By Roxanne Fleischer
The administration at McDaniel College has created a Commis?sion on Campus Life to assess the strengths and weaknesses in three areas: campus activities and greek life, diversity and athletics.
“We wanted to look at the three areas of campus that impact so many of our students,” said Dean Beth Gerl, who is one chair?person of the commission. “It’s all positive?we are looking at our?selves and asking what we can do better.”
“It’s a sign of a good admin?istration when they are listening and open to change,” said Coach Rebecca Martin of the women’s basketball team and a leader of the Campus Activities and Greek Life committee.
And a good administration also knows how to investigate on how to improve their five-year strategic plan. The current five-year plan will end in 2008, and the new one will run its course from 2009 to 2014.
Three committees are responsible for investigating what is going well and what is not. Surveys and polls are being taken, and other schools similar to McDaniel are also being interviewed. All of the data will be considered for the new strategic plan.
“We have looked at benchmarking other schools like us to compare where we are and should be,” said Dr. Amy McNichols, a leader for the Diversity Committee.
Each committee focuses on its own area as it does research. The Athletics Committee looks for how students react to the McDaniel Athletics Department and also how McDaniel’s athletics compares to other small liberal arts colleges like it.
The Diversity Committee does the same thing, focusing on the underrepresented groups on campus. McNichols was appointed to leader of this committee because she has expressed interest through her involvement in the Hispano-Latino Alliance. She also attended NCORE, the National Conference of Race and Ethnicity, which “really made [her] much more aware of the breadth and depth of issues and problems that people face, and the different ways people deal with [their problems].”
The Diversity Committee is not only looking into race issues on campus, but also ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and abilities. The committee plans on hosting meetings to invite students of all different groups to share their experiences at McDaniel to enhance the research.
Those meetings, which are open to all students, are scheduled for Wednesday, March 5, at 12:30 p.m. and Wednesday, March 26 at 5 p.m. The place is to be determined, but at each meeting there will be a drawing for two $25 gift cards. For more information, please contact the Residence Life Office.
“Our charge is to get a report on the climate as it is…it is not our charge to tell the Board of Trustees or the administration what to do,” said McNichols.
The Campus Activities and Greek Life Committee was put into place to assess the non-academic experience on campus and other campuses similar to McDaniel. They will be polling the student body and asking what students like to do and why and what changes can be made. The past and present presidents of the Panhellenic council will also be interviewed to gain perspective on Greek life.
“We want to get students more involved?we want to know if we are meeting students’ needs and expectations,” said Martin.
After all three committees create a report of their findings, they will present to Dean Beth Gerl and Phil Enstice, the chairman of the Commission on Campus Life. The information will then be reported to the Board of Trustees and to President Joan Develin Coley.