The only student session for Design DePaul had lackluster attendance, failed to discuss all of the Design DePaul topics and did not give students an opportunity to ask administration questions.

There are currently no upcoming Design DePaul sessions that include students, so many attendees said this session was underwhelming.

Some attendees like Nana Ampofo, DePaul junior, said there should have been a Q&A session scheduled into the event, especially since the event ended 30 minutes earlier than scheduled.

Haley Pennintgon, second-year law student and Student Government Association (SGA) Senator for the College of Law, said she wished the administrators would have taken advantage of the intimate setting and ditched the grand presentation and usage of the stage.

“The stage made it a little separated and not a real conversation,” Pennington said.

Ampofo said even with the audience engagement from the stage, she still felt the event was focused too much on what DePaul is doing well instead of what DePaul should be improving on.

“Let’s get to the root of the problem,” Ampofo said.

Manuel said during his presentation that DePaul has an alumni network of more than  200,000. Pennington said the university should work on building this base while also taking advantage of those numbers to secure internships and jobs for current students in a more direct manner.

“A lot of this stuff, it doesn’t have to do with money,” Pennington said. “[The alumni network], it’ll be a better streamline for students. It would be a good opportunity to show first generation law students what the law world is like.”

Chloe Crosby, SGA Senator for Disabled Students, said during the interactive session that they would like to see more community building opportunities for disabled students. Crosby said one way to do this would be to create a disabled students cultural center. 

Crosby also mentioned the session taught them more about the lack of resources graduate students have. Many graduate student attendees, like Pennington and Jaslynn Hodges, spoke during the event about some graduate students not having access to a UPass and the disproportionate amount of benefits being given to the undergraduates compared to the graduate students.  

“And our mental health resources are still abysmal,” Crosby said.

Pennington said that while she wants to see a lot of these resources and programs get inserted into the university’s to-do list, she would like to see university leadership actually follow through with implementation.

“When are we actually going to see some of this stuff come to fruition?” Pennington said. “It’s daunting because I feel like most of us think this is not going to be something we’re going to see in our time here.”

Pennington said if administration hosts more student-administration discussions, they should be in a more intimate setting so students are not scared to approach leadership about their thoughts.

Ampofo said the moderators could have created a more comfortable setting by giving the audience members more opportunities to ask questions.

Design DePaul sessions for digital presence, philanthropic expansion and geographical and community expansion were completed as of Thursday’s student session. There are still upcoming sessions for faculty and staff regarding institutional efficiency and effectiveness and also program distinction and expansion.

The next session, which will center on institutional efficiency and effectiveness, is set for May 2 and will be for faculty and staff.