Commission plans for student input

The Commission on Strengthening the Community plans to seek a broad range of student input through open forums and an opinion survey, the Commission's first progress report said yesterday. The report, which summarizes the results of the Commission's last meeting in September, said the Commission plans to conduct a large survey of University community members "on matters of free speech, race relations, sexual harassment and other topics." Commission Director Rebecca Bushnell, who is assisting Commission Chairperson Gloria Chisum with planning, said the survey will be conducted by a faculty member sometime over the next three months. In addition, the progress report said the Commission will organize several open forums and student focus groups "intended to bring together people from all sectors of the University." Bushnell said the Commission will spend the month of October meeting with various campus groups, including representatives from the Undergraduate Assembly, the Faculty Senate and the A-1 and A-3 organizations. She said the Commission has moved from its planning stage to its input collection stage. "We've spent some time getting organized properly and now the real work begins," she said. "Over the next month, we'll be gathering information and ideas from University constituencies and groups – as well as doing a lot of research." Bushnell said one of the topics they will be researching is the origins of the University's racial and sexual harassment codes. "We're looking to understand the events which led to the harassment codes," she said. "We want to answer the question of how these things came into being." Chisum said last night that the Commission's strategy is to gather as much information as possible from students, staff and faculty before looking at how to solve campus dilemmas. "As a scientist, it is important to have as much information as possible before you begin to look at certain solutions for a problem," Chisum said. "That's why we're going about it in this way." She said she hopes students, faculty and staff are willing to give constructive criticism in a "positive way." "I hope to hear forward-looking information from the different groups on campus," Chisum said. "I would hope that people will feel more and more compelled to talk with us."

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