In response to your Student Life concerns...

Despite it being the end of the year, Senate is still actively chugging along on a new project that will continue over the summer and into next year. For the time being, these are the conclusions we have come to:

One concern that many students share is that the student relationship with Student Life is not meeting either parties standards.  This has been an ongoing issue, and this relationship is a complicated one.  Senate was approached by a small group of students about improving this relationship, and Senate approached Student Life with the following statement and after a meeting with Student Life, the following statement was given in response.

Student Senate, working with student concerns, invites Student Life to an open dialogue moving toward clarity of procedures and priorities.

Student Life recognizes current concerns expressed by students directly and through facilitated conversation by Student Senate and is willing to engage in open dialogue in an effort to: 1) hear and clarify student concerns, 2) offer clarification of procedures and priorities, and 3) improve the relationship with concerned students through increased trust, communication, understanding, and shared goals for students at Bethel College.

As a first step to hear and clarify student concerns, Monday evening Student Senate hosted a time of conversation with a broad representation of students about these issues.  There was a variety of perspectives, and points of concern about both the student perspective and attitude toward Student Life and the disciplinary procedures were discussed.

There was documentation of these points of concern and in an effort to formalize other concerns, there is a form available if someone has a grievance they would like to share.  These will be used in conversation with Student Life about what should be clarified and communicated more effectively.

The school year is coming to an end, and we all have finals and final papers to be getting on with, yours truly included.  However, working with the concerns shared, a variety of students representing different perspectives on campus will work with Student Senate and Student Life over the summer about ways to build a more collaborative relationship.  

Some focus will be given to the handbook and specific disciplinary procedures for clarification.
Students will be provided with a hard copy of the Student Handbook at the beginning of the school year.
There will be a meeting at the beginning of next year to specifically handle clarification of the Handbook.  Also at this meeting we hope to help students understand the priorities of Student Life in general as well as how those priorities apply to specific procedures.
We will work to create ways of formal and informal conversation within the disciplinary procedures.

As this work progresses over the summer Student Senate will keep students updated through email.  Also, at the beginning of the new school year there will be additional goals, which will arise from more in depth conversation with Student Life.

 

--Naomi Graber

Vice President

Fast so that others may eat

Last Thursday and Friday I attended the Kansas Hunger Dialogue with President White. While we were there, many wonderful speakers and students addressed both global and local hunger issues and what college campuses can do about it. One such speaker, Tony Hall, a former legislator, spoke about a previous demonstration he conducted in the form of a water-only fast for 28 days. Hall is doing another multiple-day fast and he begins his fast on Marcy 28th.

To join Tony Hall in his fight against world hunger, other campuses around the state will be fasting on the 28th as well. The good news is, the 28th is the day after Spring Break, and I know most of us will feel like we have eaten too much over Break anyways, so the fast comes at a perfect time to renew our spirit and refocus on school.


Each meal we eat in the cafeteria costs roughly $1.80 per person. So, if we even hand half of the student body fast for all three meals, we could donate $1,350 dollars to Numana. Why Numana? In light of the recent tsunami and earthquake, Numana is scrambling to send food to those who have been displaced by these natural disasters. I realize the victims of the natural disasters are not necessarily also victims of chronic hunger, however Numana  also addresses global hunger and a donation to their organization helps them fund these projects, regardless of their cause.

Please, please, please reply to my stuent-announce if you are interested in doing this fast. You must sign up by this Friday, March 18th. Fasting for one day is the least we can do to offer our resources elsewhere, and call attention, even if it is just to alert ourselves, to the issue of global and local hunger.

- Julia Huxman

Numana Hunger Dialogue

I am here in Kansas City attending the Kansas Hunger Dialogue with President White. This event is hosted by Rick McNary (Andrew McNary's dad) who is the CEO of Numana. Remember when they came to do a packaging even on our campus to send food to Haiti? We got to package again today too.

The cool thing about it is that twenty colleges and universities from Kansas are here with one or two administrators and a student so we can talk about how to address global hunger on our campuses. It has been so cool to hear what other students are doing. For example, a senior who is actually from Auburn University in Alabama talked about how his school has a Minor in Hunger Studies and that they have a club on campus that stages awareness events regularly on their campus. I think all of us have been inspired by the speakers and the ideas that have been generated from their presentations. I mean one BILLION people in the world are facing chronic hunger this year!

