Washington University announced the creation of a faculty group to generate conversation on the Better Together campaign last week.

The Better Together campaign aims to merge St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis. Chancellor Wrighton is the campaign chairman, but the University has not taken an official stance on the plan.

Chancellor-elect Andrew Martin appointed Provost Holden Thorp to oversee the faculty group.

“I think [Martin] wanted to think very carefully about the University’s reaction and response to Better Together and recognized that we have a lot of expertise internally from faculty members who would be well-versed in different aspects of the proposal,” Thorp said. “And he thought the University should do what we do well, which is get together and consider the various pieces of this so we can make a recommendation to him.”

The faculty members of the group include: education professor Andrew Butler, vice provost and law professor Adrienne Davis, law professor Karen Tokarz, economics professor Steven Fazzari and public health professors Timothy McBride and Jason Purnell .

“We have experts on education, local government, the court system, racial justice, so we picked people who knew a lot about what we wanted to consider… I think we have people who have deep expertise in a lot of issues that were raised by the proposal,” Thorp said.

Thorp said the group would have their findings and recommendations by fall at the earliest.

“We’re probably going to be working pretty much amongst ourselves for the first few months, and that will stretch into the summer,” Thorp said. “And then as we decide how we’re going to end up making our report available, we’ll probably be thinking about whether we’re going to have some public events after school starts in the fall.”

Outside of the faculty group, Washington University students are also engaging with the Better Together campaign. Freshman Helen Webley-Brown is one of a few students working to bring the campaign to campus.

“We’re trying to grow a sizeable but committed group of people on campus that are interested in just spreading awareness within the student body for twenty months. I want to get as many on board with it as possible; I really believe in [Better Together],” Webley-Brown said. “…What I want to do is just to educate people as much as possible on what Better Together can do just because I think it’s a lot of positive change.”

Brown School of Social Work graduate student Jack Seigel works as an organizer for the Better Together campaign. In addition to organizing across St. Louis, Seigel also educates Washington University students on ways to get involved with the campaign.

“This is a very important political conversation for the future of St. Louis region, so I’m encouraged that students want to get involved, because it’s not as splashy as a presidential campaign, but I think it’s going to have a much bigger impact on the St. Louis region in the future than even who we elect president,” Seigel said. “There’s a lot of things for politically motivated students to get involved in, but I think this one really ties in locally to what’s happening in St. Louis in a way that makes me think students should get involved in it, and I think that’s why students do want to get involved in it.”

Seigel said that he believes it is important for faculty and students to be informed and engaged with the campaign, because the University is an influential institution in the St. Louis community.

“I think it’s important that Wash. U. is part of the conversation,” Seigel said. “They and we are excited to see what the faculty involvement looks like and the way that students can work with faculty…But I’m hopeful the faculty is involved, that they get the students involved and that we have a really healthy and productive discussion.”