The Daily Gamecock

New program lets students lodge concerns

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Student Government is launching a new program for students to lodge concerns they may have with the university.

Carolina Concerns, which launched earlier this month, is an online forum for students to post concerns ranging from parking to student funding that SG will work to seek answers for.

If a student lodges a concern, then the executives would meet to see how the task will be handled: whether it goes to student Senate or is handled by the executive cabinet.

"It is our job to represent students and that's what Carolina Concerns allows us to do," Student Body Vice President Donnie Iorio said. "We now have a way for you to submit a concern, you should be able to get an answer."

SG got the idea from fellow SEC school Auburn, who got the idea from the University of Maryland.

Iorio said that they hope to install a kiosk on campus where students can put in their concerns.

"We want to turn this into something that lasts long after we are here," Iorio said.

Iorio said that the program allows students that SG may not talk to regularly to voice their opinions and get their voice heard.

"There are 32,000 students on this campus and we represent them all. If you think that I can relate to a graduate student — I couldn't," Iorio said. "Now we can represent students we don't talk to on a daily basis."

Students can also track the progress of their concern. The program updates to show if emails have been sent about the concern as well as if the post has been reviewed by anyone in SG and student Senate.

Iorio said that while they may not be able to solve every problem posted on the site, that they will search for answers to explain why things are the way they are.

"It's a way for students to get their answers," he said. "If we don't know the answer, we're going to find out for you."

Iorio said that the job of Student Government is to reach out and represent the population at USC, not just their own members.

He believes that the new Carolina Concerns program can help them do that.

"Our job is to make sure people understand and that they get the answers to the questions they want," Iorio said. "If [Student Government] only talked to each other, we're going to get a different perspective than if we talk to students outside of Student Government."

While being live, the site is still going through improvements that deal with development. Iorio hopes that students voice their opinions about the site so that the look of the site improves.

"It's solution focused. It really provides the outlet for students," he said. "What we are trying to do is ask students what they want changed and do it."


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