Principal MacFarlane Leads Assembly, Proposed Plan Receives Mixed Responses

On Tuesday, Oct. 20, Principal Lisa MacFarlane and Student Council (StuCo) collaborated to hold an informative assembly that explained the process of creating “a healthy campus climate,” according to MacFarlane.

Originally planned as a talk led only by MacFarlane, Tuesday’s assembly morphed into a informative discussion after MacFarlane attended both StuCo and SEXeter, the Feminist Club Forum.

“I was impressed with how thoughtful the conversations were and thought that student leaders should also have a voice in the assembly,” MacFarlane said.

Accordingly, MacFarlane contacted StuCo president Rebecca Ju and vice-president Jun Park to ask if they would join her on stage for the discussion. Both Ju and Park accepted the invitation.

“We decided we wanted the assembly to be more like a Harkness discussion—just listening and responding to each other—so we shared some ideas about what we wanted to convey beforehand, and then sat down to talk,” MacFarlane said.

During the talk, Ju, Park and MacFarlane addressed several topics, one of which was University of New Hampshire’s Prevention Innovations Research Center (PIRC). PIRC’s mission is “to improve institutional policy, practice and capacity for sexual and relationship violence and stalking prevention and response (prevention strategies, survivor support and services and intervention) through research and evaluation,” according to the center’s website.

MacFarlane explained that PIRC will be working with the Academy over the next 18 months to help students better understand the campus sexual climate, as well as develop Exeter-specific programs and interventions such as bystander training and interactive theater.

PIRC will be utilizing information from the Youth Health Risk Behavior Survey that the entire student body was required to take last year. Before PIRC arrives on campus, MacFarlane said that she “wanted students to know who they are and what they’ll be doing.”

Ju described the PIRC as a pivotal program that she believes will help Exeter “gauge its strengths and weaknesses” as a community.

“I think it’ll help bring some much needed perspective to Exeter and will be a good way to teach us how to change that culture,” she said.

Another topic covered during assembly was StuCo’s plans for the year, which include revamping and editing the visitations policy as well as creating an overall healthier lifestyle on campus. No changes are set in stone, according to Park, but the council wanted to inform the students about where StuCo is at this early stage of the year.

The assembly was met with confusion as to the specific facilitation of StuCo’s goal.

“I got the sense that StuCo is trying to bring some of the school’s policies regarding sexuality and health to light a little more, but how exactly they’re going about it is where I’m in the dark,” upper Grace Duisberg said.

Lower Anzi Debenedetto agreed with Duisberg, describing the assembly as “slightly boring.”

“I couldn’t understand their main points,” he said. “This could’ve been improved with more students on stage explaining what they are going to do about the whole situation.”

In fact, lower Teddy Scott thought that the confusing nature of the assembly contradicted its supposed goal, informing students. “I thought that [StuCo] was basically pandering to the administration and they were not making any meaningful changes,” Scott said. “Unless I didn’t hear something, not one concrete change was proposed.”

In addition to confusion, students noted the unengaging nature of the assembly as a factor of discontent. Senior Zanny Merullo said that the message felt “a little convoluted” and “buried in language that was not direct.”

“I wish someone would stand up, engage the audience, speak strongly and say exactly what the administration plans to do, exactly what the representatives of the students want, even if it’s controversial,” Merullo said.

While certain students were confused, others thought that the assembly was a positive start to the discussion of mental health at Exeter.

“I think the assembly went really well,” upper Lauren Fidelak said. “It was great to see StuCo and the school initiating the conversation about these topics.”

Furthermore, Dean of Health and Wellness Gordon Coole described the assembly as a time during which the administration and the student government could join forces and express one interest to improve the mental health at Exeter.

“I thought the assembly went very well,” Coole said. “It provided an opportunity for the Academy’s administrative leader and the student government leader to come together to express a common purpose. It was a powerful statement.”

Although the assembly did convey a central motive, Duisberg emphasized that it did not foster discussion, an asset she considers essential for mental health.

“I think more of an open forum style might’ve gotten the students more engaged and helped to start more discussions,” she said. “The lecture style was good for getting out information, but it wasn’t necessarily the information the student body found interesting or meaningful.”

Macfarlane, Park and Ju seemed to anticipate this sentiment; an open forum assembly, similar to those of last year, will be held on Nov. 3. There, students and faculty will have an opportunity to participate in discussion about mental health and what Exeter can do about it.

Coole reiterated Duisberg’s idea that only with discussion and participation from each individual on campus will this goal of improving the community’s mental health be successful.

“The approach we are applying on this sensitive and challenging topic is founded on our strength of dialogue,” he said. “We teach, we govern, we find solutions to our problems through respectful debate.”

Contributions from John Beckerle