Great Place Initiative to hold town hall meeting to discuss next steps

By Mike Porter

VCU faculty and staff are invited to a town hall meeting to discuss next steps in addressing the issues identified by employees as part of the Great Place Initiative, created to promote employee excellence, celebrate current university benefits and consider improvements.

The meeting will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 15, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the University Student Commons, Richmond Salons III and IV.

In February, VCU faculty and staff took part in an online climate survey conducted by McKnight Associates/Baird Consulting Corp. Additional faculty and staff feedback was collected through a pair of town hall meetings and eight focus group interviews, which were conducted in April.  

“At the upcoming town hall, we will invite a discussion of some of the issues that were raised in the data collection,” said Kawana Pace-Harding, director of employee relations and compliance and Great Place Initiative steering committee co-chair.

VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D., will open the meeting and Maike Philipsen, Ph.D., foundation of education professor and steering committee co-chair, will update efforts made by the Great Place Initiative to date. Discussions at the meeting will focus on possible initiatives that can be implemented by the university to improve recognition, trust and communication.

“Now that we have crystallized results and some strategies under consideration, we will have more time for discussion,” Philipsen said.

David Hanson, Ed.D., senior vice president and chief operating officer; Beverly Warren,Ed.D., Ph.D., provost and senior vice president for academic affairs; and Sheldon Retchin, M.D., senior vice president of VCU Health Sciences and CEO of the VCU Health System,  alsowill  participate in the meeting. VCU senior administrators are committed to using information gathered from the surveys, town hall meetings and focus groups to work to make VCU an even better place to work, learn and live.

The town hall meeting also will be available via a webcast at mssvideo.vcu.edu/townhall. Desktop users will see the Flash player and watch the stream from there. Users of iOS mobile devices such as iPhones or iPads will see a text link that when clicked will allow them to watch the stream on those devices. Those viewing the streaming video may submit questions to the Great Place Initiative web site. To pose a question, press the "Contact Us" tab and write your question.

 

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