High hopes and lofty expectations. That’s what Millikin University’s Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Wallace “Dr. S” Southerland, has for Millikin’s new student governance group: The Council of Student Advisors (CoSA).
The new Council of Student Advisors evolved from a earlier student governance organization -- the Committee on Student Affairs – with the new CoSA featuring student members selected by Dr. S, who will also serve as the Council’s advisor.
“After some time without a student governance group, it was very important to me to bring it back,” Dr. S said. “Everything that we do is about making sure our students are successful. It is about having positive experiences on student development. It only makes sense that we create some kind of institutional structure where students have formal, as well as informal, impact and influence on what affects them.”
Last spring, Dr. S put out a call to Big Blue students to gauge their interest in taking part in CoSA. He was unsure how many students would be interested, but he was delighted with the results.
“The previous governance model had about five or six students, and I knew I wanted to build upon that. I thought six people was too limiting to be able to represent students. I sent an email offering the opportunity to advise me as Vice President of Student Affairs, and we had 27 students from all different backgrounds who either nominated themselves or were nominated by one of their peers to be on the Council,” Dr. S said. “That pool was narrowed to 22, and I, along with the Board of Trustees, were blown away that we had this level of interest. That is a testament to what our students can do if we rethink how we involve them.”
The inaugural Council of Student Advisors (CoSA) will include the following students:
| Am’Briah Bradford | Jessie Stanze |
| Ameena Harris | Kevin Nshuti |
| Carter Manuel | Kyler Griggs |
| Christina Anderson | Lucy Rauch |
| Delaney Balmer | Mariah Crawford |
| Devyn Ezell | McKenzie Boren |
| Ella Bianchi | Quartus Rassi |
| Grace Cleeton | Reed Pierson |
| Guy Gahungu | Ronnie Coble |
| Jacob Bloom | Tabitha Barowsky |
| Jade Coffman | Zach Kohler |
At the same time, Dr. S also put out a call to get nominations for the Student Representative to the Board of Trustees. That selected student would attend the four Board of Trustees meetings during the academic year, serve as the student voice to the Board, and advocate for issues that the student body feels are important.
After reviewing the applications, Dr. S selected Millikin junior Kyler Griggs as Student Representative to the Board. Griggs is an English Creative Writing major with a Philosophy Pre-Law minor and was a transfer student to Millikin from the University of Illinois Chicago.
CoSA members have already been active, holding an initial information session for the new member and engaging with the Board of Trustees at a breakfast session during Homecoming, where CoSA shared opinions on Millikin’s campus community and culture and their feelings on being Big Blue students.
As vacancies open on CoSA, application windows will be opened, and to qualify, currently enrolled Millikin students need to be in good academic standing based on institutional cumulative grade point average, have no major conduct violations on or off campus, be able to serve for an entire academic year, and have positive character references from university staff and administrators.
Dr. S plans for CoSA to convene once a month and more frequently as circumstances require it. Responsibilities for members of CoSA include offering thoughtful, honest, and informed advice and guidance to the Vice President for Student Affairs, interacting with and understanding how students are doing and what they are thinking and feeling about their experiences on campus, and meeting with the Dean and existing student advisory groups of their respective college at least once per semester and report back to CoSA.
Big Blue students taking part in CoSA will be able to develop leadership skills, practice public speaking, learn effective communication skills and improve their problem-solving skills. CoSA members will also participate in important university events as ambassadors.
“I am looking for members to help set our CoSA agenda, so we can talk about issues that are going on. We will also include university administrators to go to this group and share their thoughts about a particular issue,” Dr. S said. “My vision for CoSA is to be a solutions-oriented body. At every meeting, I would like to have campus decision-makers talk to students. There will be many possibilities to engage the COSA group going forward.”
