Wesleyan students will gather Middletown input to shape Russell Library strategic plan

Professor Mary Alice Haddad and a seminar of Wesleyan University students will help the Russell Library gather public input for its next strategic plan, committee members agreed at a Sept. 25 meeting. The students will attend community events, conduct interviews and use a short questionnaire to collect residents’ priorities.

“Part of what I want is for students to talk to regular people — people who live in the city — and find out what their needs are,” Haddad said. Her comparative urban policy course, mostly juniors and seniors, will assign students to events and neighborhood outreach and aims to produce a report and deliverables for the library by the end of the semester.

Library staff described a schedule for the collaboration: Haddad’s class will refine outreach plans in the next two weeks, Ramona and Andrew will visit the class Oct. 7 to finalize assignments, students should have interviews and data collection underway by mid‑to‑late October, drafts are targeted for Nov. 18–25 and the class plans to present a finished product Dec. 9, Haddad said.

Committee members suggested a mix of venues to reach non‑library users, including the downtown farmers market and fall festivals, supermarket tabling, nonprofit sites such as the Police Activity League storefront on North Main Street, and community anchors including Middlesex Health and the Kid City Museum. “If you can get to schools, markets and events, you get a much broader cross‑section of the city,” Ramona said.

Damon Wozneski, a committee member and president of the library’s Board of Trustees, urged caution about outreach at polling places this year. “There are two referenda on the ballot and we’re trying to stay out of the way of politics,” Wozneski said, arguing the committee should avoid locations where the work could be perceived as political activity. Other members agreed polling places present a risk and recommended students avoid them.

The committee also agreed to a nontechnical instrument name: staff and trustees preferred calling the tool a “questionnaire” rather than a “survey,” reflecting limited capacity for quantitative analysis. Haddad advised collecting only non‑identifiable demographic fields such as age range and whether the respondent is a Middletown resident to help analyze patterns without compromising privacy.

Logistics discussed included transportation limits for students (many rely on buses), the need to standardize an introductory script for students at events, and the possibility of combining short questionnaires with conversational interviews. Several members offered to add event dates and locations to a shared document and to connect the class with local organizations.

The committee approved meeting minutes from April 21, 2025, assigned follow‑up tasks to staff and volunteers, and agreed to finalize outreach targets in the coming weeks. Haddad invited committee members to continue suggesting contacts and said she would be available to discuss ideas prior to Oct. 7. The partnership is scheduled to produce a deliverable for the Russell Library in early December.