Administration implements a Fall orientation model to begin 2021

The Geneseo Administration has decided to transition from a summer to a fall orientation model, beginning in Fall 2021. This decision was made in order to create a more inclusive environment and an overall sense of ease as the fall semester approaches, according to Senior Director of Student Life Chip Matthews. 

Freshman orientation allows incoming students to spend several days familiarizing themselves with the Geneseo campus and community. Historically, freshman orientation is hosted throughout the summer as groups of students are invited to campus. They move in later in August. 

“I think COVID-19, you know, certainly forced the issue, but we've been looking at it for a number of years … many institutions do a fall model orientation,” Matthews said.

The fall orientation model avoids the travel of students to and from campus multiple times in a short period of time.

“If you have a summer orientation, you're really asking people to come back to Geneseo twice in one summer, and that means you might not be able to work,” Matthews said. “It also means there's going to be travel expenses. And so, I think one of the things that was really a catalyst for it was just to try to be more equitable and, more empathetic to people's travel and expense.”

For Fall 2021 orientation, the envisioned event will be a hybrid of online and in-person interactions. Matthews said that there will be virtual activities for students to do in the summer, to promote the health and wellness of incoming students.

According to Matthews, there will be three orientation phases. Starting in July, incoming first year students will be given information to listen to through podcasts. Then, in August, students will be given a Canvas course to acclimate them to the college experience. Finally, in late August, around the last Thursday or Friday before classes begin, Geneseo plans on having in-person student activities that will replace the college’s previous “Weeks of Welcome.” Matthews noted that the dates are not concrete and are subject to change considering the pandemic.

“The podcasts will serve to inform the incoming students of the most essential information about entering Geneseo, where they can listen to wherever they are over the summer, whether it be the beach, at work, or driving,” Matthews said. “As far as the canvas course goes, we plan to have around eight-minute videos for the students to watch. We’re hoping that we can create an engaging virtual experience, conduced with an in-person experience.”

In lieu of the College’s normal Weeks of Welcome, there will be an in-person form of orientation for incoming students that is still being developed by the College. 

“The Weeks of Welcome are one of the most important facets of orientation,” Matthews said. “If you talk to our first-year students from this year, you’ll hear that this is one of the things they missed out on because of the pandemic because we couldn’t have everybody gather together. I really hope that enough people get vaccinated so that we can arrange in-person activities and have a better handle on the virus.”

Matthews said that Student Life is discussing creating a second Weeks of Welcome event for current first years who were unable to experience a typical orientation in Fall 2020.

“I think that orientation is one of the most important things to help a student get started on their academic career. And we are going to work really hard to try to make it so that people are educated about Geneseo, and how to be a successful student, but also to connect the students,” Matthews said. 

Office of Diversity and Equity updates in honor of Black History Month

In honor of Black History Month, and in the light of events over the past year and semester, the Antiracism and DEI Education Subcommittee of the President's Commission on Diversity and Community has created several seminars and programming that will serve to educate and evaluate our community regarding racism and its historic roots. Other programming includes the semester’s first Cultivating Community series dialogue. 

Throughout the semester, the Antiracism and DEI Education Subcommittee of the President's Commission on Diversity and Community has created a series of Cultivating Community dialogues in an effort to become an anti-racism campus. (Photo courtesy of Kara Burke)

The Anti-Racism & DEI Education Subcommittee has initiated several educational seminars for students to attend to learn about racism and anti-racism through different mediums. These include the 2021 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Keynote Address by Reverend Myra Brown, a discussion of Ava DuVernay's documentary "13th" with Kevin Gannon, professor of history and director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Grand View University, and a panel on Black women’s health. 

Geneseo hosted the first dialogue of this semester’s Cultivating Community series on Feb. 24 about how higher education institutions might respond to bias-related incidents, but the Anti-Racism & DEI Education Subcommittee is actively working to educate the community, provide resources and identify racism in college policies.

“It’s one of the only programs I know of that brings students, faculty, staff, administrators, and non-college affiliated members of our community together around the same table,” Chief Diversity Officer and co-coordinator of the series robbie routenberg said. “A lot of times there’s a student program and there’s a faculty professional development program, and there’s really only a couple programs that do that work of putting everybody together.” 

This month’s Cultivating Community Dialogue focused on the question: “In the aftermath of a bias-related incident at a public institution of higher education, how might campus officials effectively communicate with members of the community,” according to the Cultivating Community series’ website. 

“And so, this semester, we decided to focus broadly on the topic of how the college responds to bias-related incidents. We're using sort of a case study,” routenberg said. “There's an article that we're using, and a toolkit that's made by an external organization for how colleges might respond to bias.” 

 Based on this case study and toolkit, participants will discuss what they like about the proposed response, and what they wish was different. Their recommendations are submitted to the bias prevention and response team for review, according to the Office of Diversity and Equity. 

In addition to the educational programs, the Antiracism and DEI Education Subcommittee also makes recommendations to the administration about potential racist policies at Geneseo. The committee listens to members of the BIPOC community about their experiences, and students can join this process by attending seminars.

“Part of our goal is to really educate and inform the campus community and beyond around issues of race and racism, not just only on our campus but again, things that we're seeing in our society and the ways in which racism is embedded in our institutions,” Crystal Simmons, co-chair of the subcommittee, said. 

David Parfitt, co-chair of the subcommittee, detailed the official goals of the subcommittee in his interview with The Lamron. 

“We came up with three things that we wanted to do; One was to come up with this series of programs that we're doing this month of February for Black History Month,” Parfitt said. “The second one was to come up with a website that had a lot of resources for anti-racist pedagogy for the campus. And then the third, kind of long-term goal was to start to look at the policies that are racist policies of the college, and what we do in fact have the ability to change.”