Chancellor Dan Ritchie held the last Chancellor’s Roundtable of the year last Wednesday and possibly the last one as chancellor.
For two hours Ritchie listened to students voice their concerns and questions about issues ranging from curriculum, to scholarships and the state of higher education.
First, Adrienne Alterman described a new group, called “A Boarding Bus,” that she is attempting to start as her Pioneer Leadership Program sophomore project where the school would run a ski bus up to the mountains on Saturdays during winter quarter.
“This is an effort to build community at DU,” said Alterman. “It might also be possible to build in a community service component to it in the future.
Alterman cited a similar program at CU Boulder to show that this type of program can be done. She is looking into a bus company and insurance costs. She asked for Ritchie’s support and any help. He was supportive of the idea and said he would help with competitive bidding.
Megan Griffiths, Mallory Rubin, Andrea Collatz, Vanessa Devereaux and Kevin Friduss want a performing arts minor added to the curriculum. They would like to see this minor include opportunities for musical theatre and dance. They also wanted the Newman Center to be opened up more to students who are not in the Lamont School of Music.
Ritchie responded that this was more a question for the Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences because he does not have control over curriculum. He also asked about the interest from the general student population in such a minor.
“It seems that starting a musical theatre program is a major undertaking,” said Ritchie. However, he said that it was possibly feasible and that they should continue pursuing it.
“It is a matter of space and a matter of budget,” said Ritchie.
The issue of merit scholarships was brought up by John Wakeford, who asked why awards don’t increase as tuition increases and if they could.
Ritchie responded that DU scholarship funds are tied to DU’s overall budget and tying scholarships increases to tuition hikes is not feasible in the near future.
He did however say that DU is thinking about starting to fundraise for financial aid. But the idea has a ways to go before implementation.
Also, he added, that despite the university being a nonprofit organization, the administration runs the university so that there is a surplus at the end of the year, to make sure the budget is not running a deficit.
Ryan Aldrich, a first-year graduate student, who is in the higher education program, asked what Ritchie thought about the decreasing access to higher education for minority and disadvantaged students.
Ritchie responded that it is a growing problem in the United States
“It is one of the biggest embarrassments,” said Ritchie. He said that most schools are focused on their ratings. He cited DU’s Hyde interview program that allows the school to look at more than just test scores.
Lastly, the presidents of DU Pride and Latino Student Association asked about the amount of money each group had been allocated by the AUSA senate. Ritchie referred this question back to the AUSA Senate since it is allocates activity fee funds.
