The Oct. 26 President's Forum wasn't so much a forum as it was a stroll through the mall outside Loftin Student Center with President Robert Zeigler.
The forum was originally scheduled to be in the Fiesta Room of Loftin, but signs directed students to the faculty and staff lounge behind the cafeteria.
"When we've done these things before, we'd go in the Fiesta Room and there were students there to talk to me, but there were also students there eating lunch and doing other stuff," Zeigler said. "I don't want to mandate an audience, I just want to try to be as available as I can."
So instead, Zeigler spoke with students in the mall.
There weren't many.
History sophomore Ernest Cavazos found common ground with the president while discussing his major. Cavazos wants to teach history. "My major was history," Zeigler said. "My Ph.D. was in history. I taught history."
Cavazos also had positive things to say about this college. "I was at UTSA for a semester. I like SAC," he said. "I wish it was a university."
Zeigler was asked about the new parking garage and its designation, the nursing building and the academic complex, which Zeigler said will house departments such as business, philosophy and foreign languages; but only one student had a specific concern to address.
Medical assisting sophomore Tim Til-Valdiev asked if he and his friends were allowed to kick a soccer ball around in the grassy areas outside of Loftin. "A certain police officer always tells us it's against the rules."
"No. You should be able to do that on the grass," Zeigler said, appearing slightly bewildered. "That's what grass is for."
Til-Valdiev agreed that tossing a football around, an activity he and his friends used to enjoy together on campus, was different because somebody can get hit by the ball and get hurt.
"We'll take care of the security issue," Zeigler said.
And perhaps the speed in which the issue was addressed is testament to the president's desire for student feedback.
In a phone interview Monday, Zeigler said that Robin Collett, administrative assistant to the president, passed the message along to the department of public safety to let officers know that kicking the soccer ball around is allowed.
Zeigler's only concern was finding a way to involve more students at his forums.
"I wish we could figure out a way to get a larger crowd at those. I think if students don't have some particular concern, they're not going to stop," Zeigler said Monday.
Despite the lack of student turnout, the president is not giving up. Another forum is scheduled for 11 a.m. today in the mall.
"It was fun. In fact, I enjoyed it, and I think that if we do it more frequently, then students will stop and talk," Zeigler said.
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