Facilities Planning and
Implementation of The Commons
February 11, 1999
To the College Community:
I wish this memorandum could be shorter. The information it communicates is very important, and I hope you will read it carefully. At such a time of change, it is easy to succumb to the twin temptations of protected process or arbitrary action. Communication¾ even overcommunication¾ is the best way to minimize that risk. Hence this extended memorandum.
As a result of the adoption in October of the Board of Trustee's Resolution on "Phase I" of the College's facilities plan and the enhanced residential life system, I write to outline the general framework of our next steps on each of these initiatives. A committee of five colleagues—Kathy Ebner, Ann Hanson, Tim Spears, David Ginevan, and Ron Liebowitz as chair—will oversee the implementation of the facilities plan and the enhanced residential life system. Their roles and their work with offices across the campus are described in this memo. As is common with any process that seeks to include as many groups and individuals as possible without slowing unduly the development and implementation of the initiatives, we will need to fine-tune the process as we move forward.
The College's Facilities Plan
The College will work to develop and implement the facilities plan in the following way. Executive Vice President and Treasurer David Ginevan will coordinate the planning of all projects with the assistance of a number of College committees and individuals. The precise list of projects in the facilities plan is sure to change as any one of a large number of variables changes over time. The current list reflects College priorities and needs as assessed first in the 1992 strategic plan, updated with campus-wide input in 1996-97, and then adjusted with the adoption of the enhanced residential plan this past October.
The specific timing of each project on the facilities list will depend on: (1) the College's financial resources, (2) the availability of "swing space" to permit renovation and new construction; and (3) grants and gifts from foundations and/or individuals that are earmarked for specific projects. Key aspects of the plan are described below.
1. The Board of Trustees made a major commitment when it resolved to enhance the College's infrastructure. It was able to make that commitment, because it believes in the program and goals the infrastructure will support, and it is confident about the institution's financial strength. The six-year horizon (Phase I) provides the flexibility to amend the pace of the plan if economic conditions change between now and 2004. The plan presupposes a successful capital Campaign, the major goals of which include raising endowment for financial aid, for professorships, for the academic program, and for improved facilities.
2. The availability of buildings for use as "swing space," which will enable the renovation of existing buildings, is a major factor in the project timeline. A good example is Starr Library, which was identified as the top priority among a long list of facilities earmarked for improvements. Other projects have been undertaken, and will continue to be undertaken, before the library project begins, because the swing space needed to accommodate the library collections and services (the old Science Center) will not be available for use until Bicentennial Hall is completed in August. Similarly, other projects on the College's facilities plan, some of which are "high priority" items, may need to await the completion of other projects in order to secure the swing space needed for the renovation.
3. The sequencing of some projects listed in the facilities plan may change if significant foundation support or gifts from individuals make it possible to begin the project sooner than originally planned. A gift for a literature and/or literature-humanities center, a gift for a renovated facility for interdisciplinary studies, and a gift for the expansion of facilities for intramural and club sports, are good examples of cases where the facilities timeline can and is likely to be altered during the next decade.
Since 1995, the College has used the services of a construction management firm—Barr and Barr—for major construction and renovation projects, rather than managing the projects "in house." This approach has served the College well, and this will be continued.
The College has hired the architectural firm of Gensler Inc. and its architect Marty Borko to oversee the coordination of projects associated with the enhanced residential plan. David Wallace, class of '50, has served as the College's executive architect since 1996. He and his former firm of Wallace-Floyd Associates developed the College's campus master plan (on reserve at Starr Library), which provides guidelines for campus development throughout Phase I of facilities planning. He will continue his work with the College. Glenn Andres, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, and an experienced voice on campus architecture and planning, will advise David Ginevan and the administration on Phase I projects. George Whitney, Director of Operations, and Randy Landgren, Director of Academic Facilities Planning, will work closely with Barr and Barr and David Ginevan, and will be involved in each project's planning and development.
The College's Project Review Committee, a group created this past fall, will provide guidance to the facilities process. The committee's role is to create a standard of environmental quality for the College that it considers with each new and renovation project. For each major project in the facilities plan, the administration will appoint ad hoc committees that will help guide the planning process. The composition of these committees will be broadly representative. The goal is to appoint representatives of as many "user groups" as possible for each project under development. By way of example, the "campus center" project, which is likely to involve renovation and new construction, plus the consideration of the Starr Library project, will require representation from the Dean of Students' office, the larger Starr Library planning committee, the Academic Administration, faculty, staff, students, offices that will likely become "tenants" of the campus center, plus organizations on campus that have College-wide programmatic interests in the project (e.g., the Environmental Council, the Human Relations Committee, the Inter-Commons Council, etc.).
Each ad hoc committee, along with the Project Review Committee, will have a chair or liaison, who will meet with members of the committee of five in order to advance recommendations and facilitate decision-making related to each liaison's project. Working with the committee of five, Dave Ginevan's office will be responsible for inter-committee communications, so any overlap between and among projects and ad hoc committees will be discussed and resolved. The composition of the ad hoc committees is likely to change as the impact of each project becomes more evident to the committee. Effective communication will be essential if planning is to be successful.
