A student concerned with the health center, one concerned with overcrowding, one concerned with tuition increase and another who considers himself homeless all voiced their concerns Oct. 29 at the Government of the Student Body’s open forum.

President Steven Leath, Provost Jonathan Wickert, Vice President of Business and Finance Warren Madden, Chief of Staff Miles Lackey and Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Martino Harmon listened to students’ concerns about campus growth and enrollment.

The administrators and GSB coordinated the event because they said they are both still interested in creating solutions to any problems students feel were created by enrollment. 

“I’m pleased that so many people want to attend ISU. It speaks volumes of the experiences people have had,” Leath said. “We know if the student experience suffers, enrollment suffers, and our reputation suffers.” 

Transportation was an issue that upset many students. Robert Dunn, senior in pre-business, challenged the administration to take a ride on CyRide to see the problems students face.

“I will challenge you specifically to go on the 1 Red route going out to West Ames which is all student housing and see if you’ll be able to actually get a seat during the entire ride,”Dunn said.

Dunn also voiced his concern about rental rates on campus.

“I lived in Ames before I became a student and the growth has affected rental rates. The demand for housing has made rent skyrocket,” Dunn said.

Dunn finished his concerns speaking about the possibility of denying acceptance to students to alleviate rapid growth rates.

Leath addressed Dunn’s points by talking about the administration’s involvement with the city.

“We are trying to keep the town relationship very tight because we know these problems intertwine,” Leath said.

Madden then spoke about the issues concerning CyRide.

“This year the CyRide system is expected to have over 6.8 million [passengers]. That’s a phenomenally large number,” he said. 

Nick Bitz, junior in electrical engineering, voiced his concern about the housing on campus and how it has left him to find new housing.

“I currently don’t have a place to live. I am still on a waiting list for all area apartments,” Bitz said. 

Harmon told Bitz to meet with him during the recess after the open forum to discuss the situation and see what they could do to get Bitz out of the habit of couch-hopping.

One student was in a situation of having to wait three weeks for his doctor appointment.

“If a student is not healthy, they’re not going to class and that is not right,” Martino said. 

Senator Peter Myers also brought up the subject of tuition and how the growth rate might affect its increase. Leath mentioned that the tuition is decided by the regents and not presidents of the universities. 

The meeting was wrapped up with the questions of a few students left unanswered, but they were given the opportunity to walk up and ask senators of GSB and administration their questions.

Leath gave comments after the meeting about the issues brought up by students and how soon he felt the issues would be dealt with.

“Many students came forward and we got a good representation of the issues that are concerning many students,” Leath said.

Leath felt that the issues brought up by students were already being dealt with by administration.

“As far as projects with student health service, we’re already adding testing centers, adding IT capacity. We’ll see a lot of results even by the beginning of the year,” he said.