By Nicholas Gallo, Staff Writer
The Shared Governance Commission sent out a survey last Friday to the St. Bonaventure University community, allowing students to express their opinions.
Co-chairs of the survey, Matt King, Ph.D., assistant professor of English, and Tim Geiger, director of enterprise services, said President Dennis DePerro, Ed.D., created the commission to assess shared governance on campus.
The purpose of the survey is to help administration understand how the university community feels about current government structure.
“For the decisions affecting the school’s community, does everyone have an appropriate say in how those decisions are made?” said King. “To work toward this goal, the commission has divided into three main parts: mapping how governance works on campus, surveying the university community and studying how other institutions approach governance.”
In addition to supervising the survey, King and Geiger will analyze the collection of data they receive from the community and provide their recommendations on shared governance with DePerro.
King said the survey was generated from the commission and was planned out through conversations, specifically about how to identify concerns about shared opportunities for improving governance on campus.
“The commission was established by the president at least in part due to the findings of the University Planning Commission over the last few years,” said King. “The survey itself was proposed and developed by the members of the commission itself.”
Spencer Carbone, a sophomore biology major, believes there are outlets on campus for students to be heard and that administration is open to hearing what students have to say.
“I am an officer with the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) and we work closely with security, as well as resident life,” said Carbone. “With the conversations I’ve had in the past with security, there has been a consistent dialogue between leaders of clubs and the university.”
Carbone said he will take the survey and hopes other students take it, as well. He believes the survey is another positive outlet for students to express their concerns for university decision making.
“This survey can serve as an opportunity for the community to share their opinion about their wants and needs on campus,” said Carbone. “Being a student on campus, I strongly believe administration should use the survey’s results in addition to their discussions on decisions regarding the university.”
Erin Schappert, a sophomore psychology major, feels her opinion doesn’t matter when it comes to the university making decisions. She said using surveys are not effective, but believes they are trying to address these issues with the Student Government.
“Another way they could be effective is by maybe sending out a monthly survey with checkups on how the students feel on things,” said Schappert. “They could input a text box and use substantial items on how students are feeling about the evaluations.”
King said the survey will end on Friday, Feb. 16 and hopes it will give them a better understanding on how people feel.
King added that, if they discover concerns about governance through the survey, they can make recommendations.
