COLUMN: Curious Campus — what questions do you have about CMU?
The Central Michigan University seal sits in front of Warriner Hall Aug. 25 on CMU's campus.
As the voice of students on this campus, I think it’s critical that Central Michigan Life answers your questions.
And in the first four weeks of classes, many questions have been raised in the office on the fourth floor of Moore Hall. What happened to the third floor of the Champions Center? Where is the DJ that was supposed to be in the students section? What’s going on with the expansion of the Esports program?
We ask questions like those because we think you also want answers to those questions. However, I also want to know what you want to know. What questions do you have? What have you always wondered about regarding how Central Michigan University is run?
For example, one question that most students wonder at some point in their collegiate career is: Why do college students have to pay for parking?
Well, we have an explanation for you. In 2013, it was reported that CMU has a total of about 11,000 available parking passes. That number may have gone up slightly in recent years with new parking lot additions, but despite a small increase, that number is still significantly lower than the number of students, faculty and staff that visit campus each day.
Not only is selling parking passes a significant revenue stream for CMU, as listed in the 2020 operating budget, but it also makes students and those who live on campus consider other, more efficient, ways of transportation. Parking pass fees help pay for sealing and striping costs and parking service operations.
The answers we report won’t always be the answers that you want to hear. Many things that university administrators and higher-ups say don’t appeal to popular student opinion. But, we will get you the answers.
As reporters at Central Michigan Life, we are naturally curious about how things work at this university. We want the other curious people on this campus to come to us with their questions, too.
This student media company has proven its ability to get answers on this campus, whether they are about the March 2 shooting, the mysterious $225 per semester student services fee, which was just a shady was to increase tuition, and how sexual assault victims are treated by the Office of Civil Rights and Institutional Equities.
We are up to the challenge of finding answers to your questions. It can be anything as simple as how much students pay per class period to how the university is evolving to combat a downward trend in enrollment.
Just ask the question. We’ll get you the answers.
Send your questions directly to me at editor@cm-life.com or contact the newsroom via any of our social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. Send in what you want to know. We’ll find out for you.
Albany, Minnesota senior Sara Kellner and Muskegon junior Dylan Goetz stand in the Central Michigan Life's office April 22 at Moore Hall. They will be working as editor-in-chiefs during Summer and Fall 2019 semester.