Tomorrow I will get to talk about what Bethel is doing to address global hunger. I know, we don't have a specific organization on campus that addresses hunger, but I am going to talk about how our students get the opportunity to see the affects of hunger first hand by traveling. Those of you that went to Mexico and Haiti, I am using your stories to illustrate this, so thank you for sharing them with us during Convo.

I will post more tomorrow about the second day of the conference. So stay tuned!!
If you want to check out some websites,
http://www.feedthefuture.gov/
http://www.universitiesfightingworldhunger.org/

- Julia Huxman

Comming up

As we wrap up February, Senate has done a lot of work to plan out the rest of the semester. Most importantly, we are discussing what we should spend our money on!! It's always exciting to do some shopping for the campus with Senate's money, but we also think it's important to weigh our options. So, so far these are the items we have investigated:
A. More renovations to Mojo's  including more  new table tops and chairs, new curtains and artwork.
B. Raising funds to combine with ours to finish out the flooring that was started.
C. Setting aside some money to purchase new kitchen supplies for the mod kitchens.
D. Installing a fob (is that how you spell it?) system for the  Mem. Hall weight and cardio room.

What do you guys think? Any preferences? We still have to check on prices and that will ultimately determine our decision but if you have any suggestions or comments we want to hear them!!

Have a good weekend! And talk with your friends about running for Senate!

- Julia Huxman

Ready for a new semester

So we're all a week into classes and the campus is settling into its comfortable pace once more. Once the hype of new classes wears off, issues on campus become more apparent. We have our first senate meeting this coming Tuesday, and we have a loaded agenda. Among other things, we will be discussing continuing the renovation of Mojo's, the bike share program, the cafeteria committee, student-announce policies, the campus drug testing requirements, and a few other issues. If you can think of any more, you know the drill.

You may have seen in Convo today, that senate has the March 18th convocation. What would you like us to do to make that convo unique? Seriously. I want this to be informational so students know what we're actually doing but I don't want one single person sleeping!

I welcome your thoughts,

- Julia Huxman

2010 Recap

Students!

The year 2010 is ending on a good note for Bethel College. Many new and exciting things have happened on campus this year. Student Senate has brought Mojo's to campus (btw they're open during break from 7:00 am until 2:00 pm... take your parents in to re-load your mojo's card!).
The issues with the cafeteria have been identified and addressed with upper administration, and Chad Childs, the official liaison between the school and the food service, has been working diligently to make it clear that certain expectations must be met. You've gotta admit... the food HAS gotten better.. at least the dessert selection has! =)
Momentum is building to add Cheerleading as an official varsity sport at Bethel College. Todd Moore is the official contact for this endeavor, and if you have interest in helping him, or would simply like to voice your ideas with him, he welcomes your conversations.
Some other items Senate still has on the table include: proposing a pet policy, and revamping the bike-share program.


As you have time over break to stop and think about how much you love your school, and what could make it better, leave your comments on the blog! Senate is ready to hit the ground running second semester. Let us know what you want from us!

Enjoy the holidays!
-- Julia Huxman

Food Committee

Next Food Committee meeting: Friday (tomorrow) 2:00 in Seminar A

Five major things came out of our meeting from last Friday:

1. The food committee consists of Ami Acheson (Student), Wesley Goodrich (Student), Trint (Aladdin), and Terry (Aladdin).  In order to better define the purpose of the food committee, we created goals for the school year.  They are as follows:
     a. Create an open system of good, productive communication between students and Aladdin Staff.
     b. Address student concerns in a financially conservative and appropriate manner.

2. If you have dietary restrictions, please contact Chad Childs, Ami Acheson, Terry or Trint so that these restrictions can go into food planning.  Examples of dietary restrictions would include but are not limited to: vegans, vegetarians, lactose intolerance, peanut allergies, etc.

3. Please try and clean up after yourself.  If you drop a piece of chicken, pick it up.  Aladdin workers clean up, but they are not your mothers and you are not a toddler.  If you wouldn't leave a mess at your own house, please be respectful to your fellow students and Aladdin staff and try to pick up after yourself.

