Student Affairs Assessment Board member Dayan Reynolds enjoys using data to help students grow into leaders.
Aug. 25, 2021
A new student advisory board is helping improve students’ out-of-classroom experience.
The University of Missouri Student Affairs Assessment Board is a student-led team tasked with bringing student perspectives to the work of the Division of Student Affairs.
The board consists of 10 members from specific communities and organizations and six at-large members from across the full student body. Seven seats are reserved for representatives from organizations for underrepresented students. The board will help elevate underrepresented students’ stories, said Molly Frank, a coordinator of assessment in the Office of Strategic Initiatives and Assessment.
Frank said the intent behind the board was to help Student Affairs be better stewards of the stories of MU students overall, particularly those of students from underrepresented communities.
“These are individual students who are having lives and experiences that are very real to them and very important to them,” Frank said. “The board will help elevate those voices so they are responded to on a structural level.”
Since its first meeting in April, the board has been reviewing the results of this spring’s student experience survey and will recommend ways administrators and student organizations can improve students’ out-of-classroom experience.
Board members have begun considering ways students and campus administrators could make Mizzou more inclusive.
Board member Rishabh Mahendra, who comes from India, would like to see more information tailored to international students. “People who are coming to a different country for the first time,” he said, “they definitely want something, a larger icebreaker with several people, so that they start feeling comfortable.”
Frank said that the board aims to start providing recommendations to key administrators and student leaders this fall.
