A series of meetings that begins on Sept. 25 will give students the chance to ask questions of University President Lawrence Biondi, S. J. and other top-level administrators.
Student Government Association President Jay Perry said, “[At SGA] we often hear the comment from students that the administrators just don’t care about student issues. Now it’s up to the students to take advantage of this opportunity.”
At the meetings, students can ask the featured officials about any policies or issues. Perry said, “They were designed as simple conversations with administrators. Our main goal is to increase the level of communication with students.”
The first of the four meetings features Biondi on Sept. 25 in Carlo Auditorium. Later meetings will feature the Vice President for Facility Services Kathleen Brady, the Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Thomas Moberg, Provost Sandra Johnson, the Vice President for Student Development, Kathy Humphrey, the Vice President for Business and Finance, Robert Altholz, and the Vice President for Development and University Relations, Don Whelan.
Similar meetings have been held in the past with mixed results.
When the campus has a controversial issue such as student parking it leads to high student turnout while at other times attendance would be small.
Perry commented, “At the end of last year, we had just 25 students show up for a discussion with Fr. Biondi. After that we promised to make some changes to try to make them more prestigious.”
The changes for this year include making the panels of administrators smaller and producing a publicity campaign that includes an ad in The University News, campus posters and updates in the weekly activities e-mail.
This will also be the first time that an entire series of meetings is scheduled.
Student interest will probably still rely on which school issues need attention and who the featured administrator is.
Freshman Kathleen Noonan said, “Whether or not I would go to the meetings depends on who is speaking. I would go to the one with the Vice President of Business [Robert Altholz]. It would be good to know who these [officials] are and to see what their ideas are.”
