MSA, GPC aim to foster family-friendly environment

The committee aims to make campus accessible for non-traditional students.

By Allison Prang

Published Sept. 17, 2010

The MU Family Friendly Task Force held its first meeting Sept. 8.

Missouri Students Association President Tim Noce said starting the task force was a joint resolution between MSA and the Graduate Professional Council.

The task force was the result of legislation MSA and GPC passed last spring semester. Former GPC president Sarah Symonds said she became aware of different situations last year where there were not enough resources to make the campus more family-friendly. They included people who couldn't find child-care during meetings and a student unable to find a tampon machine in a certain part of campus.

Symonds said the situations struck her as odd, and as a result, she decided to intervene with GPC and MSA to change them.

“I decided to convene a meeting between the president of GSA (Graduate Student Association), the president of MizFits and GPC's student representative to the Status of Women's Committee to see what other issues existed that affected students as parents,” Symonds said in an e-mail. “This committee grew between the first and second meeting to include MSA and a fellow GPC officer who was also a student and a parent."

Symonds said the committee wrote a resolution and took it to both Staff Advisory Council and the Faculty Council. It was approved by March.

Noce said the goal of the task force is not only to help student-parents but also to make the campus more accessible for other non-traditional members of the MU community, such as international students and disabled students.

“The goal of the organization at the request of the Faculty Council and the chancellor is to review the policies in a wide range of areas that make Mizzou a family-friendly place to study and to work and to make recommendations regarding existing policies, new or modifying policies,” Family Friendly Task Force Co-chair Anne Deaton said.

Deaton said the task force is trying to identify certain groups in the MU community.

Noce said the task force’s next meeting would help refine everything discussed at the first meeting. He also said the task force is working on looking at what types of non-traditional students there are on campus and how many fall under that umbrella.

“A wide range of faculty, staff and students were identified, and they are in the process of identifying areas to look at and prioritize,” Deaton said.

The task force could potentially have a limited time span, but Deaton said they are planning for it to last the whole academic year. It can be reinstated to last longer if necessary.

Deaton said they are also looking at what other student organizations are doing to make MU a more family-friendly campus, because the task force would want to collaborate with those groups.

“We would like to zero in on things that seem doable in the short run and those that are long-term goals,” Deaton said.

Deaton said she's very excited to make MU a more family-friendly campus.

“I think it’s very exciting from the standpoint of diversity that we have the phrase ‘Mizzou Family,’ and we all want to make sure that phrase really lives,” Deaton said. “Mizzou is an institution that really wants to be family-friendly from the standpoint of persons who might be physically challenged or mentally challenged in any way, so we really want to be very broad in our thinking.”