Student Senate is looking to conduct formal, public interviews up upper level administrators this fall.
The Student Senate Administrative Affairs Committee hopes to achieve this through a Commission on Student Centeredness.
According to the student senators, the commission will begin in September and there will be four sessions of interviewing "various upper level administrators," in a "congress-like" setting, paneled by the committee chair, Ken Evans, a senior majoring in political science and public administration, Aaron Dau, a sophomore majoring in law and social thought and political science and public administration, and Noah Gillespie, a senior majoring in law and social thought and economics.
Dau said they are trying to assemble a variety of student senators on the panel to try to branch away from the College of Arts and Sciences.
"We want to get just about everyone that is shaping the direction of UT, people who actually dictate the policy," Evans said. "For a long time, Student Government hasn't really got active to the direction of the university. We kind of just let stuff go by, barely speaking up."
Zauyah Waite, Student Government adviser and dean of students, agrees it's a good idea for students to find out from the administrators what their visions are.
"The senate is committed to obtaining a better understanding of what student centeredness is and where the future of the university is going, and they are invested in the future of the university," she said.
"From the administrative affairs committee standpoint, they feel that they have the right and responsibility to make sure that all departments are seen held accountable to things they say and do. They want to make sure that students are out on the forefront of all discussions," said Student Government President Greg Seifert, a senior majoring in history.
"We want to provide an opportunity to ask questions to the administrators and be in dialog with them and really paint a clear picture of what their expectations are, and to be able to discuss in a professional and official manner what some of the concerns have been and see what have been already done to respond and address the concerns," Gillespie said.
Jon Strunk, UT media relations manager, disagreed that a formal setting would be most effective.
"When oil executives or someone testifies before the congress, that doesn't end up being a free flow of ideas necessarily. It's more congressional representatives thundering against the oil executives, and the oil executives rolling their eyes," he said. "I'm not sure that fosters understanding between the two as much as it fosters some livelier C-SPAN."
Strunk gave the example of the informal meeting the president had with the students who led a College of Arts and Sciences protest during the summer.
"It struck me that an informal setting might offer them a greater ability to explore where the administrators are actually thinking about where they are going."
Main Campus Provost Rosemary Haggett said she also agrees that having meetings with students informally would be more effective.
"Food always helps. I like having these conversations over lunch," she said.
Waite said there shouldn't be only a formal or informal setting to attain the best results in this case.
"I think there needs to be a variety of ways for students to gather information, and it cannot be a one-step effort. It has to be more of a consistent process," she said.
Haggett stressed that she and other administrators try to be clear with their plans.
"It's pretty clear that Dr. Jacobs and his vice presidents are always interested in sharing information. We try to be as transparent as possible and engage people in conversations and talk bout the future of the university and how excited we are about it," Haggett said. "We'll be glad to continue that conversation."
Strunk encourages the students, especially members of Student Government, to attend and utilize the Town Hall meetings to ask questions.
But Evans said he'd rather have a setting where less control is in the administrator's hands.
"We'll have a lot of data present, control of the time and control of meeting unlike the Town Hall meeting," Evans said. "In [Town Hall meetings], it is them in control, allowing them to skip and dodge questions at times."
"The committee has a pretty good idea of what they want to accomplish," Seifert said, adding that he believes this will work out. "It's absolutely a good thing for all departments for the administrators to hear how students feel and talk to student representatives and provide their input."
"I think that it is important for students to understand that the university administrators and leaders are genuinely concerned about students and do try hard to obtain students opinions about new initiatives and so forth and have somewhat of an open door policy for students to seek information," Waite said.
The commission invites students, staff and faculty members to submit their inputs, questions or relevant facts to aid the interviews.
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