On Thursday, November 6, the Chatham Student Government (CSG) assembled for their weekly meeting to discuss various issues that impact the University.
The meeting revolved for the most part around a presentation by Dr. Sean McGreevey, the new assistant Dean of Career Development, who spoke to the Senate about the changes that have been made and are currently being made to Chatham University’s Career Development office.
McGreevey, who has been at Chatham since 2011, told the Senate, “Those of you who know me know that I want to be accessible and know what’s broken [in regards to the program].”
He continued, saying that he wants to connect with every single student on campus and make student employment, job shadowing, mentorship, and internships, more accessible and integral parts of the Chatham experience.
According to McGreevey, there were approximately 800 advising appointments all last year, and this year in October alone there were nearly 200; therefore they are trying to set up a system that will facilitate this increase in volume.
“Monday through Friday from nine to five someone in the office will pick up the phone,” he said, “and we’re also working on walk-in appointments.”
Additionally, Chatham’s NACElink program is being rebranded with a name that connects to the institution, to make it more accessible.
“NACElink can be connected to students’ Facebooks, Twitters, and LinkedIns,” he said, and the system can now be accessed with students’ Chatham login information.
McGreevey also explained that all advising appointments will begin with an instructional session on how to use NACElink to find jobs and internships, and how to set it up to send individuals direct emails with information pertinent to their majors.
Notes will also be taken during advising appointments so that when students come back they can meet with any of the counselors and all of their information will be readily available, so they don’t have to, “start over at each meeting.”
After a few questions from members of the Senate, he spoke a bit about graduate school preparation and writing resumes catered to specific majors, saying that they would involve professors in the process to better serve the students’ needs.
As Zauyah Waite, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, pointed out, and McGreevey agreed, “career development begins from the get-go…it is not a senior year experience.”
Other points of note from the meeting included a guarantee from Sarah Jugovic, Executive President of the CSG, that the Town Hall newsletter would be out by the end of the semester, as well as a discussion of various amendments to the CSG constitution by Tahmina Tursonzadah, 2017 Class President.
These amendments included making the attendance policy for CSG members stricter, using more gender neutral pronouns in the constitution, and changing the name of the government from the Chatham College for Women Student Government, to the Chatham University Undergraduate Student Government.
The CSG meets every Thursday on the PCW room, and all meetings are open to the student body.