The Student Government Association (SGA) held the “Student Open Forum 2016” on Nov. 15 in the LaPenta End Zone where representatives from multiple services on campus were available to answer questions regarding student concerns.

The topics brought up the most during the hour long session were security on campus and technological issues.

SGA President and senior Kayla Kosack moderated the forum session. She, along with the rest of the SGA e-board, gathered questions from various students prior to the event. Audience members were also given slips to fill out questions.

Multiple students brought up their troubles with connecting to the school wireless internet.

Dimitris Halaris, associate vice provost for information technology (IT), said that the college is undergoing a complete restructuring of the indoor and outdoor internet systems. The process should be completed by mid-January.

Halaris also said to students that the average Iona College student has three to five devices connected to the wireless internet. She said that the number of devices connected has tripled; the last count of devices done showed that 18,000 devices are currently connected to the college’s server. Halaris concluded that this is one of the reasons why the wireless internet system can be slower at times.

JoAnne Laughlin Steele, vice provost of IT and chief information officer, discussed issues with the college’s single sign-on system. The system was upgraded on the same day as the forum and led to students and faculty being unable to sign on to their user accounts. Steele said that the problem can be solved by the user clearing their cache and/or history. Steele said that the vendor did not inform the school that this step needed to be taken, otherwise students and faculty would have been notified to do so.

Halaris said that the school upgraded its single sign-on system because of the amount of time it took for a user to log-in using the previous system.

Dominic Locatelli, director of security, and Douglas McLeer, associate director of security, answered questions regarding security and the Gael Express.

One of these questions concerned the scheduling of the express. Locatelli and McLeer said that they try to run the shuttle schedule “parallel with the Metro North schedule.” They also said that the schedule was looked over and matched up again only a few weeks before the forum.

Locatelli reminded students that the express does not run like a “bus service.” He said that there are many factors that come into play with the shuttle schedule. The shuttles can accommodate students to other off-campus locations such as New Roc City. Locatelli said that sometimes students call the office asking for the shuttle to wait at the station a few minutes later if their train is late which can affect other students. He went on to add that one of the main roads near the station is under construction, which makes the shuttles go another route to get to the platform.

Other topics were mentioned briefly during the session. Michael Labella, director of residential life, answered a question about the dorm guest policy. Labella said that the current policy of having guests be registered before 10 p.m. is in place to keep the system organized. The front desk attendants have a shift change at 11 p.m. and having everything in by 10 p.m. helps keep the next attendant organized with guest passes and papers.

Rich Murray, associate director of facilities management, answered questions regarding the heating systems in the new North Avenue Residence hall. Multiple students placed work orders regarding a loud noise the system makes in the rooms in the new hall. Murray said that Facilities would continue to look into the situation.

Junior Matthew Moreira was one of the students who asked questions during the forum.

“I thought it was fairly unique to say the least to have the directors from the majority of Iona’s departments in one room so that the student body can have them address their concerns,” Moreira said. “It allows for a certain level of accountability and transparency in school operations which I believe are always important.”

Moreira thought that the forum should occur twice a semester.

“We can give feedback in the beginning of a semester and see how much has been addressed by the end of it,” Moreira said.

Junior Keirstin Glynn also thought that the event was valuable to the Iona community.

“The event was very important for the improvement of the school,” Glynn said. “I am happy that there are people dedicated to the forward movement of the college and those people are the ones that were present at the event and made sure to have their voices heard.

Students are encouraged to contact SGA with any questions and concerns at [email protected].

Students are also reminded that they are welcome to attend the weekly SGA meetings on Thursdays at 3:30 in the McGrath room with further questions.