Sitting at the head of the table, Reuban Rodriguez opened the discussion by listing his duties.
“My primary duty is to have a lot of students contacted and to make sure things are OK on your end,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t want to talk at you. I merely rely on your input.”
As dean of students and associate vice provost for student affairs, Rodriguez was sharing his time with students while dining with them Monday in a meeting room of the First-Year Student Services office. The previous week, he visited Broad and Belvidere Apartments to share doughnuts with the students.
As it turned out, Monday’s group ended up discussing dining services, financial aid, residential housing, safety, VCU activities and parking.
Steven Kim, a first-year student from Fairfax, stepped up to the plate to ask the first question. Kim wanted to know why students with meal plans couldn’t just swipe an additional swipe for each of their guests. Rodriguez answered Kim’s question, then recommended he talk to the Dining Services Committee if he wanted a change.
“Dining Services have a committee where students serve on, so if you’re interested, I would highly encourage you to see Dining Service people.” Rodriguez said. “They’re always looking for student feedback.”
Jenna Terzulli, another first-year student from Chesterfield, expressed her
disapproval about the parking distance from campus offered to commuter students.
“We have to drive all the way up here, and we have some of the farther parking spots,” Terzulli said. “That doesn’t make any sense. We wake up earlier enough to get here. We don’t want to wake up an extra 20 minutes just for parking.”
Rodriguez credited Terzulli with making a valid point. He then suggested that she express her concerns to the parking and transportation office, saying “they do a good job of working with students and listening to student concerns.”
Saying questions raised about residential housing, so the dean seized the moment to explain the lottery process to the first-year students.
Afterward, for a short time the questions simmered down. The students looked at each other trying figure out who would pose the next question.
“What else? Any other questions, thoughts?” Rodriguez asked the students. “I tell people if there’s not, then that’s a sign that things are going well.”
No response.
So Rodriguez went on to list some of the events on VCU’s monthly activity calendar. He then asked the students if any had attended some of the activities.
“I went to the Greek Talent Show,” Brooke Schiller responded.
Morgan McDowell, a first year pre-health student expressed her satisfaction with attending a play, the hypnosis program and Ram Madness.
“The play was really good,” McDowell said. “I really like the theater because they’re right there in front of you.”
Some of the students were unsure about the work-study hiring process. Kim said he was told that a student who didn’t qualify for financial aid couldn’t obtain a work-study job.
“Here’s the thing,” Rodriquez said. “Recreational Sports will take work study. If you’re not on financial aid, places like here and Recreational Sports hire you and you get to work as many hours as you want,” said Rodriguez, clarifying the work study situation.
McDowell aimed for a more probing question, asking, “Were you or the school criticized for the Taylor Behl (case).”
Rodriguez didn’t offer a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, but he did address the importance of residential-housing rules and the possible dangers of posting private information on the Internet.
Half of the students at the 45-minute luncheon were prehealth majors.
McDowell said she came so that she could develop a rapport with the dean.
“I just wanted to get to know him on a first-name basis. I want to know his name,” McDowell said. “Us med students are competitive.”
Terzulli and Kim said they attended because it was an assignment for their VCU 101 class.
“I basically thought he was going to talk the whole time.” Terzulli said. “I didn’t think he was going to ask for our input. And it was just the opposite.”
Kim said that he didn’t know what a dean did was until he came to the luncheon.
“I learned that they are always available for you,” Kim said. “Always willing to help.”