen more students there. When it comes to informing the students about what’s going on and trying to answer their questions, we want to try and have as much of a student presence as we can. I know people really gravitate towards the fun and the social events, but this has as much of an impact on our campus as other events,” said Johnson.
Sergeant Day, a campus security guard, said student safety is their main goal but they need the support of students to improve their ability to properly protect and guard.
“We pretty much follow all protocols to make sure everybody is safe whenever a situation comes up but the main thing for the students is that if they see anything, report it as fast as possible and to try to get an accurate description and location,” said Day.
Conley feels that too much pressure is placed on the student body to guarantee their own safety.
“The student body is trying as hard as they can, we are not paid professionals and we are also students at the same time. It shouldn’t be up to us to start these initiatives. Faculty should be reaching out to us, I think the students are doing the best they can,” said Conley.
Sgt. Day stated that there are always safety concerns whenever there are large groups of people and that if there were more obstacles to stop traffic flow, they could better manage who is coming through campus.
“Safety is an issue pretty much anywhere. There’s a lot of people constantly moving in and out. I mean we can only cover so much at a time so it’s hard to see everything. Installing some gates to slow traffic down from people driving straight through, increasing speed bumps, and types of things like that or anything to slow the traffic down would slow the amount of people coming through campus. A lot of people don’t stop at the gates like they are supposed to,” said Day.
Johnson wants students to be proactive about holding administration accountable.
“I know it’s been a general consensus amongst the campus and student body that they feel like all their questions may not get followed up on, but that still doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go or participate any less, if anything you should be doing it more,” said Johnson.
