Monday afternoon proved fruitful for members of the Student Affairs Committee, as they held an open student forum where members of both campuses shared their experiences, questions, and concerns with the current state of Northern Essex Community College in a town-hall style online meeting.

Hosted on the afternoon of April 7 via Zoom by Professor Meredith Gunning and Mary Hopwood, who are the Chair and Student Representative of the NECC Student Affairs Committee, the forum covered topics such as students’ suggestions for the usage of underutilized spaces and struggles with information transparency and financial aid, along with revelations about the future of NECC’s student advising programs that could have an impact on the workload and efficacy of advisors.

The forum began at 2:30, with Gunning opening the floor to students to share their complaints and ideas for improvement to NECC as an institution. “We try to act as a conduit for student voices,” said Gunning, referencing her role in the Student Affairs Committee and framing their objective as being the ‘messenger’ between students and the administration.

A student member of the Global Politics Club took the opportunity to comment on the lack of student-exclusive spaces on both campuses. “I would like to see a student lounge… a place to be with other students and community.”

When asked to elaborate by Gunning, the student mentioned their dissatisfaction with the current third spaces provided on campus.

“We have a student center, but I feel that there’s no place for me to be a student there. I think they should rename it the Student Resource Center.”

Pedro Rentas, the current President of NECC’s Student Government Association followed with anecdotes about his experiences dealing with retrieving information over the phone. “I have had experience with impatient or difficult service over the phone trying to get information… with financial aid, I had mistaken some information and I was not treated well. If there was another community college closer [to me], I would rather go to that community college.”

Rentas’ qualms with financial aid services were vindicated by another student present. “I got a scholarship for $1,500 for photography, and financial aid took it away… I believe every facet of transparency should be reexamined.”

The student spoke on condition of anonymity, mentioning they had been retaliated against in the past for raising similar issues.

On a higher note, student appreciation for NECC’s many educators could not have been stressed in a more thorough fashion.

“There’s a lot of involvement from the educators, it really feels like they want to help students,” said Hopwood, who’s praise was echoed by Rentas, saying “I would like to see educators and professors see more recognition for the help and support they provide.”

The final question asked attending students to provide insight into their experiences with NECC’s student portal software, known as Blackboard.

While Blackboard would see praise for its ease of use, Hopwood said “It would be really beneficial if faculty could all use it (Blackboard) the same way… If there was more uniformity in the way Blackboard was used it would be really beneficial to the student body.”

The student forum was wrapped up by an announcement regarding changes to the student advising programs on both the Lawrence and Haverhill campuses.

“Student advising will be concentrated into one location on each campus… these changes will be starting around the end of the current spring semester,” said Gunning.

Not much else is known aside from the Haverhill campus’ centralized advising location, which will be the second floor of the student center.