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President Carol T. Christ is holding small-group
conversations with students, faculty and staff about positioning Smith most successfully
for the future. Here's a summary of one of the discussions.
In opening the session, President Christ described the strategic planning process
and enumerated three central questions: What are the distinctive strengths
of Smith? What capacities should all students develop? What external challenges should
Smith be anticipating? She described the goal of defining six to eight large issues
that will shape strategic planning in the coming year. She then opened the discussion.
The first topic raised was preparing for life after Smith. A student lauded the
development of courses on useful or “practical” topics, such as “Women’s
Medical Issues” and “Natural Disasters.” She noted that such courses
are effective ways for non-majors to explore different departments.
Support was voiced for faculty helping students find
internships and apply for fellowships, as well as for alumnae returning to campus
to describe what they have done with their major. A student noted that personal visits
from alumnae are “better than online
information”; the Picker engineering program, she said, has been particularly
effective in putting current students in touch with alumnae. Organizing career conversations
by department might be too limiting, one participant pointed out, since one can major
in a field but pursue a career in a different area. The capacities one gains, such
as speaking and listening, are often more critical, she said, than the content of
the field studied.
Students expressed uncertainty about embarking on life after graduation and said
they would welcome advice from recent graduates on topics like housing, graduate
school and networking. “Knowing that recent graduates aren’t clear about
their lives and goals is reassuring,” one student observed. “I’m
a sophomore and I’m already terrified about what I will do after I graduate.”
Discussion moved to the challenges of balancing career and family. A student who
works at reunion pointed out, “At the two-year reunions, there are no babies.
At the 10-year reunion, everyone has babies.”
Conversation ensued about the benefits and drawbacks of delaying having children;
of the child-friendliness of academic careers; and about the challenges of finding
good childcare. As with career matters, students voiced a desire for personal narratives
and advice from alumnae.
With regard to important capacities, students recognized that quantitative skills
would be essential in their post-graduate lives. “In the real world, we cannot
to run away when we see numbers.” One student, noting that she is “afraid
of math” expressed desire for a “Math for Dummies” class. Another
cited the need for professors who “don’t present math as if it’s
scary,” and for math classes aimed at non-majors. One cited “Quantitative
Methods for the Social Sciences” as an excellent way to experience math and
gain confidence.
Other capacities that interest students are debate skills and public speaking, as
well as networking.
Conversation turned to the issues of communication at
Smith and ways to help students connect with resources and opportunities available
to them. Support was expressed for a student-oriented version of eDigest and a student-run
Web page; posters placed in dining halls near where students wait in line; significant
improvements to the Five College course database; a booklet for first-years about
resources at Smith; a smaller version of the course catalogue; and departmental lounges
where students can gather near faculty offices.
It was also recognized that in-person communication can be effective. A student
suggested that Heads of New Students be trained to tell first-year students about
opportunities available to them. Another pointed out that a student’s house
community is a strong source of useful information. “Housemates tell you the
things other people don’t tell you,” she said, such as information about
professors at other campuses.
Students also expressed concern about advising and course selection. These concerns
were particularly acute for first-year students. “Someone should have told
me to take a more advanced English class,” one student recounted, “because
I had done AP English in high school.” Some thought that advice about majors
is best delivered in the second semester of the first year, when students have their
feet on the ground.
Class size was also raised as a concern, particularly for first-year students. The
president explained that some courses are large by design and that some professors
have a policy of letting in as many students as want to take the course. Departments
with many majors can often have large classes, but that isn’t always bad; one
student said that, in retrospect, she was glad that she had had a shared experience
of an introductory class in her major with a large cohort of peers. Students offered
a number of suggestions, including prerequisites for advanced courses in the social
sciences; placement tests in all departments; pre-major advisers matched to students’ interests;
and first-year seminars with departmental credit.
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