Town Hall on Work-Life Balance

Attendance was strong at town hall meetings on work-life balance in April. About 100 attended the noon meeting on April 24; another 60 attended the meeting that night. These were the final town hall sessions of the 2013–14 academic year.

The town hall meetings began last fall as a series of scheduled sessions to encourage transparency and frank, civil discussion of topics that students and members of the faculty and staff consider important. Each town hall had noon and evening sessions. Other topics included harm reduction, Title IX, diversity, and technology and learning.

Among the work-life balance topics discussed were:

• Similarities and differences among the challenges students, faculty, and staff have achieving and maintaining work-life balance.
• The amount of schoolwork assigned to students during breaks.
• The need for faculty and staff to support students and model wellness for them.
• The issues of defining success by rigor rather than balance.
• Granting extensions and asking for help.
• The culture of busy, and the stigmatization of free time.
• Time management skills.
• Bureaucratic issues in attempts to improve wellness opportunities.
• The need for more mental wellness/mental health support.

Speakers noted the College’s efforts regarding work-life balance, informed by periodic surveys of students, faculty, and staff. Among available resources are wellness coordinators, the ombuds office, wellness director Jennifer Jacobsen ’95, human resources, a new Wellness Lounge in the Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center, and Student Health and Counseling Services.

The town halls were intended, in part, to help examine the contours of the issues and to crowdsource ideas for solutions.