MWC COC-SACS Home > Committees > Minutes >Co-Curricular Affairs & Student Services Committee
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 The meeting of Co-Curricular Affairs & Student Services Committee was held on Tuesday, November 14, 2000, at the JMC campus.  Present for the meeting were:  Cedric Rucker, Christine Porter, Suzanne Houff, Mark McClure, Joann Schrass, Jordan Sydell, Dawn Tune, Deborah Conway, and Stuart Sullivan.

Data Sources:
 

JMC: use information from last year's survey of JMC students.  Conduct ongoing survey of students in old and new programs to assess needs.  Adult students may be different from traditional undergraduates, explore alternative means of data gathering with this in mind.

MWC: use student surveys, and focus groups to collect data.  Seek information already gathered from Senior survey, freshman survey, and other data sources already existing.

Information from other institutions: others have also explored areas similar to those being investigated for this accreditation review.  What can we learn from what others have found?

Site Visits: in person, or through the use of teleconferencing, what can we learn from the paths pursued by peer institutions?

List of items discussed:
 

Library resources:   especially for JMC, but also maintaining the resources at MWC.

Technical support:  presently, the MWC is wired, and JMC has resources, the issue mainly focuses on insuring that technologies continue to be updated to meet the changing demands of the institution. Although staffing in general was discussed, specific attention should be paid to technical support personnel.  MWC presently has a staff of about nine, while Wake Forrest has a staff of ninety.

Fiscal Resources should also include provisions for grants: there should be personnel in place to support faculty, students, and departments in securing grants from numerous resources.  Grant writers and grant researchers should be integrated into the institution's administrative structure.

Transportation issues: there needs to be an investigation of how the changing traffic demands will be affect accessibility to JMC, and portability to the MWC campus.  Also, parking continues to be an issue at MWC, and should be a part of any institutional planning scheme.

Academic Support Services: insuring the fluid delivery of resources in the areas of career advising, disability services, and tutorial support should be integrally planned to incorporate the needs of  JMC students, and continually updated to meet the ever changing needs of MWC students.

Co-curricular Services: plans should be implemented to investigate the needs of JMC students for clubs and organizations, student governance, and resources in the areas of on- site dinning services, fitness facilities, and programming targeted at adult students.

Community: Mary Washington takes great stock in marketing the benefits of being a tight knit community.  Will this element be translated into the scheme of a new university structure?  This does not solely correspond to faculty student ratios, but refers to overarching institutional climate issues.

Name: the importance of maintaining the name Mary Washington College was again emphasized.

Staffing: As the institution seeks to redefine itself as a university, the importance of maintaining adequate staffing in all areas was emphasized.  If new departments or programs are created, essential staffing needs should be a part of the implementation strategy.

Business Operations: Credit Card payment options should be investigated (strongly advocated by both JMC and MWC student committee members).  If additional cost are incurred by the institutions, consideration may be given to charging an additional fee.  Also, as the University umbrella comes about, establishing more flexible hours for students, or on-line payment options should be investigated.

Child care: Exploration of on-campus child care options should be explored.  For students, faculty, and staff.  This may be an excellent recruitment and retention mechanism for adult students, and faculty.  It may also act as an impetus to new academic programs (advanced degree child development/education options - reference University of Maryland's Child Development Advanced Degree Program).

Expanding Options: Presently, most JMC courses are available in the evenings and during weekends.  As programs become more established, adding more classes during the day should be investigated.  As programs expand, students may seek out JMC as a first option, and may wish to enroll full time.  How will their needs be met within current parameters?

Housing: For MWC students, the housing issue is an important one.  The institution should investigate how best to satisfy demand for on-campus housing.  Explore both privatize and on-campus options.   Discuss philosophy of graduate and/or family housing to accommodate needs of changing student populations(i.e. JMC and MWC advanced degree programs).

 In lieu of our December 1st, meeting, committee members are asked to review these items, and to formulate questions for surveys and focus groups which will ultimately assist us in developing our committee report.  If there are areas which you feel are important to our task, which have not been included in the above list, please forward those to my attention for further dissemination.   Your questions should be ready for presentation at the meeting scheduled for January 31st, 2001 at 4:00 p.m. in the Marye House conference room.

This Page Last Modified on: March 29, 2002