Students often feel that their concerns, complaints or suggestions regarding the University fall on deaf ears. Now, GW actually seems to be listening. GW’s Innovation Task Force features a form on its Web site for submitting ideas, and the Office of Sustainability recently reached out to students for ideas for an event called The GW Greenhouse. Students need to capitalize on such opportunities and share their ideas through these forums, while the Office of Sustainability needs to ensure that the timeframe of accepting ideas is left open long after its featured event has passed. As students now have the ability to share their thoughts about improving the University, they need to take full advantage of this chance. By filling out the form featured on the Web site of the Innovation Task Force, and by continuing to make suggestions to the Office of Sustainability, students can directly appeal to these branches of the University. The submission form for the Innovation Task Force can be found online at http://innovation.gwu.edu, while the GW Greenhouse will be held Jan. 29 at 9 a.m. in the Marvin Center Amphitheatre. Whether they involve ways to improve the academic experience or ways for the campus to become more environmentally sound, not submitting ideas would simply be wasting the opportunity to make a difference.
That being said, the University needs to ensure that students’ ideas are being received continuously. The opportunity to submit ideas should not be a one-time event, or even necessarily one with a deadline. While it is understandable that there is a specific timeframe for submissions, the University needs to provide a forum for ideas long after specific events like The GW Greenhouse end.
While many administrators drive home at the end of the day, it is students who spend all of their time here in Foggy Bottom. For this reason, it is likely that the student body will have unique and valuable ideas for improving sustainability and increasing efficiency at GW. We hope you will take the opportunity to pass those ideas along.
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