For the second step in officially naming three of Xavier’s campus locations, seven selected Xavier students sat down with Dave Johnson, the Executive Director for the Dorothy Day Center for Faith & Justice (CFJ), on Monday
in order to select which submitted names will be available for online voting. From Wednesday to Friday of this week, students, faculty and staff will be able to go online to voice which option they believe to be best for officially labeling the historically coined “greenspace”, along with the new residential complex and the mezzanine above
the new Hoff Dining Commons. The campaign to name the campus locations was given to Johnson and Executive President senior Ryan Alleman, who was present at the selection meeting over the Labor Day holiday.
Johnson and Alleman, through online submission and physical forms, received more than one hundred recommendations for the areas subject to naming. “People took the invitation seriously,” Johnson said. “So that was great to have all of that creative energy on campus.” Because Johnson and Alleman believe this process should be one in which students feel ownership, they invited a diverse group of students who met in order to filter the submissions down to a more manageable list of finalists. Johnson was the only staff member present at the preliminary selection process. “The votes will help us to identify the most popular options and inform Fr. Graham’s decision about what the names should be for those key elements to our growing campus,” Johnson said.
In the online voting process, there are five options for the mezzanine, six options for the greenspace and seven options for the new residential complex. Results will be given to Fr. Michael Graham, S.J. on Friday, from which he will select the final names. The selections will be announced on Founders’ Day, Sept. 22. “It’s [the students’] ideas and their creativity that will help to give shape to the history, ultimately, of our campus,” Johnson said.