The Evolution Committee held an open forum Feb. 22 in the Warhawk Involvement Center to address new plans to restructure the center.

The committee is comprised of Director of Career and Leadership Development Ron Bucholz; Assistant Vice Chancellor for Multicultural Affairs and Student Success Richard McGregory; Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Brent Bilodeau; and Associate Director of Career and Leadership Development Jan Bilgen.

The forum aimed to receive additional student participation in the redesigning process of the Involvement Center.

“We’ve not really achieved the Involvement Center dream,” Buchholz said.  “Instead of seeing this space as the Warhawk Involvement Center, let’s rethink this entire space as one intercultural center.”

The reorganizing of the Involvement Center is focused on creating a more comprehensive, multicultural resource, as well as creating a better atmosphere where any student could more easily get involved on campus.

“We want this to be a one-stop shop,” Buchholz said. “We should be able to walk in here and know when the different student groups are meeting.  So if I walk in here as an interested student and say, ‘When is this particular group meeting?’ I should be able to see that somewhere.”

Additionally, the evolution project will entail the inclusion of involvement advisers in the center who will help students find the right place for them based off their interests and hobbies, major and career goals.

“You have an academic adviser that says these are the course requirements and the adviser guides you through the plethora of choices there,” Buchholz said. “If you look at the co-curriculum, anything that happens outside the classroom, you have an equal amount of choices to do out there but it’s not guided.”

One of the primary goals of the evolution process is to lay the groundwork structurally for two new positions, a LGBT Coordinator and an Inter-Group Relations Coordinator, to come to Whitewater.

These two new positions are going to be located in what is now the Multicultural Center.

“The thinking is we don’t need that space because this whole area is going to be the Multicultural Center,” Buchholz said.

The next step in the evolution process is a meeting between the committee and the presidents of the student organizations on campus to fill in the missing pieces of the plan. It’s scheduled to be held at 5 p.m. on March 1.

Photos By Andrew Smith