The Office of Student Involvement and Leadership (OSIL), which functions under the Division of Student Affairs to provide out-of-classroom experiences for students, will now be operating under its new name, the Office of Student Engagement (OSE).
“Our hope and drive as an office is to make sure each and every student finds some way to connect and engage with their fellow Rockets during their time at UT,” said Alex Zernechel, director of student engagement and campus events.
Zernechel said the office began discussing the name change in fall of 2023 after considering the multiple services the office is responsible for.
“With all of the different individual functional areas our office is responsible for, we didn’t feel like our name fully encompassed everything,” he said.
OSE provides services for student organizations, fraternities and sororities, involvement initiatives, leadership development, service learning, event planning, and the online Involvement Network (Invonet).
The office took a collective approach in discussing the future of the office’s name and finalized their decision in May. The summer months were dedicated to changing marketing material and office signs around campus before students returned for fall semester.
Zernechel said starting this fall, OSE will be taking a closer look at their mission statement to ensure it aligns with the goals laid out in the University of Toledo’s new strategic plan that was announced in spring 2023.
Vice Provost of Student Affairs Sammy Spann said while students won’t be able to physically see the changes being made in the office, they will feel it in the shift of atmosphere following the name change.
“This name change wasn’t made just to change the name on a door or a sign but it’s more of a changing of a culture, a culture shift,” Spann said. “This is a culture shift that students are going to be involved in, every step of the way.”
Spann said this culture shift is one that will support diversity and inclusiveness while encouraging students to become more involved on campus.
“To all students, please come and let your voice be heard,” he said. “We want to hear the voices of students, and we want to make sure that not only do we hear it, but we find the things that we can tweak to better serve students and make that culture shift.”
The Office of Student Engagement is located at SU 1532 and can be contacted by calling 419-530-4944 or emailing getinvolved@utoledo.edu
