See Features to learn about what you really put on your face.
friday,march20, 1987
cabrinicollege,radnor,pa. 19087
vol.xxxiii,no. 18
Deancontinuesto dealwith transition by Stephanie Giardini
It is his first year; a transitional period filled with problems, solutions and changes. It is James Fitzsimmons', dean of students, stepping stone for the years to come at Cabrini. "I guess the transitional year in any office is the hardest year," Fitzsimmons said. "This is no exception." The beginnings of this year were hard for Fitzsimmons and the student services department. The entire staff was new and still learning to function in the office. "When Sr. Christine and Colleen DiRaddo left, there was a gap that was not filled quickly," Fitzsimmons said. "The first couple of months were rough for both the staff and the students." The changes in personnel that occurred within the student services were drastic and caused much anxiety to all who had contact with it. Fitzsimmons believes that this anxiety was due to the unfamiliarity of personalities and styles of those who worked in and with the department. The staff and the students needed time to adjust to new people and new relationships. A major change in the physical arrangement of the staff was the move of the office of Mary Ellen Lilly, director ofresident life. The office of the director ofresident life, before this year, was located in the student services office. Now,Lilly's office is located in Counsel Hall. According to Fitzsimmons, the move was necessary. The office Lilly previously had in the student sentices office in the Widener Center was too small for her to work out of. More room Rita Calicat, director of student activities, and room for an additional secretary was needed. "Having the director ofresident life in ~ residents' hall is not an uncommon practice on any¡ college campus," Fitzsimmons ¡ said. "Counsel Hall was the obvious choice since it is the closest to the office." "I think we are still attempting to evaluate this move," Lilly said. "It was the best solution of the problem at the time." Lilly believes that the location of her office mey be too far removed. The confusion over location and getting through . Counsel's door combination has been experienced by both students and faculty.
"The Widener Center is a hub of activity and is more accessible for the students," Lilly added. Communication between both sides, student services and those who came in contact with it, was another problem that Fitzsimmons identified. The level of communications did not satisfy everyone. It also led to the lack of understanding of the plans and changes occurring. This lack of communication and understanding did not just stem to the students alone. Some of the faculty believe that there is a barrier between the students services office and themselves. "Student' services is an enigma to me," Dr, Arthur Young,professor of English and communications, said. "I do not know the plans of Dean Fitzsimmons and student services." Young believes that the faculty could help implement the plans and help the students, if they (faculty) knew and understood them. Young added, "It would be helpful for the faculty to know his plans so they can support him (Fitzsimmons)." Dr. Jerome Zurek, professor of English and communications, said that this lack of communication between the faculty and the student services officehas existed since he (Zurek) has been at Cabrini. '1n educating the total student, they (faculty and student services) should support each other," Zurek said. Because of the unfamiliarity of the staff and the low level of communication, a gap between. student ser_vice~qpd the students, was formed in the first few months of Fitzsimmons arrival to Cabrini. "Coming from a larger institution, I underestimated the reaction to the change," he said. "The gap," Fitzsimmons said, "is getting better as the year goes along when people meet each other and get to know each other." According to Fitzsimmons, changes occurred within the staffing of the student services office only. There were no major policy changes only implementations of new ideas and programs by Fitzsimmons and his staff "While addressing the needs and issues of this year, Fitzsimmons and his staff considered planning for the needs of the years
to come," Mary Kate Grimley, senior, said. "I think that you will see more programming done in coordination with Rita (Calicat) and Mary Ellen (Lilly)," Fitzsimmons said, "involving social and educat'ional proactive building of a community." These programs and/or sessions will deal with the major problems that affect a college community. They are designed to inform the students correctly and guide them in their decision making. The students will be encouraged, by student services, to attend the programs/ sessions addressing such issues as AIDS, alcohol, stress and sexual activity.
