The College's long-range planning process continues as the 14 planning teams created by President Nancy Dye and the Planning Advisory Committee (PAC) have been organized and begun meeting.
"We are actually very pleased with how they are going," senior Diepiriye Kuku, Student Assistant to the President and member of the Learning and Living in a Diverse Community committee said.
Some of the planning teams, composed of faculty, staff, students, trustees and alumni began meeting during Winter Term. Others are still organizing meeting times. The committees deal with academic, stuctural and social issues of the College.
The teams will work on a range of specific topics, including some issues that have been recent areas of interest for students. One committee will talk about increased inter-disciplinary studies offered at Oberlin. The Residential College Experience committee is discussing the philosophies behind the residential structure at Oberlin.
Each planning team has a specific charge and processes designed to guide the team's discussion.The teams are expected to fulfill this charge through consultation with the campus community, the Board of Trustees and alumni, as well as from other sources. They may gather information from other colleges and universities, organizations and groups.
The committees have been asked to come up with three or four major strategic recommendations as a result of their meetings. Professor of Philosophy Norman Care, co-chair of the Residential Experience Team, said, "We have to be careful that in two months we don't do too much." He said that his team has been given a huge subject and is trying to determine the areas they will focus on.
Senior Joshua Reed, a member of the Residential College Experience team, said the plans are very general at this point. "We're trying to guess what areas will need to adapt to a changing student body." He said dining philosophies and the physical environment of Oberlin are some of the issues his team deals with.
Senior Alex Freuman said the Sports committee was discussing broad issues of health and wellness as well as the role intramural and varsity sports will play in an Oberlin in the future.
The Supporting Student Initiatives and Associational Activities team has planned to have a student meeting with representatives from student organizations and hall council members. The team seeks feedback from students on several issues, including the purpose of Student Senate and student representation on faculty committees.
"We're taking a bottom-up approach to the questions, because that's the whole purpose of this group," senior Joel Whitaker, co-chair of the committee, said.
Many issues discussed by the planning teams are so broad they spread into all the committees. According to Kuku diversity is one such issue.
"Diversity is something that everybody needs to talk about," he said.
Joel Krier, a senior and member of the Oberlin and Educational Access team said, "We hope that we will be able to do a good job of representing everybody in the community."
According to Dye the teams were carefully put together to ensure a reasonable balance of people on each team. Students were recruited to serve on the committees and Dye said she was pleased with the level of student involvement.
Junior Chapin Benninghoff, member of the PAC, said he thinks there is just enough student representation on the committees.
The planning-team phase of the process is slated to last until April, when each team will present its strategies for the future. After consultation with the campus community in April, Dye will create a final planning document to be presented to faculty in May and the Board of Trustees in June.
An all-campus town meeting is planned for March 2 in order to consult with the campus community about this process.The meeting will encompass a series of small meetings that focus on one issue at a time. Each team will invite responses and additional ideas from people in the community.
Krier said the Educational Access committee has started to prepare for the town meeting by deciding what they need to ask the community.
"I can't stress how important this meeting is," Reed said. The all-campus meeting will solicit comments from students concerning long-range planning. The ideas students present will then be integrated into the team planning.
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