When tuition increases were announced in November last year, Chancellor Victor Boschini found himself surrounded by student protesters outside of Sadler Hall.

Among some of the “Occupy Sadler” protesters’ demands was more transparency on how tuition money is being spent.  

In an effort this year to create more transparency, Boschini said, he decided to hold a town hall meeting in the Brown-Lupton University Union Auditorium to give a breakdown of how funding from an expected tuition increase will be allocated.

But this time he found himself addressing an audience of only two student reporters, a handful of staff members, and Student Body President Brent Folan.

“I was surprised,” Boschini said afterward. “ I wasn’t expecting 1,000 people, but I was expecting more than two”. 

Tracy Syler-Jones, vice chancellor for marketing and communication, wrote in an email that she, and her team, used a variety of marketing tools to inform students. 

These marketing tools included running two full-page ads in the Daily Skiff, placing flyers throughout the BLUU, listing it on the email “What2Do@TCU” that is sent out to students, as well as sending TCU student media a media advisory, Syler-Jones said. 

The chancellor is committed to making this yearly event, Syler-Jones added in her email.

“Yeah, hopefully it will build,” Boschini said. “Maybe after we do these for a while, people will come to them more”. 

One member of the “Occupy Sadler” movement, Jack Enright, said he was aware of the town hall meeting but wasn’t aware that it had to deal with tuition. 

Both Skiff ads stated Boschini would be talking about tuition.

Enright said the meeting was definitely a step in the right direction but thinks that the university can do more. He said better advertising about what the meeting exactly about, as well as emails that outline the points covered.

Boschini said there are avenues that students can take to learn about how the university is working.

“There is access to all this,” Boschini said. “And people do have a voice in all of this. It’s called student government”.