The Student Government Association (SGA) held a meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 4 for students to discuss the agenda for the Student Development Meeting with the Board of Trustees, which will take place on Oct. 19. The Student Development meeting is an opportunity for students to express concerns and ideas for the advancement of the College to its 43-member board of trustees.
SGA President Spencer Gilbert ’17 emphasized the importance of this collaboration, saying, “there’s a huge benefit in having a consistent mechanism in which our concerns are brought into a larger conversation of where the school is going.” Representatives from at least eight student groups met to ensure their objectives would be prioritized during the meeting on Oct. 19.
Maansi Kumar ’17, representing the International Student Association, spoke to the unique challenges that face international students during both the move-in and move-out periods of the school year. Despite the additional obstacles of organizing international travel, international students are expected to follow the same rigid calendar and policies as domestic students, which leave little time for move-in and move-out. Kumar hopes that policies can be adjusted to provide more flexibility for these students.
K(no)w representative Vy Vu ’18 spoke about the need for the College to implement an online sexual violence “warning system,” designed to provide timely information to students about reports of sexual assault on campus. Vu said that this type of procedure would help students be more aware of sexual assaults on and off campus while protecting the anonymity of those who report. While she acknowledged that the school has been making a lot of changes to their sexual assault response procedures, Vu asserted the importance of focusing on preventative measures.
Chadwick Smith ’17, president of the Black Student Association (BSA), spoke about the extent to which BSA demands for increased numbers of black faculty and staff have gone largely unmet. The demand for increased diversity of faculty and staff was first presented in the 1964 Black Student Manifesto. BSA has continued to advocate for more diverse hiring practices. Smith claims that Wooster has similar numbers of black faculty and staff today as it did during the 1960s.
Arielle Welch ’18 and Justine Walker ’18 attended the forum unaffiliated with a student group to express concerns about the lack of counseling services readily available to the student body. The counseling office, as of this year, has decreased their staff to only two full-time counselors, down from three last school year. Welch and Walker pointed out that this decrease has resulted in a ratio of only one counselor for every 1,000 Wooster students. Walker expressed concerns that the rigorous screening processes for emergency services might prevent students from receiving counseling in crisis situations. While all Wooster students are allowed five free counseling sessions as a part of tuition, Welch and Walker claimed that most students cannot actually receive five sessions due to an ever-growing wait list, which prevents prompt service distribution.
Dylan Hamilton ’17, representing the Living Wage Campaign, said he hopes to continue to put pressure on the College to provide a living wage to all employees. While the college increased the minimum wage for hourly staff from $9.50 to $11.00 an hour this semester, Hamilton maintains this is only the first step. The Living Wage Campaign is currently working to provide a more nuanced and calculated estimation of wages specific to the cost of living in Wayne County. Hamilton said these numbers will be made available for Trustees by the October 19 meeting and estimates that the number will be slightly less than the originally advocated $15 an hour.
Representatives of the Community Connections Program, a division of the Wooster Volunteer Network, highlighted the advancements their group has made over the last year in integrating volunteer experiences into First Year Seminars. Despite their progress, the group hopes to see a continued expansion of volunteerism among the Wooster student body. They expressed the need for a staff person on campus designated to coordinate volunteer networks in the community.
Cassie Huye ’17, representing the Inter Greek Council, expressed continued concerns about the communications between Greek leadership and the administration. Greek groups, Huye claims, are the only student groups who receive sanctions prior to the completion of an investigation. Huye hopes that the College will designate a single administrator to handle Greek Life relations.
Wooster Activities Committee (WAC) representative Sophie Nathanson ’17 said that, while WAC has struggled to find stability in leadership, funding and advising over the last few years, the group is progressing in the right direction. WAC has had four advisors in as many years, creating instability to which Nathanson attributed many of the group’s difficulties. She hopes that the Trustees can help support their demand for a consistent, longer-term advisor.
Lastly, both Gilbert and Smith expressed concerns about the College’s new plans to provide a premium first year housing option. The plans, which have been largely unadvertised, propose installing air conditioning in first-year centers Babcock Hall and Bornhuetter Hall and then charging higher room and board fees to students who elect to live in these dorms. Gilbert and Smith attest to the problematic nature of this plan, as it would divide first-year students on the basis of socioeconomic status. They claimed that the problem of differentiated housing prices has already resulted in socioeconomic divisions of upperclassmen. Spencer and Gilbert hope to highlight the importance of maintaining equal opportunity housing, particularly in first-year dormitories.
The official agenda for the Student Development Meeting on October 19 will be distributed to student leaders indicating their designated time to advocate for their expressed concerns. In discussing the challenges of advocating for campus progress through the Board of Trustees, Gilbert said, “Several of us have been doing this for three years now, and there are still issues we have not made enough progress on. But as students, part of our job is to constantly challenge Wooster to be better in all areas where we see deficiencies, and I think that both the trustees and the administration have been pretty good at recognizing and respecting that.”