UW-Madison students had a chance to play a part in improving the university environment at the Day of Listening, held Tuesday at the Memorial Union Great Hall.
Sponsored by the Wisconsin Alumni Association and the provost's office, the program is designed to open up discussion between students on what experiences had benefited them specifically and then led to dialogue on what should be done to improve the climate of the university.
\This is part of our initiative to listen to the students,"" said Bernice Durand, UW-Madison associate vice chancellor for diversity and climate.
The activities started with a one-on-one interview session between students. Interview questions were specifically designed to share individual experiences on campus, both inside and outside of class.
While experiences differed among students, several students shared common themes, such as appreciation of class discussions and the unity offered by extracurricular activities.
""I felt like my opinions were valued. I felt more competent and capable with the information,"" UW-Madison junior Meredith Schonfeld-Hicks said about her discussion-oriented women's studies class.
Following the interviews, students wrote down their partner's No. 1 wish for the campus and then got together in larger groups to combine these wishes into one communal idea. Each group then presented its idea to the other students.
The wishes included a desire for more small learning communities such as the Freshman Interest Groups, more diversity on campus to better deal with social issues, more opportunities to have students express their opinions to the campus and student review of UW-Madison's Plan 2008.
""There'd be stronger committees on campus, because everyone would have their own support network,"" Associated Students of Madison Representative Brian Jenks said of the learning communities.
The groups then broke apart and reformed around the individual wishes, discussing what would happen if the idea was implemented and how it could come into being. Ideas revolved around getting more people involved and raising awareness, on both an individual and campus-wide level.
""They were very thoughtful, and extremely constructive, and that's the objective of this activity,"" Durand said.
The wishes and all implementation ideas will be posted at http://www.wisc.edu/climate. To offer suggestions, contact Bernice Durand at bdurand@wisc.edu.
