Before spring break, a couple of my friends and I went to the event “Pizza With the President” to see what it was all about. The monthly event run by President Richard J. Helldobler offers free pizza and time for a one on one with administrators. Something really stuck out to me when we went, nobody was there.
If you’re a student at William Paterson, you should attend. If you have questions or concerns about William Paterson, you should attend. If you like free pizza, you should attend. If you hate food waste, you should attend. If you want to get to know the WPU staff, you should attend.
The point is, you should really come to pizza with the president.
In my opinion, all I ever hear is people complaining about things that happen here, yet I never see anyone doing anything about it. As someone who’s job on The Beacon is to share my opinion (a.k.a complain) I think that it’s important to actually do something about it.
You’ll also have the opportunity to talk to different people about events and opportunities going on on campus. I hear a lot of people who complain about the lack of events going on on campus when the reality is that they do happen, they just aren’t advertised very well.
I spoke with people who were in departments that I would’ve never interacted with otherwise. I learned so much about the events we have on campus that I’ve never heard of such as “Ask a Nurse,” which is an event ran by the Nursing department that allows students to ask Nursing majors questions about their health that they may not be able to ask someone else.
Honestly, it felt good for people to ask about us and how the semester is going and really care about the answer. We got to talk about our clubs, interests, majors, and everything that’s on our minds.
The best part for us was the free food. We’re all commuter students who are usually at school from early in the morning to late at night and we really appreciated that much needed pick me up. They had plain, pepperoni, and veggie pies and lots of them. In fact, they ended up having so many leftover pies that we were able to take some with us. Not only did they have pizza, but they also had cookies, water, and soda. It was honestly the perfect lunch.
If you had any doubts on whether you get to have pizza with the president, you absolutely do. President Helldobler personally greeted us and asked about how we were doing. We talked about school, spring break, and our dogs. It was a great experience and we left feeling heard and fed.
At the end of the day, I can’t force you to attend. However, the next time you want to complain about something on campus, or that you’re hungry, just know that there is an opportunity for you to accomplish both getting your opinion out and eating free food. So be on the lookout for the monthly email.
