Why ‘Student First’ Is More Than a Slogan

What does it really mean to put students first? For University of the Virgin Islands President Safiya George, it means rethinking everything from financial aid processes to course scheduling, ensuring that institutional convenience never comes before student needs. She discusses making athletics about life wins as much as game wins, the importance of fostering thriving outside the classroom, and how UVI can use tools like AI and data to create a more responsive, empowering learning environment for today’s generation.

Yeah. So when I was a student [at] university, I thoroughly enjoyed my time. I and I studied on both campuses, so I also have that unique perspective. And knowing what it's like to study on the Saint Croix campus as well at the Saint Thomas campus, very distinct campuses. So making sure that, yes, what we prioritize, making sure we have great faculty in the classroom, who are doing things to engage students, and that every assignment, every lecture, every activity is done with students in mind.

So as we think of the things that students have to navigate to get their financial aid or get their books or, you know, pick up a refund check or everything should think about how many hoops and steps they have to jump to. And if they don't do what they're supposed to do, as young people sometimes do, to give them grace, but also to challenge them, making sure that, if we were in their shoes, that we would enjoy that experience.

The other thing I've had to emphasize, what's also very important is making sure that our students are thriving inside the classroom. I think we have that covered. But once they leave that classroom, when they're in their dorm for themselves, or whether they're walking across the street or whether they're at home with family, wherever they are, that they're also thriving, whether they're an athlete, right.

And a former athlete making sure that our student athletes are thriving and that they're students first and that we all remember that their student first, you will always ask about the wins and when it comes to athletics, yes, you want a team to win, but that's not a priority for my priorities that they're winning at life and winning as students.

And that they're having some wins along the way in the court. But, so just making sure that we, you know, think about them every step of the way, and that we help them remove barriers. Otherwise, you know, they don't yet have the resolve, as most adults, to continue pushing. And, you know, it's a high probability of giving up because it just seems too much.

We move to make sure that life is better. Processes are better for students, and making sure that schedules are not convenient to the institution, convenient to faculty, whether they're truly convenient to students. Right. And in some cases, that means, you know, weekend classes.

The end goal is we want students to graduate into the workforce, have successful careers. Some students prefer in person. Most students prefer a mix. Some students prefer all online. So you know, being flexible to what students need to help them be successful, is important.

For me, it's important to get faculty as well as staff to think about using the resources we have at our fingertips.

So utilizing AI in our day to day processes as well as in the classroom. We know students are using it. So rather than trying to think about ways to stop students or prevent cheating or thinking about the wrong things like, no, how can we use these tools to help advance supplement, really, you know, augment what students are doing?

Because that excites them. You might, you know, bring about feelings of fear for faculty, but for students, they're ahead of the curve. And, you know, a good symbiotic relationship between students and faculty. You know, students can help. That helps create a great flipped classroom environment, right? You provide the content. You're the content expert. Students are the technology experts.

So just embrace that and roll with it. So and then, you know, just really using data. So I want us to be institution that really uses data to inform our decisions. I'm a data scientist, a scientist in general. I love data, and using whatever kinds of data, sort of qualitative data, quantitative data, whether it's attendance data, whatever data, we have our fingertips.

Using that to help inform our decisions will help us make, you know, better decisions. So, a lot of pieces to it. But at the end of the day, finding out what matters most to students. And I know not everyone likes to hear sort of students or customers, but in some aspects they are they're more than customers, right?

They're students. They're users. They're. But we also have to look at them as agents of their own journeys, and we can't take that away from them.