Friday, December 20th marked four months since I made the move to Minnesota State College Southeast. Back in my first couple of weeks, I wrote about my excitement at finding a deep culture of caring on campus (read here), and I promised to tell the honest and authentic story of our growth. There were many reasons I was drawn to this unique college in the southeastern corner of Minnesota, but the primary one was a palpable sense of mission from the first day I explored campus. The college culture reminded me of the students I think we are here to serve: determined, optimistic, resilient, and maybe just a little under-resourced:). Although I'd been successful engaging people in pursuing poverty-informed solutions before, I knew a vice president received different opportunities to spread that message. So, I made a leap of faith and hoped I'd found a group of people to try to change the world with. Today I'd like to share some stories of the movement taking hold on our campus and the amazing people making it happen.
One of the pleasant surprises upon arriving at campus was finding the phrase "build a poverty-informed infrastructure" in our strategic plan. This had already led to the creation of student-led food pantries on both campuses as well as a committment to make public transportation free for students. So, I started with the first thing I could think of, my old friend "The Bowl." The big blue party bowl came with me from my last college, and I took it to our Learning Resource Center in Red Wing and asked the coordinator if I could put out some snacks for whoever wanted them. She immediately said yes, and we started with the granola bars pictured. Within days, others were diversifying to fruit, gluten free
snacks, and a variety of other items. I'm only able to be in Red Wing a couple of days a week, but the bowl has not been empty since I put it out. Our Winona Campus ran with the idea as well. I didn't have a lovely bowl for them, but they use the very nice baskets pictured here. Again, I do some personal shopping every week, but what goes in the bowl/basket goes way beyond what I provide. Grab and go food is a powerful place to begin in creating a poverty-informed culture.
Speaking of food, as I mentioned earlier, both our campuses have student-run pantries to battle food insecurity. It was wonderful to get to campus and see students (and staff) making time to care for each other, but it got even better. In speaking with our Winona Senate President the first week on campus, he told me our construction program was partnering with our machining program to upgrade their pantry. The solitary shelf pictured here was what they were using to start, but he wanted something that felt better and more respectful. I also love how he always refers to students "shopping" at the pantry and provides bags from a local grocery store to do so. The new and improved pantry is pictured right below the original one. They were still stocking it when I took the photo. It's pretty fantastic. The foundation of our poverty-informed triangle is meeting basic needs, and our efforts around food and transportation are a strong start to the movement I hope we are building.
One of the strongest signs of our movement is the grassroots nature it is taking on. When you combine a shared mission with a deep culture of caring amazing things start to happen. If you season those things with a dash of autonomy, you get events like our financial check-in a couple of weeks ago. This originated with a simple problem solving mentality from our excellent student services staff. They knew we had a large number of students with a variety of financial holds preventing them for registering for spring term. They also knew that historically we hadn't done much other than send students an email to notify them of their status. So our staff decided to be more proactive. They created the poster pictured to the left. I love this poster so much! Look at how they phrased things, it's an invitation, not a warning. I think there is a huge difference between being "welcome" on campus and being "wanted" and this poster says the people we are serving are wanted. Several students came in for the face to face event, and several more reached out by email. Our staff were able to solve a remarkable number of issues and keep students in school. Think about the poverty-informed message this event sent. Rather than making our college a place you are in trouble with, the staff made it a place of help, of caring. That is powerful stuff.
So our movement has begun and #MSCSoutheastCares isn't just words, it is
actions. #MSCSoutheastCares is staff on both campuses creating a Saturday study time in the Learning Resource Center before finals. #MSCSoutheastCares is creating a new emergency fund for students and raising nearly $5000 in less than a month just from internal donations. #MSCSoutheastCares is having a better than 80% participation in our internal fundraising campaign for the MSC Southeast Foundation. But more than anything, #MSCSoutheastCares is a poverty-informed way of changing economic reality for students, families, communities, and the 7 Rivers region. It has been a remarkable first semester, and we are just getting started!
Speaking of food, as I mentioned earlier, both our campuses have student-run pantries to battle food insecurity. It was wonderful to get to campus and see students (and staff) making time to care for each other, but it got even better. In speaking with our Winona Senate President the first week on campus, he told me our construction program was partnering with our machining program to upgrade their pantry. The solitary shelf pictured here was what they were using to start, but he wanted something that felt better and more respectful. I also love how he always refers to students "shopping" at the pantry and provides bags from a local grocery store to do so. The new and improved pantry is pictured right below the original one. They were still stocking it when I took the photo. It's pretty fantastic. The foundation of our poverty-informed triangle is meeting basic needs, and our efforts around food and transportation are a strong start to the movement I hope we are building.
