USG Surveys Students to Implement Change

By NATALIA RAMIREZ

Published: May 5, 2010

This past March, the Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) United Student Government (USG) distributed electronic surveys to students regarding new television channels and food in the cafeteria. These changes are said to be implemented by the Fall 2010 semester.

USG said they urge students to voice their concerns in order to incite improvement of campus facilities. After hearing students complain about the limited variety in television channels, USG members said they decided to survey all McMahon residents to accurately ascertain their personal preferences.

“We are currently reviewing the results of the TV survey now, and are working with Information Technology (IT) and the Dean of Students, Dean Eldredge, to add the channels.” Ryan Murphy, the president of USG, said. “Due to the… contract that Fordham has with our TV company, Privatel, we will either be swapping out channels that students do not want for channels they do want or just add channels, depending on how much they will cost.” According to Murphy, these changes are set to be put into effect by the end of the year; however, if this is not possible, the installation of the channels will commence over the summer and be in effect by the fall semester.

In addition to the television survey, USG also issued a survey regarding Sodexo services.

“We worked with Sodexo to draw up a survey that got a true feeling of what students thought of the cafeteria,” Murphy said.“Sodexo knew students would clamor about the quality but did not know what kinds of improvements were sought out.”

USG said the survey received a great amount of feedback. “They point out a lot of what students consider common sense; [for instance], the food is pricey and [there is] limited amount of choice due to space. However, we did hear a lot of great ideas from the survey, Murphy said.

“Students’ desires ranged from the choice of pay-per-item vs. swipe entry à la Rose Hill, healthier options, wide salad bar with more options, more traditional café food like American and Italian cuisines, compared to more ‘ethnic’ foods… In addition, we are in talks with Sodexo to move Jazzman’s and replace it with one of the chain stores Sodexo has contracts with,” Murphy said. These chains include Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonalds and Jamba Juice, as well as others.