Under President Sullivan’s supervision, St. Thomas’ Strategic Planning Steering Committee accepted about 40 student committee member nominations Tuesday.
Institutional Effectiveness co-chair Michael Cogan said it’s important to provide a student perspective in each committee.
“Students will bring their life from campus, their life from the classroom, their interaction with teachers, faculty, and staff … So there’s a lot of areas that they’ll bring some key insight (to) that perhaps a staff member like me would not have,” Cogan said.
Junior Mariann Kukielka, the only undergraduate on the committee, said she would like every student to stop and think about his or her role in the St. Thomas community.
“We want to hear what the community has to say, so we are open to anyone and everything,” Kukielka said. “That’s what universities are for, and as students, this is a rare opportunity where we can have a voice and share our opinions in an important decision-making process that can have a lasting impact on the university.”
Cogan said the committee members are still unsure about the exact number of students who will participate, but there are seven subcommittees with positions available. Each subcommittee will have six to eight members, including solicited faculty by the Committee on Faculty Nominations and Elections and students members.
Students had the chance to nominate whoever they wanted, including themselves, by Tuesday.
Sophomore Shelby Henderson said she is supportive of involving the student voice in the strategic planning.
“As a student, it can be frustrating when you have so many great ideas for the school but they never pan out the way you want them to,” Henderson said. “It would be great to just get my input in and work with the elite of St. Thomas.”
Cogan stressed the importance of St. Thomas as a community, and he said that “all of the members of the community are critically important to the long-term viability of the institution.”
One of the goals of the strategic planning is to spread the idea of one university and one community.
“And to be one university, that means that all representatives of the community should be part of the process,” Cogan said.
This isn’t the first time that St. Thomas has undergone a strategic planning strategy, according to Cogan.
“I’ve only been here eight years, (but) I believe there was a fairly comprehensive strategic planning process years ago, so I don’t think this is unprecedented,” Cogan said.
The committee’s goal is to have representation across each subcommittee. It will base the exact number of students on what they can bring to the committee and go from there.
“I think that any one of the groups, whether it’s students, faculty, staff or alumni … They bring a critical perspective, a unique perspective to the process,” Cogan said. “I think it would be short-sided of us to overlook that insight.”
The committee is set to announce the subcommittee by the end of February.
“I think if this university is for us as students, then why don’t we take charge and say something about it ourselves?” Kukielka said.