Brainerd Council plans restructuring

Author: Brian Fung

In an effort to streamline event-planning processes, to encourage student involvement in the Commons next fall and to discuss obstacles to those objectives, the Brainerd Commons Council met in a special convention on May 2. The Council resolved to improve its relationship with Brainerd students and to reform programming protocols in the hope that individuals would find the Council more approachable.

"We're thinking of changing the whole system of how Brainerd [Council] is viewed," said Council Co-Chair Cordelia Ross '09. "There are certain stereotypes - that we're not very active, and that we don't do very much - but that's not true at all."

Improving public relations and raising Brainerd's profile within the College community would become recurring themes at the special Council meeting over the next hour. Those who attended evaluated residential-life staff involvement on all levels, from JCs to the Commons dean. Many believed that, as a support institution, Brainerd Commons had failed to establish a close relationship with its students.

"I've talked to people who have absolutely no Commons pride," said Emily May '10. "They don't have any connection to it."

May suggested that perhaps some healthy inter-Commons competition was needed to inspire that pride.

"[If Brainerd hosted] a baseball game against Atwater, you'd get people cheering on the sidelines, 'Go Brainerd, go team,'" she said. "If we can come out as the Commons that does cool things a lot, such as doing hikes, or bringing horses to campus, it'll bring people out."

May also suggested that Brainerd was simply too bland in many respects, from its name to its mascot to its Web site.

"I've been to the Web site before," said May. "And it says, 'The History of Brainerd,' and I think people see that and are like, 'oh.'"

Students hoping for a more lively Brainerd Commons may soon see their wishes granted, at least partially, as final preparations of an overhauled Brainerd Commons Web site are completed. Hepburn Hall Residential Advisor Hiba Fakhoury '09, who is responsible for designing the site, said that the new version is more visually appealing than the last.

"The final changes are not published yet because they're kind of drastic," said Fakhoury. "They're wiping everything that's already there. But if you look next week, there'll be great visuals. There'll be pictures, there'll be nice links to events."

Fakhoury also suggested giving students a stake in the Commons by including them in its operations.

"Add some people to the Council as an advertising committee responsible for visual displays and stuff we stick on doors," she said. "There's nothing that attracts me more than when I go inside the dining hall and I see the Brainerd bulletin board with pictures of things that just happened. And if we give them a camera, get them to stick pictures all over the walls and pay them for it, people will see it and will want to come to events."

But while some thought that creating new Commons jobs would entice students to become involved, others cautioned that without proper oversight, those students might fail to take their duties seriously.

"The huge problem is, if I don't do anything all month, I still get a hundred bucks," said Kris Wilson '08, a Hepburn Hall RA. "And if I work my butt off and do event after event after event, I get a hundred bucks. If the events are great - or if the events suck - it doesn't make any difference."

Wilson called for greater accountability, a sentiment that was echoed by a number of other meeting attendees. Brainerd Commons Residential Advisor (CRA) Melissa Simpson, who has had past experience working in residential life at Castleton State College, said that staff members there are expected to do their jobs as described in the application.

"Every two months we have a review with our resident director," said Simpson. "Because you get paid, you have to do your job. Because it was a real job, you had to plan your events, you had to do your bulletin boards."

Allie Jones '07 proposed so-called "exit interviews," a process that each residential-life staff member would have to undergo upon their departure.

"A lot of jobs do that," said Jones. "It's perfectly reasonable. 'What events did you throw this year? What do you think went well? What do you think went wrong? How satisfied are you with the Council? How satisfied were you with the Commons administration?' And maybe that should even happen multiple times throughout the year."

Though much of the meeting was devoted to resolving communications issues, the Council also addressed the related perception that students were insufficiently invested in the event planning process. To tackle those concerns, Ross and Recording Chair Kathryn Babin '07 proposed that future programs and events be planned by students, for students. The new system, if instituted, would free Brainerd Commons from the responsibility of planning and organizing events independently.

"Basically, the idea is to create a more organic structure," said Babin, "a more hands-off Council in terms of actual planning of events. The Council will instead be a coordinator of events. Things would be more bottom-up, and I think that would make Brainerd a lot more successful."

Under Babin's vision, the newly-reformed Brainerd Commons Council would feature roughly four or five individuals, each representing a particular residence hall or geographic area. Stewart Hall, Hepburn Hall and Brooker and Palmer Houses would each receive one spokesperson apiece, with an additional representative from Brainerd Commons' smaller houses.

To organize an event, students with ideas would visit their First-Year Counselor (FYC) or Residential Advisor (RA), who could provide an application form for funding.

"Getting it from your FYC would connect you to the ResLife network," said Babin. "Then you'd take that to the Council. The Council will look it over and help you look at what the plan is, flesh it out all the way, connect you with the appropriate people and connect you with the appropriate resources."

The requirement that students get in contact with their residential life network is being driven largely by a perceived disconnect between the Council and Brainerd students, according to Babin.

"The Council doesn't connect to ResLife, which doesn't connect to the students," she said. "It's these weird gaps that exist within our structure."

Stewart Hall Junior Counselor (JC) Caitlin Sargent '08 agreed, but extended the assessment to include the Commons administration as well.

"There's a huge amount of gaps in communication in Brainerd," said Sargent, "and the fact that none of the JCs know Dean [of Brainerd Commons Andrea] Baier - there's no mechanism for interaction. How can you have Brainerd pride if you don't know the people that are running Brainerd, you don't know the people who are representing Brainerd and there's no one to get excited about?"

Chester Harvey '09 encouraged Commons administrators to engage in informal, impromptu activities as a way to foster community with students. Harvey compared Brainerd Commons to Atwater Commons, citing his friends' occasional ice-climbing trips with their Commons dean.

"The most effective thing that I did as a freshman was to play wiffleball with the rest of my hall," said Harvey. "That's the sort of thing that takes no money, it just takes an effective administrator to say, 'let's go play wiffleball.' If there's a way to integrate that, it doesn't cost us anything - and we come out so far ahead."

The type of interaction between administrators and students that Harvey described, however, has yet to make an appearance this year, according to Alex Revelas '10.

"As a freshman, I know nothing about this. I never hear about [the Council]," said Revelas. "Th
ere is no publicity in Brainerd Commons, and that is our biggest problem. Working ground-up is great, but there needs to be some really dedicated people on this Council to do it, and that's just the be-all, end-all of it."