President Denise Battles sent out a welcome email on Aug. 26 outlining changes that will improve the college and make the campus community more inclusive.
According to her email, Battles outlined three committees and initiatives that will undergo or create new changes throughout the year: The Cultivating Community series, the Budget Priorities Committee and the Strategic Planning Group.
The Cultivating Community Series is set to become “more nimble and timely in addressing topics affecting our campus and more expansive in soliciting participation from the community,” according to Battles’ email.
The series is also collaborating with the Diversity and Community Commission which has helped shape program topics, according to Battles.
“[The Diversity and Community Commission] is doing a lot of good work. It’s a representative group so it has students, faculty, staff and administrators,” Battles said. “We’re hoping that the more deliberate connection will allow us to be more timely on what topics we address and also have a broader range of voices to shape that programming.”
Adolescent education history major junior Simon Goslin said he understands the importance of these dialogues in accepting diversity.
“I’d say in general an inclusive community is a community you can count on to be forward thinking and a community you can count on to be prepared to accept more people,” Goslin said. “That’s always what we’re looking for, especially when you’re in a position like Dr. Battles. That’s kind of her job, to grow the community in a healthy way, and I think that’s a great way to do that.”
This semester’s Cultivating Community theme is “Campus Climate and Community Activism” which is a response to events and dialogues that transpired last semester.
“We always take our cues from prior discussions, and I think given the events in the spring, that’s a logical next step that should engage a broad range of individuals,” Battles said.
Communication major sophomore Emily Stock expressed interest in the dialogues, mentioning that last year they were not as accessible or widely known.
“I actually was interested in going to one of those dialogues, but they conflicted with my schedule,” Stock said. “I don’t really remember them going on much last year. I think advertising them more is a good start.”
In addition to changes to the Cultivating Community series, Battles’ email also referenced the BPC and its efforts to ensure financial stability for the college.
“[Last year] I developed and expanded Budget Priorities Committee and asked that group to engage the broader campus community in ideas on how we can grow our revenues and how we can contain costs. They developed a web-based system to solicit ideas from campus and began the work vetting those,” Battles said. “So, the BPC will continue that work and look to continuously engage the campus community and write ideas about how we can reconcile expenses with our revenues.”
One such venture was the expansion of a winter intersession. The 2018-2019 winter intersession had more than a 90 percent class fill rate and a low dropout rate, according to Battles. The success of the previous intersession is helping to secure more classes for the upcoming session and generate more revenue for the college.
The final topic mentioned in the email was changes being made by the Strategic Planning Group to revamp the academic programs and learning outcomes by 2021.
“The courses or programs of study we are looking to develop are very interdisciplinary. So, we don’t necessarily know going in who might be at the table to shape those programs,” Battles said. “Those are opportunities that people on campus will have to shape what we have in terms of academic development.”
Stock expressed interest in new majors being created, such as criminal justice.
“They do have the political science major, but I think maybe channeling it more into criminal justice or homeland security or something like that would be cool because it’s always been something I’ve been interested in,” Stock said.
Goslin also highlighted the significance of interdisciplinary courses and how much they matter to returning and incoming students.
“I have often learned a lot more from my interdisciplinary classes than you’d expect to because a lot of the focus currently on campus is major [related],” Goslin said. “To introduce other classes are a good way to find what you’re interested in because Geneseo accepts a lot of students who are undeclared, and sometimes taking interdisciplinary class is the best way I think to get a sampling of a variety of different fields when you only have one class slot.”
Overall, Battles encourages the campus community to review the Strategic Plan for 2021 found on the Geneseo Wiki.
“I very much encourage folks to review that plan because it articulates what we want to achieve between our sesquicentennial year of 2021,” Battles said. “There’s a lot in there, but what that identifies is our intention to undertake a series of steps that will improve our ability to meet our mission and deliver and achieve our vision as a premier public liberal arts college.”