Once a quarter, every student at UCLA receives an entertaining email about Chancellor Gene Block’s student office hour.
Although there are good intentions behind the idea of meeting with students personally to talk about campus issues, designating only a single hour to accommodate thousands of students is laughable.
Even if a student does want to attend the chancellor’s office hour, they cannot simply drop by Block’s office. Students first must email a request to be entered into a lottery, out of which only six students are randomly chosen. This process leaves students with only a minuscule chance of actually getting to speak with the chancellor at all.
It’s understandable that the chancellor does not have time to meet with tens of thousands of undergraduates and hear each of their complaints and thoughts individually. But as the leader of our university, Block needs to make himself available to students outside of a single hour.
Though Chancellor Block does occasionally take the time to meet with different student groups about issues that arise on campus, he needs to implement a much more regular and consistent way for students to share their voice.
The chancellor should consider implementing a rotating panel of students to meet with every quarter to ensure the student voice is heard and addressed. This panel would consist of members of different student organizations selected through a random lottery system. After the student group is selected, they could choose their own delegate to represent them on the panel. This board would be rotated out every quarter by selecting new student groups through the random lottery. This system would ensure that the chancellor is introduced to a variety of student perspectives on various campus issues.
These students would act as liaisons between their student organizations and the chancellor, making sure each group feels that its voice is heard and its concerns are made relevant.
Other administrators have already made use of student panels to gather feedback from students. Dean and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at UCLA Patricia Turner hosts lunches with small groups of students in her office once a quarter, if not more often, so she can hear directly from students of different years and majors about what they consider prevalent issues on campus. Even though these lunches are only open to between four and eight students at once, they provide an opportunity for students to see that Turner is an approachable person who wants to hear what they have to say – and even has enough time to sit down for lunch and talk about it.
Although the chancellor’s office hour is supposed to provide a similar opportunity, the current structure leaves little chance for students to actually meet with him. Creating a panel of students from a variety of clubs and organizations would allow different groups of students to voice their concerns to the chancellor and discuss issues with other student groups.
As another productive alternative to the current office hour, Chancellor Block should consider hosting regular town hall meetings on campus once a quarter. This would give all members of the student body the opportunity to express any comments or concerns directly to the chancellor and receive immediate feedback. It would also eliminate the random lottery and allow anyone, space permitting, to have their concerns addressed by the chancellor. Undergraduate Students Association Council representatives should also be present at the town hall meetings to take note of student ideas and later work with the chancellor to come up with solutions that can be implemented quickly and efficiently.
Town hall meetings would not only provide students with a tangible experience showing that the chancellor truly does care about what they have to say, but also would make communication with the chancellor a priority for USAC.
Creating various facets for students to voice their opinions and concerns would demonstrate that Chancellor Block cares about and makes time for students and their concerns outside of one office hour.