Fagin, Lazerson star in town hall

Look out Oprah, Phil and Geraldo. Here comes Claire. Interim President Claire Fagin and Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson hosted the University's first televised town meeting yesterday afternoon where they discussed campus problems ranging from the lack of communication on campus to the University's racial harassment policy. The program, which was broadcast live from the Annenberg School on UTV's channel 13, was filmed before a live studio audience made up of four representatives from the Commission on Strengthening the Community and 25 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. "Our purpose in having this town meeting today is to use the television medium which really is a way of shrinking our psychological community," Fagin said at the start of the program. "Using television helps?us communicate to many more people than we could do otherwise. The hallmark of this year is to pull our community together." Fagin and Lazerson, who sat side-by-side on a small stage surrounded by audience members, answered questions and commented on suggestions from the audience. Black Student League President Kaplan Mobray brought up the issue of students on the Commission, telling Fagin and Lazerson he thinks such an important committee should be comprised almost entirely of students, instead of having "token" student representatives. Fagin asked Commission Chairperson and Vice Chairperson of the University's Board of Trustees Gloria Chisum to respond to Mobray's comment. Chisum said the Commission is made up of a broad representation of the entire University community. She added that students were not originally placed on the Commission because it was formed in June, when most students were away from campus. Mobray also discussed Part II of the University's racial harassment policy, which forbids all verbal and symbolic behavior which constitutes racial harassment. He asked Fagin to guarantee she would not take any action to suspend the so-called "speech code" until she listened to all comments and suggestions from the University community. Fagin answered that she will take no action until she has heard from everyone, adding she will use the month of October to gather campus opinions before making any decisions. While the program did not have commercial breaks for advertisers, it did cut to taped videos, in which students were interviewed on campus by UTV staff. In the videos, students cited reasons as diverse as the lack of alcohol to the lack of communication as being major campus problems. Due to the one-hour time constraint, many issues – such as the status of the Reserve Officer Training Corps on campus –Ewere not fully discussed. Mobray said after the program he thinks the town meeting is a "start." "You can't really cover too much in an hour, but I think it was a way for President Fagin to gain access [to the community]," he said.

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