Kaylyn Zielinski

Columnist

The university should have waited until the program prioritization reports were released to have the town hall meeting because the meeting did not provide any new or vital information.

The meeting did not address the programs that would be cut or receive less funding, so there was no point to the meeting other than to congratulate the task force for its work on the report.

Today, students and NIU employees will be able to find out what programs are at risk of losing resources and what programs are not. Being that program prioritization can impose a lot of changes to 459 programs, the task force should have waited to hold a town hall meeting until after the reports were posted. Students and NIU employees could have walked out of the meeting with their questions and concerns more thouroughly addressed if the task force had waited until the reports were made public.

This meeting was not informative enough and was better suited for a later time.

Kara Mercer

Columnist

It was necessary to hold a town hall meeting before the program prioritization reports were released to explain to students and NIU employees how to understand the reports.

The town hall meeting was a good way for people to learn what the goals were for the program prioritization process and what the reports will mean. If the university released the reports for review without first explaining them, there could be confusion about how to interpret the results. The meeting allowed those on the task force to reach out to people and encourage them to give feedback on the reports; many task force members reiterated a need for feedback at the meeting.

A timeline discussed during the meeting was important to maintain transparency, which is one of the goals for the task force. The meeting was a good place to discuss the next steps for program prioritization.

Having a meeting was necessary because releasing the reports without explaining the timeline, process or the need for feedback would have led to confusion.

Faith Mellenthin

Columnist

Holding a town hall meeting on results that have not been released shows the process of program prioritization has not been well organized.

Feedback will be highly encouraged after the release of the report today. It makes more sense to have held a meeting after the reports were out and feedback was given to actively discuss ways to improve upon the work that has already been done.

Bare minimum, it would have made sense to hold a meeting where the results could be explained. Therefore, I think it would have been more effective to have a town hall meeting after the results of program prioritization were released so people could discuss that aspect.

The bad timing makes me, as a student, feel like the process is not going so smooth. I am waiting for the results and hope once they are released I can finally better understand everything that has been planned for these past few years.