University of Memphis President M. David Rudd and Provost Karen Weddle-West hosted a town hall-style meeting at the University Center Theatre on Oct. 10 for students and faculty to address concerns.
Three major topics came up at the town hall: The Daily Helmsman’s Oct. 10 front-page story, raising student workers’ minimum wage and the cleanliness of the residence halls.
Students and faculty could view the meeting on a live broadcast through a link sent by the Office of the President’s email, and a moderator asked online questions at the meeting.
One online participant asked Rudd for his opinion on The Daily Helmsman’s front-page story in Oct. 10’s edition: “Student raped twice in 20 days: Alleged assailants remain U of M students.”
Rudd said he was disappointed at The Helmsman, and it was “not responsible journalism not to respect due process.” He said he will always support the paper, but due process and evidence is a part of protecting students at the U of M.
“All students that make a claim of feeling a threat, regardless of whether it’s about sexual assault, whether its about harassment and bullying, whatever – we work with those students individually to come up with a plan to help protect their safety,” Rudd said. “All of that is done within the constraints of due process for everyone included.”
An online question about programs for financially stressed students started a discussion on the student employment. Rudd talked about the 1,200 students currently employed by the U of M and said he would try to raise the student minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to the staff employee wage of $10.10 per hour.
“The goal is to raise the minimum wage period to $10.10, regardless of whether or not you’re a student,” Rudd said. “We couldn’t absorb the full cost of that now, so we’ll have to do that incrementally.”
Several online and in-person attendees asked Rudd and Weddle-West about the old residence halls’ cleanliness. Rudd and Weddle-West asked them to send pictures of the halls in question, and they would address the issue.
“[Vice President of Student Affairs Darrell Ray] is doing a thorough review of the status of our residence halls and comes up with a renovation and response plan on an annual basis,” Rudd said. “He comes up with a response plan, so I’ve asked him to do that more comprehensively. I’ve asked him to look at renovations and that budget and the maintenance budget so that we can respond to those.”
