Ramsammy pours his last cup of coffee of the semester

By: Omonike Akinyemi

Staff Writer

Only three students showed up for the final Coffee with the President on Dec. 5.

The event took place from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in the Guenther Enrollment Services Center lobby. Although it drew a diverse range of people from the Hudson Valley Community College community, students were lacking. A low student turnout has been a consistent issue with the event.

Pastries, peach cobbler, coffee, tea and fruit were the perfect combination to set a mood of friendly buzz at Guenther.

Staff and faculty mingled and discussed interests in an informal fashion. They talked about academic, philosophical and personal matters.   

President Ramsammy planned the monthly breakfast event to bring the community together to solve problems and create discussion. Ramsammy said that he felt getting people together helped create positive energy.  

“Why sit at your office and think negative thoughts when you can come together and mingle, share ideas [and] socialize?” Ramsammy questioned.    

The event was attended by many faculty and staff, however only three students were present.  Ramsammy believed the low student attendance was due to the location change.

“When we held the coffee in Williams Hall cafeteria last month, more students attended,” he said. He hopes students and faculty will get used to the event taking place at different buildings on campus.

One of the three students admitted to showing up for the provided snacks.

“I came because I was in a class and a professor mentioned there was free food,” Sean Kingsbury, mechanical engineering student, said. Kingsbury was able to discuss his class project of building an electric train with a staff member.

Tamu Chambers, professor of history, philosophy and social sciences, enjoyed meeting people from different departments and having the opportunity to socialize across disciplines.

Chambers believed that low turnout was due to many students finishing up finals. Students may be unable to get to campus at this critical time of the academic year.

Richard Lucas, a maintenance staff worker of 11 years, praised the event, which took place in his building this month.

“He is the first president to really open up to letting people who work here get to know one another outside the office,” Lucas said.  “I think this is good for the university feeling.”

President Ramsammy walked around the room and gave each person in attendance a Hudson Valley Community College pendant towards the end of the event. The pendant seemed to not only be a token of his appreciation for our attendance, but an invitation to come again.