With hopes of strengthening campus leadership and community, student group leaders will attend a weekend retreat at Lake Forest College on May 18 and 19.

The retreat, which requires mandatory attendance from all student groups recognized by Associated Student Government, replaces an annual three-hour leadership advisory board session previously held by ASG.

“I just lectured to them for two hours,” said Srikanth Reddy, a McCormick junior and ASG’s outgoing executive vice president, of the annual session. “It was boring and ineffective.”

The Undergraduate Budget Priorities Committee approached administrators with the idea for a retreat in their Winter Quarter funding proposal. The five students on the committee said they came up with the plan to help make the learning process for running a student group more interactive with a variety of workshops.

Coordinators hope that bringing leaders together will help form bonds between different groups, they said.

“Our hope is that if they know each other better, they will be more willing to work together,” said Kate Duffy, ASG public relations chairwoman and a Speech junior.

Bill Johnston, Norris University Center director, said that though planning for the retreat’s activities has just begun, administrators want to focus on teaching future leaders how to handle their positions.

“We entrust a lot of money and leadership to people who aren’t necessarily prepared to be effective leaders,” Johnston said. “This will combine the how-to’s with the personal skills needed to be an effective leader.”

Workshops at the retreat will have step-by-step plans for training, Reddy said.

“The (goal) is to help broaden the community on this campus by viewing the issues from a problem-solutions perspective,” he said.

After assessing the problems that detract from campus community, leaders will discuss why those problems exist and what they can do to remedy them, he said. The larger goal of the retreat is to educate the leaders on ASG and university policies affecting student groups.

“It ensures that they know all the rules and regulations and that they can bring them back to their organizations,” Reddy said.