The Beginnings of Addressing Basic Needs
In 2019, UNH President James Dean initiated a Basic Needs Initiative Committee made up of dedicated faculty, staff and students to address basic needs concerns at the university. Through assessments, surveys and reports this committee was charged with looking at what UNH is doing, what else we could be doing and what we might need in order to implement or enhance any support.
This committee consolidated existing programs, created new programs and raised funds to support students’ basic needs. They also hired an AmeriCorps VISTA to support the creation of a new food pantry on campus and advocated for the hiring of a full-time staff member to support these important initiatives. The point of contact for basic needs programs became housed within the Dean of Students Office and in 2022, Patty Mathison was hired as the basic needs coordinator.
This was an important initiative for both President Dean and his wife, Jan, who served as an inaugural member of the committee.
Prior to moving to New Hampshire, Jan had a career in nursing — first as a critical and surgical intensive care nurse, and then as a school nurse when her children were little.
It was through those school nursing experiences that she saw “a completely different world of children struggling,” she recalls. School nurses, she says, are perfect examples of people who interact with students and who are trying to get the needs of those students known and taken care of.
It was those experiences, as well as her experience with philanthropy and fundraising, that she shared with the committee as a member. She and wasn’t just talking, she was acting too — or peeling. She was a hands-on volunteer with Gather, a nonprofit organization working to fight hunger that UNH has partnered with. “I just love the idea of trying to be part of something where you’re actually working not just thinking,” she says.
Dean feels the hiring of AmeriCorps VISTA member Paul Young, who launched the Cats Cupboard with UNH, and then finding a basic needs coordinator “as dedicated and talented” as Mathison are two key successes of the group.
She said the committee had been making great plans and progress when the pandemic hit in 2020. “We didn’t have a clue how much help was going to be needed … all of a sudden students who were making ends meet by waiting tables, all of a sudden they didn’t have a job, or their parents didn’t have an income suddenly,” he recalls.
She said in that crisis, and continuing through today, she thinks often of a saying her husband uses as a mantra in his work in higher education: “Talent is universal, but opportunity is not.
“In many cases, the lack of food, or reliable housing, or any of these basic needs could be the reason a student drops out, versus their ability to stay in school and earn their degrees,” she said of the committee’s role in student success.
As she and President Dean were in their final months in their roles at UNH, she reflected on her work with the committee, and on how the UNH community acts when its members face challenges.
“If there’s one thing we came to learn about this campus: people really do care about the other people here. From faculty and staff to students and donors, there are very generous people who want to help. This support being available at UNH is something that both Jim and I are particularly proud of. In our wildest dreams, we could have never imagined how this would have taken off.”