by Rachel Macklin
Hi everyone! My name is Rachel Macklin, and I’m your friendly SLAC representative this year. (SLAC stands for the Student Leadership Advisory Council. Don’t worry, I had no idea what it was either.) We’re a group of students who meets once a month with the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Each major has a student representative chosen by the department faculty. Our main goal is to increase communication between the students and the administration, so if you have any concerns, feel free to email me!
SLAC works on several projects throughout the year. Recently, we helped prepare for the Integrative Conversations event on Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment. We will also be assisting with Junior Parents Weekend and a few other events throughout the semester, so make sure you look out for us!
SLAC has been a great experience thus far, as it gives us a chance to speak directly to the administration about what concerns us. Earlier in the semester, SLAC representatives sent emails to all students in their majors asking for suggestions for the dean. A few people emailed me back, and I was able to forward those suggestions on to the dean and let him know what the students wanted. As a group, we discussed what dozens of CAS students wanted to see out of their school. It felt great to be part of a bigger solution.
Sometimes it feels like the issues we tackle at SLAC can be pretty minor, but creating solutions to those smaller problems makes CAS run more smoothly. If any of y’all have any issues you’d like me to bring to Dean Andrews, please let me know, and I’ll do my best to help!