by Melinda Leavitt
ASWU President

Hello all! This last week has been busy: trustees’ board meeting, sunshine and events galore. The trustees had three days full of meetings all in order to help make Whitworth even better than it already is. Students in ASWU sat in on many of the committee meetings including Finance and Administration, Institutional Advancement, Academic Affairs, Student Services, and Building and Grounds. The committee I sat in on was Academic Affairs where the trustees approved the conferment of degrees and honors at commencement for students in their undergraduate and graduate programs. All that means is the seniors and those in the graduate programs can graduate and receive diplomas. The Institutional Advancement committee talked about growing the endowment. Did you know that the Investing Club on campus will be allowed to control and invest part of the endowment for the school? Look for opportunities to get involved with that in the future.

In ASWU last week, the current executive team ran their last meeting. The next and last meeting will be run by the new executive team. We invited Lulu Gonzalez and some of the CDAs on campus to come and talk with us about the CDA position and how we can all work together to collaborate on events and making the CDA position more well known by students. The CDAs are not just focused on the international students. They work with Act 6 students, National Science Foundation students, and even students like you and me to create a welcoming environment where we all see each other as Whitworth students.

On one last note, there was an informal, student-led session on the academic vitality and academic community on campus. If you didn’t get to come, get in contact with Patrick Stewart as he’ll be the one working on continuing conversations next year about this. Students like myself, Patrick Yoho and Brittany Roach wanted to get feedback from students about how we can make sure that Whitworth is remaining and striving to be an academically-minded community where students are challenged and not allowed to settle. We received a lot of great feedback that we’ll be passing along to the interim provost Barb Sanders.

In the upcoming weeks, take time to enjoy the sun and to work hard and finish out the year strong. Enjoy your time here on campus because soon everyone will be free for the summer!

Contact Melinda Leavitt at [email protected].