The opening meeting of the fall 2010 semester gave awareness to the fact that CCSU has expanded and improved greatly within the last few years, but has also increased the weight of responsibility that the administration and students have to bear to maintain those improvements.
A growth of 414 more undergraduates, totaling 7,859 enrolling in fall 2009 compared to fall 2005, measures the strong demand that exists for people looking to get an affordable education. President Jack Miller attributes this to professors providing incentives for students to stay.
This may be true, but it also comes from a new generation of students who are showing greater concern for their campus community.
Students are now becoming more involved with extracurricular activities, as seen with 63 percent participating, a large jump from the 47 percent in 2007. Perhaps the university may need to look into extending the hours that the fields and Kaiser Annex (“The Bubble”) are available.
The administration has already shown though that they’re looking to meet these rising numbers by beginning the plans to construct a new dorm. Housing has become a growing problem on campus, and it’s only expected to grow with each succeeding year. A new dorm would allow more breathing room for the university when it comes time to send out letters to students on acceptance into the dorms.
It may seem unfortunate to students that the cafeteria at Memorial Hall has moved to trayless dining, which began in the final weeks of the spring semester and has now been permanently implemented, but it may be for the best. The administration has already said that thousands of pounds of food waste has been saved by taking away the trays.
Having the option of throwing on as much food as people want onto their trays removed forces students to think more responsibly about what they’re eating and how much they’re tossing out. There may be a factor of inconvenience, but it will be worth it in the long-run for better sustainability.
Miller’s memory of arriving to CCSU in 2005 and not having a place to recycle a soda can indicates that it wasn’t long ago that the university had hardly any system for recycling waste. Now that the administration has proven they have greater care for sustainability, students must equal it by doing what they can to embrace the current system.
The newly elected Student Government Association president Matt Vekakis must be a leader in pulling together students to improve what they can of the university, and if needed, question university policies. With an increasingly tighter university budget, Vekakis will need to monitor expenditures for clubs and events, and make sure every dollar is accounted for and used wisely.
As a whole, CCSU has vastly improved within recent years, but in order to keep a hold on those advances, all members of the campus community must look to themselves to pitch in what they can and ask what needs additional development.