StuCo Mandates Dorm Strategic Planning Discussions

After dorm-wide meetings across campus Sunday night, representatives from Student Council (StuCo) met with members of PEA’s Strategic Planning Committee Tuesday to share student ideas for how Exeter could be improved.

Topping the list of student suggestions include expanding mental health services, more arts availability and performing arts resources and opening Weatherell Dining Hall on the weekend.

StuCo President Benjamin Cohen commented on the overarching goals of the meeting.

“We’re just figuring out which ideas make the most sense for us. Of course there are going to be some ideas that don’t make as much sense as others, but that’s the principle behind having a discussion.”

“In this type of process, there are no bad ideas,” Cohen said. “We’re just figuring out which ideas make the most sense for us. Of course there are going to be some ideas that don’t make as much sense as others, but that’s the principle behind having a discussion.”

Co-chairs of the Strategic Planning Committee, English instructor Christina Breen and religion instructor Kathleen Brownback, opened the conversation by asking students to discuss what their dorms had covered during their Sunday night meetings; of 29 dorms and houses, 16 had held meetings.

Breen noted that some of the concerns and suggestions offered by the students were similar to what they’d been hearing during the strategic planning sessions the faculty has been holding throughout the year.

“It was interesting to hear the many ways in which the students’ views and concerns are in sync with the input that we’ve gotten from the faculty,” Breen said. “We’re all coming to the same place, even if the solutions and the ways things will look may not all be exactly the same.”

Other points from the meetings included making Discipline Committee and medical leave cases more transparent, revisiting the visitations policy, expanding the health center to include more staff and increasing free time for students to research or be creative on their own.

Regarding mental health support concerns, upper Lucy Weiler talked about the lack of support for seniors returning from fall and winter terms abroad.

Lower Niels Schrage and others discussed the amount of stress build-up at the Academy. They talked about how a multitude of stress could potentially make students feel like their education is not worth the stress.

StuCo secretary and upper Kevin Zhen said that, out of 16 dorms who sent him their notes, half of them said the mental health services at the school were inadequate.

“Personally, what worries me is the fact that so many students believed that the mental health services do not fulfill their needs,” Zhen said. “A problem like this is difficult for Student Council to solve, which is why I believe that it is so important we have these discussions: so that the strategic planning committee can understand our concerns and hopefully develop a solution in the near future.”

Brownback held similar sentiments.

“Things like the health center are important questions, but I really don’t think that the health center alone can be the solution to student stress on campus,” Brownback said. “There are three counselors, and they do well in a lot of cases but they’re not generating a lot of the issues.”

Other complaints surfaced about the lack of arts availability. Many students, including senior Clara Hobbie, pushed for options like “ESSO Sports” and “Art Sports,” similar to the existing “Music Sports” and “Drama Sports.”

Upper Eliran Oz complained that music, theater and the arts were often “shafted” by a lack of funding. He pointed out that while the gym’s renovations are quickly processed and started, Fisher Theater’s are continuously pushed back.

Representatives from Main Street Hall and Ewald Hall called for Wetherall Dining Hall to be open on weekends, sentiments shared by other north-side dorms.

Others said the dining halls’ early closing times made students either spend extra money on take-out food or go to sleep hungry.

Overall Brownback thought the meeting went well.

“In many cases, they came prepared, and they came in with a lot of good ideas,” Brownback said. “They spoke up, they spoke clearly, they spoke often…They had more than just their own perspectives, they had taken the time to really pull ideas from their groups and their dorms or their day students groups and had a sense of what was really going on, and that was really valuable.”

Lower Alejandro Arango described the meeting as “overwhelmingly positive.” He said that the amount of ideas thrown out was ”really surprising” and called the meeting “incredibly productive.”

Upper Rebecca Ju urged Exonians to consider faculty and staff when making decisions about schedules.

“I think as students, Exeter life is so hard that at times we forget about the faculty and staff that make our life possible,” Ju said. “The comments about [extended hours for Friday night check-in, dining hall, library] were understandable, but I think more consideration could have been given to people who would have to work extra.”

When asked about what could’ve gone better about the meeting, Cohen had no specifics. “I could have had a better breakfast this morning and that would’ve [been better],” Cohen said. “I think it was a great discussion.”

Cohen continued, noting the importance of the informal discussion.

“Just think about any Harkness classroom. You don’t go through a 50 minute period with all perfectly formed and thought out ideas,” he said. “The idea of a discussion is to draw out the important ideas. We’re really beginning to draw out which ideas are important. Along the way, there are going to be some bad ideas and some good ideas, and they’re going to be mixed together and we’re going to have to figure out: Which ideas do we think are good? Which ones do we think are bad?”

Last week’s StuCo meeting, on Mar. 24, mostly consisted of Dean of Academic Affairs Karen Geary’s proposal for greater academic support.

Her proposal, emailed to StuCo members a day before, recommended creating a “Learning Commons” in the library, a new “Learning Specialist,” and additional resources for “identified students.”

The proposal’s specifics are yet to be arranged, but the overarching goal is detailed at the top of the proposal: “As per our charge, this proposal addresses support structures intended for our current population of students. We endorse the notion that our students benefit from one--on--one work directly with their teachers; however, we recognize the need for a greater variety of supplementary resources.”