4. Please bring the bowls, cups, plates, silverware, etc. back to the caf.  Bethel pays for these things, not Aladdin, and at the beginning of the school year, there were enough of each for everyone.  However, some items are starting to get low.  If you have them in your room, bring them to the caf please.  You don't even have to clean them, just bring them back so they can be used by everyone again. 

5. There is a new feedback system for comments.  Good, bad, and indifferent comments can be emailed to foodcommittee@bethelks.edu.  Please include constructive comments or suggestions so that we can serve you better.

Some other items discussed include:

Aladdin expressed concern with what students really want.  If comment cards are anonymous and/or do not include a date, then it is very difficult to give feedback or have discussion about the items addressed on the comment card.

It is against health code to spray for flying insects in the caf.  The best they can do is to hang fly paper and hope the flies go there.  However, if the doors to the outside are held open for long periods of time then flies will come into the building and there isn't anything we can do about it until the weather gets colder and the flies start disappearing.

Aladdin is going to launch a facebook page which should have future menus and suggestion areas.

Please, please, please scan your card every time you enter the caf.  The way your meal plan works is that you pay the school a set amount for a set number of meals every week.  You pay for these meals whether you eat them or not.  Where scanning comes into play is for Aladdin's food costs.  The more students that scan for each meal, the lower the food cost is per person.  This makes it easier for Aladdin to justify spending more money on food for meals.  This will also help to give more options for Evening and Weekend meals.

Thanks,

Ami Acheson

Meeting with President White

President Julia and I met with President White and Dalene this evening.  He asked us to come in order to gain a student perspective and share some information about projects they are working on.

Discussion started with the cafeteria.  We shared the discussion from our Food Committee meeting (the minutes from that will be posted tomorrow on this blog!).  For ongoing improvements, we need ongoing feedback, constructive, both positive and negative.  Please comment both with comment cards and on this blog.

Next President White shared his ideas for campus improvements.  He is working on a schedule for regular maintenance projects for all dorms, starting with Haury.  Please share suggestions with Student Senate.

There was also discussion about service.  Dalene as volunteer numero uno is heading up a Service Corps of retirees in the area to help make campus beautiful.  We on campus will partner with them, especially on Service Day.  We are planning a project to clean up Kidron Canal.  This is a lovely part of our campus that is often ignored and in need of help.  More information about this will come later.

Discussion was enjoyable and productive.  We look forward to more meeting s like this in the future.  If you have things you would like us to share, please let us know!

Cheerleading?

What do you students think about Cheerleaders? Does Bethel need a Cheer squad? The school is seriously considering adding Cheerleading as another option for athletic participation at Bethel College.
Would you, or do you have friends who would be interested in trying out? Do you know of high school students who are looking to make a college decision based on the opportunity of Cheerleading?
Post your thoughts on this subject!

Now what?

Now that the cafeteria challenge is officially over, as of 7:00 pm tonight, we will be moving forward in addressing student concerns with the cafeteria food. Comments will continue to be posted in the last blog post as cabinet members send in their final observations.

NEXT Wednesday (after Fall Fest) October 13th at 7:00 pm we will have a Student Senate meeting where we will discuss student concerns that we feel are high priorities for the year. You can guarantee that the cafeteria will be at the top of this list. If you would like to voice your personal concerns, please feel free to come to this meeting and let us know. If you have personal concerns with the cafeteria still, post comments on the observations we have posted so far. We need feedback (positive and negative) in order to create a change that students want.

- Julia Huxman

Cafeteria Update!

The Cafeteria Challenge is underway, and as promised we have some comments for you from the participants. The instructions were to eat all three meals in the cafeteria and nothing else... as a student should be able (and is expected) to do. If participants find themselves eating extra food once they return home, or purchasing food from Mojo's and other venues, they need to make a note of that, as that is extra money that a student would be paying for food throughout the week.

The goal of this project is to create awareness about the realities of relying on the Cafeteria for nutrition and energy.

Here are some comments from Day 2. 


President White has been posting to the President's blog, the link to that is here:
http://www.bethelks.edu/president/blogs/blog1.php

Day 3:

Breakfast:  I came in for breakfast soon after 8am and made a two-egg omelet with sausage and cheese.  It was very good and things seemed more clean than they have been in the food areas.  I noticed we were out of clean bowls by the omelet bar but found one at the cereal area.  I mentioned this to Aladdin staff and they immediately went to get clean bowls.

