KresLynn Knouse, Assistant News Editor, @KresLynn
Due to budget cuts and in an effort to increase student enrollment, Prospective Student Services and the Center for the Advancement of Leadership merged on May 16. With Kirk Young as the director of both organizations, CAL students will now be working with full-time recruiters from PSS to help recruit new students.
“I think this is a good opportunity for our students to have the chance to be involved in recruiting, developing more school pride and experiencing being a representative of the university and CAL,” said Mallory Wallin, student vice president of CAL. “I truly believe that our students are some of the best around and will be an asset for recruiting. This is an exciting change for both CAL and PSS.”
In the coming year, CAL students can expect to see more opportunities to visit high schools as well as some administrative staff changes. However, this change will only minimally impact current CAL students.
“The structural core of leadership is the same, the benefits are the same- there will only be a more structured experience and some administrative changes,” Young explained.
Part of this improved structure includes changes that extend beyond the CAL program. Young has been working closely with Bob Rasmussen, dean of students, to help unify all of the leadership programs here at UVU.
“I want student leaders to be confident that upon graduating, they know they are a much better leader than they were four years ago,” said Young.
Rasmussen recently called together the administrative staff of all leadership programs at UVU to address the question: ‘How can we strengthen our leadership programs so students can graduate with a diploma and improved leadership skills?’
One suggestion was to create a uniform list of leadership competencies that could be used for all leadership programs at UVU (CAL, Student Government, Honors, etc.). The finished list has seven competencies that leadership program administrators can contour to their own areas.
A student entering any leadership program at UVU will focus on developing themselves and others, having a good sense of communication, being results-oriented, mapping a strategic vision, perfecting professional and technical expertise, improving ethical behavior, and obtaining organizational agility.
Although the merge between PSS and CAL won’t deeply impact students, it is expected to benefit students, faculty, and UVU as a whole. Administrators will continue improving leadership programs as more students continue to take advantage of becoming a certified leader at UVU.
