Students positive about McRobbie’s office hours

IU President Michael McRobbie met with six of the 14 students who came to his first open office hours Friday and discussed everything from recycling to dental coverage.\nMcRobbie’s office hours are intended to provide students an opportunity to share their concerns about important issues affecting them, their peers and the University at large, according to an IU news release.\n“I wanted to find an opportunity to talk directly to students,” \nMcRobbie said.\nFormer president Adam Herbert was often criticized because he was not visible enough to faculty and students, but IU Director of Media Relations Larry MacIntyre said one of McRobbie’s priorities is to understand the concerns and issues of the student population.\n“He can’t spend hours and hours every day walking around campuses,” MacIntyre said. “But he can make time to talk to students, and that’s what he did.”\nStudents hoping to meet with McRobbie signed in and waited in a conference room for their names to be called. Students talked to Dean of Students Dick McKaig, Student Trustee A.D. King and IU Student Association President W.T. Wright while waiting for McRobbie. McRobbie wasn’t able to meet with all the students who showed up, but said he hoped to be able to hold “open office hours” again in the next couple of weeks.\nSophomore Brittney Banks said McRobbie was generous in giving students an hour of his time.\n“It’s not a whole lot, but he doesn’t have a lot of time, so it is a lot,” Banks said.\nBanks met with McRobbie because she thinks IU needs to improve its campus recycling system. She said McRobbie told her he feels strongly about the issue and he is working on it.\n“I’m going to make sure he is throughout the year,” Banks said.\nJohn Duncan, a doctoral student studying computer science, talked with McRobbie about health care issues facing graduate students.\n“We have health care and limited vision coverage, but we have zip for dental,” Duncan said.\nMost Big Ten schools provide dental coverage for their graduate students, Duncan said. He suggested the University offer some kind of graduated cost of living increase for graduate students. \nDuncan said he has a positive feeling about the meeting because McRobbie asked him to send an e-mail with some of the information they talked about. Duncan said open office hours with the president will be helpful assuming McRobbie intends to act on students’ suggestions.\n“This is a big step forward for a public school,” Duncan said.\nSophomore Alexandra Chtchedrina said McRobbie’s assistant took notes during her visit. Chtchedrina said she talked to McRobbie about her discontent with the removal of the bursar billing option at the IU Bookstore. She also said she was pleased with the addition of two new bus routes and suggested the University create a program to help freshmen learn about the different bus routes. Chtchedrina said McRobbie told her she had useful ideas that made sense.\n“It was definitely time well spent during my Friday afternoon,” Chtchedrina said.