Tyler Goss (MA and MDiv ‘19) has been a warm and welcoming face around campus since the fall of 2015. Throughout his time at EMU thus far, he has been a graduate student, a residence director, and most recently the head of Campus Activities Council (CAC). As of the 2023-2024 school year, however, he has left that role and is now the Director for Student Engagement and Leadership Development. He is absolutely loving it so far.

“It’s an exciting new challenge to get to think through orientation, to think about the EMU Engage… and to get to work with student leaders who are doing such incredible things around campus,” Goss says. He enjoyed his previous role of getting the undergraduate community involved around campus, but he is thankful for the variety of responsibilities that come with his new position. However, he has not entirely left his old duties behind, as he is now focused on the ways that undergraduates, graduates, faculty, and staff all engage together. Orientation is just one example of this campus-wide engagement that Goss has on his very full plate. This year, he played an important role in ensuring that the weekend-long event ran smoothly and that all systems were a go when it came time for students to finally arrive on campus.

Engage, formerly known as Convocation, is another program that Goss oversees with his new position. During his time on the CAC, he was mainly involved in the final product, so to speak, of these events. Now he is more focused on all the planning and organizing that goes into the project as a whole. Goss mentions that he sees his work with Engage as “more so of a support, and less of an upfront leader in many ways… [because],” he adds, “SGA and Common Grounds, they know what they are doing… so it’s just supporting their vision and empowering their ideas.” Clubs and organizations are one aspect of Engage that Goss is particularly excited about for this academic year. He is thrilled with the energy surrounding them so far, especially all the positive feedback he received about Clubs and Orgs Week.

Feedback is something that Goss is really focusing on as he considers what to schedule for upcoming Engage events. He wants students to be able to show up at events wanting to be there and not just attending because they need points. In general, broadening the scope of the speakers and topics is one way to go about this, but he really wants to hear what students have to say about it as well. Goss has already sent a survey to students’ emails where they can share their thoughts, and he is looking forward to seeing what everyone has to say.

Goss was able to give a sneak peek into some upcoming plans that are heavily centered around students. An idea that he has been tossing around is the possibility of an Engage program called “Mentor-Mentea.” Undergraduate students would be able to choose a faculty member to sit down with and ask questions, all while getting an Engage point and a free Common Grounds drink. One event that Goss mentioned is coming up at the end of September is “EMU Grow and Tell,” a TEDx style show featuring nine student speakers, with each one having a couple minutes to share about a lesson they learned over the summer. Events like these are what Goss is really pushing for in his new role as Director of Student Engagement, because he believes that “the true success of… college comes from outside of the classroom.”