ASUW President Allison Brown and Vice President Hunter Swilling publicly discussed a wide range of topics, including Chick-fil-A, icy sidewalks, and the university minimum wage, at the November ASUW Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 29.
The Town Hall Meeting was hosted on the lower floor of the Union, lasted just over 30 minutes and consisted of Brown and Swilling responding to 16 pre-selected questions. At the end Brown and Swilling opened the floor to questions from those in attendance.
“Chick-fil-A will be coming to the Student Union in the coming year and a half,” Brown answered, when asked about Chick-fil-A coming to campus.
Brown continued to explain that she feels Chick-fil-A coming to campus is a good indication that the higher administration at the university values student opinion, and are trying to balance the needs and desires of various student groups.
“Understanding the majority of students support Chick-fil-A and also trying to weigh the concerns of LGBTQIA+ students on campus, we recommended to the board of trustees that they move forward with the Chick-fil-A, and look for ways in which they can also help to support these diverse and multicultural communities on campus,” Brown said.
The creation of an ad-hoc committee tasked to tackle wage related issues on campus was also announced.
“ASUW is developing an ad-hoc, kind of spur of the moment, committee in the spring to look at student wages and employment,” Brown said.
A lack of adequate funding was cited as the primary reason for low wages on campus.
“The fact of the matter is that administration knows that wages need to increase but there’s just not very much money to be able to do so,” Swilling said.
Both Brown and Swilling advocated for students to take action and look for higher paying jobs off campus.
“I also think there’s something to be said about, frankly, students voting with their feet,” Swilling said.“There are higher paying jobs off campus, and we should show them that those jobs are available to us and that you have to pay students enough to get them interested in your jobs.”
Near the end of the meeting the two were asked if they knew what the upper administration plans to do regarding icy sidewalks, and a lack of adequate funding was again cited as the primary problem.
“At risk of sounding like a broken record here, yes, we did talk to them about this,” Swilling said.
“I spoke to Frosty Selmer, who is the director of facilities here at the University of Wyoming, and basically his response was, ‘we spend over $400,000 a year on icy sidewalks and de-icing, and there isn’t a lot more money in the budget to do anything else.’”
Swilling acknowledged the potential of “larger one time investments that could be made to potentially purchase permanent equipment or at least long lasting equipment that would allow them to better control the ice on this campus.”
The two were asked what they felt the semester’s biggest accomplishments were, and Brown explained she felt the administration has improved its public relations.
“The achievement that I’ve been proudest of for the 110th is really our outreach work. That was one of the goals on which this administration started, was really just trying to do a better job of reaching out to students and getting student opinions on items, and I think we’ve done that thus far,” Brown said.
“Through monthly newsletters that go out on the all student list serve, anonymous comment boxes, our student issues survey, I think we’ve done a great job getting that student input and then using it in places that matter.”
During the meeting, multiple topics that have not been widely addressed were discussed including the cancellation of federal student loan forgiveness, potential medical amnesty legislation, ASUW’s anti-hazing efforts, and student dissatisfaction with the University Counseling Center.
Other topics included the university’s switch to a block tuition system, the potential of transitioning from fluorescent to LED lightbulbs, the university Climate Action Plan, parking issues on campus, safety concerns on campus, and the need for additional handicap accessibility.
