Editor’s Note: This was an Editorial written by the ‘Burnian staff on January 21, 1961. It’s timely considering our own town hall meeting a few weeks ago. This article from over 50 years ago shows how common town meetings used to be and the changes they were working towards. It also assess possible criteria of a successful town meeting. Using this criteria, one might be able to assess whether our own town hall was successful or not.
Last week a town meeting was held in the regular assembly period. This purpose, as explained by the chairman, was to give us opportunity to air our problems and to inquire about various phases of Blackburn life. The following questions were asked: Was the meeting announced or publicized? Was it required? What is being done about a 12-hour work week? Can anything be done about the scheduling of our vacations, especially the one in spring? The Work Committee expressed their appreciation for student cooperation, and a member of the Student Council brought up the subject of ballot procedure for Council election.
Eight or nine students contributed, no heated arguments occurred, there were no new ideas brought forth; the consensus after the meeting was that it hadn’t really achieved much of anything.
Frankly we were disappointed. Since meetings of this type are supposed to be held each semester, we decided to analyze this one. The ‘Burnian came up with these two suggestions. First of all, there should be a specific purpose for the meeting. Last semester, at the town meeting, a student presented his idea for improving our student government. The idea was thoroughly discussed and a committee was formed to revise the Constitution. That meeting has a definite purpose and constructive action took place; it was a success. Last week’s meeting would have made a more positive impression if there had been a specific topic to start off the discussion.
Our second suggestion is to better publicize the meeting. Announce it at house meetings, post notices, inform the new students as to what a town meeting really is. Let us know the opening topic before we get there. It takes a lot of courage for some people to get up and say something, even when it is only in front of fellow students. If they know in advance what the general ideas are, they can better formulate their statements.
Of course there is always the possibility that no one is dissatisfied with things on campus. In that case, all the suggestions in the world couldn’t improve our town meetings; however, dissatisfaction being the rule rather than the exception, perhaps these ideas could be tried in the future.