Lunch:  For lunch I had a piece of the taco pizza, and made my own burrito (minus the tortilla) at the build-your-own-burrito bar.  Both were very good, and I went back to get two more pieces of taco pizza!  I enjoyed lunch quite a bit today.  Some of the students I was eating with enjoyed the meal, but one student tried several things and was having a hard time finding something she liked.

Dinner:  For supper I had the beef sandwich.  The bread was very large, and I did not eat all of it.  I probably could have asked for the meat without the bread, but I didn’t think about this at first.  On my second bite into my sandwich I bit into something harder than meat.  I’m not sure what it was…a small bone or grissle…and I didn’t look at it as I sneakily covered my mouth with a napkin and tucked it away in there.  I finished most of the sandwich, and it was okay.  I had the cooked vegetables, which were the same mix as what we had on Monday evening.  They were good.  I heard the cake was great, but I don’t really eat a lot of cake and had just had some a couple hours before supper (strange enough!). 

I’m noticing some difference between the lunch meal and the evening meal, in that I’ve been more consistently pleased with lunches.  Maybe it’s the additional option at the show-time station.  This is something I had heard from students…that the evening and weekend meals are not as good as the lunch meals, on average.

It is also important to note that in my conversations with students this week, a theme seems to be developing.  This theme is related to customer service.  Multiple students have given independent reports about times when they felt they were an inconvenience to food service staff.  This seems to occur most frequently at high-traffic times before the end of an hour.  For example, I have heard concerning reports about the food on the line being low at 10-til the hour several times in the morning and again late in the cafeteria’s open hours.  In addition to the food lines not being well-stocked, students express seeing the staff act visibly upset, complaining and asking the students how many are coming, etc.  In the last two days I have received reports of this happening at 10-til 8am and 9am, and Tuesday evening.  The report about Tuesday evening was that a large group of student-athletes came at the same time soon before 7pm.  The students did not feel like the staff was ready for this group and were upset about the group coming in so late.

I have also received concerning reports from food service staff about how students are treating them, and I have been following up with these students. 

Customer service is extremely important in the cafeteria, and was a point of emphasis last year.  I hope that this part of the experience can improve for everyone involved, as the food service company is here to serve the students well…and I hope our community responds favorably and respectfully even when things don’t go as well as hoped.  The students are the focus of the service here, and I hope efforts can be made by Aladdin to help them feel more welcome and not like an inconvenience.  For the relationship between food service staff and the students to improve, I believe customer service will need to be a top priority.

Day 2 Cafeteria Comments

The Cafeteria Challenge is underway, and as promised we have some comments for you from the participants. The instructions were to eat all three meals in the cafeteria and nothing else... as a student should be able (and is expected) to do. If participants find themselves eating extra food once they return home, or purchasing food from Mojo's and other venues, they need to make a note of that, as that is extra money that a student would be paying for food throughout the week.

The goal of this project is to create awareness about the realities of relying on the Cafeteria for nutrition and energy.

Here are some comments from Day 2. 






Post 1:

Well, some things improved this morning.  There was a fresh pot of regular coffee when we walked in.  There were apples and bananas in the fruit basket. 

But some things did not improve.  The doors still did not open until about 7:19 a.m. (even after Allen Wedel started pounding on them much earlier).  There were still no spigots on the juice machine when we arrived.  And the fruit was really quite pathetic.  The oranges were a disaster.  Of the five apples, only two were even slightly attractive.  And the bananas?  They were perfect—for making banana bread.  Definitely NOT for eating.

The eggs and potatoes, on the other hand, were really VERY good!

Post 2:

 I ate all three meals on Monday in the cafeteria.  The food at breakfast was good; however, Aladdin did not open on time.  A student had to knock on the door to get them to open up at 7:18.  This makes it difficult for the students that are student teaching to have time to eat breakfast.  There was also no coffee, and the juice machines were not working.  Dale Schrag and I had to tell them that the juice machines were not working—Aladdin management was not aware of it.

