Administration Seeks Role for Student Voices

By: Gregory Wallace

Posted: 12/11/09

As the college invests in efforts to reevaluate the college's curriculum, strategic direction, and fiscal priorities, so it has searched for ways to hear and incorporate student voices. Students have a formal voice through the Student Government Association, S.G.A., but students also serve on a number of college committees and task forces.

"I've certainly made it no hidden part of my voice to have student voice," the dean of students, Alicia Finn, Ph.D., said. Other college administrators frequently approach her office, seeking student names for college committees.

Students serving on college committees must balance course work, other extra-curricular commitments, and committee meetings. College administrators are mindful of balancing student voices with those students' academic success.

After all, Finn said, students' "primary task is students."

The consequence, she said, is pursuing "multiple ways to bring student voice."

The curriculum review steering committee has invited a number of students to participate in study circles. "Students are those who have received education from the curriculum," Finn said.

The strategic planning steering committee, formed this fall, has one student member, and solicits student opinions through a series of focus groups. The executive vice president, Suzanne K. Mellon, Ph.D., R.N., says that student voice is important to the process.

"We ask people who are on the ground level to come up with questioning the processes of strategic planning," Mellon said. "Student voice is important to us."

Students have not been directly involved in the outsourcing committees, Finn said, out of concern for taking student time and energy away from the classroom. She is chair of the Dining Services Outsourcing Committee, which has spent several days off campus visiting other colleges, as well as hours hosting visiting vendors.

While student voice is included on many college committees, Finn encourages students to take advantage of other formal structures for student-administration interaction. She acknowledges that committee work and volunteer opportunities are part of students' educational experiences, but reinforces that classroom time is essential.

"How do we do that [include student voices in decision-making] while also allowing you to be learners?" Finn said.