This year’s WesFest saw the first meeting of President Michael Roth’s new President’s Council. The Council, composed of about 25 alumni and parents of current students, will serve to advise the President on important issues from an outside perspective.
According to Roth, the Council discussed issues such as the reallocation of the University’s resources and the University’s reputation. The President added that the Council was modeled after other meetings that he has held in the past to tackle financial issues.
“It was a great day of discussion about Wesleyan with people who are loyal but since they’re not working for the University it’s easier for them also to be critical,” Roth said. “The members are people who want to be more involved and who have been thinking about the school.”
According to Cathy Klema P’13, who is married to an alum, the Council brought an array of professional interest and experiences to the table.
“We covered a number of topics on strategy and opportunities to build on Wesleyan’s extraordinary heritage long into the future,” she said.
Roth said that members were invited, in part because their careers may allow them to provide suggestions regarding certain areas of the University.
“I asked them some specific questions about how they have experienced reallocation of resources in the organizations they’ve been involved with, how they dealt with issues of recognition and prestige and [how to] have a reputation for being open and accessible,” he said. “It’s good to talk to people who have an affection for Wesleyan but can also say ‘we wish you’d do better at this or that.’”
According to David Loo ’83, who was invited to the Council, additional meetings are scheduled for this November as well as in April and November of 2012.
“I believe the President’s Council was established to act as a sounding board for President Roth in order for him to gain the perspective of individuals who have an affinity for Wesleyan, but who currently reside or work outside the immediate Wesleyan community,” Loo said. “I view our role on the Council as thinking about and responding to issues that are currently of interest to the President in his stewardship of Wesleyan.”
Loo said that the meeting was reminiscent of his experience as a student at Wesleyan in its diversity of perspectives, experiences, and opinions.
“The process was not so much geared towards arriving at a group consensus on any particular topic, but rather to flesh out different points of view for President Roth to consider,” he said. “The day very much reminded me of my experiences at Wesleyan, where the different views of my peers caused me to reconsider my own.”
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