The Undergraduate Student Government invited Athletics Director Phil Esten to discuss St. Thomas’ move into Division I sports, while USG also discussed special elections and club awards at the first Undergraduate Student Government meeting of the semester on Thursday, Feb. 8.
Guest Speaker: Phil Esten
Esten discussed St. Thomas Division I athletics and spoke about the Lee and Penny Anderson Arena.
According to Esten, since St. Thomas transitioned from Division III to Division I, student-athlete academic achievement has been a priority. The most effective way to ensure this is through the facilities on campus.
“Our student-athletes last semester achieved a 3.45 GPA,” Esten said. “Not a single team was less than a 3.0 collectively, and our highest team was a 3.71 average. So that academic experience is really important to us.”
The athletics department has been recruiting nationally and internationally, expanding the geographic, cultural and racial demographics of athletics at St. Thomas. The recruiting process has also allowed athletics to engage with alumni more stragetically, according to Esten.
“I think we’re ahead of schedule from a competitive standpoint,” Esten said. “I feel really good about the type of student-athletes that we’re recruiting, and they align with the values across all of our programs, so I think we’re in a good spot.”
The Anderson Arena is currently under construction on South Campus and is expected to be completed in fall 2025, according to the Ryan Companies site plans. The building will have a main arena, a smaller ice rink and two basketball courts. Esten said the main arena will have 4,000 seats for hockey and 5,300 seats for basketball.
Both men’s and women’s basketball, hockey and soccer, as well as softball, will be housed in the Anderson Arena.
The building will be used for sports games but could potentially host other events like career fairs and open skating to fully use the building and its resources.
Kitty Marsh, second-year policy senator, brought up her concern for parking availability when sporting events occur in the new arena due to the loss of parking lots on campus.
“We’re partnering with the city of St. Paul to help with traffic management,” Esten said. “We already manage far more than that capacity when we host football games, so it’s not exactly new to us.”
Marsh then questioned if all students would have access to the arena since the building will be located in front of Grace Hall and the Brady Educational Center.
Esten said open access to the arena has not yet been planned for other students but will be considered.
Spring Special Elections
Maggie Bau, vice president of academic affairs, announced that USG will open schoolwide voting for its spring special elections at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 20, and will close at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb 21. Voting forms will be available on the USG TommieLink.
Students will be voting for:
- Vice President of Administration Affairs
- Junior Engagement Senator
The newly elected members will be sworn in at 12 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 22.
Club Awards
This spring semester, students can nominate clubs for five special awards. The nomination forms are open on the USG Instagram page and will close on Monday, March 18. The award winners will be invited and recognized at The Tommies on Tuesday, May 7, according to Vice President of Academic Affairs Alexis Buresh.
“It’s just one simple form to write about why you think your clubs are deserving of those kinds of awards,” USG President Kate Kapsner said.
Club awards:
- Campus Engagement
- Community Engagement
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Best Overall
- Outstanding Advisor
“This year we introduced an award from last year, the outstanding club advisor award, because the fall semester SOCC decided that we don’t see enough recognition for those club advisors,” Buresh said. “They do a lot of work behind the scenes, and we want to be able to recognize that more publicly this year.”
The next general USG meeting will be at 12 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 22 at the Iverson Center for Faith.
Gwynnevere Vang can be reached at vang5129@stthomas.edu.