Ursuline college has for years been heavily rooted in values that have benefited the community with student focus being one of these, however due to the changes implemented by the merger between Ursuline and Gannon University, Us students and faculty have been heavily impacted, making most question if Ursuline will continue to uphold these values, and continue to give support to the community, along with this some wonder if continued enrollment would be an option of best interest, as the changes enacted would shift the universitys offerings in a way that would not be beneficial. Our university would be nothing without the student body and faculty that have built it, and because of this, should be centered around amplifying these voices. Although these changes mentioned may seem minor to those unaffected, they directly impact our student body in multiple ways.

This petition will focus on what changed or altered guidelines have adversely affected our community, what changed we will demand (as being a small college, students are directly able to shape the success of the university, and should be able to make requests of the board. If you aren’t making changes to help your students, then it is no longer a campus, it is a business), and lastly recommendations and considerations for future changes. 

Adverse Changes:

• One change that although minor that affects us as a student body is the removal of Ursuline's name from our diploma, as many of us have spent years at this campus and have created a strong identity with Ursuline. As a student body, we are unable to have a voice in the purchase of ursuline by gannon disguised as a merger. Although we may be now attending a part of gannon university's many chain locations, we will forever hold an identity with ursuline and demand this identity to be respected and carried over to our diploma. 
• We demand that changes be transparent and timely notified to the student body: many of the changes enacted to ursuline have been done with little to no communication, showing that Gannon has little respect for Ursulines students, or their values. An instance that illustrates this is the compliance with the states anti-transgender policies. Many students were outraged by the change and lack of communication and compassion given. 
  
  
• One of the aspects of ursuline that has become a desirable feature is the low class size, allowing students education to be actively engaged, and make connections with the classwork that large classes are unable to give. One of the changes enacted towards the CAT (counseling and art therapy) graduate level, allows for gannon to refuse the allowance of classes to operate under smaller class sizes. Due to the layout of the graduate program, this has already adversely affected our student body by shifting projected graduation dates, making us have to attend the program longer, thus increasing the amount of money we have to spend on tuition in the long run- this in itself restricts students ability to learn, and additionally can impact our financial standings. With reduced credit hours it may also affect students supports such as financial aid. Thinking about our faculty, with reduced capacity to teach, ursuline may no longer be supportive as a work site, and without our staff our campus will slowly be innoperable. We demand to allow classes to be offered regardless of attendance size.

• Many of the changes made thus far have been made without the consideration of how it may affect our community additionally, these changes made are often done without clear notice. As a student body we demand to be able to create a space where ALL students can voice their opinions on changes, become well informed of these changes, and be an active part in these decision making. This can be done through creating a student board or have a student representative
  
• Although this petition may not incorporate all changes made, or all student concerns regarding Gannon, we hope that this petition will be used as a way to start the conversation of how to adapt the current changes made in order to be mindful of the voices, values, and vision that ursuline once had, and remain student focused. Without voicing out opinions now, we may find ourselves walking onto a completely different campus that no longer sees us as individual students and faculty, but as dollar signs. 

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