After the Boston University Student Union executive board met with university deans and President Robert Brown Nov. 17, Union members said they hope the meeting forged a future of better communication between students and the administration.
“This is the first time ever that the entire union e-board, the president and the deans all met together,” Union President Jon Marker said at the group’s Monday night assembly. “So this was a good time to get everything out and clarify what we’re trying to do.”
Union Treasurer Caroline Cahill said Brown was interested in the efforts of the Academic Provost Committee, particularly in their attempt to have more information accessible to students.
“In the meeting with President Brown, with the Academic Provost Committee, he really wants to see the syllabi and the different course books online,” the College of Communication junior said. “He thinks that would be a great resource for students as far as choosing classes and the schedule. He hopes to have that in place by Spring ’06.”
Academic Provost Committee co-Chairperson Erica Homan said her committee is currently working on the issue of grade deflation.
“Our main focus right now is doing research mainly into the grade deflation issue,” the CAS junior said. “I have been in contact with a few people to solidify our case with [Provost David Campbell].”
Student Union Vice President Jonah Goldberg said Brown also expressed his desire to enhance technology around BU’s campus.
“His complaint was that he was walking around and people were not with laptops,” the COM junior said. “He has been talking about expanding it to making the entire campus wireless.”
The Communication and Technology Committee has also been working on updating the Union’s website and installing portal software at BU. Portal software allows students to customize what information is on their homepage.
Committee Chairperson Mark DiCristofaro said portal software will also play a role in modernizing the university.
“When we sat down and actually saw this thing, it blew us out of the water,” the College of General Studies sophomore said. “I think it’s going to revolutionize the way we access the internet at the university.”
DiCristofaro said the portal software will be installed sometime during the spring.
Student Union committees are also meeting with university officials to assist the efforts of their committee.
The Academic College Committee met with the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences advising staff members Monday to discuss its advising department and how to improve academic advising throughout the university.
“Today we met with the dean of advising at Sargent,” Academic College Committee co-Chairperson Elka Perkuhn said. “The purpose was to look at advising there and use it as a model because it seems to work well. We can see their strengths, what works and what doesn’t work.”
Dining Committee co-Chairperson Novelette Brown said that she will be meeting with Dining Services Director Joshua Hubbard to discuss issues of food options and extending dining hours.
How to Be You Committee co-Chairperson Elena Quattrone said the committee is currently researching information to include in a pamphlet they hope to produce about how to get around BU.
“We’ve been talking to students about what kind of info they want and how they want it organized,” the Sargent sophomore said.
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