DePaul’s interim vice president of Student Affairs Kimberlie Goldsberry is on a “listening tour” around the university hoping to gather a consensus on the current needs of the DePaul community. She attended the Student Government Association (SGA) general body meeting last Wednesday Feb. 19 to share her goals. 

Goldsberry says an objective of her first 90 days in office has been to meet with a diverse range of students to get a comprehensive view of struggles and perspectives. She’s also meeting with university leaders within the Division of Student Affairs to better understand what kind of support students need. 

“It’s being cognizant of the fact that it’s important to listen, as part of thinking how you plan to move forward as opposed to just coming in and just making changes without checking on what you know or don’t know,” Goldsberry said. 

Goldsberry is hosting Student Affairs office hours during lunch time on Wednesdays for staff to discuss concerns their students have and find potential solutions. She is approaching students with a similar tactic, prioritizing personal discussions. 

“I am trying to, in small, more intimate conversations, find ways to invite students to come have coffee or tea with me and tell me about their DePaul experience as a student,” Goldsberry said. 

Goldsberry has served DePaul since 2022, previously working as the associate vice president for Student Affairs.

Following the retirement of previous vice president of Student Affairs Eugene L. Zdziarski, Goldsberry has taken over the role of interim vice president while simultaneously fulfilling her duties of associate vice president until the university finds a permanent replacement. 

“She’s very attentive to student’s needs, and she puts passion into her work as an administrator at DePaul,” student body president Isabella Ali said. 

Goldsberry has been working on her listening tour since December and hopes to wrap it up by early March. Goldsberry is emulating the constituent advocacy model of SGA. 

“She seemed very personable and like she had a deep interest in actually connecting with the students which I think is vital to her position,” SGA executive secretary Cooper Menne said. 

Goldsberry says she plans to use information gathered within the listening tour to plan her next steps as an administrator. She wants to positively influence the DePaul experience for students by resolving concerns. However, Goldsberry says navigating the path forward in today’s political climate is difficult. 

“We’re at a really unusual time in the world and so we need to be open to think differently about how we want to continue to achieve the goals and commitments of our mission as an institution,” Goldsberry said. 

In light of recent executive orders, Goldsberry says the fear of the unknown has shown up in her observations of students and staff. She says that DePaul’s mission and Vincentian commitment is a priority over executive order compliance as long as DePaul is able to continue to execute its duties as an educational institution. 

DePaul’s Office of General Council reviews executive orders. On Feb. 14, U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued a “Dear Colleague letter”, which prohibits race-based programming and spending at universities, and says institutions that do not apply may face federal investigation and loss of funding.

“We believe that we are not sponsoring programs or hiring people at our institution in a way that is demonstrating discriminatory practices,” Goldsberry said. “We need to be prepared to defend the services that we have to show that they are not discriminatory.” 

One of SGA’s main functions is to bridge communication between students and administration, and SGA’s “speaker series” of inviting administration to talk at general body meetings is a way they are trying to promote conversation. 

“Transparency is absolutely critical,” Menne said. “We’re able to have a dialogue between administration and students that I think is really important in order to work together with everyone and accomplish goals as a university.” 

More administrative guests are set to visit SGA’s general body, including Gianmario Besana, the associate provost for global engagement and online learning , during the Feb. 26 general body meeting. 

Sometime during spring quarter, SGA is hoping to host a Safety Town Hall where members of the DePaul community can talk about safety on campus. SGA chief of staff Lianna Abdallah says that following last year’s encampment, there is a lack of trust between administration and students, and SGA is trying to rebuild confidence. 

“It’s kind of bridging that gap back and understanding that the school is here for our safety, we just have to work together,” Abdallah said. 

People on DePaul’s unique campus, along with the current presidency have pushed for a town hall to discuss threats that the DePaul community will face. 

“Safety will always be a concern at DePaul University not because of anything DePaul has going on, but because we like an urban campus, and open campus,” Ali said. “Due to this political climate, I think we’re all very concerned about the lives of Black and brown people and of marginalized groups in general.” 

SGA will be sending out a survey to students about safety on campus that will be used in planning this event.

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