As a residential college, Wooster recognizes that student learning extends beyond the classroom to the campus community as a whole. We believe that a healthy academic community fosters a high level of interaction among students, faculty, and staff, characterized by participation, fairness, and communication. Wooster is a strong community. To maintain and enhance this strength we seek to encourage the informal interactions necessary for the personal and academic growth of students and for the cohesion of the entire campus community. Students especially appreciate the participation of faculty and staff in student activities in the evenings and on weekends. Time and attractive spaces are essential to this informal interaction.

In recent years, there has been a renewal of campus discussion on the importance of ethnic and global diversity to the sense of community at the College, and these discussions have had a positive effect in bringing together groups which otherwise might not associate frequently. More frequent interaction can assist the College in meeting the ongoing challenge to bring about campus unity amidst pluralism.

Objective: To increase campus interaction among students, faculty, and staff.

• To achieve configurations in building renovation and construction that will encourage interaction outside the classroom.
• To increase opportunities for student-faculty interaction involving thoughtful and critical discussion of ideas outside of the classroom.
• To provide opportunities for "all-campus" gatherings and for "family-friendly" gatherings which encourage members of the community, especially faculty and staff members and their families, to interact.
• To provide an environment supporting greater faculty intellectual interchange and participation in campus life.

Objective: To recognize the contributions of all groups of employees, particularly respecting hourly and support staff as full members of the community.

Goals

• To establish salaries and wages for administrative and support staff in the upper half of GLCA colleges or other comparable employers, based on the appropriate national, regional, or local labor market conditions for each employment sector.
• To provide increased opportunities for professional development.
• To offer comparable benefits across employee categories, subject to limitations by law.
• To improve the work environment for hourly and support staff.

Outreach To The Wooster Community

Strengthening the campus community should also include strengthening connections to the wider Wooster community. The City of Wooster and Wayne County offer opportunities to balance the College's natural inward focus. For example, the wider Wooster community offers our students a distinctive ethnic, class, racial, and religious pluralism, and likewise students have much to offer the wider Wooster community. Wooster students are normally welcomed within the wider community, but building better bridges to this community can help avoid the problems that some students, especially minority students and international students, have faced.

Objective: To build bridges to the Wooster community.

• To provide service learning opportunities for students.
• To increase the visibility of the College in the wider community.
• To collaborate with outside agencies in strengthening the campus climate for cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity.

The Academic Program

Enrollment and National Recognition

Resources

Conclusion

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