Take advantage of President Fry’s office hours | The Triangle

Take advantage of President Fry’s office hours

Senior staff members of The Triangle recently had the opportunity to sit with President John A. Fry to talk about what’s coming up for the Drexel community. We learned that many steps are already underway for the Drexel Master Plan, and more news will soon be released to the public. We also learned more about how Drexel’s community outreach is growing daily.

Fry spoke to The Triangle about new operations in development that will streamline student financial services at Drexel, promising that the new system will be a “one-stop shop” for students and will cut out unnecessary bureaucracy. As he was speaking about these changes, there was one thing that caught our attention: Fry said this change came about thanks to issues raised by students and faculty during his office hours.

In our Oct. 26 issue, we published a commentary piece about “slacktivism” in American society. Slacktivism, the emerging trend of sharing issues and ideas on social networking sites but taking no real action to rectify problems, is a familiar sight in the Drexel community. Plenty of Facebook statuses were shared about the new time ticket schedule for course registration, but how many of those people actually went to the administration to let their voices be heard?

President Fry takes the concerns students and faculty share during his office hours to heart, which is why he is working on setting up this “one-stop shop” for students. He still holds office hours, the next ones being Dec. 14 and 21 at 3 p.m. There are many students who don’t know about this opportunity, and perhaps there should be more promotion of it from University Communications. President Fry’s office hours appointments are made on a first-come, first-serve basis, and a valid Drexel ID is required at the meeting.

There are students who never meet the president of their university, let alone get the chance to sit down and voice their concerns about their education. This is a huge opportunity to get your voice heard and enact change. Social media is great for getting other students’ opinions, but change doesn’t happen because of a Facebook status. It takes approaching the administration and alerting them of the problems at hand. Fry, a progressive and engaging University leader, is giving you this chance. Take advantage of it.