With an hour’s worth of political rhetoric and uncapitalized words that came remarkably close to standard AIM lingo, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox met students online in an effort to present herself as an accessible, down-to-earth administrator concerned with the needs of students. And, for the most part, it worked.

Hosting the Sept. 29 chat was, of course, a highly political move and Fox’s conversation stayed, for the most part, too polished and professional to make many concrete statements. The new chancellor managed, however, to reveal aspects of her personality beyond what would show in an office setting, which is a worthwhile goal, even if it was only for the sake of making students feel more comfortable in approaching her.

During the chat, Fox emphasized her excitement to interact with students — several times, she named greeting students at Welcome Week her favorite aspect of her job thus far. She politely declined to comment on her political affiliation — which was boring, but appropriate given the setting. She expanded on the chancellor-as-dictator image by mentioning her dedication to her research, and also going into slight detail about her children and grandchildren.

She revealed a sense of humor: When asked, “Would you ever learn to surf?” she responded, “Yes, didn’t you see me on a skateboard in the Guardian?” She took another similar comment in stride when a student, aliased as “beerbelly,” demanded, “How do you expect me to get down to TJ without the Triton Taxi?” by responding calmly, “A.S. has created a Safe Ride program. Contact your student government about the program.”

She endeared herself to UCSD students with her admission that, yes, she does in fact pay for her parking space — there, at least, is one thing we all sort of have in common. (Of course, when you’re making $350,000 a year, $500 or so bucks for parking is barely spare change. But it’s the thought that counts.)

A transcript of the chat can be found at http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu.

You can bet, naturally, that the entire conversation was primarily a publicity stunt; there was little said during the chat that could possibly serve as fodder for any sort of positive change on campus. Fox used several practiced and oh-so-PC descriptions of the campus and her joy to be here, similar to those already given in various speeches and e-mails. The words themselves weren’t particularly edifying or educational, but the concept behind them was, mostly, that the hour served as a forum for students to casually interact with their new chancellor.

And, for the time being, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Certainly there is a time and a place for students to voice legitimate concerns to Fox and other UCSD officials, and there’s definitely a time to place honesty above a politicized facade, but the online chat, though not productive in terms of policy, strongly suggested that students are invited to play a role, however token, in Fox’s term — which is already an improvement over the last administration. And that’s something that will, hopefully, allow students to recognize their ability to voice concerns, ideas and the like to Fox.

Fox herself conveyed this message, exhorting students to involve themselves in improving UCSD; it was, arguably, the most important conveyed during the duration of her discourse.

“Please continue to participate in this type of open dialogue with me,” Fox said. “I welcome your thoughts and insights into how we can make UCSD the best place possible for all of us to work and learn.”

Canned message? Yeah, maybe, but the point’s a good one: Students cannot expect changes if they make idle complaints about Fox’s exorbitant salary or rant about the school’s lack of diversity without attempting to interact with the school’s leadership. And, no matter how political, events such as these prove Fox accessible.

Hopefully the future will find Fox validating that accessibility by taking students’ ideas and feedback into account. If that is the case, then comments such as, “I always welcome opportunities to get to know and interact with students and everyone in the campus community” will cease to be cliches.