Student Life redesign

Student Life (SL) is being reorganized in order to expand The Orientation Program (TOP) as a result of the college deciding to make orientation mandatory.  Diversity, Intramural Sports and Recreation and the Leadership programs will no longer be stand-alone clusters. Some of the most successful aspects of these clusters will be blended into remaining programs.  
 

Starting fall, 2010, all students new to ACC will have to attend orientation either on campus or online. Currently about 1,600 students attend orientation per year, but under the new mandatory orientation, more like 10,000 will be required to attend. Orientation will also be three hours long instead of two.

"The administration didn't tell me I had to reorganize Student Life, but they told me about orientation, and we couldn't make it work without moving things around," Director of Student Life Cheryl Richard said. 

Richard is working on a proposal outlining the changes to SL that she will share with the SL Coordinators on Nov. 9. After the feedback is in and any changes to the proposal that come up in the meeting are made, the proposal will go to Student Government so that students can weigh in on the changes. SL is funded through the Student Activities Fee that all students pay.

There is some concern about the programs that are being cut, including a decline in the number of the students involved.

"Student development is not the administration's focus, orientation is," SL Coordinator and head of the leadership program Quevarra Moten said.

Leadership had 719 students involved last semester, according to the report from the Student Life office.

"I don't want to say that I'm heartbroken, but I am torn…My whole program is being cut. Leadership is being turned into a club, but I mean it's better to have something than nothing at all," Moten said.

Part of the proposal that Richard is working on would be to create a Campus Activities Board (CAB) on each campus that would be overseen by the SL Assistant and Coordinator. This would allow students to control what SL is like on each campus.

"I've always wanted to turn the reins over to the students. This whole thing with TOP gives us a vehicle to do that," Richard said.

Some aspects of the programs that are being cut will be blended in to exist within the remaining clusters.

John Jacobs, who runs the Diversity Program, hopes that the Unity Jam event and the Diversity Ambassador Programs stay in place after the diversity cluster is gone.

Unity Jam is a college-wide event where each campus is assigned a country, and SL on that campus creates an event showcasing the culture of that country with dancing, food and clothing.

"These are experiences that all students need to have. It makes them well rounded," Jacobs said.

While there is some concern that these changes will lead to fewer students being involved with SL, Richard is optimistic.  "It's not true. I don't know how it won't be true, but we will figure it out," she said. "My passion and my goal is to always reach as many students as possible."
 

Changes at a Glance

Student Life is working on reorganizing the current clusters to accommodate for new, longer, mandatory student orientations. Planning is still very preliminary, but some changes are certain.

What we know for sure:

Diversity, Leadership, and Intramural Sports and Recreation will no longer be stand alone programs

Welcomepalooza and Springtini events are cancelled for at least fall 2010. Welcome Week is still on.

Many events that have been scheduled, but that work has not started on, will be cancelled

The Student Life budget will not be cut

Students will be able to complete mandatory orientation online, or on campus.

Some of most successful aspects from eliminated clusters and events will be blended into programs and events that have not been cut.