Newspapers / Fayetteville State University Student … / March 12, 2008, edition 1 / Page 8
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©©CTDdDGfflOQCg FSU Needs To Do Better For Students By Matthew Wynne Contributing Writer I have been at FSU for three years now and things have got to change. FSU's new promotional motto: "At FSU, It's All About U," has not fully lived up to this statement at all! As a student in the Honors Program it is a deep concern to me that future Broncos will not be able to receive full ride honors scholarships through the university anymore. The Honors Pro gram was truly the only scholarship that "covered it all" for many students and helped students get their foot in the door. Now it seems that the option is not available with the new changes implemented in the name of the "Academic Excellence Program." As a student, I feel that the Uni versity needs to offer full-ride schol arships for students who exemplify "Academic Excellence" throughout their high school career. Fayetteville State has very few full-ride scholar ships available for its students. FSU has recently only established the FSU Scholarship and Chancellor's Schol arship that will be offered next year but they are only partial scholarships and not all students who enter into this university qualify for Pell Grants that would hopefully cover the rest of their college expenses. Through my experiences and en counters with students, serving as a SGA member for over 3 years now, I have discovered one of the major is sues with students attending this uni versity has been, and seems to always be, financial aid. A lot of students have become dis couraged because they cannot afford to pay all of their college expenses and are thus forced to only receive loans that will eventually lead them to debt, drop out, or join the military. I feel that FSU needs to start offering more "diverse scholarships" to stu dents in the various departments like other Universities. I believe the University should al locate funds to scholarships for specif ic departments. Especially the current high-need career areas in society like: Education, Nursing, Biology, Chemis try, Mathematics, and other areas of study. I also believe the scholarship programs should incorporate student leadership building, career develop ment, and moral support for students. We need to utilize more resources surrounding us like local businesses, local schools, and the overall com munity. If the student clubs, organi zations, academic departments, and business departments would collabo rate more, FSU could be competitive with other Universities and be at the top of its game. Lastly, there is a lack of good, quality customer service, professional ism, and competence in the staff here at FSU. Often times I have been re ferred to 5 different offices just to get tin answer to a question. I can truly say the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing at FSU. Students including my self have had so many problems with the academic departments, business departments, and financial aid offic es because of miscommunication, or missing or misplaced paperwork that has caused individuals who were set to graduate to not graduate on time. I honestly believe the staff needs to be better trained, monitored, and assessed for their quality of service to the students, because believe me if you saw some of those employees in action you would have some choice words. In fact that is why many students say they do no want to give back fi nancially to the university. Because they have had negative experiences. Ultimately, the alumni reflect the fu ture reputation of Fayetteville State. I believe personally that these issues need to be handled and ad dressed expeditiously to ensure the success and survival of FSU as a qual ity HBCU. As a University we need to refocus our priorities and really make FSU "all about U!" If you would like to comment on this article you can do so on our web site, www.fsuvoice.com. If you would like to provide a written response to this article, you can email: VoiceCopyEditor@yahoo. com Programs Should Focus On ‘‘The Murk” By Ashley Smith Student Advisor In the last issue of The Voice (February 27th), we ran an article about students from Fayetteville State University that have partnered up with Chev rolet to give students an internship opportunity in business, advertising, and marketing. This article got a few of us thinking about what other projects FSU students could do for internship credit and ex perience in their career areas. The first thing that comes to mind is the numer ous possibilities for projects along the Murchison Road area. Not only has this area suffered from years of neglect, but the road also serves as one of our university's longest borders. The city of Fayette ville has recently announced plans for development along the road and has contracted a company to draw up land use plans for the area. Our first question is: When development starts, who is looking out for the small businesses and resi dents along the road? Are they going to be forced to other areas, or does the plan protect long-time Murchison Road residents and communities. Instead of bulldozing housing areas and run-down busi nesses, are there plans to help current residents im prove their own situation through tax breaks and economic incentives? Students at Fayetteville State University should be asking these questions for the residents and busi nesses of the Murchison Road area. Years ago, when development began along Bragg Boulevard, many of the poorest residents were forced towards Murchison Road. Will this happen again, and sim ply create another poor area that gets a nickname like "The Murk?" Or will city planners take the poor and disadvantaged into consideration and make providing for the poor a part of the Fayette ville beautification process? Here is what students can do: First, if you are a business or economics major in a research class, use one of your assignments to do research on the economic status of businesses along the Murchison Road area. You could prepare an economic plan for failing businesses, help struggling stores devel op marketing and advertising strategies, and could even work with the business as an intern to help them increase their profits and viability. Communications majors could create a public relations campaign to get the word out about the changes that the city is planning for the area. We guarantee that most residents don't know about the future changes. Comm majors could also partner up with area churches, businesses, and residents to help voice concerns over the development of the FSU departments and groups together in a common goal, to greatly diminish the level of local poverty, starting with the Murchison Road area. This would attract a large amount of attention to FSU, would benefit the community, and attract people interested in research to the university. Students could use the organization as an internship opportunity, where they would be put to work conducting research and coming up with solutions to Fayetteville's socioeco nomic problems. We think that this sounds awesome, but maybe it is just because we thought of it. Let us know what you think. You can comment on the story at our website on www.fsuvoice.com. Or send an email to VoiceCopyEditor@yahoo.com and give us your opinion. We will pick some of the responses to print in the March 26th edition of The Voice. area. Criminal Justice and Social Science majors could look at the crime and drug problems facing the area and come up with creative and doable solutions for helping to combat crime and drugs such as an or ganized community watch program and research on how extensive the problems are. They could conduct survey research to gauge the community's socioeconomic condition and resident's feelings to wards organizations like the police and DHS. One thing that we at The Voice feel could really make FSU an asset to the community would be the creation of a Fayetteville State University Institute for the Study of Local Economic Development. This or ganization could act as the glue that holds different The Voice Opinions, Editorials, and Letters: The Voice encourages students, facul- . ty, stafTand members of the commu nity to write to our paper with your views on things dealing with FSU or the interests of students. We reserve the right to edit articles and letters grammar and spelling, and may deny a submission if it is deemed as not ap propriate for publical ion: YQiceCQpyeditor@yahoo.c6m Pg. 8 VOICE March 12, 2008
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