As part of its implementation of the governance reforms enacted last May, the board of trustees hosted a town hall meeting Thursday to discuss issues of importance to the AU community.
Although the board had intended the meeting to be a "question and answer session," some trustees also asked for audience input.
"What do you want to see us do for you, as a board?" asked Gisela Huberman, a current trustee and former AU professor. "We're here because we really like AU. We want to make it bloom."
SG President Ashley Mushnick said AU has made more of an effort to promote its individual schools rather than the university as a whole.
"It seems to me a lot of times when we think about academics and the academic reputation of AU, we say 'Oh, we have a great SOC [School of Communication], we have a great SPA [School of Public Affairs], we have a great SIS [School of International Service], a wonderful business school,'" Mushnick said. "But when it comes to our reputation and having pride in who we are as an entire school, something is lacking."
SG Vice President Patrick McGill said the university's efforts to get students to utilize the District's resources have taken away from campus life.
"Something that I think the university has succeeded in tremendously is making sure that students are able to use D.C. to take what you learn in the classroom and put it to good use," McGill said. "Students have shifted their attention into the city, so it hasn't been as much on campus life - making sure that there are traditions on campus that we can unite around."
Janel Knight, a junior in SOC, said the "Be" campaign helped to unify the campus.
"Everybody was connected by these 'Be' shirts," Knight said. "And when I went home, people were asking where I got my shirts from because they were just creative and they were from different organizations on campus. So I think a campaign like that, where you give away shirts or something ... really helps to unify the campus."
In addition to getting input, trustees and AU staff also answered audience questions.
In response to a question about how the United Methodist Church's role in AU's governance might change, Board Chairman Gary Abramson said the United Methodist Church will now have a greater role in examining trustee candidates. According to the university bylaws, the Bishop of the Washington Episcopal Area of the United Methodist Church and the General Secretary of the church's General Board of Higher Education are members of the board of trustees. Currently, Bishop John Schol and Jordan King Del Pino hold these seats. The church's General Board of Higher Education must approve anyone elected to the board of trustees.
"Now what we're doing is we're informing the church's Board of Higher Education in advance when we are starting to bring trustees up for nomination," Abramson said. "We're going to start the process early instead of doing it as a last-moment thing, so it's not just a 'rubber stamp,' perfunctory event."
Interim Provost Ivy Broder said the negative perceptions of the university's library "do not match reality."
"We just matched the millionth-volume mark a year ago, so we're significantly beyond that at this point," she said. "We have a truly extraordinary library faculty and staff who are very customer service oriented. I think some of this is urban myth that gets perpetuated, but the reality is that the staff and facilities continue to improve all the time."
Josh Cahan, a sophomore in SPA and SG senator for the Class of 2009, said he felt the meetings were a positive step.
"I think having these meetings is great," he said. "I'm glad that someone like me can stand up in front of the trustees and offer suggestions on how to improve the university."
Rosie Scott, a freshman in SIS, said she felt the meeting was not well attended by students.
"It's hard when you have so many things going on, but we should definitely have had more students here to offer opinions," she said.
Charlie Kilby, a sophomore in SPA and SG senator for the Class of 2009, said he didn't think the event was advertised enough.
"They did include [an announcement] in the Today@AU e-mail, but I didn't see any posters up advertising the event," he said. "There are posters for everything else, so why were there none for this"
