Dear Karen and Connie,

Thank you for sharing with me and the entire Academic Program and Policy Committee your concerns regarding facilities and planning processes at Wells.

As you may know, APPC is a standing faculty committee comprising six elected faculty members, four elected students, the Dean of the College, the Associate Dean of the College, Head Librarian, and Registrar. During the past academic year, the committee invited the Dean for Experiential Learning to be a regular (nonvoting) visitor to committee meetings. The committee’s charge is to supervise the college curriculum, to engage in long range planning, and to submit proposals and recommendations relating to the academic program to the whole Faculty.

The committee shares your concerns in general. Several committee members felt the consternation and anxiety experienced by other members of the college community about the master plan, how it was designed, and the manner in which it was unveiled to the campus community in the fall. To confront that controversy and to meet requirements mandated by the Middle States Association, APPC engaged in extensive deliberations about strategic planning during the academic year.

APPC is firmly committed to the principle that the academic program and the college’s mission must guide all strategic planning at Wells. The committee also believes that APPC must serve as the steward that integrates the academic program with long range planning—including the master site plan—at the college.

APPC is equally committed to the principle of shared governance. After sharing its serious concerns with the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board in October, APPC devoted extensive time and energy to (1) scrutinizing the merits of the proposed architectural plan, and (2) regularizing an open and inclusive planning process for the future. The committee explored several potential models and met with the President in November and three members of the Arts Faculty in December. APPC ultimately submitted to the Faculty its proposal for the Subcommittee on Long Range and Strategic Planning (along with a revised mission statement, a set of institutional goals, and timetable for future planning) at the December Faculty meeting. A decisive majority of Faculty approved those proposals at that time.

Having secured the Faculty’s strong endorsement of the new planning process, APPC is firmly committed to working with the Subcommittee on Long Range and Strategic Planning. The subcommittee, representing a cross-section of the college community, first met on March 14, 2001, and held four meetings during the spring semester. The College’s architect has been present at all meetings to provide resource information. The subcommittee has engaged in intense discussions about both the planning process and the content of specific architectural plans. Minutes of the group’s deliberations will be available at http://aurora.wells.edu/~planning/index.htm. Resource materials, such as building condition reports, are available to the entire college community in Macmillan 317, the subcommittee’s meeting room.

If the subcommittee is to function as intended, the planning process must be inclusive and genuinely open. Seeking unequivocal assurance that the Administration is committed to working with the subcommittee, APPC instructed me to meet with President Ryerson in early May. At that meeting, I expressed APPC’s desire for assurance that the master site plan is only a working document subject to critical revision as the needs of the academic program dictate. The committee will continue to seek forthright and explicit clarification about what decisions have and have not been made regarding site planning.

Immediately before the May Board meeting, APPC unanimously endorsed a resolution of working principles (see below). Reiterating its unequivocal commitment to improving the academic program and to an honest and inclusive planning process revolving around the Subcommittee on Long Range Planning, APPC indicated that it currently reserves judgment on the fate(s) of any specific campus building(s) at this time. Cognizant of its charge, APPC intends to make recommendations regarding specific spaces only after very careful planning, the paramount objective of which shall be to preserve and improve the academic program.

APPC intends that this process continues to serve the College for years to come, and that the result will be a superior academic program and the most functional and beautiful campus possible.

Thank you for your concern for Wells.

Sincerely,
Michael E. Groth
Chair, APPC

[Letter to the Chair of APPC, to which the APPC letter is a response]

SUBJECT: Alumnae Ask for Support

Dear members of the Advisory Committee, Studio Art Faculty, Music Department, Professors Emeriti, and APPC Chair,

An alumnae petition opposing specific aspects of the Wells College Master Plan now has over 500 signatures, with representation of every class from 1932 to 2000. It continues to grow daily. We will promote the petition until the Board of Trustees rescinds its endorsement of the possible relocation or destruction of five campus buildings. We hope our efforts can end with affirmative action by the Board at its May meeting.

Below is our request to the Chair of the Board, which we ask you to read. Her response to us says that while our petition "will be given full consideration," she does "not anticipate making additional decisions regarding the guidelines or specific buildings at this time."

For the good of the college, we wish to see a decision made in May. Many of our signatories are withholding financial, recruitment, and internship support until a favorable resolution is reached. If the Board delays action and prolongs this unfortunate state of affairs, they risk permanently alienating many of the college's strongest and most faithful supporters.

We would like to ask the Wells College faculty, individually or as a group, to support the presentation of our petition and our request that the Board reach a decision at their May meeting.

Thank you very much for your consideration. May we ask that the Chair of the Advisory Committee to forward this message to the entire faculty? Thank for your help.

Sincerely,
Karen Chimento '87
Connie Manwell '87

Contact information:
Dean Ellen Hall, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of the College
Wells College, Aurora, NY 13026
Voice: 315.364.332441; Fax: 315.364.3227; Email: ehall@wells.edu