The Director, Cheryl Jenkins, and Assistant Directors, Dena Price and Nikki Bissell, use the information from the multiple assessment methods to provide assistance to student organizations as well as to make program changes. The feedback from students, advisers, and program participants is very important to the department to determine how well they are meeting their overall goals, and to make any necessary improvements to their programs. As a result of the many assessment activities conducted by this office, a philosophy change occurred a few years ago that broadened the population of students whom they target for leadership programs. For example, the Emerging Leaders Seminar was restricted only to freshmen and sophomores for many years and now the series is open to any student at Meredith. In addition to this change for this series, the office has opened up all of their leadership programs to all students.
Students can be a part of any of their leadership programs at any point in their college careers.
They also developed the Sophie Lanneau Women's Leadership Development Program with this same philosophy, which allows flexibility for all students in deciding when and how they wish to accomplish many of the requirements of this program. The Office of Student Activities and Leadership Development believes that their philosophy change has benefited their office because they are able to serve a variety of students. The office has seen record numbers of participants in all of their leadership programs during the last few years and they believe that part of the increase in participation is due to the philosophy change. The office continues to assess its efforts in a variety of ways in order to meet the needs of Meredith's students. The department selects a Senior Council every year to allow students an opportunity to give feedback regarding their experience with the program, courses, faculty, advising, and other important issues.