One of the great threats to being an effective provost is losing touch with faculty and students at the university. It’s easy to live in a bubble of meetings and initiatives with administrators in the university, trying to make the university work better but slowly forgetting the fact that the faculty and the students together sustain the university, and the administration is there to assure that they can thrive in their joint activities.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been visiting departments around the university, one by one, usually during faculty meetings. These have been helpful in learning the hopes and concerns of the faculty. Sometimes a student representative speaks, but chiefly the events have been times for the faculty to tell me about their program. Further, GUSA was kind enough to stage a “Meet the Provost” session in Red Square recently; that was fun and helpful to me. I’m not teaching students right now, but plan to do so next year. That’s an opportunity to interact with students in a more direct way.
I think I’d do a better job if I had more regular contact with students so that I’m more informed about their reactions to the challenges and opportunities facing the university.
To address that, I’ve reached out to GUSA and GSO, its graduate student equivalent, to help me form a student advisory committee to the Provost’s office. I’ve worked with them to fashion a new committee, representative of undergraduate and graduate students, the humanities and the sciences, master’s students and PhD students. To assure representation from the different schools, the four Academic Presidents of the schools would be on the committee. Finally, we have some slots on the committee that are open to students who take the initiative to be involved and complete a simple application describing why they’d like to be part of the group. Together with students we’ll vet the applications to assure diversity of thought on the group. (For interested students: look out for an announcement in the coming days about the application.)
A student advisory committee to the Provost’s office won’t by itself solve all the problems of the university. It can, however, increase the odds that decisions at my level will be made with more insight into how students react to the different options facing the university.
We’re headed for a time of change in all universities, prompted by renewed national commitment to the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields and increasing student demand in those areas; by the need to support the humanities in such an environment; by the emergence of new technologies that can enhance the depth and efficiency of learning; by the widespread appreciation that interdisciplinary scholarship advances human knowledge; and finally, by wider realization that educational excellence can be a tool for the betterment of humanity.
Georgetown must be a leader in this coming era, but it can do so only with a provost that understands better the perspective of the students the university serves. The provost’s student advisory committee is one small step in that direction.
I think your comments are great, and it is refreshing to hear a Provost that is so committed to improving things and getting feedback.
Given your background in survey design and survey data collection, it seems obvious that if Georgetown is not already doing surveys of its students (above and beyond the course evaluations) if would be good to get at least annual surveys for each entering class. These surveys can be anonymous and capture things students like and dislike about Georgetown and get their suggestions for where the experience can be most improved. It would not be unlike any firm who periodically surveys its customers to learn about their satisfication with the product the firm is producing.
Similarly, I suggest surveys of faculty and staff as well. Given the web infrastructure in place at Georgetown, it should be easy to create and field such surveys. Topics can carry over time but it would be good to get a core set of questions to obtain some
intertemporal comparability.
Kudos…I hope and expect that the dialogue with students will strengthen Georgetown while contributing to the students’ own intellectual development.
So where is the application for these committees?
Our students are intelligent and eager to learn, it makes a lot of sense to ask them how to best go about it. I like the way participants are selected: the classic mix of elected reps while keeping the door open to others. I will encourage our grads to apply.
My experience tell me that student advisory committees provide an easy and convenient way to ignore students while claiming, “We’re listening!” (That and surveys where the results are fully released.)
I hope that this advisory committee yields productive results and doesn’t fall into the trap past administrators set! If you want to succeed, transparency is key. Don’t be afraid to show the world exactly what the students think, and how administrators respond, good or bad.
I couldn’t agree more, and I will be encouraging students in the Georgetown Scholarship Program to apply for this opportunity. Thank you for listening to students!
Bravo. I think this is an important connection to be made. As a staff member (and now a student again, too), I think this renewed focus on the “customer” will yield very important insights and nuance that often get lost in administrative interpretation.
Thank you for this Provost; I think you are spot on. It is easy to lose track of “who” we are serving in the constant rush to figure out the “how” to get something done. But we are here to foster not only the growth and flourishing of our students, but of our-selves to be more open, and willing to be challenged adults, I think!
Thank you for this.
I think this is a great idea. As a student, I believe it will foster more opportunities to understand student opinions. That said, diversity of thought would be paramount. I hope that will be seriously brought into account, as mentioned in the post.