I had the tuna casserole for lunch.  I thought it was very good.  They ran out of desserts, though.  Terry put more out after I complained.  Since I eat lunch in the cafeteria almost everyday, I’ve noticed that they run out of desserts frequently.  Not a good thing!

The evening meal of noodles and meatballs was okay.  But my wife and I thought it was funny that the server counted out three meatballs for each of us.  Food rationing!  I had the mixed vegetables with it, which I thought were undercooked.  Pudding for dessert.  I thought the meal was average.  But I’m a meat and potatoes kind of a guy.

Ate breakfast again Tuesday morning in the cafeteria.  They had a good selection—biscuits and gravy, eggs and bacon, potatoes, etc.  Breakfasts seem to have the most selection, and it’s serve yourself!

The food that is being served in the cafeteria is okay.  Breakfasts are really good.  The biggest problems that I have noticed so far are not opening on time in the morning for breakfast, and the flies.  Time to get the fly swatter out!

Post 3:

Breakfast:  I came in for breakfast at around 8:20am and was in a hurry.  I went for the blueberry yogurt and granola and sat for a quick conversation with a couple of students.  It was good conversation, and their only comment on the food was that the biscuits and gravy were good, but maybe a little crispy on the bottom.  My granola and yogurt was delicious.  Had to run!

Lunch:  For lunch I had a meeting, so I came in to grab some food before heading to Seminar A.  I love Thai food, so I picked up a Thai Peanut Wrap prepared by Chef Trint, with everything on it.  I asked if there was any “red rooster sauce” (it’s really called Sririacha) as I like my Thai food spicy.  Well…not “Thai-hot”, but American-Thai-hot.  Chef said they did have some still, and Terry went to the back to get it.  My wrap was delicious, so I went back for another without the tortilla and had a tasty Thai salad!

Dinner:  Jody (my beautiful and amazing wife) was ill today, so she wasn’t able to come to the cafeteria for supper.  So, I had the kids for some family chaos in the caf!  It was an adventure, and they seemed to enjoy it.  Gracie and Jada took the chicken alfredo (without noodles) and some corn and then helped themselves to some salad bar fixins.  They seemed to just pick at the food and didn’t eat too much.  Trey enjoyed some ham chunks and chick peas from the salad bar, and got really excited when the pickles were set out.  In the line I asked for a little bit of noodles and corn for him, and we must have had some misunderstanding as I received a heaping plateful!  He didn’t really like either, so I ate as much of this as I could so it wouldn’t be wasted.  Jada continues to eat her weight in olives at each meal.  All three had a few slices of salami from the deli bar.  I had the BBQ chicken sandwich, without the bun, and some corn.  It was okay.  Not my favorite, but I almost went back for seconds because I’m a glut.  This was probably my least favorite meal of the week so far, but I don’t eat pasta and don’t know how it was.  On a positive note, the fruit basket looked great today.  Our family shared two bananas.

Cafeteria Challenge

The Cafeteria Challenge began yesterday, and as promised we have some comments for you from the participants. The instructions were to eat all three meals in the cafeteria and nothing else... as a student should be able (and is expected) to do. If participants find themselves eating extra food once they return home, or purchasing food from Mojo's and other venues, they need to make a note of that, as that is extra money that a student would be paying for food throughout the week.

The goal of this project is to create awareness about the realities of relying on the Cafeteria for nutrition and energy.

Here are some comments from Day 1.

  -   The cafeteria didn’t open until 7:17 a.m., after Andrew McNary pounded on the door.


·     There was no coffee waiting.  The staff started brewing the coffee after we were already in.  That meant, of course, that it was fresh—but it was also decaf.  (I wasn’t sure why you would start with decaf.)

·         I’m an apple guy (actually a Fuji apple snob).  I didn’t expect a Fuji.  Figured I’d have to settle for a Red [not so] Delicious.  I was wrong.  No apples at all.  The only semblance of “fresh” fruit was a basket of very old, bruised, oranges, at least some of which were covered in fruit flies.

- I came in to lunch a little after noon. It was good to see the menu posted at the line.  I decided to go for the chicken sandwich with onions and peppers.  It was pretty tasty and I think my appetite surprised President White, who sat down with me among a group of students. So, I downed the sandwich and some chips.  I think I ate some veggies too, but I can’t remember now if they were carrots or something else…  They didn’t leave much of an impression with me either way, obviously! The sandwich was really good, and I heard a lot of positive comments about lunch from students around me.


