Union Plans Second Luncheon

While only Student Union members and other student leaders attended last semester’s Deans Luncheon, the Union will allow all members of the Boston University undergraduate student body to apply to attend this semester’s event, according to Union Vice President of Academic Affairs Frances Cosico.

President Jon Westling, Provost Denis Berkey and deans from all of BU’s undergraduate schools and colleges attended the Dean’s Luncheon last semester. The luncheon, which is scheduled for March 20 from noon to 2 p.m. in the Castle, allows students to come together with administrators in an informal setting and discuss issues they believe are important to students, Cosico said.

Cosico said the Union plans to invite 25 students to the Deans Luncheon. Union President Zachary Coseglia said if a student attended the Dean’s Luncheon previously, he or she would be ineligible to attend the upcoming gathering in order to give more students a chance to experience the luncheon.

While the Union will continue to nominate certain students who hold important leadership positions, there will be an application process to determine other attendees, Cosico said.

“We’ve nominated people from the NAACP, Umoja [and] BU Free, and we’re going to nominate people from other ethnic-based organizations because they represent issues the Union is discussing right now,” Cosico said.

Cosico said she was unsure of the breakdown between Union-nominees and those who went through the application process, but she said she hoped “it would be about half-and-half.”

“We’re hoping that every school is going to be represented, so that will kind of affect our decision,” Cosico said. “We want to see how many people have interest in it.”

Cosico said the application asks for the applicants’ name, school, year of graduation, any organizations with which they are involved and any leadership positions they may hold. She said there are also short answer questions where students are asked why they wish to attend, what they would do if they were dean, and how they would make the college experience better.

Laurie Steinberg, Union vice president of public relations, said she felt students would be interested in the luncheon because it is a chance for students to talk to administrators in a small, informal setting.

“I think students would want to go since there’s no better opportunity to have the ears of the administration open to your thoughts,” Steinberg said. “The reason administrators go is to hear the students answer to see what the student would do if he or she were the dean.”

Coseglia said he feels students do not get enough of a chance to meet and talk to their administrators, but the luncheon would give them a chance to do this.

“I think I’ve talked so much about how the administration is a word, a thing and a rhetorical myth, and students don’t know their administrators,” Coseglia said. “This gives them an opportunity to sit down with them and to get to know them.”

Coseglia said the administration is often portrayed in a negative light, and he said he hopes this event will help to prove otherwise.

“Students have this jaded, pessimistic attitude toward the administration, but what they don’t realize is these men are great people,” Coseglia said. “We want other students to have the opportunity to know that and to have the whole story.”

Cosico said she wished there were more chances for students to meet with the administration in such an informal setting as the Dean’s Luncheon.

“It’s a great opportunity, and I’d like there to be more events like this, where there’s more one-on-one time and more one-on-one opportunities to talk to people that affect their BU experience,” Cosico said.

Applications are available in the Student Union office, located in the basement of the George Sherman Union. The deadline for submitting an application is March 1.