If you happened to wander through Bailey Hall around lunchtime on Friday, Feb. 29, you had to weave through a crowd of students (one of them dressed as the Husky) lounging in the lobby with plates of Aramark pasta salad and sandwiches.
These students – including the Husky – were gathered for “Change ’08,” a day-long summit for student leaders to reflect on what’s wrong with their USM experiences, and what they might do to make them better-for everyone. It proved to be an apt title: those involved attest that it was a successful and fulfilling meeting.
The ultimate goal of the summit was to do something about the lack of student involvement at USM.
While geared toward student group leaders, registration was open to any students who were interested in bringing positive change to the university. In one of the first leadership training sessions of the morning, Chris O’Connor, the assistant dean of student life, asked for all the student leaders in the room to raise their hands.
Most hands around the room went up. But O’Connor wasn’t satisfied: he wanted everyone to be raising their hands-simply by attending the summit, they had put themselves forward as leaders on campus.
Many individuals and groups were involved in planning the summit sponsored and coordinated by the Leadership Development Board, and their work paid off.
“I couldn’t have been more pleased with the overall results of the day,” said O’Connor.
As the student government’s staff advisor, O’Connor was connected with the group of students that organized the summit and said that the aim in planning beforehand was to make certain that it covered issues that students were most concerned about.
“We surveyed to ask what they like about USM, what they don’t like, and what issues students are facing,” he said.
After talking to students from many different campus groups-student athletes, the Student Senate, Maine PIRG and Greek life, among others, the planning committee came up with five major areas that were to be the top focus of the day.
These were: the lack of student involvement, the lack of school spirit and pride in USM, financial challenges, space and facilities challenges, and the lack of community amongst students.
During the actual summit, these areas were used to divide the attending students into more focused groups, and each was facilitated by a student and a staff member.
Although the planners had hoped for a higher attendance, the roughly 60 students who came “were truly dedicated and had some great ideas by the end of the day,” said Emily Fitch, the chair of the Student Senate.
She spent part of the morning sweating in the Husky costume as she worked with the school spirit and community groups, who decided to combine because of the close relationship between the two issues-after all, says Fitch, “if you don’t feel you’re part of the place, you’re not going to run out there and put on a Husky suit.”
Overall, Fitch believed it was a fulfilling experience, and a great opportunity for students to develop practical goals.
In Fitch’s group, one of the biggest problems they saw was that, despite the good things going on amongst student groups on campus, “people aren’t reaching out to each other.”
Developing more communication between the groups and individuals could help events to be much bigger, and Fitch noted that the most successful events that take place on campus are generally those that are sponsored by more than one group.
One solution proposed for this issue was the creation of forums for student leaders to connect with each other and advertise their ideas.
USM sophomore Eric Favreau helped lead the space and facilities group, which discussed the need for a more welcoming student center and classrooms-many of the current facilities are run-down and this can hinder the learning process.
Favreau was optimistic about the results of the summit.
“It was really successful,” he said. “Action plans were implemented, and there were a lot of freshmen and sophomores.”
Favreau hopes that these younger students will help to carry the momentum throughout the rest of their time at USM.
When the groups rejoined, the students worked in a skill-building session, focusing on leadership. The summit leaders covered topics such as goal-setting and action-planning to help students set realistic goals for the rest of the semester.
At the end of the day, the students were given the chance to present their ideas to a “listening panel” made up of 10 members of USM’s administration, including interim president Joe Wood.
Wood was happy to be a part of the summit, and spoke to the students about community after they had finished presenting.
Using the analogy of a New England village, Wood illustrated the fact that community is made by people, not just the spaces they inhabit, and that they were helping to create community just by being a part of the summit.
He considered the day a success as well. “I was very impressed by the initiative and the constructive tone with which students recommended things and talked about ideas with us.”
One of the biggest challenges for those involved with Change ’08 will be to keep the momentum going.
“There were a lot of amazing ideas and really good work that came out of that day,” said O’Connor, “and we’re working now with the groups to help continue that energy.”
Fitch also expressed the desire of the planners to keep Change ’08 going long after the end of the day. “I think we got a lot of students connected to each other. It was truly fulfilling to see everybody do something and take charge.”