Angelina Persaud, Senior Writer
Manhattan University’s Senate convened for their first meeting of the 2025 spring semester and highlighted the multifaith prayer space in Kelly Commons, concerns with fitness center maintenance and a new campus safety program with local businesses, among other updates.
The senate began by welcoming two new senators to the committee including provost Kenneth Sumner, Ph.D., and associate professor of chemistry James McCullogh, Ph.D.
The first report came from the educational affairs committee where Sumner addressed key concerns regarding access to Moodle sites, the advanced placement (AP) score policy for incoming freshmen and the transfer credit policy. Concrete details for AP scores and the new transfer credit policy will be discussed further at a future senate meeting.
“The transfer credit policy for off campus courses was also reviewed and there will be continuing discussion,” Sumner said. “There’s an AP score policy that was voted and approved that deals with AP scores and articulation to specific courses within the curriculum.”
Kristell Lowe, vice president of student life, noted that the prerequisites to apply to be a RA were revamped from the previous years, including raising the minimum GPA from 2.5 to 3.0 for applicants and requiring that they have lived on campus for at least one semester.
“We want to do a better job at developing the RAs, and we want them to really make the best of those senior leaders in the making positions,” Lowe said. “We also want to be able to support our students better in the residence halls.”
She also noted that there were 70 total applications for RAs this year, with 63 total candidates being invited to next stage interviews following the group interview.
“We received 70 applications,” Lowe said. “65 of those applicants qualified and met all the requirements and were invited to participate in what we call group process day, which is a group activity where we give them challenges and things to solve, and we can observe and see how they work together. Out of the 65 invited to participate in group process days, 63 participated and are [now] being invited to interview.”
In terms of breaks, Lowe noted that the residence halls will close for spring break in March but remain open for Easter break in April, as a way to provide accessibility and comfort for students who wish to remain on campus.
“One of the areas for improvement that was covered with me when I took on the role was really the goal to make it easy for students to feel at home and make it easy for them to enjoy being in the residence halls,” Lowe said. “So we will treat Easter break like a long weekend for them.”
Lowe also noted that improvements are underway for responsiveness to work orders placed by both residents and staff to Aramark, which includes processing outstanding work orders every Monday and a satisfaction survey sent after each completed order.
“As of the last two months that has been a focus for us, collaborating with Craig [Collins], the VP of facilities, on holding accountability meetings with Aramark facilities, both with their on campus team and with their regional leadership team,” Lowe said. “We want to see improvement in terms of cleanliness, responsiveness and problem resolution to work orders. We’re looking for satisfaction surveys to be activated so everybody who enters a work order, will receive a satisfaction survey once the work order is fulfilled. It’d be a great way for us to receive and digest all of the feedback.”
Lowe also noted that among the variety of student life events planned for Jasper Day of Wellness on Feb. 26, the search still continues to fill the vacancy for director of Student Engagement that was previously held by John Bennett.
“As you know, we had a leadership transition with the departure of John Bennett, [and] the director of Student Engagement position is posted,” Lowe said. “We’ve received a large number of applications. I’m in the process of pre-screening them, interviews will start very soon. It’s all about finding a fantastic candidate, but filling the position quickly. We understand how really critical that role is to success.”
Lowe noted that she has been substituting for the role temporarily and interfacing with student leadership to ensure that events are still being planned and student needs are being met.
“I really wanted to make sure that there would be no gap in coverage and support we give to our students, I took on a large portion of the role in the meantime,” Lowe said. “I personally met with different representatives of student governments with the purpose of understanding where we stand and if they had any initiatives in their work with John Bennett that they wouldn’t want to be slowed down or interrupted.”
Also in terms of student activities and engagement, Lowe explained that part of her goals entail activating and uniting students in the engineering building on south campus, particularly, commuters, to make them feel more connected. The result of this goal was engineering week, which included department sponsored events and activities.
“In a perfect world, all of our students would get together on the quad,” Lowe said. “The reality is, that’s not the case. [For] The School of Engineering on south campus, more than 70% of our engineering students are commuter students. A lot of them come, they do classes, they do their labs, and then they go home because they have a long commute.”
The multifaith prayer space in Kelly Commons was also refurbished and moved to a more convenient location on the third floor to accommodate the needs of students just in time for the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
“We recognize through feedback from some of our students that it [fourth floor prayer space] wasn’t the most optimal location because it is at the end of the meeting room,” Lowe said. “So sometimes you have to walk through a meeting to get access to that space, which can be a little awkward for the students or for the meeting attendees. So we are actually in the process of refurbishing it. We’re almost finished with a beautiful room on the third floor of Kelly Commons, it’s a standalone room, so it’d be very easy to access.”
Mehnaz Afridi, Ph.D., professor of religious studies and director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith (HGI) Education Center on campus, expressed her gratitude for the updated prayer space and the inclusive environment it provides for students.
“I really want to thank Senator Lowe for all her work, especially the multifaith space, which is so important for us as Lasallians, and how quickly she turned that around,” Afridi said. “I’ve been trying for a couple years, and the students are very excited.”
There were also additional days added to orientation week, June 10, 14, 17 and Aug. 21, for newly accepted students, including an incentive for them to complete their prerequisite placement tests to receive their fall semester schedule as early as June.
“August 21 will typically be reserved for students that are from out of state or even international students that may not have the luxury to make their way to us in June,” Lowe said. “The core of orientation day needs to be about building excitement and pride about being a Jasper. Should they meet all the prerequisites and take all of the placement tests, there’s a very strong possibility for them to leave orientation day with their schedule for the first semester.”
Another issue that arose from student feedback was making campus feel more safe, especially for students walking on the streets surrounding campus. The current initiative is called Jasper Safe Path, which involves partnering with local businesses that are certified “Jasper Safe” and allow students to come inside if they feel uncomfortable on the street.
“[In the event] a student has a need to go in to feel safe, whether it’s a weird interaction on the street or it’s something that doesn’t feel right, we want businesses to work with us to become a safe place,” Lowe said. “Businesses that agree to participate, we receive a decal, and they’ll become officially Jasper safe, and the student can go in, no questions asked, and they will be receiving support.”
The next senate meeting will be held on March 25 in Hayden 409 with President Frederick Bonato and CFO James Perrino expected to be in attendance.