Proposed Changes to Support Health, Wellness and Inclusion for 2017-18

Dear Students,

In conversations with students last week, the President’s Cabinet committed to identifying additional ways to address needs related to health, wellness and inclusion for the 2017-18 academic year. Based on these conversations and student input received throughout the academic year, the Cabinet has identified the actions below.

As with all significant expenditures, the Cabinet will look to evaluate the one-time budget additions mentioned below and will be asking students to be involved in that evaluation process to determine which of these one-year funding initiatives have the greatest impact. This will then inform the normal budget discussion process used to make longer-term budget decisions as part of the College’s regular budget cycle.
We agreed to share with students our proposed actions for your comments and feedback. As a reminder, we will be hosting a dinner meeting Thursday evening in the Aviation Room beginning at 5:45 p.m. for further discussion. There is still space available if you would like to RSVP. We would also encourage you to email me or any member of Cabinet directly with your comments and feedback.

In addition to the steps that the College has already taken, which will be detailed in the DSA budget document, the Cabinet agreed to the following:

Cabinet Proposed One-Time Budget Additions for 2017-18

• To provide $20,000 to support student access to additional mental health resources.
• To fund one additional staff position between both OHW and OID to better support our diversity and health and wellness efforts. Preference will be giving to candidates with experience working with students of color and other minoritized communities. This would be a new, one-year position created in addition to the full-time positions already in OHW and OID.
• To provide $1,500 from the President’s Discretionary Fund and $500 redirected from an endowed fund for Student Affairs for a total of $2,000 each to support the six student affinity organizations (BLAM, SPLS, APISPAM, THEY/THEM, FEMunion and PRISM). To use these funds, the student groups would be asked to follow the same process as used by ASHMC (i.e., either providing receipts for reimbursement, providing an invoice to DSA, or coordinating with DSA on the direct purchase).
• To provide $6,000 ($3,000 from President’s Discretionary Fund and $3,000 from existing DSA budget) to create a fund open to any student group that wants to support wellness and/or diversity efforts on campus. Dean Jacobsen will share the application for this new fund once it is created.

Other Activities/Updates

• The Faculty Executive Committee is working to plan the next forum, which will address issues of marginalized students. The FEC will send out more details about the forum soon.
• We will share a five-year review of the budget for the Division of Student Affairs with students on Friday, April 21. Dean Jacobsen will send out a separate communication with that information.
• In addition to the OID space, with expanded swipe-card access, Dean Jacobsen has been working with student leaders to identify options for additional, temporary space for student affinity groups. Given the College’s shared governance structure and limited available space, we will continue discussions about longer-term student organization space options, which require input from all members of our community including faculty, students and staff.
• This fall, Dean Sumi will lead a series of workshops designed for faculty on microaggressions, stereotype threat, LGBTQ+ identities and allyship, and more.

We look forward to discussing these proposed additions at Thursday’s dinner and to receiving your comments and feedback.

Sincerely,

Maria Klawe
President
Harvey Mudd College