Town Hall Meeting answers student questions about campus life

• Representatives from Liberty University Dining Services, the Center 4ME, Campus Recreation and Student Affairs answer student questions.
• Locations of AEDs, diversity concerns and emergency preparedness were some of the topics of conversation.

The Dean of Students Town Hall Meeting gave Liberty University students the opportunity to ask questions and pitch ideas to the heads of student-serving offices at Liberty.

The panel, held in the Jerry Falwell Library Terrace Conference Room at 4 p.m. Tuesday Oct. 24, included representatives from many of the offices at Liberty such as Duane “Duke” Davis, manager of Liberty University Dining Services, to Chris Misiano, the vice president of Campus Recreation, to Dr. Mark Hine, the senior vice president for Student Affairs, among others.

Dean of Students Robert Mullen led the discussion and helped answer students’ questions.

After prayer and a brief review of last year’s meeting, students lined up to ask questions and make suggestions.

Students commented on a broad range of topics, from emergency medical response to traffic to counseling services.

AEDs at Liberty

Student Hannah Robertson expressed concern that there are not more readily available automated external defibrillators.

“It’s just concerning that they are not easily accessible for students and staff,” Robertson said.

She said there had recently been a medical emergency in one of her classes. When she called 911, the operator asked whether there was an AED available. Although her classmate did not need an AED, Robertson looked for one after the situation had been taken care of and could not find one.

In response, Liberty University Police Department Chief of Police Richard Hinkley said that LUPD officers have AEDs in each of their vehicles and that there are a number of AEDs around campus. He said they are working on funding to provide more.

Diversity Concerns

Student Janea Berkley wanted to know what Liberty is doing to increase applications and retention among minority students.

Berkley quoted a statistic stating 4 percent of Liberty students are African American.

“It hurts my heart to know that that’s all there is here, at Liberty University, the largest Christian University,” Berkley said.

Addressing Berkley’s concern, Melany Pearl, the executive director of the Center for Multicultural Enrichment, pointed to Miles Hunter, Liberty’s new diversity recruitment specialist. Hunter said he has begun going to specific minority groups rather than going to large groups of potential students from all backgrounds to recruit minority students.

Pearl also said her department works to help retain minority students and noted that it is the responsibility of every department to move toward inclusive excellence.

Emergency Procedure Awareness

Student Constance Schneider said that some students were afraid during the LUPD emergency alert glitch because they did not know what to do in the event of an actual emergency.

Schneider asked whether LUPD could train students on emergency procedures, perhaps in one of the first Convocations of the semester or on the first day of class.

“How can we get out and save as many lives as possible,” Schneider asked.

Hinkley said emergency training during Convocation was postponed to focus on the tragedies going on around the world. He said there is information about emergency procedures, including a video about what do to with an active shooter on campus, on the LUPD webpage on Liberty’s website.

So many students participated that there was not time for everyone to speak by the time the meeting ended after an hour, Mullen had the remaining students write down their questions so he and the others could address them.