One of the most problematic issues at Wesleyan is the lack of communication and cooperation between the students and the faculty. Many of the most pressing student concerns (i.e. diversity in the classroom, advising, Academic Review, class size, etc.) fall under the purview of the faculty. Unfortunately, there are few venues for students to communicate these concerns to faculty in a meaningful way. I do not mean to blame the faculty for the poor communication between the student body and faculty leadership. The responsibility is assuredly shared. We have made lists of demands, stating that the faculty must receive diversity training, that an ethnic studies department be created, and other such desires. Frankly, that is not dialogue. It seems that too often we demand that the administration and trustees force the faculty to do something. We fail to recognize that the sensitivity that is so frequently demanded in the classroom is quite different from the sensitivity needed to be a public safety officer or an administrator. The better route would be to cooperate faculty leadership and explain why an issue is important. This year, I hope to work with faculty leadership to establish a deeper partnership between the faculty and students.
It didn’t used to be this way. Some years back, there was a faculty-student committee called the Campus Affairs Committee that focused on student life. Then a member of the faculty produced a report that contended that the faculty was over-involved in student life. The committee was subsequently disbanded, and in its place, the current Student Life Committee (SLC), which is comprised entirely of students and administrators, was formed. The SLC is a great forum for student concerns, and gets a lot done, but it fails to confront issues that are at the heart of students’ academic experience here. The fact is, decisions made by faculty at the leadership level and at the classroom level have profound ramifications for students. This manifests itself in terms of the richness of our educational experience, the time we have for extracurricular activities, especially in the evening, and the extent to which we feel our identities are appreciated and respected.
The fact that there are not sufficient points of contact between faculty and students does not mean that there are not faculty members who are deeply interested in the lives of students here. Indeed, there are many professors who consistently reach out to students on an academic level and on a personal level. I do not mean to demean these efforts. I am primarily concerned with the lack of information feedback flowing into faculty meetings from a student perspective.
There are several important ways that students and faculty exchange opinions on the academic atmosphere at Wesleyan. The majors committees are the most prominent forums. Majors committees are an important institution, but they too are not sufficient to foster meaningful cooperation between student leadership and faculty. The Educational Policy Committee (EPC) is the lesser known of the points of contact between faculty and student leadership, but arguably the more important. This committee oversees changes to the curriculum, the key capabilities, teaching evaluations, academic advising, and various other areas critical to the academic experience at Wesleyan. Two students sit on this committee of eight with voting powers. I think that these students have consistently done a fantastic job, working within the relatively limited capacity provided for them. However, the entire burden of communicating student needs to faculty leadership cannot fall upon only two students. Furthermore, the EPC is not a place for ongoing dialogue; it is a place for policy-making, and would get nothing done if it were designated the place for faculty-student dialogue to occur. We need to foster other forums for student-faculty cooperation outside the EPC.
Students and faculty share a fundamental interest. We both want this community to be the best intellectual environment possible. For example, the issue of faculty compensation matters to all of us. In order to get the best faculty possible, the University has to pay them well. We all know this. We need to work together to accomplish this. But as of now there is no communication between faculty and students on how to approach the issue. Creating another forum for cooperation would help us address this important issue together.
Let’s start a dialogue. Let’s have it be provocative, respectful, and most importantly, productive.
Leave a Reply