At a March 12 meeting for campus media, President Creighton clarified the status of forthcoming decisions regarding the future structure of the chaplaincy and the allocation of space on campus for cultural groups.
Chaplaincy: "It was an erroneous rumor that the trustees were said to be voting on the chaplaincy last weekend," Creighton said. "It was not on the agenda at all, except when it was raised by the Student Conference Committee. Abolishing the chaplaincy was never considered; in fact, we want to give attention to the development of students' spiritual life."
Creighton said that a report from the College Life and Advising Committee, which has been studying issues related to campus spiritual life, reached her desk on March 12 and she had not yet read the report. The report will go to the Educational Priorities Committee for deliberation, and then to dean of the College John Rapaport for final decisions. Creighton added that she "appreciated students' expressions of interest in this matter" and emphasized that "no decision has been made" concerning the shape of the MHC chaplaincy.
In addition, a Five College council is about to be formed to look at issues of religious life from a multicampus perspective. Dick Unsworth, dean of the chapel at Smith College, has already been considering this issue.
Cultural space: The use of space for student life generally is being addressed by a study group as part of the Plan for MHC 2003 (which awaits trustee approval in May). The group has already looked at how other colleges--including Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Smith, and Wellesley--use their campus space, and will consider a broad range of space issues relating to MHC, including how space might be configured for cultural groups. "We would like to see recognition of the fact that we can't build new buildings and should make maximum use of existing space," Creighton said.
On the specific issue of space set aside for cultural groups such as Asian and Asian American students or lesbian and bisexual students, Creighton said, "We need to talk this through more." To that end, she will select a member of the campus community to coordinate efforts to "work our way through this issue," said the president.
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