In an attempt to successfully fulfill a campaign promise made by President Cody West and Vice President Cody Smith, Student Government will be revamping its town-hall style in an effort to get more students involved. 

Instead of two hours of just open forum, the town halls will now involve the discussion of an overarching topic relevant to campus and students through a panel with Student Government officials. 

“Its been brought to our attention pretty clearly that the town hall program as it exists now, doesn’t necessarily work,” Smith said. 

While Student Government has only held one town hall this academic year, it’s turnout only yielded about two students. The first and only town hall held by West and Smith last spring, resulted in a turnout of just about 10 students.

Hence, Smith began looking for a solution to the lagging student engagement in the town halls. One of the issues, he discovered, was the way in which the town hall was set up. 

“I think that it’s not necessarily that students don’t want to be engaged, I think that our town halls are set up in a way like ‘come to us now and tell us what we can do for you,'” Smith said. “Well, students don’t necessarily know what we do and it’s our job to let them know what we do.”

So, Smith and his team took a step back and looked to outside resources to see what should be changed about the town hall and what should remain the same. 

“When I was looking at how it’s worked and how it hasn’t worked… once we can get students in the room and talking to us, then we’re able to provide actual solutions,” Smith said. 

The Student Government town halls originated under then President Cole Staudt, who instead of holding his annual address, held a question-and-answer session for students.

The overarching message is the same, however, to be an opportunity for students to voice what they feel campus can be improved on or other issues they may be facing.

The theme for the upcoming town hall, which will take place Tuesday, Sept. 26 from 5:10 to 7 p.m. in Marston 2155, is “Let’s Talk about Campus Climate.”

The panel will consist of Student Government directors and will be moderated by West and Smith. Topics to be discussed include mental health and sexual assault prevention.

“Moving forward from this one… October will be about tuition and affordability as a whole,” Smith said. “Because that’s when we’ll find out about the university’s plan… to the regents.”

As for whether or not the upcoming town hall will be successful, Smith said he is hoping for more turnout and will continue to push for civic engagement. 

“I’m not going to give up,” Smith said. “I’m going to keep moving things around until we get something that’s useful.”