University of St. Thomas President Rob Vischer discussed the importance of conversations across differences during an election year and how St. Thomas is working to make the cost of higher education more transparent at the Undergraduate Student Government meeting on Thursday, October 24.
“Reduce the Rancor” is a statewide campaign aimed at developing a deeper understanding of constructive disagreement.
While Vischer has not been able to attend all St. Thomas’ “Reduce the Rancor” events, he stressed the importance of them as they branch people out from their typical understandings of political issues.
“Relationships should not be contingent on political alignment, and when that happens we are all worse off for it,” Vischer said. “When we end up in a monoculture, everything gets worse.”
It is important to gain new angles on political topics to develop a diverse perspective, Vischer said.
“We’re much more powerfully situated to live our lives without having meaningful encounters without people who have a fundamentally different worldview than us,” Vischer said, highlighting the importance of the event.
Vischer also discussed the changes he has seen in his time at the University of St. Thomas.
“Over the last twenty years, we have really grown into becoming a comprehensive university,” Vischer said. “Our secret sauce, which is not so secret, is really this whole person education that is already important but will become even more important.”
The university now has a formation element that helps students build more than just technical skills that they can apply to a future career.
“We are trying to help students prepare for a lifetime of flourishing as a person,” Vischer said.
Vischer said he and his colleagues are also working to make higher education more financially accessible.
“At St. Thomas, what we are not trying to do is drop the sticker price but raise more for scholarships,” Vischer said. “We want to give students more and more scholarships.”
Bethel University, a fello private religious university in St. Paul, recently dropped its tuition cost. Vischer said he does not foresee St. Thomas following suit because “you don’t have any room to maneuver in providing financial aid” if you the initial tuition cost is dropped.
Additionally, Vischer said he wants to lessen students’ debt post-graduation.
“What I focus on is what is the debt that our graduates are carrying out in the world, and (regarding) debt, we are actually moving in the right direction,” Vischer said.
Special Elections
Intent to run packets and endorsements are due at 4 p.m. on Oct. 29. Schoolwide voting runs from 8 a.m. on, Nov. 4 to 8 p.m. on Nov. 5.
The newly elected members will be sworn in at noon at the Nov. 7 during the USG general council meeting.
The open positions on the general council are the sustainability committee chair and upperclassmen residential senator.
The next general USG meeting will be at noon on Thursday, Nov. 7 at the Anderson Student Center in the Iverson Hearth Room.
Cecilia Wallace can be reached at wall1238@stthomas.edu.