By Anthony Varriano
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Dawson Community College’s new housing director Stephanie Lewis fears DCC will have trouble recruiting and retaining students because of a lack of student activities and general student life offered on campus. She addressed the issues at a meeting of the DCC Board of Trustees last Monday.
“When I got here I was excited by the challenge and entirely defeated,” she said.
Lewis has ample experience in her position, having served in the same position at Campbellsville University, but she’s never been faced with a challenge like DCC’s.
She said the laundry facilities are in desperate need of attention. She also said the commons area isn’t giving prospective students a reason to attend or current students a reason to stay.
“If you asked me if this was a place I’d want to hang out as a student, I’d say no,” she added.
Lewis said she’d like to close the commons over Christmas break to decorate the area so when students come back “we can thank them for choosing to spend their money here.” Like much of the college, Lewis is operating on a modest budget. She has $3,200 to spend this academic year, which boils down to about $27.59 per student residing on campus. She’s not letting it stop her from making meaningful change, though.
A trio of fire pits are now available to students, which didn’t burn up her budget at all. Lewis and her husband, Chris, got baseball players to help dig pits and install pavers that were simply “in the weeds by the barn.” The new fire pits were put to use last Friday night for a student get-together.
“Students just want a fun event,” Lewis said. “They want to hang out with their peers, and it hasn’t been done in the past.”
That’s why Lewis is looking into bringing a mobile skating rink to campus, with skate rentals and sharpening available. While her budget might even be too thin for a week of skating, she’s investigating all options, including an old plan for the college to have a skating rink installed at the baseball and softball facilities.
DCC President Scott Mickelson said the college would need to fundraise in order to add the rink and wasn’t sure where it was planned to be located.
Lewis also wants to renovate all 35 dorm rooms with new paint and carpet, which she’s hoping can be done at a reasonable cost and pace. She’s looking into an “Adopt-a-Room” plan that would reward individuals or businesses who donate with a plaque outside the dorm room thanking the donor for their investment in the campus community.
There’s also a need for more discipline at the dormitories, Lewis added. She’s taken action to limit student arrests, illegal substances and the like on DCC’s campus. She’s implemented a rule that men and women must be in their own buildings by midnight.
“Do they like it? No, but that’s because there hasn’t been any rules out there,” she said.
Lewis intends to have a rulebook in order for fall semester 2017, and would really like to get student residence assistants in place to make her job a little easier. She hopes the college can offer something to fill the position, whether it’s a book stipend or a meal plan.
“We need RAs. We need leaders who are living amongst our students,” she said.
Another serious problem that needs to be remedied is the unavailability of counseling services, Lewis said.
“Any time you have a student that’s in trouble there is usually a counseling session that goes along with that,” Lewis added, something that DCC is not able to offer students right now.
There hasn’t been a counselor on campus in two years.
Mickelson said the college has sent DCC employee Kortney Diegel to suicide prevention workshops and training, but noted that isn’t enough.
Reach Anthony Varriano at rrsports@rangerreview.com.