Leadership in the Frostburg Community

By Sabrina Stone

On Thursday, February 21st, Dr. Terrance Roberts spoke at the Lane Manicur Assembly Hall located on Main Street in Frostburg, Maryland. This meeting focused on building relationships in the community, discovering more about Western Maryland, race relations, and off campus student housing. This meeting is annually; they provide snacks and live music, it is free of charge, and open to the public.

             

Dr. Terrance believes that by having people step up into leadership roles and getting the community involved with students will help form a much happier and healthier area to live in. Concerns from the community included the obscene partying, and the very recent stabbing and shooting. Dr. Terrance quoted "We have to evaluate where we are and where we want to be. You are not going to be able to see an immediate change."  

            

During the meeting Dr. Terrance asked questions to each of the groups being discussed. He started with the off campus student housing group, which is the newest addition to the community and leadership project. The objective of this group is to provide students whom live off campus a place to go when they're having problems and need advice. This could include problems with a roommate, disliking a class, or even just simply adjusting to college life. This group would serve as a counseling unit for people who cannot just report their problems to and RA. The second group was called discovering Western Maryland. They are working on broadcasting Frostburg State University and showing support throughout the community by painting paw prints on the street at intersections and hanging FSU flags throughout the town. The third group was focusing on race relations in Western Maryland. This group specifically is interested in learning about different cultures and racial backgrounds. The group members recently attended and African American history speech and had a lot of wonderful interactions with African American students that attend Frostburg. They spoke about any problems or racial tensions that were present or felt. The final group was about building relationships. This group was geared towards planning more meetings and events that the public could attend and become interested in. Dr. Terrance made a point in the presentation he stated, "There are expectations that students here at Frostburg State University have for the community, as there are expectations the community has for the students here at Frostburg State University. By learning and interacting with one another we can determine a happy medium so everyone can be prosperous and content." Attendees of this presentation were able to walk around to these different groups and not only learn more about them but also offer suggestions. There will be another meeting held sometime next year to recollect on the improvements made in each group over a year.

         

Elesha Ruminski, a professor at Frostburg State University, was another main advocate in this meeting. She is involved with the leadership program offered at the University. After the group meetings took place and everyone had a chance to walk around Professor Ruminski gave serious insight for students and people in the community. She briefly discussed leadership roles and responsibility and what it meant to be a leader. She ended the night by saying, "Being a leader does not necessarily mean you are a president of the SGA or the CEO of a company. A leader is simply an individual that has a positive impact and can provide useful information or aid to another individual. We are all leaders in our own ways."