University of Puget Sound
Office of Alumni and Parent Relations
PARENTS COUNCIL MEETING SUMMARY
SPRING 2016
Next Steps – Parents Council
1.
Committees will plan to convene by conference call at least once before the October meeting.
Committee Chairs and liaisons will be in touch with volunteers with specific details for each committee.
2.
Council members are given the opportunity to make welcome phone calls to incoming families this summer. Parents interested in participating can sign up online . Parents who have completed these calls in the past are asked to sign-up again.
3.
Review the ‘ What I Wish I’d Known ’ webpage and provide any suggestions or edits to Katie
Barosky at kbarosky@pugetsound.edu
.
4.
Parents who are interested in welcoming the families of the incoming Class of 2020 are invited to attend the Parent Orientation breakfast the morning of August 20, 2016. Please contact Katie
Howard at khoward@pugetsound.edu
for more information.
5.
Save the date for the Fall Parents Council Meeting, October 22, 2016, as part of Homecoming &
Family Weekend.
Executive Summary
The Spring Parents Council meeting was held on-campus as part of Spring Family Weekend 2016. Parents
Council Co-Chair, Harminder Sikand P’16, opened the meeting by sharing recent accomplishments of the
Council over the past several months. The four-hour meeting featured an update from President Thomas, who discussed his predictions for the future of higher education. He was followed by Associate Dean of
Experiential Learning Renee Houston, who updated the group on the work she and her team have been doing on campus related to experiential learning and building a culture of reflection around students’ experiences out of the classroom. Parents were then given the option to attend one of three committee meetings (Admission, Communications, and Career Development) and discuss their goals for the coming months.
Meeting Summary
Parents Council Meeting
The meeting began with Harminder Sikand P’16, who reviewed council accomplishments since the October meeting before introducing President Thomas.
Accomplishments:
 Hosted students during ‘Take a Logger to Work’ job shadows
 Communicating with prospective parents through ‘Ask A Parent’ website, and at regional admission events
 Implementing new ‘What I Wish I’d Known’ website feature for parents to share their insight about
Puget Sound with other parents
 Hosted Puget Sound student athletes and musicians while travelling
 Have raised over $670,000 through March for Puget Sound Parents Fund

Conversation with President Thomas
President Thomas provided the group with his thoughts on three significant challenges and opportunities ahead for Puget Sound and other liberal arts institutions over the next 20 years: 1. Changing the cost structure, 2. Reinventing a liberal education, and 3. Creating a more inclusive culture of equity and common ownership. To be successful in changing our cost structure, we will also have to be successful in finding new ways to deliver an education. He shared that the latest developmental psychology research shows that the digital natives of this and future generations of students learn and retain knowledge more effectively when it is experiential, active, engaged, practical, applied, and integrated with career aspirations. The best college education in the future will require new pedagogies that are more learner-centered, team-based, problem-oriented, and integrate technology into real-time engagement. Faculty at Puget Sound are already discussing ways we might reshape a Puget Sound education to be in line with our mission, but better meet the needs of this and coming generations.
Thanks to President Thomas
Following President Thomas’s update, Harminder thanked him on behalf of the Parents Council for his many years of leadership at Puget Sound, and in particular his work in engaging parent volunteers in the life of the institution. She mentioned how the Council was started under his leadership, and has continued to grow thanks in large part to his dedication to involving parents is discussions about the future of the university.
Program Feature: Experiential Learning Initiatives
Renee Houston, Associate Dean for Experiential Learning updated the group on the work she and her team have been doing over the past several months, working towards their mission to ensure that each Puget
Sound graduate will have developed a set of experiential learning opportunities that prepares them for a successful and fulfilling personal, civic and professional life.
She provided background on the shift in higher education from formal curriculum, to a learning paradigm.
She highlighted the many ways in which Puget Sound has already been offering experiential learning to our students for years, examples which include first-year seminars, learning communities, writing intensive courses, study abroad, capstone courses, and research opportunities, among others.
In addition, she provided common elements for what experiential learning looks like in practice, including: formal, supervised learning experiences; students’ applying knowledge and information acquired through reading or faculty instruction to direct experiences that occur on-campus, in the community, or both.
One program that was highlighted was the Summer Internship Immersion Program, which will support students to enhance their knowledge in an area of career trajectory, but who would otherwise not be able to participate in an unpaid internship. Students have been selected who will be living together on campus as part of a living/learning community, while working 30 hours/week with community organizations around
Tacoma. In order to help them reflect on their work, participants will be paired with an alumni mentor, and students will also participate in a seminar about their experiences. Upon competing of the program, students will present at a Fall Symposium about their experiences.
Renee shared with the group the focus of her team going forward, including building a culture of reflection through the development of e-portfolios, combining experiential learning opportunities with co-curricular activities, and ways to support and encourage faculty to implement more experience based opportunities into their classes.

Committee Breakout Sessions
As is customary at each Council meeting, committees met to continue their work in support of Puget
Sound. At this meeting, Admissions, Career Development and Communications committees met for about
60 minutes. Committees recapped their goals for the year ahead and progress toward accomplish them.
Committee Updates
The Admissions Committee discussed the group’s plans over the summer to welcome the Class of 2020, specifically through the welcome phone calls and outreach to incoming families. The group discussed an ideal timeline for completing the calls, and shared tips for parents who are new to calling. The group will reach out for help in completing the calls from all members of the Council. In addition, the group discussed the ‘Ask A Parent’ website which is used by parents of prospective and admitted students. Parents volunteers can sign up to participate in ‘Ask A Parent’ here.
The Career Development Committee met to discuss their work with students and topics students are most interested in receiving guidance. The group also discussed the success of Take A Logger to Work
2016 and plans for expansion in the years to come. Parents with questions about participating next year should contact Jennifer Allen-Ayres ( jallenayres@pugetsound.edu
) by Friday, August 5, 2016.
The Communication Committee reviewed the “What I Wish I’d Known” link from the parent webpage.
There were a few minor suggestions, which will be added to the page. Other members of the Council are encouraged to review the page and provide feedback of additional things to include to Katie Barosky. The committee also had a brief discussion about other areas where the committee could be helpful. With
President Crawford coming in, and a launch of a strategic planning process, there are likely to be opportunities emerging over the next year for the committee to focus on.
Full committee minutes are available online .