Students at Town Hall Meeting Discuss Negative Outcomes Of Gambling and Its Effect on Educational Funding

On Tuesday, April 7, SGA held the second Town Hall meeting of the semester. Dozens of students rallied in the Lane Center to discuss local, state, and national issues that ultimately affects educational funding.

Water pollution, education, marijuana-legalization, gambling-addiction, taxes, healthcare, welfare, poverty, and a host of other topics were discussed to connect how one issue can cause a number of other problems.

Ethan West, Political Science and Law And Society major spoke at the meeting, sharing his experiences of being a member of the Politics, Law And Society club an employee at Rocky Gap casino, and the financial damage it causes to families.

“I have worked at Rocky Gap as a valet attendant and I have experienced the good and the bad of legalization of casino gaming in Maryland. It has brought a lot of tourist money back to a county that tried to rely on tourism for money and failed. I’ve witnessed relationships deteriorate because of gambling; however, it isn’t the worst thing. We make a choice to gamble, we make a choice to smoke cigarettes and do everything else that we do, knowing the financial consequences,” West stated.

“I focus on issues from all scopes of politics. The main reason we’ve come together is to address national, state, and local issues. One of the main things that I’m focusing on at FSU is sexual assault. I know too many women that have been sexual assaulted on campus and I would like to raise awareness about that,” West explained.

West plans to organize a meeting next semester, in hopes of joining forces with other FSU organizations to launch a sexual awareness campaign on campus.

Tim Magrath, Political Science professor, was the main speaker at the Town Hall meeting. He has been a member of Frostburg State University’s Department of Politics since 2002 and is also the former Western Maryland field representative for U.S. Senator, Paul Sarbanes.

“Students need to know the concept of unity. Without unity, there is no democracy. Students should leave College knowing how to speak up for themselves and others,” Magrath explained.

“Casinos are leaving people behind. It isn’t a clean source of revenue but it is something that the voters of Maryland chose to have,” Magrath stated.

“I don’t understand how Casinos can help the community grow. We have no idea where the money is going. They say that some of the money will go to Education but we honestly do not know,” one student voiced.

“Sixty-one percent of all bankruptcies are health-related. If you don’t have health insurance, you are either dead or bankrupt. All of our issues are intertwined. Everything affects each other,” Magrath said.

“This town hall meeting has given me a stronger perspective of environmental and social issues that affect me as a student. It’s crazy how so many things that aren’t related to education, affect my education,” said Charday Green, Law And Society major.

SGA will have their final Town Hall meeting, April 28, to discuss Democratic issues. It is free and open to the public. For more information, click the following link:

http://events.frostburg.edu/event/town_hall_meeting_3