University officials promised Wednesday to take action on concerns students addressed during a two-hour town hall meeting including the possibility of letting student organizations use the Ornelas Activity Center for free.
Around 50 students attended the event and questioned a panel of five University officials about the current MAPP test, dining services, space for student activities and student life.
Panelists Ona Tolliver, director of student life and leadership, Dr. Peter Fos, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, Gregg Lassen, executive vice president for business affairs, Shannon Mariani, director of food service and Howard Patterson, vice president for student affairs heard student concerns during the meeting.
Academic Concerns
From left, Sara Khalifa, SGA vice president, and SGA president Amy Whitehouse moderate Wednesday’s town hall meeting. Dr. Peter Fos, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, Gregg Lassen, executive vice president for business affairs, Shannon Mariani, director of food service, Ona Tolliver, director of student life and leadership, and Howard Patterson, vice president for student affairs, responded to questions. Photo by Ryan Pinkham.
The MAPP test, now called the ETS Proficiency Profile, is designed for colleges and universities to assess their general education outcomes to improve the quality of instruction and learning.
The test focuses on the academic skills developed through core curriculum courses rather than on the knowledge acquired about the subjects taught in these courses.
Dr. Lou Ann Berman, assistant vice president for Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness, said the test is now required of students entering their senior year.
A student registering for their 90th hour or more of classes is required to take the test or they are not allowed to register for classes beginning in April of 2010.
Berman said there is an exemption for certain graduating students. “If you graduate in May or August of 2010, you are exempt from taking the test but if you are planning to register for the fall of 2010 we are asking that you take the test,” Berman said.
Brittany McFadden, a junior marketing major, asked if the MAPP test is a pass or fail test or an evaluation of curriculum standards at the University. Fos said a student is not required to pass the test to graduate.
“We ask that you please do not blow off the test when you get there,” Berman said. “Even though it is not a high stakes test, we are compared nationally with other schools and we are well below those of our peers.”
Berman said there are around 1,300 juniors needing to take part in the test and a new testing schedule is set for release in the Spring. University officials previously tested 200 entering freshmen and 200 exiting seniors in the Collegiate Learning Assessment, which provide a means for measuring critical thinking and mathematical skills.
The web based MAPP test consists of 36 multiple choice questions that measure college-level reading, writing, critical thinking and mathematics skills that students develop through general education courses during their first years of college.
Dining Services
Students’ questions focused on the use of the Harvey Lake dining area, which currently serves as a salad bar. Students said they did not know when the facility served lunch since there are no signs up at the building.
“I had a question about the Harvey Lake dining area since it does not get a lot of business from what I have seen,” Andrew Barnson, a psychology major and student government association treasurer, said. “I was wondering if there were any future plans for that area to really utilize that space there.”
Mariani said due to the small size of the facility at around 80 square feet, there is not enough storage and areas available for preparation.
The previous two years, the Harvey’s establishment served as a burrito bar. “It is a very hard place to market even though it is a traffic area,” he said. “We decided to try and make it a salad area this semester and it still is not going over very well. We are going to try and put soups in there when it gets colder.”
Lassen said if officials found use for the building would students care about Harvey’s and said, “Could you at least buy stuff?” Students also were given a chance to make suggestions for ways to improve the dining services.
Barnson suggested putting Blends and Brews by Harvey Lake for students who travel from the Robert R. Muntz Library or the Business Administration Building. Mariani said he welcomed the suggestion, but Blends and Brews is scheduled to return to the new University Center.
Scott Good, a senior human resource development major, said he knew Aramark had connections with certain businesses and wondered if a Smoothie King or Jamba Juice could come to the campus.
Aramark is a leader in professional services, providing award-winning food services, facilities management, and uniform and career apparel to health care institutions, universities and school districts, stadiums and arenas, and businesses around the world, according to its Web site.
Jamba’s mission is to be the leading healthy lifestyle brand offering consumers great-tasting and better-for-you products. We believe our commitment to healthy living extends not only to our customers, but also to our franchisees, according to their website.
“We work closely with a company called Freshens and the first time we contacted them they shot us down, but we could try them again and see if they could come and do a site survey with us,” he said.
Mariani said with the success of Chick-fil-A, a major announcement involving extending the menu items is in the works. He said everything on the menu is what they allow a restaurant to open with.
“That being said, they think we are doing such a good job that they are hopefully going to give us some of the wraps and the chicken salad sandwiches put on sometime within the next semester.”
Support from students regarding Chick-fil-A has surprised officials. “I just want to thank you, the students, because we heard you last year and we worked on it,” he said. “If you were not going there and buying food, it would have closed already. Aramark went above and beyond the call of duty to get us the restaurant and we did not meet their expectations.”
David Kelley, senior human resource development major, asked why Chick-fil-A was closed on Tuesday for a couple of hours. “There was a water main break and it was in an area right next to the fryers,” Mariani said. “Chip Clark’s staff got the water main fixed in a couple of hours instead of a whole day lost.”
Mariani also said a contest is in the works for the signature burger at the newly renovated Grill Works.
“When the Subway comes back and we will still have that Grill Works space, Gregg has asked me to come up with a signature burger for UT-Tyler,” he said. “I think we are going to open it up to a contest and have students, faculty and staff submit their UT-Tyler burger and name it and the winner will get a free hamburger once a week for a semester.”
Meeting Space
Sara Edwards, president of Delta Gamma sorority, addressed the officials regarding the lack of a room for sororities on campus. Lassen said space is the main issue on campus for allowing students the opportunity to have private meeting areas.
“It was not completely planned for and the Greeks are new to this campus,” he said. “We have limited resources and we have to be careful with how we use them.” Lassen said students are allowed to use the Ornelas Activity Center for meeting areas, but Edwards said they have to pay to use it.
“All student organizations have access to that area and I will fix that so you do not have to pay to use Ornelas Activity Center,” he said. “We don’t charge you to come in here right so why would we charge you to go over there. We are not going to do that.”
Christa Wilke, a junior marketing major, asked about room availability for students and organizations to hold private meetings. Tolliver said all organizations would love to have a common space where they could meet together and collaborate.
“I think that is something that we could consider and space is obviously going to be a premium and we will look for long term plans. We will add that to the list and see what we can do about it,” she said.
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