Board of Trustees Chairman Gary Abramson promised transparency and a better connection between students and administrators at the Board of Trustees dinner last Thursday in the Mudbox of Bender Library.
The Trustees’ dinner was open to all AU students and was advertised through listings on Today@AU. Students had the opportunity to have personal discussions with top administrators on issues like AU’s connection to D.C. and student engagement.
Student Trustee Seth Cutter, a senior in the School of Public Affairs, organized the event. While student leaders usually have an annual dinner with the president’s cabinet and other members of the AU administration, this was the first time that the Board of Trustees has ever held a dinner open to all AU students.
Over 42 people attended the dinner, including 16 undergraduate students, five graduate students and three law students, according to Cutter. Six of the 28 members of the Board of Trustees were in attendance in addition to seven senior members of the administration and AU President Neil Kerwin.
Some students came with specific issues to discuss with the administrators and board members.
Lyndsea Arikian, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of International Service, is a D.C. Reads team leader who heard about the Trustees dinner through an e-mail from one of her supervisors.
AU needs to work on its outreach to the D.C. community and should provide students with more incentives to do service here and abroad, Arikian said.
“The D.C. Reads and Alternative Break programs are really great, but AU needs to make it more accessible for students to do service,” she said.
AU also needs better outreach to prospective students in the D.C. area, particularly high school students in the Southeast, Arikian said. She recently attended a college fair at a high school in that quadrant and saw every D.C. college was represented except AU.
Other students at the dinner focused on more campus-centered issues. Jennifer Jones, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences and the president of EcoSense, discussed clean energy and sustainability initiatives at AU. Jones said she wants the administration to give more recognition to the good work that students have done to make AU more eco-friendly.
“Students at AU are doing a lot of really great things for the environment, and it’s important that the trustees know about that,” Jones said.
Jones also hopes that the administration will support students in future environmental initiatives like the implementation of the Clean Energy Revolving Fund program, she said.
Many of the students present at the dinner were graduating seniors who wanted to share their experiences at AU and give feedback on what can be improved.
Chris Golden, a senior in the School of Public Affairs, said he was glad he had the opportunity to share his thoughts on his AU experience before graduation.
AU’s biggest weakness, Golden said, is also its greatest strength. The school has a wide variety of academic programs and student organizations, but sometimes that wide variety can be overwhelming.
“We are a medium-sized institution that wants to be everything to everybody,” Golden said. “We’re still finding our voice and finding out who we are. Once we figure that out we’re primed to be a great institution.”
One of the most widely discussed topics at the dinner was a perceived lack of student engagement and school spirit at AU.
Abramson said this issue can be fixed if students focus less on themselves and more on what’s going on at AU. Students are always eager to take the opportunities offered to them in downtown D.C., but if everyone is focused on advancing themselves no one can focus on strengthening the AU community, Abramson said.
He added that he wants students to feel like they can come to the administration at any time if they have concerns about the school.
“I hope students will get the feeling that the board and the administration are accessible and that we really want to hear about their experiences and how to make AU better,” he said.
The Board of Trustees will be holding an open forum today at 5 p.m. in Ward 2.
You can reach this staff writer at jryan@theeagleonline.com.