Three standing committees of the College will be briefed and consulted regularly on the facilities plans by members of the College administration. The Finance and Planning Committee (FAP) of the Faculty Council, the Staff Council, and the Renovations Committee of the SGA will meet monthly with the Provost, Vice President for Administration, and the Treasurer. These meetings will be scheduled and chaired by the Provost in the coming weeks.
Implementing the Enhanced Commons Plan
The implementation of the enhanced residential system entails more than creating a physical infrastructure to support the Commons. The major goal of the new system is to create a more seamless educational environment for our students—a residential system that supports more completely the academic, social, and intellectual development of students. The new system seeks to create more intimate communities within the larger College campus-communities in which students assume greater responsibility for their social and residential experiences on campus, and in which they receive more personalized mentoring and guidance from on-site deans and from faculty and staff who participate in the life of the Commons in a variety of ways.
This past year, academic programming began in the Commons with the introduction of Commons-based first year seminars. Students in each of thirteen seminars resided in the same residence hall. Seminar instructors and Commons Associates collaborated on co-curricular programming, while students discussed class material in the dorms more easily and naturally and strengthened friendships outside of class. Co-curricular programming enhanced several of the seminars. The program has been received enthusiastically. As the Commons system continues to evolve and develop, there will be other ways to enhance the academic program through the residential system. The faculty, through the Educational Affairs Committee, and the academic deans will be working with Tim Spears and the Commons Associates in devising curricular innovations made possible by the enhanced residential structure.
A major component of the enhanced residential system involves the decentralization of our Dean of Students' office. Deans, working closely with Commons Residential Advisors, Junior Counselors, and Commons Associates will create a team-approach to supporting life in the Commons. Such teamwork will help to create the sought after "seamless" experience for our students. Kathy Ebner and Ann Hanson will work together, and with their respective staffs, to develop the appropriate structures for reorganizing the Dean of Students' Office and the Office of Residential Life.
Finally, the enhanced residential system will require some imaginative thinking on the part of several departments on campus. Many administrative services and departments across the College will be encouraged to shift the focus of their operations from one that concentrates on serving a student body of 2,200 to one that serves smaller communities of students. This shift in focus, which will provide integrated support for the developing Commons system, will enable students, faculty, and staff to request and access College resources in an efficient and more natural manner.
Our systems and offices will need to address significant challenges as we seek to create more intimate communities within the Commons, develop new academic links beyond the first-year seminar program, build the decentralized residential life teams in the Commons, and help to shift the focus of support from centralized offices to individual Commons. Effective February 1, Ann Hanson, Kathy Ebner, and Tim Spears will have augmented portfolios with additional responsibilities, intended to enable the three to move the enhanced residential program forward. Those portfolios are defined briefly on the following page.
Ann Hanson, Dean of Students, will become Dean of Student Affairs. In consultation with the Student Affairs division, and along with Kathy Ebner and Tim Spears, she will determine which student services will become "Commons based" and which will remain in a centralized, all-College office. She will supervise those offices, activities, and personnel that remain under a centralized Dean of Student Affairs. Dean Hanson will, along with Kathy Ebner, help to develop the positions of "local" or Commons deans, and help to ensure that the Commons develop in concert with a newly defined central Dean of Student Affairs office.
Katherine Ebner, Director of Residential Life, will be Dean of Commons. Among her responsibilities and duties, she will help to develop and implement a "team approach" to deaning in each commons—a team composed of the Associate, Dean, Commons Residential Advisor(s), and Commons Coordinator. She will oversee the development of the decentralized dean's office in each Commons, help to develop new processes in the Commons (e.g., Commons-based room draw; co-curricular programming), develop, with Ann Hanson, staff who will work in the Commons, and work closely with offices across the College as they move from their centralized to a more decentralized mode of providing their services to students. Kathy will also work with David Ginevan in facilities planning to ensure that College facilities will support the programmatic goals of the enhanced residential life system.
Tim Spears, Associate Professor of American Literature and Civilization, will serve as Special Assistant to the Provost. Tim will work closely with the Academic Administration, faculty colleagues, Commons Associates, and the appropriate College committees and offices to help develop and implement academic and co-curricular programming in the Commons. He will work with Randy Landgren, George Whitney, Kathy Ebner, and David Ginevan to ensure that our facilities will accommodate, in particular, the academic component of the enhanced residential life program. Along with Kathy Ebner, he will help to develop a "team" approach to residential life—one that integrates the residential, academic, and social components of our students' College experience. Tim will assist in development efforts related to the enhanced Commons system, and he will assist the Provost in institutional planning.
Clearly, the enhanced residential life initiative will take several years to develop and realize. Kathy Ebner and Tim Spears, who played major roles in leading campus-wide discussions and developing the enhanced residential life plan, will continue to work together to engage the appropriate committees and offices in discussions that will move the process and transition forward.
The initiative speaks to a different way of viewing how we educate our students; the traditional division between "student" and "academic" affairs must give way to a more integrated approach to the lives of our students while they are on campus. This integrated approach will require a comprehensive and collaborative effort on the part of the faculty, staff, and administration. There is bound to be some confusion as we implement the enhanced system over several years. I can only ask for the kind of patience most members of the community displayed during the sixteen months of campus-wide discussion on this important issue. I look forward to enhancing residential life at the College, and, in the process, improving the educational experiences for current and future students.