Shippensburg University President Charles Patterson and several members of his administration hosted “President’s Hour,” an open forum for the student body to ask questions or relay concerns, in the Harley MPR Tuesday night.

Patterson, along with Dean of Students Lorie Davis, Interim Provost Nicole Hill, Chief of Police Pat Taylor and other members of university administration, answered questions in an hour-long session moderated by Residence Hall Association President Adam Beam.

At one point, Beam had to redirect the crowd to address the panelists and not each other when Student Government Association (SGA) Vice President of Internal Affairs Kennedy Holt interrupted senior Ian Thompson as he directed a question about the effectiveness of SGA toward Patterson.

Thompson said he believes SGA is “broken,” and Holt interjected that The Slate plays a role in the student body not being invested in SGA operations.

Davis, who also advises SGA, acknowledged that its relationship with The Slate is strained but said, “We’re slowly making incremental progress.”

Earlier in the forum, several students asked about issues dining services have faced this semester and some of the changes that took place since last semester. A complaint by several students was that the raised value of a meal swipe from $6.40 to $6.60 does not make a difference when food costs were raised across campus.

“Inflation is eating us alive,” Patterson said.

Sophomore Molly Carroll asked if dining is considering making other options available for students after 8 p.m., which is when the late-night meal period begins.

Jim Faulkner, director of Operations for Ship Dining, said, “We haven’t been looking into” other options for those hours.

“We as students have a right to address issues that have impacted us as students who pay Shippensburg University and the right to know what the efforts are to change things,” Carroll said after the forum. “It seemed like more indirect answers were being made. If you want to have an efficient campus and campus life, start advocating, listening and making the changes for students.” 

Thompson asked why a number of meal deals that Ship Dining has advertised on its Instagram account are “nearly double the price” for students without a meal plan. For instance, a 6-inch sub, house chips and small fountain drink at the Sub Shop is one meal swipe, the cash value of which is $6.60, or $11.87.

“I can definitely take that back to my team,” Faulkner said.

There were also questions about the threat to Harley Hall last month that sparked two campus-wide emails. Two Harley residents made comparisons to the campus lockdown that occurred in August 2022 when local law enforcement was searching for a possibly armed man off campus. 

“Those two cases are completely different,” Patterson said, adding that the Harley incident “was not an imminent threat.”

Davis noted that even if students do not see the “increased police presence” as noted in the initial email sent at 12:38 a.m. on Sept. 13, that does not mean they are not present.

There were other more specific questions asked, including the availability of bus services to get students to campus before 8 a.m., delays in processing student employment paperwork, furniture changes made to certain types of suites in the residence halls, students’ accounts being put on hold and how the university works with the larger Shippensburg community to support students of color.

Students wishing to address members of the administration can attend the next President’s Hour, which will be held on Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. in the Naugle Hall MPR.

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