2008 Woodie Awards
Monday's Fireside Chat addresses improvements for campus social life
Maureen Smith
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: News
This past Monday, President Stephan Ainlay hosted this term's Fireside Chat, in an attempt to increase the involvement and level of communication amongst students and faculty.
The issues addressed involved different aspects of Union's social scene, with much of the discussion weighed upon Greek life improvement. Besides a surprisingly high turnout amongst the student body, Ainlay, Dean of Students Stephen Leavitt, and Tim Dunn, the newly hired Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, were present to showcase a well-rounded variety of perspectives. Many students were actively engaged in the intimate discussion and pressed the faculty members with questions pertaining to the establishment of a more profound approach to Greek life and off-campus parties.
As Ainlay remarked, Union offers a "unique opportunity to be the national leader on how to do Greek life at a small liberal arts college." Although Leavitt agrees that, in the past, the College has not shown as much support as he would have liked to have seen with respect to different social aspects, he feels confident that a new leaf will be turned over, as the school is currently focusing its primary emphasis on strengthening its social system, with much input from the student body.
Initiating the discussion, one student expressed his concern that the social scene is "moving away from the campus, due to Campus Safety's recent heavy involvement in the party scene, specifically in fraternities."
Leavitt responded that ,while underage alcohol consumption drives the reasoning behind the handling of this matter, the College is looking for more ways to place additional responsibility on fraternities, and that recently, more officers have been pulled out of fraternities since there is less of a need to take serious action, due to the outstanding support of fraternities.
Given the increasing number of parties shut down by Campus Safety, Leavitt hopes to "expand the number of opportunities available to students outside of fraternities," in the hope that less emphasis will be placed on mindless alcohol consumption.
The issues addressed involved different aspects of Union's social scene, with much of the discussion weighed upon Greek life improvement. Besides a surprisingly high turnout amongst the student body, Ainlay, Dean of Students Stephen Leavitt, and Tim Dunn, the newly hired Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, were present to showcase a well-rounded variety of perspectives. Many students were actively engaged in the intimate discussion and pressed the faculty members with questions pertaining to the establishment of a more profound approach to Greek life and off-campus parties.
As Ainlay remarked, Union offers a "unique opportunity to be the national leader on how to do Greek life at a small liberal arts college." Although Leavitt agrees that, in the past, the College has not shown as much support as he would have liked to have seen with respect to different social aspects, he feels confident that a new leaf will be turned over, as the school is currently focusing its primary emphasis on strengthening its social system, with much input from the student body.
Initiating the discussion, one student expressed his concern that the social scene is "moving away from the campus, due to Campus Safety's recent heavy involvement in the party scene, specifically in fraternities."
Leavitt responded that ,while underage alcohol consumption drives the reasoning behind the handling of this matter, the College is looking for more ways to place additional responsibility on fraternities, and that recently, more officers have been pulled out of fraternities since there is less of a need to take serious action, due to the outstanding support of fraternities.
Given the increasing number of parties shut down by Campus Safety, Leavitt hopes to "expand the number of opportunities available to students outside of fraternities," in the hope that less emphasis will be placed on mindless alcohol consumption.
Be the first to comment on this story