Students living in Cole, Sullivan and Slichter Residence Halls this week established a steering committee to expand their involvement in their community.
According to Michael Dyer, a UW-Madison senior and student leadership adviser for CSS, he and several fellow residents developed the idea of the CSS Steering Committee to encourage students in the three residence halls to assume an active role in improving their residence hall life.
Dyer said the committee formed not in response to discontent among residents, but rather out of a desire to broaden the scope of student involvement. In his opinion, the committee will offer students a unique chance to have a tangible influence on their community.
\Residents now have the opportunity to put their vision into action,"" Dyer said. ""How widespread that is, how sweeping that is, how profound that is will be primarily determined by the students themselves.""
Carolyn Bell, resident life coordinator for the CSS Residence Halls, said she hopes that meeting with the committee will help staff better understand students and modify policy accordingly.
""We're looking to see if we're meeting the needs of residents and how we can improve under the model of housing,"" she said.
The 16-person committee, comprised of both residents and housefellows, is divided into seven sub-committees that each examines a particular aspect of resident life, ranging from event planning to communication among the buildings. The sub-committees will confer when necessary and the entire committee will meet once every two weeks in a forum Dyer describes as conversational, rather than bureaucratic.
Bell said she views the committee's role as a three-step process: first they will investigate existing policies; then they will explore how the policies affect students; and finally they will recommend improvements.
""It's just our own initiative to see what students want to do within CSS,"" she said.
Dyer said he particularly welcomes the committee's capacity of suggesting change.
""This will hopefully be a concrete way to investigate recommendations and share what we've found with other members of the CSS community,"" he said.
Jevechius Bernardoni, a UW-Madison sophomore and a member of the CSS Steering Committee, said he is excited about the committee's potential impact on the campus as a whole.
""I'm really excited because if what we do actually works then it could theoretically trickle down to all the rest of housing,"" he said.
