Chancellor Dan Ritchie held his quarterly roundtable discussion with students on Feb. 21.
The chancellor addressed issues including Safe Ride, multiculturalism, the financial aid office, the computer systems and safety on campus.
One student brought up the idea of continuing alumni e-mail addresses for students who have graduated from DU.
A DU community member expressed pedestrian safety concerns regarding the Light Rail station that will be built on Buchtel Boulevard. Suggestions for allowing pedestrians to cross the two-way street safely included a tunnel under or a bridge over the street.
“Tunnels are trouble,” said Ritchie. “If you do anything, you’ll want to do a bridge.”
Several students associated with the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the multicultural student alliances expressed concerns about diversity on campus, Black History Month and the location of the office.
According to Ritchie, no plans have been made to construct anything in the area surrounding the Office of Multicultural Affairs for the next 4-6 years.
One student suggested that DU students, faculty and staff participate in diversity training. AUSA President Stacy Porto encouraged the idea of a diversity conference and insisted the students collaborate together on an effective program.
The students then brought up problems they have had with the Student Financial Aid office. Many students gave examples of the rude and appalling behaviors they and their parents encountered with the student’s accounts.
Chancellor Ritchie asked that the students e-mail him with specific accounts of any problems they had with the financial aid office.
Although Chancellor Ritchie did not have any specific prayer requests that he wanted the students to address, he said, “If you look at the foundation of American values, that’s where they come from.”
The next issue brought up was the lights outside Centennial Towers that do not work. The male student said that he had contacted Campus Safety and was told that the lights are the responsibility of the city of Denver.
The ones on the Buchtel side are the city’s responsibility, but there are at least two non-functioning maroon-colored lights that are the responsibility of DU.
Next, the issue of the DU community came up. Chancellor Ritchie said one possible solution is to put a student union on campus, but “that’s going to be a while because we’ve got so much on our plate right now.”
“A building would help,” he said, but it will take “constant working” by the many groups on campus.
Safe Ride is the next issue that was brought to the attention of Chancellor Ritchie. AUSA president Stacy Porto is concerned because she has not “seen as much marketing as was promised.”
Porto recognized that “we used students’ money to pay for this,” but it is not receiving the support that she had anticipated.
“We need to give it a fair chance,” she said, “and thinks that lack of promised marketing from Campus Safety is an integral part of the problem.
Graduate student John Sample was upset about the condition of the computer system on campus.
“For Agora to go down ever is unacceptable,” said Sample. Chancellor Ritchie responded that he would look into the issue, but said that Sample was “talking to the wrong person.”
Two African American students addressed the issue of the black community at DU.
“I’m not really happy with the African American community,” said one student. “I do not want to stay at a university that is not going to represent me at all.”
Chancellor Ritchie acknowledged the low numbers of black students at DU and said that Colorado itself does not have a high African American population.
“We do better percentage-wise with African Americans at DU than the state of Colorado,” he said. “We’re making some progress, but it’s slow.”
Next, Chancellor Ritchie said he “was horrified” when he heard about the disabled student who was stuck on the fourth floor of Sturm Hall due to a dysfunctional elevator.
