But as with all anecdotes it is true and it happened last Thursday as President Parrish decided to join some students during lunch at Morgan Commons. The reasons as to why he sat at our table are completely unknown to me, the truth is that when I got there at 12:17 he was already sitting there and talking to some students.
It is strange to realize that every time the word Diversity is said our minds quickly translate it into racial, ethnic or gender topics and we rarely think of alternative lifestyles, hobbies, age, position, states or some other not so obvious differences as skin color language or gender. However at the table we had a very diverse group of not only nationalities, language, skin color and backgrounds but also of leadership positions, school positions, years at WPI and so on. It was a very nice opportunity to really test the true potential of diversity. And although President Parrish did not come to be interviewed but rather talk to student on a very informal setting I asked for his permission to record the discussion and then we started talking about WPI's social life.
There were several topics touched upon during the very interactive conversation in which almost everybody got to give their point of view on some issues, giving us a more global view of the subject we were discussing at that point. Here is a brief summary of what happened.
The first point touched upon was the need for WPI students to develop better interpersonal skills, President Parrish however wanted to know why the students thought this was an issue. Students proceeded to give President Parrish a list of common examples such as lack of community spirit on campus, the lack of participation and apathy in general, as well as the fact that some club and organizations were not doing as well as they should, even though the potential was there for them to be very successful organizations.
One of the students also pointed out that "students more frequently than not missed the whole point of the WPI program, especially the sufficiency, because according to them they came here to study engineering and don't see the need to become a well-rounded individual. They just see the sufficiency as a requisite that they need to complete." According to Parrish that was a shame, he added that: "to survive in the next century as an employee you need a broad liberal education, communication skills... personal skills in general."
The question was then "What can we [students and administrators] do to get more students motivated to get leadership roles and develop their leadership skills as well as their social skills?" To his surprise, some students responded that they were already doing something to help the situation. The leadership conference, "Engineering Leadership Conference", to be held in January was discussed with him at the same time. Explaining how this conference would prove to be a very useful tool to create these leadership and social skills in people who lack them or think they have not exploited them to their maximum potential. President Parrish was really pleased with the project and offered to help with what he could to make the project a success.
The discussion then shifted to compare WPI with MIT, and other campuses of technical schools nearby. Here the group really disagree on why we really lacked school spirit, some argued that there was not really a lot to do in the city, other said that was somehow true but that with 9 other universities on the city it was very hard not to find something to do if one really wanted to. "Students isolate themselves, they don't really socialize with people at other colleges in the city and are never pleased with the activities on campus. Not too many things seem to be fun for them." a student said.
On the other hand others point out that the strong fraternity system was a tough rival for any activity done on campus. "Any day you decide to have an activity, there will be a party at a fraternity and that's where the girls are and that's where students will go," a student commented.
President Parrish also commented that earlier that week he had had the opportunity to go the women's basketball game and hardly 30 people were there, which he considered kind of surprising. Another student pointed out that the same situation happened at some activities on campus where the attendance was always minimal, especially at ethnic events. The motion was explained by other student who explained that those type events however might occur for a different reason. In President Parrish's words "that's one of the risks in pluralism. It gives the organization independence to govern their own group and work in a cooperative society but however the rest of the people are under the impression that all efforts or events sponsored by these organization are targeted to their own audience and other students feel they are not welcome." In other words, if the Hispanic Student Association is sponsoring an event, other clubs feel the coffeehouse is just for Hispanic students only, which is not really the case but students have that perception. A solution to these problem is as simple as realizing that publicity for these events should be more carefully planned than for other events.
A reasonable solution will be getting these different groups to work together on the same event for which active participation from all is required, since the interaction between different clubs is really minimal. Also the club Presidents should maximize the potential of their active members and the members themselves should become promoters of their events by letting the other organizations they are involved in what these other groups are doing. These will expand the three days of club interaction from four, namely Homecoming, Winter Carnival, Quadfest and Activities Day, to an ongoing series of events throughout the year improving by far the school spirit.
At this point the real issues behind apathy on campus were narrowed down to the lack of interaction and communication between clubs, and sometimes the lack of effective communication and leadership roles of club presidents and active members.
However President Parrish made the point clear that we as students should not only look at the issues but also search for solutions to these issues. The table then started brainstorming with a series of programs that should tackle this issue of community building, communication skills, and leadership skills. It should be worthwhile to mention that residential services training program for RA's receive not only the appraisal of the resident advisors but also some of the students present. It was decided among the group to take it and create a program similar to that of Residential Services training for Resident Advisors and adapted for student organization leaders. "It makes a lot of sense, RA's get compensated for being responsible for people on their floor and one of the main duties is to create a community. In the same way SGA is giving this club this money; how come we are not building a community?"
The point of the retreat will be for student leaders to get to know each other, hopefully increasing the flow of information among the different organizations. The long range goal will then be create a much stronger community at WPI. "It is one to one win situation. The student will develop the leadership skills they need to succeed in their jobs and will grow fonder of this place." Parrish said adding than them students will be more eager to represent WPI which in consequence will improve WPI's rankings nationally.
"The bottom line for any school is for their graduates to get good jobs and keep them and that means being able to get along. To do that you need the skills that can be picked up by participating actively in any club or organization in campus. It seems to me that the university would be better off if we had a means to facilitate the interaction that way the students will be better off when they graduate" Parrish said.
The whole point will be to create a stronger community by enabling the student body to maximize their leadership potential to complement the strong curricular background offered at WPI. This retreat for organizations leaders would complement the conference on January. "One will focus on creating the leadership skills and the other one will focus on maximizing those skills," a student said.
"70% of the corporations in this country have global programs to train their managers in diversity but these programs are not very successful because you take these people out of their work environment that never had to think about these issues before and you give them a one day workshop. To deal comfortably with certain issues you should have to encounter them day after day. That's why we have to do that here [at WPI]"
A committee was formed already to help President Parrish to organize the retreat. A solution to a problem that affects us all would be solved by using the true power of diversity. Being able to interact not only with students but also with administrators and listening to different point of views really gave a lot of ideas to everybody present. Indeed, one of the most productive meetings I have ever seen at WPI.
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