On Wednesday, students and University leaders met at the first of what will be a series of “Hoya Roundtable” meetings in Sellinger Lounge. Around 20 students were in attendance, while over 30 administrators were present at the roundtable.
Department heads from the Department of Safety, Auxiliary Services, Student Housing, Facilities, and University Information Services, as well as department sub-heads and committee members came to address student concerns and explain their ideas for the future of their respective departments.
Before the roundtable sessions, a leader from each department briefly presented the projects their departments are working on. An hour-long question and answer session gave students the opportunity to pose concerns to each department leader. After the question and answer session, there were roundtable break-out sessions to allow students and University leaders to have follow-up conversations.
Concerns raised by students included issues with using “flex dollars” on GOCards and two-sided printing costs.
The roundtable series is the brainchild—and biggest move so far— of Christopher Augostini, the University’s new Chief Operating Officer.
“The intent is for me to understand the issues and for us to try our best to have as many students [as possible] participating in these roundtables,” he said. “We will have them as often as students find them valuable.”
As Georgetown’s new COO, Augostini’s responsibilities range from future campus developments to technology to overseeing the University’s financial office. He said he sees the roundtables as an essential component of his plans for the future, since they allow him to be more in touch with students and their concerns.
“We’re here all the time,” he said. “I just need to understand what the issues are and either solve the issue or respond that these are the reasons why we can’t do it.”
Alongside the weekly roundtable discussions, Michael Wang (MSB ’07), the special assistant to the chief finacial officer, piloted the creation of a new online forum powered by Google’s moderator application for students to express their grievances. The forum is divided into five topics: housing, facilities, technology, safety, and food. Each section allows students to post short questions or ideas, and other students can vote these posts up or down.
“We were hoping to get the issues and concerns that are most important and relevant to student,” Wang said. “It’ll be obvious because students will be voting it up, and once we hear that, those will be the things that we know to address…that require a response.”
Since yesterday, more than 30 students have posted questions and over 430 have voted questions up or down. The topics varied from lack of student space on campus to difficulties with summer housing. At the roundtables on Wednesday, Wang also posted a poll for what students will like to see presented at the next roundtable, including a number to text with responses.
Beyond the roundtables, Augostini envisions student involvement in administrative decisions constant and evolving. He said that he sees no end to the dialogue, and expects the administration to give reasons and concrete responses.
“I want it to be continuous because I don’t want someone to say you only listened once or twice and then you went away, “Augostini said. “I think we have to be more accessible to understanding what the issues are and be held accountable to respond.”
At Wednesday’s roundtable, Augostini reiterated the need for future communication.
“This Hoya Roundtable is the first of many. Whether there are 75 students or ten, we’re going to continue this dialogue to the extent that you as students find valuable,” he said.
Ultimately, he said, the motivation for starting the roundtables comes back to Georgetown’s intellectual heritage.
“You come to Georgetown because a group of us provide services to students, because the faculty are here, the location, the Jesuit identity,” Augostini said. “There has been a real culture of service here and we have to enhance that…measure our ability to ensure that the work that we’re doing is done better and more effectively every single day. (https://thefoundationspecialists.com/) ”
