This Friday, Gusties will get a unique chance to enjoy casual conversation and discuss topics that are important to them with college leadership over bacon, eggs and coffee.
At Breakfast with the Board, now a tri-annual event held less regularly prior to Fall 2012, students will have the critically important opportunity to update the Board Members on the challenges and opportunities they see on campus.
Board Members, many of them alumni, enjoy the opportunity to reconnect with what is going on up on the Hill, and learn more about the issues that are important to students so they can work to make Gustavus an even more forward-thinking, cutting edge institution.
“I think for the Board it’s valuable because they want to serve the college in a way that is meaningful and helpful,” Dean of Students JoNes VanHecke said.“I think they feel they have a better understanding of today’s Gusties by having come to this event.”
Breakfast with the Board also serves to give students the opportunity to better get to know their Board Members, many of whom are Alumni who went on to hold prestigious positions in their fields.
“It’s an amazing networking opportunity for students to be able to just have casual conversations with Board Members – CEOs of Major Corporations, leaders in the medical field in higher education in industry,” VanHecke said. “I think it’s great for our students to be able to get some time with the very professionally accomplished people who serve on our Board of Trustees.”
Many students value the opportunity to better get to know their Board Members and talk with them about pressing issues on campus.
“I think Breakfast with the Board is a really good idea because it allows students the opportunity to talk to our Board members,” Freshmam Sofie Wicklund said. “[That’s] really important, both for us to know the people who make a lot of our school’s financial decisions, and for the Board to see what the student climate is like.”
“Being able to connect on a face-to-face basis is essential in understanding why people feel the way they do and make the decisions they do,” Senior Clara Wicklund said.
Both, however, wished that more and longer opportunities for student activists to chat with college leadership were available.
“I would be in favor of having the Board come to campus more often and engage in conversation with students, since we provide such a firsthand basis of the facets of our college,” said Sofie Wicklund.
“In order to be a transparent and inclusive community, we need to be given more opportunities to engage with the board,” Clara Wicklund said.