Upcoming Town Hall Meetings

The "general committee" just sent out an email to all of Lor with the dates and descriptions of the upcoming town hall meetings, presumably like the confab community conversation that went so fabulously a week ago in Reisinger. The trick last time for swinging the scales towards participatory democracy was simple: we snapped our fingers whenever we agreed with what was said. Amazing how much that tilts the conversation to filling the audience's needs.

The central question here is how we frame the problems of this school, and what methods we propose to use to resolve these problems. Over and over they say the problems are:

• not enough money
• student apathy
• disorganization
• inefficiency
• etc
  

Here's a counter set of potential problems.

• Not enough dialogue between students, faculty, workers, admin.
• Students aren't encouraged to appreciate each other's work.
• Rampant, rank, unquestioned individualism.
• Solutions that don't cost much money or time aren't taken seriously or even suggested--hence everything costs a lot of money and time, both in short supply. Simple participatory solutions that really engage the community are seen as surprising, retro, or offbeat, hence Blum's comment about our snapping.
  
• Horribly inefficient bureaucracy that's out of touch with the people
• Creativity is channeled into "creative" coursework, kept within the associated departments, and spurned everywhere else by the admin.
• No one knows what resources are available to them or even who to ask to find out.
  

Just some thoughts. Below's the letter they sent. And for each agenda listed, think up a counteragenda that engages more with your interests and thoughts of problems, processes, and solutions.

They set the times and places; we can set the tone.

-bbm


&&&&&&&&&&&&&

December 19th, 2008


To The SLC Community,

We are writing to update you on current plans for community meetings during the Spring semester. We plan to hold a series of meetings to discuss the Strategic Plan, and also to discuss the College’s financial situation. We recognize that the timing of the first Strategic Planning forum was not optimal and want to address this by giving you advance notice of meetings currently being planned for next semester. All meetings will be held in the Tuesday 1:30-3:00 p.m. time slot, which is reserved on the calendar for community events. No meetings will be
planned for the Tuesdays already scheduled for faculty group meetings and full faculty meetings.

The planned schedule is:

• February 3, 2009 – Joint faculty/staff meeting on the financial situation, Reisinger Auditorium.

• February 10, 2009 - Regular faculty meeting, originally scheduled for February 3, will be held, Faculty Dining Room.

• February 17, 2009 – Community Wide Strategic Planning Meeting: Working Together at SLC. Location TBA "In light of the expansion in College enrollment in recent years, we will discuss potential steps to improve the working environment and interactions among students, staff and faculty. Some possible topics for exploration include: improving and standardizing college policies, procedures and work processes; providing faculty and staff with greater support to seek funding for research, travel and professional development; optimizing the academic calendar to facilitate enhanced intellectual exchange, college – wide, and professional enrichment for staff and faculty; optimizing the academic calendar to facilitate consistently excellent donning."

• March 10, 2009 – Community Wide Strategic Planning Meeting: Living & Learning at SLC. Location TBA. "An opportunity exists to promote greater collaboration, inclusivity and collegiality within the student community. These are qualities that will be essential to meaningful work and life both at SLC and beyond. Also, there is an apparent need to further enliven campus life and reduce student attrition. We need the community’s guidance on these matters. Within the constraints necessary to achieve financial equilibrium, Sarah Lawrence should explore significant ways to improve the working and living conditions—the physical plant—of the College. Environmental sustainability should inform our thinking in this regards."
• April 14, 2009 – Community Wide Strategic Planning Meeting: Diversity and Inclusion at SLC. Location TBA. "Diversity in all its forms and among all campus constituencies is, and has long been, a strategic priority for SLC—a priority that touches on all of the strategic cornerstones in some way. As a progressive educational community, grounded in democratic ideals and a vision of learning that spans disciplines and world-views, there are (at least) two essential questions the campus community must address “how can we do more to enhance diversity and inclusiveness?” and “what should our goals be in this regard?”
  

We hope you will all be able to attend.


Sincerely,


General Committee:

Bella Brodzki
Brian Castriota
Allen J. Green
Susan Guma
Karen Lawrence
Elissa Leichter
Heather McDonnell
Maria Negroni (Fall semester)
Cat Nelson
Barbara Schecter
Kanwal Singh
Fred Smoler
Pauline Watts
Komozi Woodard