April 29, 2008
Kerwin answers questions during Open Forum
President Neil Kerwin and Board of Trustees chairman Gary Abramson (Photo by Jeff Watts)
Students did the majority of the talking at last Tuesday’s town hall meeting with President Neil Kerwin and Board of Trustees chairman Gary Abramson, inquiring about everything from the smoking policy to the strategic plan.
The forum, which drew about 100 members of the campus community, covered a variety of issues, including how the current economic slowdown will impact AU.
“Provost Broder tells me we have robust to extraordinarily robust freshmen deposits, which is a wonderful sign,” said Kerwin.
Still, he noted that skyrocketing oil and energy costs, along with worries over the availability of student loans, are cause for concern.
“I think we have yet to really see what the impact of the economy on American families means for new students and retention,” he said. “The next two-year budget cycle could be very interesting.”
Responding to one student’s worries over tuition hikes, Kerwin said that, “if the past is any prediction of the future, some sort of tuition increase over the next budget cycle is likely.”
However, he assured students concerned over the rising cost of higher education that any increase in tuition would be accompanied by a boost in the financial aid budget. “Financial aid is always a top priority for me,” Kerwin said.
And while some students questioned rising tuition costs, one underclassmen proposed increasing the student activities fee to offset rising musician and speaker fees. Upping that fee would enable student organizations like the Kennedy Political Union to bring in higher-profile speakers, he said.
“Not having enough money to meet all the demands on you is not an uncommon problem; it’s a problem I share,” said Kerwin. And while he encouraged the students to document the case for increasing the fee, he also advised them to consider “the other side of the coin—the issue of the cost of higher education.”
During the hour-long forum, Abramson and Kerwin also offered an update on the status of the capital campaign. To date, $170 million has been raised, including a little more than $20 million over the past year.
Kerwin said he’d like to see the alumni giving rate—which currently stands at 16 to 17 percent—increase to the mid- to high-20s. To that end, he has made it a top priority to meet with alumni across the country. “I deliver the same message to all of them: This is what your university is accomplishing, and this is why we need you to be involved,” he said.
Kerwin said he remains committed to putting money toward faculty and financial aid. Once a new vice president of development is hired, he also hopes to develop a “world-class alumni organization . . . to ensure that the story of the institution is as well told as it can be.”
Inevitably, the discussion turned to the smoking policy. While he doesn’t support the creation of shelters for smokers, Kerwin said he also doesn’t want smokers congregating at the center of the quad, or on the public sidewalks that ring the campus.
“I’ve found this to be a surprisingly persistent issue, and a surprisingly complex one,” he said. Though Kerwin said any solution will be incremental, he thinks the push for a smoke-free campus “will continue to gain more traction.”
