Exeter Looks to the Future
To meet the social and technological challenges of the 21st century and to distinguish Exeter from other academic institutions, Principal Thomas Hassan spent the 2013-14 school year discussing the Academy’s future strategic plans.
As part of strategic planning, the Academy embarked on addressing five key equity and diversity issues on campus: leadership training and professional development, employee connections, policy and practice, staff and student relations and power imbalances at the Academy. The Equity and Diversity Committee narrowed their agenda to these five topics after two years of extensive surveys and discussions, and Hassan expects to implement changes in the future to further improve community life at Exeter.
At the dawn of strategic planning, Hassan hosted two faculty and staff meetings; one in early February to summarize Exeter’s intended action steps and another later that month for faculty and staff to respond to the proposed initiatives. “The meetings were largely devoted to my bringing faculty and staff up-to-speed on why we need to plan and offer some initial thoughts as we are about to begin planning with them this spring,” Hassan said.
This will mark the first time the Academy has undergone the strategic planning process in 15 years. Hassan noted the importance of the equity and diversity work at the Academy. “Academic excellence does not happen without diversity of thought and perspectives,” Hassan said to faculty in a 2012 message.
Although the talks surrounding this strategic groundwork had begun long before February, the two consecutive meetings served to solidify Hassan’s goals and discuss ways in which they could be achieved. “He was making sure that it was clear to the faculty that the way in which the goals expressed in the broader framework [as established by Hassan and the principal staff] would get achieved would be figured out and articulated by faculty,” science instructor Brad Robinson said.
As a result, most faculty gladly participated in the process to improve Exeter, both academically and community-wise. “[The initiative] is largely the responsibility of the principal and Board of Trustees, but requires support and often discussion on the part of faculty and staff to implement,” Curwen said. “Principal Hassan wanted all employees to be on equal footing and to have equal access to this information simultaneously, so we can build a sense of community and shared purpose for the future of the school.”
The administration has already begun solving some of the issues brought up throughout the strategic plannings, one of which was faculty and staff relationships. Dean of Multicultural Affairs Russell Weatherspoon, who is also one of the members of the advisory committee, observed that bridging the distance between staff and faculty has been a very important topic for the committee to address. “We’ve been working on changing the way that we message the adults. In the past, messages went out grouped, even if the same message needed to be sent out to both faculty and staff,” Weatherspoon said. “Now we’re trying to, as much as possible, just simply message them to all employees when those messages are identical.”
A joint beach clean-up trip drew positive reviews from faculty and staff alike. In addition, the administration, with the agreement of faculty, is looking to “establish a policy for staff participation with student clubs and service opportunities during and outside of work hours; develop a clearly articulated, professional-development program for current, new and aspiring supervisors; continue joint faculty and staff service and social opportunities and create a process for staff to participate in paid dorm duty, coaching and advising,” Hassan said in his email to faculty.
Some criticized what they perceived to be a shortage of faculty and staff input in the strategic planning discussions.“The information presented is overly simple and yet, the fact that the process has been going on so long and with so little faculty and staff input makes me feel that this is one more demonstration of how little input the workers have into their own destinies here,” a faculty member, who chose to be anonymous, said. “The expressed desire seems to be for transparency, but the actual decision-making shows that it is false.”
Others expressed their doubts towards including staff in faculty related roles, one of the most significant results from the strategic talks.
“Having more interested adults in the lives of Exeter students is good for everyone, but there is already a shortage of dorm apartments for faculty and our faculty is not shrinking. And, though many college counselors already are terrific advisors, advising often needs to happen during hours that fall outside the normal 9-to-5 range and requires a great deal of familiarity with graduation requirements and the course catalog,” science instructor Townley Chisholm said.
Health instructor Michelle Soucy saw the initiative as a necessary step forward for the community.“Through these discussions, we will become a more inclusive community,” Soucy said. “With sufficient training, staff members will totally be qualified to become advisers, dorm faculty and coaches. The inclusion will also bring in more voices in support of students, which will be an overall benefit for the Academy.”