Radke - Week 5 - Dickinson

This week my supervisor along with the Dean of Students, VP for Student Affairs and several other key staff on campus are spending the first part of it in New York City meeting with architects for new residence halls.  Dickinson is in the middle of a huge restructuring and strategic plan that was put in place around three years ago.  There are several key focus areas including new residence halls, improving athletic facilities, and the dining hall on campus.  The main thing that I am noticing and starting to understand is how every decision is based to make them more comparable to their peer institutions that they gauge themselves against.  Dickinson over the last few decades has been seen has a top private liberal arts institution in what is known as the second tier schools, but they have made it a priority to change that status.  So in addition to the restructuring of Student Affairs and a comprehensive admissions plan they have been able to move themselves into that top tier over the last 3-5 years.  It has been wonderful to really see the breakdown of a strategic plan and see how it has been used in so many areas of campus. 

I was also able to meet with both Assistant Dean of Students on campus.  They both cover specific student concerns in very broad ways, but I had a very interesting conversation with their assistant dean that is specifically in charge of student conduct.  In legal issues class we learned about student conduct and how court cases affect private and public differently, but to see that first hand with real accounts was extremely educational.  We were also able to discuss the student protest that we discussed in legal issues over the campus's stance and policies over sexual abuse.  These students were well organized and prepared and their end result was positive with a more structured policy.  What I found interesting about this conversation is that the policy was already in review that semester and was being updated before students even started to raise concerns.  Like most policy reviews it was being done over a longer period of time and the students, without prior knowledge or understanding that the policy was already being looked at, took it upon themselves to enforce change.  While it put a very large strain on administrators on campus it is kind of neat to see students with so much respect and power to make a stand for something they believe in.  I've been very fortunate for all the administrators and staff that I have met with so far be very open and sharing with me about their jobs.  I hope this is something that continues and I keep meeting with them.

Carrie