Rachel Yeates, Campus Carrier Managing Editor
The inaugural Parents’ Council met on Friday to discuss opportunities to grow parent-college communication.
Administrators asked members of faculty and staff which students might have parents who would be willing to be involved.
“We really tried to get a cross-section of campus,” assistant vice president of student affairs Lindsey Taylor said. “We had student leaders in the mix, we had students from different work positions in the mix, different areas of study in the mix.”
Taylor also mentioned balanced gender representation and student athletes.
Twenty sets of parents of sophomores, juniors and seniors accepted invitations to join the council.
“We hope that we’ll get three years’ commitment out of (the parents of sophomores) so that there will always be consistency on the council,” Taylor said. “Ideally we will only replace one class each year.”
After the council becomes established, she hopes parents will be able to express interest to become involved.
A parental advisory body has been on the table for a long time, Taylor said.
“The conversation, philosophically, has been in the works for a few years,” Taylor said. “This year, it really gained some traction.”
Provost Kathy Richardson said she looks forward to the possibilities these parent relationships can bring students.
“They’ll be good partners with us in helping us shape programming but also helping us recruit students, helping us find friends of the college and sharing information about the college with their networks,” she said.
On Friday, parents ranked their interest in four areas. Assistant vice president of admissions Brett Kennedy will head an admissions committee. Assistant vice president of campaign and leadership giving Scott Breithaupt will head the fundraising committee. Dean of student work Rufus Massey and director of employer development Mark Kozera will head the job development and internship committee. Lindsey Taylor will head the parent relations committee.
Like the Board of Visitors, the Council will meet on campus once a year, but the committees’ work will be ongoing.
“We’re going to be communicating quarterly via either email or phone, and then we will be meeting again next Mountain Day,” Angelina Guerrero said. Guerrero, a member of the council, is the mother of senior Chantal Guerrero.
Parents spent most of Friday in conversation with administrators. Topics covered included the school’s strategic plan for the next several years, what it means to be “life ready,” improving the cost-value of a Berry education and benchmarks parents see as necessary for each year of study.
“I found it quite helpful to hear the discussions we had, what they see as important experiences for their students in the classroom, out of the classroom, the type of knowledge that they want their students to gain while they’re here,” Richardson said.
The council was supposed to meet over Mountain Day weekend.
Taylor identified the selection process and meeting agenda as two main factors in the decision to delay the meeting.
Guerrero found the events of Friday promising.
“My hopes are that what we begin will follow on for many years and parents will add on to what we’ve started,” she said. “I felt very deep connections to the parents there, even though we were only together for maybe eight hours.”
She said she knew the parents in attendance were there with the same goal.
“We wanted our children to succeed, and we want the future to succeed,” Guerrero said. “You guys are the future.”