Dean of the College reports to VSA Council

Hayley Tsukayama News Editor

On April 30, Dean of the College Judy Jackson, Associate Dean of the College for Campus Life Edward Pittman, and Associate Dean of the College for Campus Activities Raymon P. Parker met with the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council about ongoing planning. “That’s the first time it had ever happened,” said Parker in a later interview. Working with President Catharine Bond Hill’s strategic plan for the College, the Office of the Dean of the College proposed the meeting as a way to further include students in that dialogue.

“The main questions we are asking are: What are we doing, how well are we doing it, how do we know that, and what can we do to better do what we do?” said Jackson in an interview the next day. Each month, one of the division’s 24 departments has met with Jackson and the other deans to voice their challenges and concerns.

Pittman, whose office supervises the African American/Black, Latino, Asian/Asian American, and Native American (ALANA) Center, Blegen House, and the Women’s Center, among others, said that one of his top priorities is to have better inclusion on campus. The Campus Life office is also further developing the First Year Program, an extension of freshman orientation. In an e-mailed statement, Pittman said, “While attendance has not been optimal for the year-long program, we’ve seen moments where the program meets our goals.” To encourage involvement, the First Year Program planning committee will schedule events at strategic points in the semester.

Parker pointed to “space and personnel” as the most important areas of the strategic plan. Locations like Baldwin Hall which currently houses such disparate departments as Health Services and Human Resources, need to be reevaluated with a “more service-specific” mindset, said Parker, to create a better atmosphere for everyone.

Director of Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL) Sam Speers, whose department falls under the supervision of Campus Activities, said that space issues are particularly important to RSL, who have worked to provide “contemplative practices” space in the Chapel basement. RSL recently received a grant from the Teagle Foundation along with Macalester College, Williams College, and Bucknell University to examine the relationship between secularity and the liberal arts. “We celebrate and affirm that this is a secular campus,” said Speers, “and the point of a learning community and a democratic community is knowing [that people] can share what they believe, knowing that it is contestable.” RSL plans to expand the role of the Interreligious Council, created last year to give leaders from each community a place to talk about issues and situations they see on campus.

Though budgeting woes and personnel issues are, in some ways, holding the College back, “we have asked each of our departments,” said Jackson, “If you could have the ideal, what would that look like, how far are we from that ideal, and how close can we get?” She emphasized that strategic planning is an ongoing process, but hopes that with administrative effort and student input, the College can “strive to set the bar higher.”