On Thursday, Innovation Café on Centennial Campus will have a very important visitor – Chancellor Randy Woodson.

Chancellor Woodson is starting a new program, called ‘Chat with the Chancellor,’ that he hopes will better connect him to the student body.

“The Chat with the Chancellor is based on the idea of having an informal conversation with students,” Woodson said.

Connecting with students is one of the most important duties of a university chancellor, according to Woodson.

“I’m essentially the CEO of a large corporation, so I have responsibility for everything here,” Woodson said. “Students, from a corporation standpoint, are our most important customer. Everything we do is for students, to build up the educational environment that they aspire to be a part of,” Woodson said. “Like any CEO, you want to have opportunities to interact with your body.”

Chandler Thompson, the student body president and a senior in economics, said she thinks the Chancellor is implementing these programs in order to connect more with the large student body.

“[Dr. Woodson] expressed to me a hope that office hours around campus would give more students the opportunity to meet him,” Thompson said.

Thompson said that while these programs are a great start, she hopes the Chancellor will continue to reach out to the student body in new ways.

“I’m hoping the next places he will do open office hours to get student feedback will be at Hill of Beans or [while] riding the Wolfline for an hour. There is always room for improvement,” Thompson said. “I’m still trying to convince [Dr. Woodson] that a Twitter account is a good University.”

Woodson said he hopes to hear both positive and negative things from students.

“I want to hear what students are happy with, what they love, and things that they feel could be made better,” Woodson said.

Thompson said she is hopeful that students will gain a lot from the events.

“I hope that opportunities like these will help students understand that their voice does matter,” Thompson said.