Concerns about the university generally surface in a casual conversation between friends over a cup of coffee in Davies Center or on their way up the Garfield Avenue hill – never really making it up to university officials.

Students need to take responsibility and voice those concerns directly to the people in charge of this institution. There’s no better time than Tuesday

University administrators are holding a focus group as a part of the university’s self-study for federal accreditation tomorrow afternoon, according to an article in the Oct. 4 issue of The Spectator. There, administrators hope to get student feedback about the university, particularly on the learning environment. University officials will use the information gathered from the focus group to make their case to the Higher Learning Commission in 2009 when they come to determine whether UW-Eau Claire should receive federal funding and remain an accredited university, which they do every 10 years.

It is highly critical that we as students attend this focus group and express our opinions about the university. There would be a greater sense of accomplishment when looking back 10 years down the road and seeing that UW-Eau Claire is still one of the best colleges in the region and across the country. Everybody wants our degrees to mean something long after we graduate and that can only happen if we tell administrators how they can improve this school, making it better than what it was while we were students here.

On a note of caution, the university should make it apparent that they are taking these suggestions to heart and using them to improve our campus, not just as a public relations stunt done every 10 years to ensure accreditation and then relax once it is attained.

But students should assist our university by our vigilant participation in the focus group tomorrow.