When we were all called to a mandatory meeting at the Emery Gymnasium on Sept. 8, we were told the reason was to hear news about hurricane preparation. As you will remember, we were all worried about Hurricane Irma coming into North Carolina and possibly hitting Saint Augustine’s University.
That was OK because it’s certainly necessary to be prepared for a hurricane. Dr. Everett Ward did speak about hurricane preparedness, however we spent only about 20 minutes talking about what exactly would happen if the hurricane hit. But then we spent a lot more time – about an hour in total – hearing about a plethora of topics, ranging from habitual drug use on campus to even social justice topics.
I am bringing this up to make a plea to the administrators of Saint Augustine’s University: When we are called to a mandatory meeting on a particular topic, please stick to that topic.
I can definitely see why we need to talk about being prepared for Hurricane Irma. When Hurricane Matthew came along last year, we did not have a similar assembly event though that storm caused flooding throughout the state and left thousands without power (including St. Augustine’s University). When it happened it seemed like the school was panicking, so when hurricane season hits, why don’t we have a thorough discussion of what to do?
Now I know that may seem crazy, because we are pretty far inland and we don’t live in an area such as Florida or Texas where hurricanes hit often, but in the past couple of years North Carolina has been in fact hit with several natural disasters such as tornadoes, flooding, tropical storms and even hurricanes.
So we do need to have discussion about those kinds of things. But I would like administrators to be more respectful of students’ time and not talk about a lot of different items when the primary purpose of the meeting is to talk about one thing. Students have a lot of things to do and might need to spend time doing something else.
At least let us know if a meeting will cover many different topics. Then at least we’ll know what to expect and won’t feel confused.
Elyscia Vaughn Brown, a junior majoring in communications, is the editorial editor of the Falcon Forum.
