The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Broadcast Club taped its third “Ask the Chancellor” program Friday during which Chancellor Carlos Santiago addressed student concerns.

The questions were thought up by the students in attendance and ranged from UPass fees, residential parking, the progress of the Kenilworth Building, funding cuts, the recent trip to China by UWM administrators and diversity progress.

“I was impressed with the student questions and the honesty of how they were answered by the chancellor,” said host Joel Carstedt.

Among the UWM students and alumni in the crowd, there was also a high school student from Minneapolis who was on a campus visit. Megan McClanahan had just been to Madison and Marquette and asked Santiago why she should come to UWM over the other two.

Santiago said that with any of the three schools she’ll receive a “good education.”

Santiago told her why he personally would pick Milwaukee: because “the location is great, Milwaukee is a vibrant community. It’s a city with lots of diversity.”

Santiago was also asked about the progress of the Kenilworth Building and said, “It’s going quite well.”

He explained the demand for more housing and hoped that the building would help, especially for upperclassmen and graduate students who really don’t have a lot of housing options.

Santiago stayed calm throughout the entire broadcast and was only stumped once, when he was asked to sum up where he hopes the campus will be in five years with one word. He explained, while laughing slightly, that he’d need a little more time to answer that in one word.

Santiago agreed to appear on “Ask the Chancellor” on a regular basis and has done the show each semester.

The idea for this program came from the student officers of the Broadcast Club. A couple of days after the chancellor was named, the club broadcast a news program in which they interviewed Santiago on the phone from New York. At the end of the interview they invited him to be on a show in person when he got to campus, and he agreed.

The “Ask the Chancellor” program is held in a town hall meeting setting. The student host, Carstedt, introduced and briefly interviewed Santiago before opening the program to questions from the audience.

The Broadcast Club chose this format because students rarely get the opportunity to directly ask the chancellor a question.

“We figured it would be important that any chancellor stay in touch with student viewpoints and concerns,” said Mark Zoromski, Broadcast Club adviser.

Alisha Searl, one of the producers, compared this show with the first two.

“It went very well, the format and everything was done perfectly,” she said.

The “Ask the Chancellor” program allows students to air any concerns they may have with the university. It’s not too early to start thinking of questions for next semester’s program.

All Broadcast Club programs are aired on the club’s television channel, PawsTV3, found on campus cable channel 3. “Ask the Chancellor” will be shown on PawsTV3 daily.

It is possible that “Ask the Chancellor” will also be the first Broadcast Club program shown on Time Warner’s “Wisconsin on Demand” channel.

“I’m confident it will work out,” Zoromski said.

There are some legal contracts that have to be worked out before this program, along with many other programs the club’s involved in, will be aired there.

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