Isa Cruz

The College hosted multiple listening sessions on Monday and Tuesday regarding the future of Ladd House. The goal of the sessions was to hear various perspectives on what the role of Ladd House should be on campus. Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Jim Hoppe invited Dr. Shaya Gregory Poku from Emerson College to lead the conversations.

In the email advertising the sessions to the campus community, Hoppe wrote about past informal conversations he had with students concerning Ladd’s future.

“One consistent theme was a hope for a greater sense of clarity about the role [Ladd] should play in supporting students and creating community on campus,” he wrote. “An additional theme was the desire for Russwurm House to continue serving as a space that centers Black community on campus.”

There were two sessions for any interested students to attend as well as two sessions for faculty members, with a virtual session for alumni scheduled for next week, but most of the sessions were dedicated to specific campus communities.

Some of these sessions included spaces for leaders or members of affinity groups associated with Ladd, students who participate in THRIVE, students discussing Russwurm, and staff and student employees of Ladd. Hoppe said participation has varied with each meeting, but he hopes people felt that they had an opportunity to share their opinions.

“If somebody who didn’t get to participate feels like they’ve got something to share and wants to either send it to me, or we can give a way to contact [Poku],” Hoppe said in an interview with the Orient. “Because I think that we want everyone who has something they want to say to have the opportunity to say it.”

Hoppe himself did not attend the sessions in hopes of giving students a sense of anonymity when sharing their thoughts, and he trusted Poku instead to lead the discussions. One of the reasons Hoppe invited Poku was the work they did together at Emerson College on a project to support students in the disabled community.

“We ended up coming up with a new proposal to support a student organization [and] to create some new positions that were supporting culture,” Hoppe said. “There were things we were doing that weren’t being received in the right way or the way we wanted, so that helped us think about how we could re-tailor the message. How do we make sure the intent is matching the impact?”

Poku will compile a report including all student opinions and suggestions shared at the sessions, which is expected to be completed in mid to late April.

“She’s going to give us this report that will highlight themes,” Hoppe said. “The things she heard that were consensus, what people want and the big questions that we really need to define in order to help people feel like the program is living up to expectations.”

Eli Bundy ’27 is a student employee with the Sexuality Women and Gender Center (SWAG), which is housed in Ladd, and he attended the meeting to voice his support for Ladd as a resource while also share some frustrations he has with the space.

“I am a huge fan of many of the staff [that] work in Ladd and love the opportunity for Ladd to act as a comfortable and homey space for community building, home-cooked meals and discussions among students, staff and faculty,” Bundy wrote in an email to the Orient. “Some of my concerns include the lack of art and decoration on the walls, which folks have been working on but still have a long way to go.”

He also mentioned a goal to begin a Ladd student workers group to emphasize collaboration between affinity groups in the space.

“[I have] the desire to restart the Ladd student workers group so that workers from SWAG, [The Rachel Lord Center for Religious and Spiritual Life], [The Center for Multicultural Life] and THRIVE can all work together to envision where Ladd might be headed in the next few years,” Bundy wrote.

Bundy is hopeful that student voices were heard during the sessions but has concerns over how seriously the feedback will be taken into consideration by administrators.

“I am happy that we got a chance to voice our concerns, but I am always nervous that important feedback will get lost or not taken seriously by administrators,” Bundy said. “I am still waiting to decide if the meetings were helpful.”

Ultimately, Hoppe hoped student perspectives were shared and students felt a level of transparency in the listening process.

“I want it to be as transparent as possible, so everybody has a chance to give their voice,” Hoppe said.