The “stakeholder engagement forum" will run throughout most of the day Thursday, and will address a number of issues that “span the student experience”, according to a university press release.

Unlike regular board meetings, which are open to the public and live-streamed online, Thursday's forum is invitation only, said university spokesperson Amber McCann.

“Participants were either invited, they directly reached out to the board saying they would like to participate or they are participating by virtue of a position they hold on campus,” she said.

The forum is not open to the public to observe, though university leadership will take questions from the media regarding the forum after it has concluded, McCann said.

The forum was conceived to "create an opportunity for new methods of stakeholder engagement" and invite "broader and richer conversation and engagement with the MSU community," according to the resolution passed last year. The intention was not to reduce engagement, the resolution said.

David Hogan, member of the Hurriya Coalition, said his organization is not surprised by the decision to make this forum closed to the public. The coalition is a collective of advocacy organizations who are regular public commenters at board meetings and have disrupted a number of recent meetings with protests over university investments they say are tied to weapons manufacturers and the state of Israel.

"By having this behind closed doors meeting, they're offloading the responsibility onto the select group of invited people who I assume they get to choose, which is still not representative of the community," Hogan said, adding that Hurriya was not contacted to participate in the forum.

McCann said the forum will center on the undergraduate student experience, research, infrastructure and planning. She said it serves as a way to expand beyond the traditional format of public comment present at board meetings.

“This forum is an opportunity for a dialog and a discussion,” McCann said.