About six months after its first meeting, the Mayor's Commission for Ball State Student Relations had a grand total of two members show up for its Friday meeting - out of the ten who should've been there. In fact, schedule conflicts have caused the commission to never meet in its entirety.
The commission was created to improve communication between the Muncie and Ball State communities, but it isn't likely to succeed if no one shows up to communicate with one another.
Since September, the commission has discussed student safety and attracting more students to downtown Muncie, and it played a big role in establishing the temporary Muncie Indiana Transit System route, The Loop. The issues the commission tackles are important to the Ball State community. However, at Friday's meeting, all the commission members were able to discuss was how to get more members to attend - and how to fix this problem for future commissions.
Schedules can be difficult to juggle, and often schedule conflicts sneak up on students - especially those who are involved and active in campus organizations, such as the commission. However, it's up to these commission members to show Ball State students' dedication to improving Muncie-university relations.
When the students who were chosen for their dedication to helping bridge the town-gown divide can't communicate even enough to coordinate schedules, the progress they can make for this community is stunted. Any organization must have solid communication for it to be productive, so maybe that should be the first item on the commission's agenda for its next meeting.
Perhaps more importantly, the Mayor's Commission should encourage more participation from the student body at large, by asking students to join the commission meetings to voice their own comments or recommendations. Not only would increased participation bring more diverse views to the commission's table, but it would show the commission members that their jobs are important to other Ball State students.
Still, until more students begin attending public forums and speaking up for themselves, it's this commission's responsibility to represent and share student concerns - and that starts with communication within the group.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
