Transition team meets Thursday with President Ross, list not finalized yet
University President George Ross’ transition team will have its first meeting Thursday.
It will be a closed-door meeting just for the president and team members, said Mary Jane Flanagan, executive assistant to the president.
Flanagan said the meeting will be “very organizational” in nature.
“One of the main things is it is an opportunity for the president to interact directly with the team,” said Phil Squattrito, co-chairman of the transition team and chairman of Academic Senate. “Ross will go over what he’s looking for.”
What Ross would like to see from the team’s reports also will be discussed, said Kathy Wilbur, vice president of government relations and public affairs and co-chairwoman for the transition team. Three or four reports will be presented to Ross throughout the process, she said.
The team consists of six subcommittees — administrative/staff priorities, academic priorities, student priorities, alumni priorities, community/business priorities and public affairs/communications.
Each subcommittee will include 12 to 14 people, Squattrito said.
Ross wanted each subcommittee to have a combination of students, staff and faculty, Flanagan said, along with alumni and community members in the appropriate groups.
“This is a good way for (Ross) to hear from all these different elements,” said Jason Nichol, Student Government Association president and Mount Pleasant senior. “It’s helpful. Students — we think we know what we need, but we miss things.”
Web site coming soon
A complete list of transition team members has not been finalized, Flanagan said. Invitations were sent out a few weeks ago, and she said more will be named by Thursday.
A transition team Web site will be launched in coming weeks, Squattrito said.
The Web site will include a listing of everyone involved in the team. It also will be a way to keep the community updated and allow team members to keep in contact.
Nichol will be co-chairman with Resident Hall Assembly President and Whitmore Lake sophomore Robert Lane for the students priorities subcommittee.
When their terms are over, the two new presidents of the organizations will be the co-chairmen, Nichol said. But Nichol and Lane will still be on the committee.
Upon Nichol’s recommendation, Brittany Mouzourakis, SGA Vice President and Garden City senior, will serve on the student priorities subcommittee and Muskegon senior David Breed on the academic priorities subcommittee.
“I was nominated through Student Government Executive Council,” Mouzourakis said. “It was then approved by administration and Dr. Ross.”
Breed has been involved in Academic Senate all year, and Mouzourakis is a good fit for the position, Nichol said.
Last week, at the announcement of their campaign, Mouzourakis and Breed accepted their positions on the transition team. The pair is running for SGA president and vice president, but Breed said they threw in their names for the team before deciding to campaign.
“They submitted our names for the team before we agreed to run (for SGA) together,” Breed said.
The rest of the semester will probably be used for subcommittees to meet and plan, Squattrito said.
“How much you see visibly over the next four weeks, I’m not sure,” he said. “Committees will meet and talk about how they will gather opinions from people.”
Wilbur said Ross is aware of how little time is left in the semester, but he wanted to at least get things started. The transition process is planned to continue through January 2011.
