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Dean Carllos Lassiter Responds to Student Concerns with a Series of Town Hall Meetings

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Posted on Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Dean Carllos Lassiter, vice president for student affairs and dean of students, held his first Town Hall meeting with the Westminster community on Oct. 12. Centered on diversity and inclusion, the meeting addressed the challenges some students face on campus and provided a space for them to share their experiences at Westminster so far.

Sophomore biology major Antonia Thompson said the Town Hall meeting was enlightening.

“I was able to voice my opinion about being a black female student [at Westminster]," Thompson said. "The population of black female students [on our campus] is a bit low, and we are typically forgotten about. Hopefully that will change.”

The town hall meetings are part of Dean Lassiter’s initiative to improve the quality of student life at Westminster.

 “I hope this will enable students to become empowered through self-advocacy while allowing them to be stakeholders in shaping what they would like for their campus experience to be at Westminster,” added Lassiter.

Overall, the dean believes the first town hall event went well and was well received by students.

“For the next one, we will allow students to submit comments and questions prior to the event to generate a more fluid conversation and to increase engagement among the students in attendance,” he mentioned.

Future Town Halls will focus on the overall student life experience on campus. Dean Lassiter will be joined by SALT (Student Affairs Leadership Team—composed of all Directors and Associate Deans in Student Affairs) in addressing the issues presented by students.

Already in his first four months at Westminster, Dean Lassiter is committed to and busy ensuring the “Westminster experience” is exceptional for all students. Over the rest of the year, Dean Lassiter and his team are working on implementing a system of “CARE” when working with students; creating more intentional campus programming, presentations and workshops from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion; and developing a culture of assessment for the student life experience of on-campus students. His other plans include addressing student transportation needs, student engagement on campus, customer service, the functionality of the McKelvey Campus Center and professional staff development.

For more information, contact Tom Fields at fieldste@westminster.edu or 724-946-7190.