Athletic director Rick Hart answers a question about sports revenue Monday. (Sidney Hollingsworth/The Daily Campus)
The first ever Town Hall Meeting was a success for expressing the array of current questions and concerns among the student body in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Commons Monday night.
A panel of staff members from four various departments answered questions as well as took suggestions from the audience of students. A reoccurring theme throughout the meeting was determining how staff members decide to allocate their resources and prioritize their time and funding.
The panel included IT Director Brad Boeke, Director of Student Development and Programs Jennifer “JJ” Jones, Chief of Police Rick Shafer and Athletics Director Rick Hart, who spoke a majority of the evening.
When asked about SMU’s ideal athletic environment, Hart said it’s going to be a long-term vision but overall the school has its sights set on nothing less than a “premier program.”
“We want to do things the right way. First, we’re going to graduate athletes,” Hart said. “Then we can play and renew championships and engage the community.”
SMU has notably been making a greater effort to develop a sense of pride in the Mustangs, especially for football. When compared to TCU’s marketing strategies and advertising, Hart made a distinction between the targeted audiences in Dallas and those in Fort Worth. While it may be easier to engage the smaller community at TCU, Hart reassured that SMU is aiming for that degree of visibility and participation.
“The vision is that you won’t be able to come to Dallas without knowing SMU is here,” Hart said.
As for the other 16 sports on campus, it’s about strategic investments. While each sport is given equal attention as far as quality atmospheres and scholarships go, not all sports offer the same return investment as football and basketball, for example.
Hart explained SMU’s plan to generate revenue in these major sports in order to get money to fund the other programs. This, he claimed, would be a more short-term plan, expecting to see results in the next two to three years.
Other issues addressed included on-campus safety regarding recent sexual assaults and nighttime attacks. Shafer delineated the various ways to contact the SMU Police Department in any case of emergency and urged students not to ever hesitate to report suspicious activity or concerns.
In response, students made suggestions to increase the number of Giddy-Up cars during weekends.
In regards to recent biased incidents, Jones encouraged multicultural student groups to “step outside their comfort zone” when attempting to promote and engage their organizations.
“Student groups tend to plan for themselves instead of a broader audience,” Jones said. “You can’t just hang a poster in Hughes-Trigg, you have to work out better advertising.”
Jones also mentioned the university’s discussion of enacting some sort of mandatory diversity education.
On the technical front, Boeke worked with students to determine what should be done to make online access easier for the community via both computers and mobile devices. While Boeke made clear that an SMU app would be unlikely, a popular trend among other universities, he did state that students can look forward to more responsive content and updated, collective staff contact page.
Overall, the Town Hall Meeting was a success and students passionate about getting involved on campus and making a difference can certainly expect to see additional Town Hall Meetings in the near future.
