College Council Sets Priorities for Future Work
Gettysburg College Commencement 2016 (Photo Stan Perry/Gettysburg College)
By Nicole DeJacimo, Staff Writer
Last semester, President Riggs formed a College Council “to advise the President on issues and policies that affect campus and community life” as stated in the College Council’s mission statement as recommended by the Campus Climate Study Implementation Group. This will be especially helpful concerning the Presidential transition for the upcoming academic year. The council is composed of four students (Nick Arbaugh ’20, Marisa Balanda ’21, Alex Economou-Garcia ’22, and Hannah Dalzell ’20), two from the administration council (Ron Wiafe and Susan Fumagalli-Mahoney), two from the faculty council (Kathy Cain and Ivanova Reyes), and two from the support staff council (Janey Breighner and Carol Coon). These positions will be re-elected every two years by their respective council. They will be joined by the President and Executive Vice President who will chair the meetings and the President’s Senior Administrative Assistant who is in charge of organizing the meetings and taking notes. Twice a semester the council will hold meetings along with any meetings the President might call.
Currently, they are focused on four topics for the end of this year and the upcoming year: innovation, campus culture, free speech, and the presidential transition.
“The first goal is to get established and realize that this is a pilot year for the group,” said Breighner.
She continued to say that other than their four general goals, a recurring theme they plan to tackle is the lack of attendance at events that groups have put long and hard hours into. While the council will not write or enforce any policy they potentially could “suggest policy and initiate them” Breighner explained. Also, any recommendation the council receives they might collaborate with or send to other committees who they feel would approach the issue from a better angle.
For the council to be successful, the campus community must reach out and express their own concerns and goals for the college. Marisa Balanda, one of the students on the council, said “I am hopeful that the Council’s plan will streamline campus communication between students, faculty, and staff in order to further engage the Gettysburg community” and that everyone on the council would love to hear more recommendations and insight from the community.
An annual report will be posted sometime during the fall semester of 2019 to update the campus community on their progress and goals at the time. There are discussions of campus-wide events that they hope will bring the community together to discuss issues that need to be addressed or improved upon.
If anyone has a recommendation for the College Council they can send an email to the Administrative Assistant peisenha@gettysburg.edu.
