Over 300 students and administrators gathered Tuesday in the Chapel as a follow-up to the Dec. 8 forum in Crowell. The discussion centered around the document, “Response to Student Issues, which President Doug Bennet released last week in response to the first meeting.

The hour and a half long forum consisted almost entirely of questions and answers, with audience members waiting in line to use a microphone for one minute, after which a panel member would respond.

”It was good to have a format where the administrators were given a chance to answer more,“ said Alex Moore ’05. ”But it was hard for everybody to respond to the questions because they had to get in line. Administrators could pass their microphone to each other but students couldn’t, so it was harder for them to support each others’ points.“

Administrative accountability and transparency and the student role in decision-making came up repeatedly as general concerns among the audience. In addition to these general points, students brought up WESU, gender-neutral or transgendered housing, and the position of a multi-cultural dean, as well as to broader issues of diversity.

”There is a philosophical disjunct between what you say and what’s actually going on,“ said Mischa Benoit-Lavelle ’07. ”We need mandatory diversity training for all faculty.“

Joyce Jacobsen, Chair of the Economics Department responded that she found Benoit-Lavelle’s recommendation offensive.

”It’s fundamentally un-Wesleyan to say something’s mandatory,“ she said. ”Why require people to think about diversity in particular ways?“

According to President Bennet, overall the forum was very productive, due to a better-informed grounding of discussion.

”I hope a paper gives us a next step,“ Bennet said. ”It’s not the end of discussion, and it’s not a solution, but I think it gives us a sound factual basis for a next step.“

According to Director of University Communications Justin Harmon, the report was a result of group and individual efforts over winter break. Staff members first assembled student concerns into one list, both from the Dec. 8 forum and from individual points submitted by email. They then divvied up concerns according to who had administrative responsibility over what, and drafted responses individually.

”Then we went through all the drafts together and made sure we hadn’t left any issues out,“ Harmon said. ”There may be one or two items that are not answered in quite the terms that the thing was raised, but we tried to cover all the ways in which students participate in decision making, and then tried to address individual concerns.“

Professor of Philosophy Brian Fay moderated the event, and said in his opening statement that he had witnessed similar situations during his time at Wesleyan.

Irn Coury ’06 made the first statement when the microphones were opened to the audience. He asked Bennet to address the lack of student voting and veto power over all administrative decisions. Bennet replied that, based on the organization of the University, there needs to be a CEO figure, and that faculty also have only advisory roles in decision-making.

Another contentious issue, rearticulated by several audience members, was over the use of race in the classroom, and the legitimacy of using the experiences of non-white students to teach white students about diversity.

The forum was prepared for a much larger audience than it received, with live video and audio feeds connecting the Chapel to the ’92 Theater, set up for overflow attendance.

”We took this to mean that some students read the report and felt reassured about the level of student participation,“ Harmon said.

According to Harmon, the meeting was helpful for administrators because the range of issues that students raised had narrowed since December.

”I think it wasn’t the meeting itself per se, but this whole process is helping us work out what the key issues are,“ Harmon said.

”I thought it was productive because it showed how many of the decisions are up to the whim of Bennet and Patton’s personal policy,“ Bissel said.

The panel consisted of Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA), staff and faculty leadership, though the majority of the questions were directed to Bennet.

According to Bennet, he will soon announce the date of his next meeting with senior faculty, staff and WSA leadership, which will follow up on Tuesday’s panel.

According to Harmon, Bennet is also planning on meeting with leaders of student of color groups on campus, in order to discuss the perceived need for a multi-cultural dean, and in order to gain a better understanding of the problems currently confronting students of color at Wesleyan.

”There’s no reason why a forum like Tuesday’s shouldn’t take place at least twice a semester, because there’s no reason why our access to our own administration should be so scattered and limited,“ said Robyn Schroeder ’05.