Community Discussions, Round One
Over the past month of October, the tag-team of President Liebowitz, Provost Spears, and Dean of Students Jordan have been meeting with student across campus to talk about priority number one for 2008-2009: irresponsible drinking and building “community.” Engaging student leaders such as sports team captains, student organization leaders, and more is a great way to get the discussion started.
The premise was simple: irresponsible drinking on campus can not be addressed as a top-down administrative action. I must say, that’s very pragmatic, and it certainly encouraged student leaders to speak freely about what they see as the systemic problems.
And the discussion kept returning, with good reason, to things like, “the diminishing quality of life on campus,” “the superficial sense of community,” and “lack of confidence of students to take care of themselves.” This is where the subjects of irresponsible drinking and community-building meet. (See MiddBlog’s articles on respect and hard liquor)
It was the mild conclusion of a group of twenty students that there certainly is a lack of involvement and togetherness in our community. But what exactly is Middlebury missing? Are we missing the time to reflect and concentrate on our community issues? Are we missing a cohesive social-community code? Are we missing a forum to communicate these issues? Are we missing an investment in other people here at Midd? Are we missing a connection between what we see and do? How do we remove a sense of entitlement?
The administrative premise about putting this on students is absolutely correct, and the admin has smartly broadened up a concern about alcohol use. Now, how will students step up, if it all? Ball’s in our court on this one.
Do you see a “community” problem at Midd?
Comments are closed.
I just returned from Addison County’s Conservation Congress, in which residents of the county came together to discuss our vision for the A.C. in 2020, with regard to food & farming, health & wellness, business & enterprise, faith & spirituality, money & banking, etc. The 150 or so people who attended broke down into discussion groups concerning one of the above issues. Each group came up with a vision statement for 2020, top ten goals to achieve, and 3 actions that we can take within the next year on a household, town, and county level to solve whatever the given issue was. Each group represented by a steward came back at the end to share what we came up with. As was noted time and time again at the congress, the words cooperative, collaborative, and community were a common theme among the groups.
I think this model could be manipulated to work in a college community; the issues would be different, of course, perhaps the time frame should be shorter, and the immediate actions to take would be on different levels (maybe individual, dormitory or commons, and then college). Since those who attend these sorts of things are self-selecting, perhaps particular students could be invited–team captains, student org leaders, res life staff, etc.– but then also allow whoever wanted to come to attend. The more, the merrier, the more effective, and the greater the community. I think this way students could come together, confront the issues together, and develop student-generated and student-driven solutions.