"We learned a great deal about how the program has grown, what support it needs to maintain its current operations and what it needs to become an even more successful part of Amherst," said Michael Flood '03, a student member of the College Council. "We were able to compare our outreach program with programs from a variety of comparable institutions and see both what we are doing well and where we need the most work."
According to Council member Eric Osborne '04, the project was the primary project of the Council this year and occupied approximately 85 percent of their attention.
Included among suggested changes are a relocation of the outreach office, hiring a second full- time employee for the program and making the program more accessible to more students.
"Though this is, indeed, a great deal to superintend, we found that for the most part the outreach program is successfully fulfilling its various missions," read the report that was addressed to Dean of the Faculty Lisa Raskin and the Committee of Six. "Indeed, we discovered that it has outgrown its modest resources as student demand on its staff and services has skyrocketed over the past decade."
According to the report, the College's outreach email calendar reaches one-third of students. "Compared to Williams College's best guess that only 15 percent of its students are involved in service, we can be very proud of our success," read the report. "But we seem to lag behind (among other schools) Wesleyan and Wellesley, which estimate participation as ranging from one-half to two-thirds of their students."
Members of the College Council have said that while they hope that their recommendations will quickly be put into practice, they realize that changes will require time and administrative effort.
"We hope, obviously, these changes will be implemented as soon as possible," said Professor of English Andrew Parker, who serves as the chair of the College Council. "We imagine that those with substantial budgetary consequences will take somewhat longer, of course."
The report has been distributed to the Committee of Six and the entire faculty will receive a copy shortly, according to Flood. "All of the recommendations are simply that-recommendations-and it is not necessarily the case that any or all of them will be implemented," he added.
The first claim that the Council made during the meeting was that "The outreach program is chronically understaffed." The report recommends that in addition to the single full time coordinator of the outreach program, a second full time employee be added.
The Council also requested that there be an additional van for outreach trips. "We heard complaints all year long that one van is simply not enough to meet the demand for daily transportation to the many ongoing programs in Holyoke. We recommend that a second van be dedicated exclusively for outreach activities," read the report.
The report also suggested that the location of the Outreach office in the basement of the Campus Center has "diminished its visibility and constrained its ability to expand physically as it already needs to do." The Council suggests that when the Career Center is relocated outside of Converse Hall the outreach office be located in the same building.
Finally, the Council suggests the creation of an outreach committee to advise the program. "We think an advisory committee should have student representation, along with the Outreach Director and Director of the Career Center as ex officio members, in order to determine the right balance for the College between 'community service' and social activism' components of the program," read the report.
Parker suggested that among all the Council's findings, the understaffing of the programs needs the most immediate attention. "We think the staffing and secretarial needs should be the first priority, and hope in any case that these would be in place for the start of the fall semester," he said. "We anticipate that the proposed new outreach committee would begin meeting then as well."
Osborne suggested that the report could have gone even further in its scope. "I feel that the report brought a few interesting points but only scratched the surface. It could have gone a little deeper on how to improve the program," he said.