At the beginning of this semester, CCSGA launched a program on their webpage where CC students can submit comments and concerns. The new program arrives amidst a time in which most students resort to anonymous forums, such as CC Confessions and Yik Yak, to voice their opinions.
Alejandro Salazar is the current CCSGA President. His main concern with these anonymous forums is that they discourage discussion and don’t allow for productive outcomes.
“We’ve always felt that CC Confessions and Yik Yak, though they’re good for general sentiment about issues, are not very good at being productive,” said Salazar. “There’s no way to actually engage in dialogue, especially with all the anonymity surrounding it,”
In order to direct student comments to the source, CCSGA launched the new comment section featured on the homepage of their website. Users can submit any comment, anonymously or not, and receive a direct response from a student body representative. CCSGA hopes that, eventually, specific comments and questions can be directed to particular departments or people. For example, if someone has a question or concern about academics, they can be directed to a certain professor or department. If someone has a problem with athletics, they can be put into touch with a coach or any other involved party.
“In theory, you could have a dialogue, and you could ask questions there publically. Maybe a lot of students have [these questions] but aren’t sure who to ask, where to go, or how to ask the question,” said Samantha Albert, CCSGA’s Vice President of Internal Affairs. “It’s a more responsible forum where you’re getting direct contact from someone rather than anonymous contact.”
The idea for the program arose after numerous complaints surfaced on CC Confessions last year concerning Playhard Production’s event, Ice Age. Salazar noted that although there was much controversy surrounding CCSGA’s funding for the event, only two students actually came to the council in person to voice their concerns.
Salazar added that Jill Tiefenthaler also has a comment section on her own webpage on which students, faculty, staff, and whoever else, can raise any issue or concern.
“There are all these avenues for communication that are not well advertised,” said Albert. “Instead of having all these different places where people can ask questions or raise concerns, it needs to be streamlined.”
Largely, there is a misunderstanding about how student voices can impact decisions on campus. Yik Yak may bring social validation with its upvote system, where users can impact a post’s popularity by liking or disliking it, but the real change comes when the ideas and criticisms enter the administrative forum.
If you would like to voice your opinion to CCSGA, log onto sites.coloradocollege.edu/ccsga to submit your comment.