StuCo and Deans Assess Intimidation

In light of recent conversations about some students feeling intimidated by administrators when they speak or express themselves publicly, a select group of Student Council (StuCo) members met with deans on Wednesday afternoon to discuss ways to reframe the conversations.Participants included StuCo President Benj Cohen, Vice President Robert Conner, Secretary Kevin Zhen, faculty advisor Carol Cahalane, seniors Emily Lemmerman and Sachin Holdheim, alongside Dean of Residential Life Arthur Cosgrove and Dean of Students Melissa Mischke.During the meeting, the group discussed specific cases of students who felt intimidated, most of which had been brought to StuCo’s attention. In addition to these stories, the students initiated dialogue with Mischke and Cosgrove regarding the problems and attempted to come up with possible solutions.According to Conner, the meeting ended in agreement between the deans and student leaders that perception, at the very least, is central in determining how any sensitive issue is handled and viewed in hindsight.Zhen said that miscommunication contributed significantly to the situations where students felt intimidated by the deans.“We understood that miscommunication was probably one of the chief causes of these intimidation problems, and we made some recommendations about what we could do to improve reducing these cases of miscommunication,” Zhen said. “Dean Cosgrove admitted that sometimes he can be a little bit blunt, and often this is misinterpreted as intimidating. And of course we, the students who were there, understood that the deans were trying to help us out and they are very busy. Honestly, we are trying to work with them in order to reduce the student sentiment of intimidation, and that’s our goal.”Conner added that differences in students’ and deans’ points of view caused the miscommunication.“Perception is an important factor to consider. Students and faculty may end up having a different perception towards the same one conversation, the same one meeting,” Conner said. “A request for fact-checking or a request for an apology may be perceived by the faculty member in a different way that a student may perceive it.”Cosgrove said that the meeting informed deans where the students were coming from, which would possibly help ameliorate relations between the student body and the administration in the future.

“I was happy to sit down with Student Council and listen to what they had to say. It was helpful,”

“I was happy to sit down with Student Council and listen to what they had to say. It was helpful,” he said. “The Student Council leaders helped Dean Mischke and me understand some of the student concerns that were expressed at recent StuCo meetings.”During the meeting, the group discussed specific ways in which the administration could provide a potential solution. Many of the ideas reviewed in the meeting had been previously discussed in StuCo meetings.One of the proposals involved a potential faculty figure in charge of mediating or consulting with students before they talk to the deans about an issue where they might feel intimidated.“We want to have a student advisor, who would be a faculty member on the student side, so that he or she could bridge the gap between students and faculty and make the power dynamic a little more equal,” Zhen said. “We would have someone whom the students would contact if they were in a case in which they felt intimidated.”Lemmerman outlined some of the other topics that were brought up during the meeting.“We also discussed different ways of framing a conversation that could lead to different responses. We basically discussed the full gamut, including The Exonian writers and students who made comments in assemblies,” she said.Cosgrove elaborated on a future StuCo-hosted dinner meeting in January where interested students will be welcome to speak with him, Mischke and Dean of Faculty Ron Kim.“[During the January meeting] Benj will present a plan for supporting student opinion so that we can eliminate the feeling of intimidation that some students have felt when asked to meet with different administrators on campus,” Cosgrove said.Conner hoped for a more thorough discussion during the January meeting and for the addition of more student voices.“Hopefully, by the time we have a dinner in January, the deans’ office will be more receptive to the feeling of the students in the cases in the past that we brought up but more importantly the feeling of sensitivities for students in the future who get called up to the deans office,” he said.