Every college within Winona State has a dean who’s responsible for the students and faculty of said colleges. These deans keep the colleges running and make them an enriching experience. The College of Liberal Arts specifically has twenty-one departments and programs, and “more than 100 talented faculty,” according to the College of Liberal Arts page on the WSU website. So, it’s a wonder how the Dean, Kara Lindaman, can handle every student issue, or keep track of them. It might surprise some that the answer is a group of students themselves.
The Dean’s advisory board for the College of Liberal Arts is a set of appointed students that work as a liaison between the student population and the Dean. This allows students to give their complaints, comments, and ideas to this board so that their voices can be heard and the improvements they want can be made. The Dean can’t always see and handle everything all at once. Which is why the Dean’s advisory board is crucial for both students and the Dean.
The board consists of students that represent the different departments of the College of Liberal Arts, many of them being leaders of clubs for those departments. The chief officers consist of the President, Erin Farina, the Vice President, Reagan Roesler and the Social Media Manager and Secretary, Sophia Riedel. All members of the board are equally integral though, as all of them contribute to making the College of Liberal Arts a welcoming and safe place for all students.
The Dean’s Advisory Board has recently started back up after being inactive since COVID-19 so they are working on re-establishing their connection with the students of Winona State and guiding improvements on campus. They have had fundraisers such as raising money for relief because of Hurricane Helene via a book drive, and they have also revamped the Minné lounge through another book drive and “collected books to fill some of the bookshelves,” Riedel shared. A main reason behind the Minné lounge change was because they felt that “it wasn’t a good room to hang out and we wanted it to be where people felt comfortable,” Farina stated.
The Dean’s Board also gets involved at events like, “student fairs, or we’re at different departmental fairs, so a lot of community outreach,” Roesler discussed. One thing that the Dean’s Advisory Board has been trying to develop is a peer mentoring group that doesn’t “step on the toes of like the existing mentoring program,” Roesler added. However, Riedel mentioned they are also trying to figure out “how to help the underclassmen when it comes to classes and performing the best they can as college students.” A lot of outreach is also done though Riedel since she operates as the PR person for the board, and makes posts, infographics and more.
The Dean’s Board is committed to Winona State’s students, but what makes that work is students voicing their concerns. So listen to Riedel and “reach out to a Liberal Arts board members,” or your college board, “if they personally want to see change in our college.” We are all a part of Winona State, so it makes sense that change is community driven. If you want to do more than just reaching out, you can also reach out to your department’s chairperson about the Dean’s Advisory Board.