 Stay tuned ! this will be updated constantly!

Commence the Cafeteria Challenge!

And so it begins!

On Monday morning, Central Administration will begin joining us in the cafeteria for all meals.  Until Sunday night, Brad Born, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Alan Wedel, Interim Vice President for Business Affairs, Todd Moore, Vice President for Admissions, Dale Schrag, Director of Church Relations, and Chad Childs Vice President for Student Life, will become part of our cafeteria community, and as such, will also be sitting with students to get the full experience. 
[President White will also be joining us, but because a significant part of his job is off-campus meetings, he will need to miss meals.  Because of this, President White's challenge will be extended until he has eaten the same number of meals.]

This is to create awareness among our entire community about the realities of relying on the Cafeteria for nutrition and energy.  There will be updates on the Student Senate blog [ http://bethelsenate.blogspot.com ], so be sure to check this to see reactions and reviews.

Thanks to everyone who supported this effort!

Senate Meeting

The first Senate meeting with all new senators is tonight, Wednesday September 22nd at 9:00 pm in Mojo's.  Anyone is welcome to attend, however business will be discussed and decided by senators.

If you're wondering if it's worth attending, or are just curious about what we talk about in the meetings, here is an outline of the agenda for tonight:
(P.S Stay tuned for information on the cafeteria challenge!! )

SENATE  AGENDA 9/22/10

1. Welcome
2. Elections
1. Treasurer
2. Secretary
3. Committee Appointments
4. Fall Festival
1. Preparation
2. Board Meetings
5. Housekeeping
1. Convo Evaluation
2. Newletters decision
6. Information Sharing
1. Cafeteria Challenge Update
2. Bike Share
7. Blog Comments
1. Overview
2. Process discussion

Ideas for 2010

What are your ideas after listening to the Student Senate convo?

Respond to this blog post and tell us what you like about Bethel, and what you would like to see improve.

Coffee shop

Today the Senators participated in the Bethel Adventure course. It was so much more challenging than I expected!! Just imagine 11 college students trying to balance on a tight-rope in a little clearing in the woods. It was definitely good bonding for our group. For example, we learned that Justine has the best balance out of any of us, and she will probably be sore tomorrow from all her attempts to lead us across the ropes! We learned a lot about each other and  really had to function as a team to get the job done.  Hopefully we can try it again, just maybe when it's not so hot outside!

Move in day!

All 2010-2011 Senators will move in to campus on Friday, August 27th!

This way all senators will be available to help new and returning students the next day (Saturday the 28th). 

As you returning students move in this year, you may notice the space previously known as Bubberts has morphed into something much more modern, practical, and USABLE! Mojo's Coffee will be opening its doors in early September for all faculty, staff, students, as well as community members. Mojo's will offer a variety of coffee and specialty drinks, both hot and cold, as well as a delicious menu of pastries and sandwiches.

Also, don't forget the Bethel Bike Share will be available again this year on a first come, first serve basis. Please contact Sarah Pohl, Naomi Graber, or myself if you are interested.

Service Week @ the Homeless Shelter

The open slots (I'll keep this page updated as things change):

April 9 - 5-11 pm
April 10 - 5-11 pm, 11-8 am
April 11 - 5-11 pm, 11-8 am
April 12 - 5-11 pm
April 13 - 5-11 pm, 11-8 am

Remember: sign-up as soon as you can. Check your student-announce email for more information.

Harvey County Homeless Shelter

Students,

Here are the pre-scheduled volunteer training sessions at the Harvey County Homeless Shelter (209 E. Broadway, email info@hchs-ks.com with questions). PLEASE consider donating your time. Bring a strong ethic of service back to the Bethel student body.

Feb. 9 at 6:30 pm
Feb. 15 at 10:00 am
Feb. 25 at 6:30 pm
Mar. 2 at 6:30 pm
Mar. 17 at 10:00 am
Mar. 18 at 6:30 pm
Mar. 29 at 6:30 pm
Apr. 14 at 10:00 am
Apr. 19 at 6:30 pm

-Matt Stucky