Those invited offered their ideas, opinions and analysis. The Honors College faculty invited 25 Honors students; 17 of them were able to join faculty for the meeting. Dr. Stephen Johnson, Dr. Jason Morris, Dr. Michael Harbour, Leslie Hayes, Dr. Alison Spencer, Dr. Gregory Straughn and Dr. Stephanie Hamm were the faculty and administrators present at the meeting.

This was the first focus group the university has conducted that was composed of mostly students. Participants spent an hour making lists of the university’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Dr. Michael Harbour, executive administrative director for the Honors College, said the Honors students were prime candidates for the evaluations.

“Our Honors students are exceptional in this type of environment,” Harbour said. “They are skilled critical thinkers. We talked about access to the library and other places to study, especially in the late evening hours. We talked about the challenge of tuition and a deep appreciation for the university. We talked about the need for updates to aging infrastructure on campus (Foster and Chambers).”

Dr. Stephanie Hamm, director for the school of social work, clarified that it has not yet been determined what will be changed. The strategic planning team is gathering a great deal of data from several groups of faculty, staff, students, community, parents and others. When the data gathering is completed, it will be analyzed and will determine what issues will be addressed.

Hamm was impressed with how well the meeting went.

“Many of the suggestions were consistent with that of the faculty and staff, but the students also make some suggestions that the faculty had not mentioned thus far, such as student-friendly hours in the library and the Bean,” Hamm said. “It was a great session.”