Not much state of the campus at the "State of the Campus"

When N.C. Central University students packed B.N. Duke Auditorium at 7 p.m. on Wednesday they were expecting to hear a "State of the Campus" address from Student Government Association officers and receive tickets to this upcoming Monday night's basketball game vs. NC A&T.

"The goal was to create a dialogue with the students on what can be done to improve campus life and the University and to critique and help better the Student Government Association," said SGA Vice President Brain Kennedy. SGA president Dwayne Johnson could not be reached by phone or e-mail  to comment on this story.

There were two microphones set up for the Q&A session and B.N. Duke Auditorium was packed.

But things didn't exactly go as planned. Each SGA official spoke for a few minutes and no Q&A session was held after they addressed the crowd.

By 7:35 p.m. the meeting was over and then the confusion over the distribution of game tickets began.

Those students who wanted to raise concerns about the ‘State of the Campus' were left in the cold. A number of students complained that the distribution of tickets and the ‘State of Campus' should have been held separately.

"It was a mockery of what our University stands for. The offensive music for the event was inappropriate for a state of the campus address. The initial agenda was not addressed," said senior history Martha Butler.

"The voice of the students at NCCU was not properly represented. It seems as though there is a collective dictatorship involved with what issues should be addressed. In fact, issues were not addressed and that is a major problem," said Vimbisai Barbee business finance freshman.

While students waited for the Q&A session to begin, a member from Student Activities Board abruptly announced that tickets would be distributed after the NCCU cheerleaders paid tribute to Whitney Houston.

According to a campus-wide e-mail sent to students from SGA Vice President Brain Kennedy 750 tickets to Monday night's basketball game would be handed out on a first-come first-serve basis.

On average about 400 students attend men's and women's basketball games. "Thus, we almost doubled this number of student tickets to accommodate our students for this game," said athletic director Ingrid Wicker- McCree.

But at event the students were notified at the event that if they had received a white raffle ticket, they would get a ticket to the game, while those who received red raffle tickets would compete in a NCCU trivia raffle.

"I feel this decision is unfair for students you should be able to get a ticket to any home game," said Mark Blakeney criminal justice senior.

Students also learned if they had to leave early they would have to leave their name and bring proof of their class schedule to prove they had left for a class.

"I don't understand what this whole thing was, we had a five minute speech from the president talking about the literacy at Hillside, and a tribute to Whitney Houston by Champagne, then someone came on the mic and said people who leave early can't get a ticket unless they show their class schedule. It's madness, I don't understand," said junior political science Brandon Hicks.

Some students felt the idea to pass out tickets at the end of the State of Campus address was a good strategy.

"I think it was a good idea to hold tickets so people would stay to get to know the student government. Students need to know and bring up issues, but the tickets were not an incentive I would not have come," said Cheritta Hosch accounting/finance junior.

"The students I spoke with were very pleased, they were able to get a ticket to the game and get a glimpse of what SGA does," said Lumpkin. "Those students that disagreed with the format were in the minority, overall I was pleased that students were attentive when our students were speaking."

According to SGA Vice-President Brain Kennedy the SGA plans to hold another State of the Campus event.

"We are in the works right now to plan another state of the University, but this one is designed to more like last semester without the wild-out Wednesday element," he said

"We really want to have a conversation between the student body without any distractions. Last night was a result of lack of communication between SGA, SAB and the administration. But at the end of the day everyone had good intentions."