Informational literature on problem topics are also being distributed by the mail. For example, the recent literature on alcohol and its effects found in the students mailboxes came from the student services office. Other new ideas from student services, started by Fitzsimmons, are being implemented into campus life as well. The TAMECE program for freshmen is going through some revisions with the help of Mary Helen Mapes, counselor, and Joe Giuffre, senior. The idea is to integrate the orientation counselors into the TAMECE sessions with their group. more TRANSITIONon 4
l.isa Kantor. sophomore, cautl<s the home of a family in Appalachia, West Virginia where they and 21' other students from Cabrini spent their Spring Breaks helping the _underprivileged of that region. (photo by Cara Graham)
Presidentof collegeevaluatedandr&instated by Monica R. Palko
Sr. Eileen Currie, M.S.C., president of Cabrini, will remain in her position for five more years. Knowing that her re- appointment was approaching, Currie requestedlast semester that an evaluation be presented to the campus community. Dr. Mary Ann Biller, academic dean, was instrumental in preparing the evaluation for Currie. In compiling the questions, Biller went to many resourses of evaluative materials and spoke to various colleges who had performed presidential evaluations at one time. She also received input from Currie herself. '1 wanted an evaluation which would be appropriate for the Cabrini community," Biller said. "I looked at various evaluating instruments with Dr. Biller," Currie said. "She was very willing to conduct the evaluating process." One stipulation that Currie requested of Bitler was that the evaluations be distributed throughout a broad representation of the campus community. This representation, Currie requested, was to be comprised of faculty, staff and students.
According to Biller, the evaluation was made up of two sections. The first section had specific questions about Currie's performance in different areas such as communicatic;ms, budgeting, effectiveness and others. These questions required the evaluator to rank Currie's performance in a nu.merical rating, one being the lowest, five being the highest. The second section was comprised of three open-ended opinion questions. Currie wanted these questions included because she felt it would give the participant the opportunity to add any thoughts or comments that they may not have been able to convey in the first section of the evaluation. Biller then shared the evaluation with Dr. Kathleen Daley, head of the Faculty Senate Michael Caranfa, head of the pro~ fessional committee and Mary Kate Grimley, president of the Student Government Association. Biller wanted to get any input they may have had and let them know the evaluation was going to be distributed.
Daley and Dr. Anthony Tomasco, professor, psychology, were called upon by Biller to establish the most professional method of random sampling for a fair distribution of the evalua-¡ tions among the students. All of the full-time faculty, administration and most of the secretarial and physical staff received the same evaluation as the students. "I am ~tremely grateful for all the response," Biller said. "However; less that half of the students responded but that~ to be expected." According to Brian Feeley, senior, the reason he didn't fill out the evaluation is because he didn't think it would be fair. "I felt as though I wasn't knowledgeable enough to answer most of the questions," he said. "I didn't think it pertained to the students enough," Linda Panetta, junior, resident assistant, said. "The majority of the freshman on my floor weren't even familiar with who she (Currie) was."
A female junior said that she thought the evaluations were a waste of time and money. "The questions should have been what students could answer," she said.
"Maybe there should have been All participants had the option one evaluation for students and to sign the evaluation if they one for faculty and staff." wished.
'I wouldliketo think thatI am accessible to thestudentsbutI knowthereis a problemwithmy visibility on campus.' -Sr. EileenCurrie, M.S.C.,president, CabriniCollege
Upon receiving the completed form, Biller had the results tabulated by her secretary. "Every comment of the open-ended questions were compiled in such a way that Sr. Eileen wouldn't know who made them," Biller said. Biller had a composite made of the answers from each group and an overall composite of the whole campus community. "I was the only one to see the original evaluations and the results were kept confidential," Biller said.
Some teachers didn't fill the evaluations out for much the same reasons as the students. A male teacher said that he had the form and kept saying he would fill it out but didn't.
After Thanksgiving, Biller presented the results to Currie and they discussed them at length. "I revealed no interpretations on my part when presenting the results," Biller said. "The narrative sections were extremely "For simplicity's sake, I wished helpful. They talked about Sr. to keep the evaluations the same Eileen's dedication, down-tofor faculty, staff and students," earth quality, accessibility and Currie said. "If anyone had any her ability to make difficult thoughts to add, they could make decisions." their comments in the last three questions," she said.
more EVALUATIONon 3