By Mary Haley, Assistant Social Media Editor
The class of 2027 vice presidents, Shu Amanuma and Ashely Zegler, held a freshman forum event where new students could voice their concerns about campus life and discuss how their first few weeks of college have progressed.
Amanuma and Zegler presented slides of general topics of campus life, including public safety and academic transparency, and also topics that are more unique to Manhattan College life, such as involvement of commuters in campus events and different meal plans.
The representatives opened the floor to record students discussing each topic and their own opinions and experiences with each aspect of campus life. The freshman representatives plan to present these concerns to the greater student government organization on campus to work together to hopefully find a solution to what was raised.
One student, who chose to remain anonymous, shared their insight on the topics that were presented. Their concerns regarded the issue of academic transparency and the uncertainty of navigating that as a first-year student.
The student raised their concerns about a three-hour night class that meets once a week, explaining how unclear the adjunct professor is with assignments of when they are due. They explained that this lack of communication interferes with how they learn the material and makes them uncertain if they are prepared for the class or not.
“It is a problem with adjuncts,” the student said. “Due dates [will] come and she does not post a slot for it, so it’s kind of just very unorganized. I’m not learning anything.”
Another concern that was discussed was public safety. Due to the recent muggings of MC students in Van Cortlandt Park, a new perspective on the efforts of public safety around campus has been brought to light.
One student who was at the event spoke on the matter as a commuter who drives to campus. They chose to remain anonymous as well. They explained that it is important to park in areas that are supervised by the school after seeing parts of cars get stolen in the Riverdale area.
“I saw a Honda Civic one time without the wheels, the wheels were stolen,” the student said. “I went to Manhattan madness and I purposely parked in the [Kelly Commons parking lot] because I didn’t want to leave my car all the way at RLC because I did not want to go to the parking lot alone late at night.”
This feedback provides Amanuma and Zegler with problems they can communicate to student government, hopefully creating better, more organized campus life.
“Basically, we’re going to take the different comments, questions and concerns that first-year students have and bring them to the executive board of student government,” Zegler said. “[The executive board] sit in on our committees and they can help us delegate to faculties and departments to make sure that the concerns that we’re bringing to light are actually getting addressed.”
Amanuma and Zegler both decided to join representative positions for their class because of previous experience in student government in high school. They believe in making their fellow classmates’ voices heard to the faculty and administration at the college.
“I think we are the bridge between student government and the administrative staff and the students,” Amanuma said. “I think we function greatly as a role to convey certain issues and relay [issues] onto certain people so that they can maybe be solved.”
There will be another follow-up forum event for the freshman class to share their thoughts on the college as their first semester comes to a close. It will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 14 in the Thomas Hall cafe.