Last Friday, Provost Steve Goldstein '78 sent an email to the Brandeis community describing the manner in which the Strategic Planning Steering Committee will move forward as it begins its work. While Mr. Goldstein mentioned several methods in which student input will be solicited, there are more effective ways to obtain students' opinion in order to get more thoughtful and well-considered opinions.

In his email, Dr. Goldstein wrote that "undergraduates will convene a Student Advisory Committee to engage the student body through a series of town hall meetings, forums and online surveys" in order to inform the student representative to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, Student Union President Herbie Rosen '12.

We approve of the creation of such a committee: Having students from different aspects of the student body informing Mr. Rosen as he works on the larger committee will be useful and will ensure that different facets of student life are represented.

However, as the town hall meetings for the Constitutional Review Committee two years ago and the presidential search last year proved—some meetings had no students in attendance, others very few—holding open forums for all members of the general student body is not an effective way of gathering representative opinions. Perhaps offering some sort of incentives, such as food or giveaways, would boost attendance.

There may be an even more effective approach, though: The Student Advisory Committee would be better served by asking focus groups to give their opinions on the different aspects of student life. By convening groups of club leaders, members of the student government, members of Greek life, commuters and other groups representative of specific aspects of the student experience at Brandeis, the committee would gain valuable insights into the issues that will be critical to the strategic planning process.

Online surveys are a better way to reach out to all of the undergraduates than town hall meetings, as many more students are likely to respond to an email than to attend one of the meetings. But as the email questionnaires about the search for the provost and senior vice president for Students and Enrollment last year showed, questions on those surveys need to be accessible to students. For example, last year's survey sent out by then Student Union President Daniel Acheampong '11 on the provost search asked: "What are the most important areas to be improved within the Provost's authority?"

Students filling out this survey had little ability to answer this question, as most were unaware of the provost's role at the University.

Questions should be geared toward subjects of which students have direct knowledge, and the survey should be advertised in ways that will make students interested in participating. Again, some targeted surveys might help the committee reach out to parts of the student body that are otherwise not represented, but one general survey to students would be a way to ensure that everyone who is interested in expressing his or her opinion can be heard.

At a time in which our university is considering its goals and values, we have a unique opportunity to make our voices heard. It is our responsibility to speak out, and the Student Advisory Committee to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee should do its best to reach out to those students who are interested in contributing to this important conversation.