Hello friends!
Finally, the promised update! I apologize for the delay and hope you will all take a moment to read this.
I was able to hold a meeting with Jenny Hall, Vice President of Student Affairs, Kyle Boone, Director of Housing and Residence, and associate director Melanie Grover.
While my ultimate hope was for a public meeting with more students involved, this initial step forward was a productive one.
We were able to discuss frustrations, possible solutions, and better communication in the future.
we discussed the issues with off campus housing and how it’s not easy to simply choose to live off campus and go without strings attached. For my part, I believe I brought more awareness to the issues and a grounded student perspective. For their part, they listened well, exchanged some info relating to the numbers, expected drop rates, and asked many helpful questions. They did admit that in trying so aggressively to get more students on campus the last few years after a lull, it worked better than they had prepared for and they overshot. This is not exactly what we would want to hear, but I respect the honesty and awareness.
in the future, based on their notes from the meeting, we should expect better, clearer communication, more thorough discussion of off campus resources and approaches for less stress, and a quicker application close so fewer students feel anxious about whether or not to drop their applications.
They will follow up with me and I with them, and it’s still a possibility to have a public meeting. For now, I would encourage you to thoughtfully and respectfully voice your concerns both in the comments section here and in well-constructed emails to the staff mentioned above. I do stress respect and thoughtfulness, as I would not appreciate being undermined by hateful and unproductive speech.
Your voices in the conversation are needed and appreciated!
Keep an eye out for positive changes.
Happy Christmas and enjoy a well earned break!