DMACC faculty, staff and students are bridging gaps in communication through a college council. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
In the months since Des Moines Area Community College student Randi Marler joined the new DMACC College Council, her post-graduation ambitions have changed from volunteering in art therapy to academic advising.
She’s been inspired by the work she has seen and done through the council, she said, and she wants to provide support for students who have questions or need support and assurance. The council has given her and other students more of a presence in the shared governance of the community college, she said, as well as staff and faculty across DMACC’s campuses.
Marler said she has a deep admiration for the council members, as they are working their hardest to make DMACC better for everyone.
“It’s almost as if the college itself is inviting you to participate in your education and how you are receiving it, you know what I mean, just because you get to have a little bit of insight and an opinion,” Marler said.
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Members of the DMACC College Council are working to bridge communication gaps among students, staff, faculty and administration and make everyone in the community college feel like their voice is being heard, council co-chair Bethany Sweeney said.
Sweeney said the work on forming a college council began in late 2020, after the Higher Learning Commission, one of DMACC’s accrediting bodies, suggested that the college put more of a focus on shared governance. President Rob Denson started shopping around for ideas, and she reached out to share some thoughts with him.
While plans shifted from having separate senates for faculty and staff and revamping student government, eventually Sweeney and the others working with her landed on a combined faculty, staff and student advisory council. The body includes representatives from different faculty pathways, staff divisions and students like Marler.
The council conducted volunteer selections to fill seats last fall and held its first election this spring, Sweeney said, with its permanent charter just waiting for approval by the college’s executive committee.
The college council has a few overarching missions, Sweeney said, one of the biggest being making communication more consistent across the college and campuses. With a number of campuses and regional locations throughout Iowa, DMACC is a large institution comprised of many moving parts, and the council is trying to serve as a body people can go to when they’re trying to find out information or want to let them know about something so it can be passed along to the right people.
“I think we have definitely had people learn more about other roles at the college and how they interact with each other,” Sweeney said. “It’s been good for getting faculty and staff together in realizing, ‘Oh, we have some of the same concerns, or some of the same challenges in how to support students, or I can reach out to that person if I have a question.’”
When DMACC Dean of Student Resources and Ankeny Student Success shared allegations of Board Chair Joe Pugel using college staff resources during his 2017 election, he sent information and documents to the college council as well as leaders and other members of the campus community.
Sweeney said the council’s role in this instance has been to facilitate communication about the information Robinson brought up and speak with the college administration to see if any additional information can be provided, as well as discuss any next steps.
DMACC’s executive committee, which includes the president, vice presidents and other leaders, will also reach out to the council if they would like to get opinions from the campus community on a project or policy.
Denson said he appreciates the faculty, staff and students who are putting in the work on the college council, as it gives him and the college in general another avenue to share information and receive feedback.
“As we have projects going down the pike, we communicate with them, and they know what’s going on, and they can communicate with their members,” Denson said. “It’s very early on … but I’m very excited about what it means.”
The council also serves as an outlet for people who traditionally aren’t heard from as much, so they make their concerns and ideas known. Sweeney said they have received emails from people seeking information or wanting to ask questions about the college or council, and at every meeting, DMACC community members not on the council will attend.
Matt Sprengeler, an academic advisor at the Ankeny DMACC campus and a member of the council, said in his 20 years working on the staff side of multiple institutions, it’s not often that staff are involved in bodies like the council.
“It is rare, relatively, that we get included in this kind of conversation,” Sprengeler said. “So it is very, very appreciated that DMACC is letting and encouraging staff to have a voice in all of this.”
There is still some work to be done in informing people on campus about the council and its functions, Sweeney said, as some are still unsure about what sort of powers it has. As a purely advisory council, the members vote on recommendations to make to relevant parties about what’s happening on campus, but they don’t hold the weight to make changes themselves.
Shared governance is not a very well-known concept to many, Sprengeler said, especially those who don’t have experience with a four-year university. It’s not the most common thing to see at community colleges, he said, but since DMACC is the largest community college in Iowa, it should be setting an example for others.
“We’re doing something that DMACC has not generally done,” Sprengeler said. “We’re reaching across the borders of faculty and staff, reaching across the borders of disciplines and offices, reaching across all the various campuses, and providing one place where people can have these conversations. The college really hasn’t done that before, so we’re very excited about what we can do if we’re actually all talking to each other at once.”
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