The Institute for Citizenship and Social Responsibility’s meeting with President Gary Ransdell last Friday went better than expected.

ICSR arranged the meeting to voice concerns and discuss with Ransdell the potential move from Garrett Conference Center to Cravens Library during the Downing University Center renovations. Seventeen people showed up in support of ICSR, including Student Government Association members.

However, at the beginning of the meeting, Ransdell said ICSR would no longer be moving. Student Activities, which is currently located in DUC, and was slotted to take over ICSR’s space in Garrett, decided to move into Cravens instead.

Ransdell said he had been informed of the decision about a week ago.

Charley Pride, director of Student Activities and Organizations, said SAO made the decision to move to Cravens because at this time, moving to Garrett was not the right thing to do.

Pride said SAO would’ve done things differently if it had the space in Garrett. They will have to make some changes and work more diligently in Cravens.

As to why SAO did not inform ICSR right away, Pride said they passed their decision along to the administrators involved and left it at that.

Several people made the decision, including Pride and Howard Bailey, vice president for Student Affairs, Pride said.

Ransdell said he was pleased Student Activities made this decision because it solved a problem. However, he also said it will probably be more difficult for them to work from the Cravens space.

Rebecca Katz, a student worker for ICSR, said they did not want to put anyone out, and also that ICSR was open to sharing the space with Student Activities and still would be.

Ransdell said it would probably be best for ICSR to take the deal and keep their space.

ShéRohn Draper, a graduate student working at ICSR, said during the meeting that one of the main problems they had with their potential move was the lack of transparency in the decision making.

Draper pointed out that a decision impacting the ICSR’s future had been made at least a week before they were informed about it.

Even though things worked out for them this time, Draper said he thinks it is important to work out a more sustainable solution for situations like this in the future.

“The whole issue here is that there was a lack of communication,” Katz said.

She proposed setting up a student task force to help make complex decisions in the future.

Katz said she wishes there had been more discussion about the issue rather than it ending abruptly.