The St. Thomas Admissions Twitter account released a statement Feb. 27 regarding current and prospective students taking part in peaceful protests.
At the @UofStThomasMN, we encourage active civic participation by all our community members. We will never punish a prospective student for being a peaceful changemaker. #NeverAgain pic.twitter.com/AsNe7hLVxe
— UST Admissions (@AdmissionsAtUST) February 27, 2018
The statement came as a response to recent protests related to the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
According to Janet Swiecichowski, director of public relations at St. Thomas, one of the reasons the university chose to release the statement was because it was receiving questions regarding its stance on the issue of students speaking out.
“The president of the university and the admissions team started receiving some email questions as people were planning activities around the #NeverAgain movement,” Swiecichowski said, “asking, ‘If high school students are disciplined for demonstrating, can you promise not to hold that against them?’”
St. Thomas belongs to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, an organization that works toward helping prospective college students transition from high school to college.
According to Kristen Hatfield, director of admissions at St. Thomas, the association electronically published a list of schools that had publicly stated they would not punish students for, essentially, exercising their right to freedom of speech about a week after the Parkland shooting,
“When we saw that and we were encouraged by our professional organization to post a statement, that’s when we starting working with marketing, insights and communication…and we put the policy in place and had it posted,” Hatfield said.
According to Swiecichowski, the university recognized the importance of being transparent when it came to speaking out about such prominent issues.
“We think that using multiple channels to communicate, because people are on multiple channels, is really important. That’s why we have a great team that supports that,” Swiecichowski said.
This transparency appears to have already made an impact on prospective students.
On March 14, St. Thomas junior and tour guide Jordan Hanson found out that a group of about 50 students from Minneapolis Roosevelt High School had requested to give up their tour to participate in the university’s March for Our Lives demonstration.
Instead of taking a tour of the university’s campus, the students participated in the march alongside Hanson.
“I think that had just a completely different impact on them than the regular tour would have. I think that they are more attracted to St. Thomas at this point than if they would have just had a regular tour,” Hanson said. “That just kind of shows them that our administration really cares. If we have something to say, we can do it.”
Hanson said she was impressed with how personal the experience was for each of the students and that it was the best tour she has given in her three years of being a tour guide.
“They always say kids are the future,” she said. “It’s like, this is the future, you know?”
Kat Barrett can be reached at barr1289@stthomas.edu.