HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — The president of the student government association at Alabama A&M University said at a protest rally Wednesday that the school has steadily deteriorated since he arrived as a freshman in 2008.Now a senior, Andrew Foster said he organized a student rally on the campus quad to give a voice to students who have been disregarded by the Alabama A&M administration.
“The morale, the spirit, it was up there,” Foster said of his freshman year. “And me, not knowing behind the scenes what was going on, it seemed everything was OK.
“But as the years progressed, it’s just steadily going down. We’re like at an all-time low. The morale, the spirit, it’s not there.”
Told of those comments, Alabama A&M President Dr. Andrew Hugine “was very taken aback,” according to Vice President Wendy Kobler.
Hugine — who was out of town Wednesday on school business — even met this week with Foster for a “very long conversation,” Kobler said. “Not one bit of this has been brought up (to Hugine).”
Citing an overall lack of respect from the administration, students sounded off on a variety of issues at the midday rally that drew about 150-200 students and lasted about 40 minutes. Among the popular complaints was the announcement of a campus dress code for students in the fall as well as a lack of student voice in student campus events, including graduation ceremonies.
Students even pointed to the 12 percent drop in enrollment for fall 2011 as evidence the administration is doing a poor job of listening to the concerns of students.
A series of students took turns speaking at the rally — straining to be heard because the bank of power outlets typically used for events on the quad was not operational for the rally.
Foster said he’s never known of a problem with having power on the quad for microphones and said the power was cut because of the rally. Foster said the outlets were working on Tuesday.
Kobler said she was checking into the problem with the power source.
Foster and other members of the SGA that spoke at the rally said the graduation ceremony had been moved from Louis Crews Stadium to Elmore Gym without input from students. The ceremony was also split into two ceremonies because of the lost seating capacity in the gym.
Kobler said there are no limits on friends and family who can attend graduation.
In a statement released by the school, moving the ceremonies from the stadium to the gym was a cost-saving measure because the gym has always been prepared for graduation in the event of inclement weather. Kobler said the venue change had been presented to the board of trustees, which includes an non-voting SGA representive.
At the rally, Candice Johnson, a senior class senator at-large, said she had been contacted by the administration to get student input on the graduation changes.
“But look what we had to do to get their attention,” Foster said. “It shouldn’t have taken all of this to get their attention.”
Kobler said she was unaware of any possible changes to the graduation plans.
On the dress code issue, Kobler said that while it will go into effect in the fall, the administration is still talking with faculty as well as students in crafting the details of the policy. Foster said he was expecting to serve on a committee to formulate the dress code but no committee had been formed before the school announced the dress code would be in place.
“The dress code is not bad at all,” Foster said. “It’s just that students did not have a voice on that dress code.”
Courtesy of AL.com
