This past weekend I returned from a trip to San Diego for the annual NACURH, Inc. conference. Folks in residence life may be familiar with NACURH – the National Association of College & University Residence Halls.

Although I’ve been working in residence life for a collective 8 years, both as a student and professional, this was my first-ever trip to a NACURH conference. NACURH is the national organization that many RHAs (Residence Hall Associations) are affiliated with. As the advisor to a National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) on my campus, I was able to attend with a group of my student leaders.

Like most student affairs professionals, I’ve been to my fair share of conferences, ranging from ACPA and APCA to NACA and the national Habitat for Humanity Youth Leadership conference. Yet, somehow this particular conference was a tad bit different. First off, it was run by students for students… that’s the special thing about NACURH. This conference had energy, pizzazz, intensity, and a sense of pride. All of this reminded me of an important lesson that I am guilty of forgetting.

That lesson? Be excited. Be energized. Be proud. Be all of these things in the process of our daily routines.

I was in awe through the duration of the NACURH conference. So much energy. Students standing, chanting, screaming, and applauding their home institutions and regions. Students dancing on the sidewalks, making up cheers and chants, and dressing up in costume. It was wonderful to see so many student leaders from across the country under one roof with so much excitement.

This conference caused me to reflect… What excites me? What energizes me? What am I proud of?

I wrote this blog post to get us all thinking about these three questions. Feel free to share. After all, we need to constantly remind ourselves of why we do what we do. We need to remind ourselves that there are things that excite us, energize us, and make us proud here in the student affairs profession.

Feel the excitement (NACURH 2010)

Yesterday, I read an article online about the University of South Dakota getting rid of landline telephones in all of their residence halls.  My colleague, and fellow SA Blogger Bryan Koval, says Penn State has also taken the same step as a cost-saving measure.

Just the other day, I read another article about Hofstra Unviersity dropping its 69-year-old football program as a cost-saving measure.

Colleges and universities are taking some very drastic measures to cope with the budget crisis in higher education. It seems like all of the talk recently in staff meetings at my institution – and I’m sure many other institutions – is about how the budget crisis in our state is impacting what we do.

How do you continue to provide high quality services and programs with less and less money and fewer resources? I don’t know that there is any simple answer to this, but it’s a question burdening many of us.

My institution has seen a decrease in state funding support of about 35 percent over the past 7-8 years.  Recently, the institution has implemented furlough days for its employees, put a hiring freeze on most positions, put stringent limitations on travel-related expenses, and increased the cost of many of its essential services.

This is all no surprise to any of us reading this blog, I’m sure.

I write this today to engage the readers in a discussion about what your departments are doing to creatively and effectively battle any budget-related shortfalls your institutions might be encountering. What are your departments doing that many of us may have not considered yet?

Being a student leader is a selfless act. 

Every student leader has an agenda, I’m sure. I mean, we all do. For a lot of student leaders, perhaps being involved is a way of making them look more marketable when applying for jobs.  For others, maybe it's a way to gain a social circle of friends.

There are definitely underlying reasons our student leaders are doing what they’re doing. (Look up Dr. Sara Boatman’s “GRAPE Theory of Motivation”.) However, the bottom line is our students do a lot of awesome stuff and get little in return. In fact, they’re paying thousands of dollars for access to their leadership roles.

As a younger professional – only three or so years removed from grad school – I still vividly remember what it was like to be an overly involved student leader. Student Government. Student Activities Board. Resident Assistant. Circle K. On and on and on…

I reflect back on these years often. It’s a useful thing to do, considering I interact with student leaders as a professional today.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is Nevitt Sanford’s notion of challenge & support. A fair balance of the two is essential in helping foster growth in our students. Each of us is charged with striking a balance of challenge and support to help our students develop into mature, educated, and independent adults.

My interest in writing this blog entry today is to engage you all in a discussion about the support component of Sanford’s theory. What are we doing to support our student leaders? Specifically, what is it that we are doing?

Oftentimes, we don’t think about the specific things we do to support, encourage, and praise our student leaders. I’ve recently done a lot of thinking about how I can better support my students. I’m afraid that sometimes we, as student affairs professionals, are so set on challenging our students that we inadvertently neglect the support component.

I’ve challenged myself to do more intentional things in the coming weeks to support what they are doing as selfless student leaders. Specific things – such as unsolicited letters of recommendation, thank you notes, public praise, and even small treats in their mailboxes.

These kinds of things don’t cost much (and we all know that’s important in this time of scary budget crises); but they mean so much to our student leaders. After all, it’s not like they’re reeling in big paychecks for their dedicated service.

So, my question to you is, What are you doing – specifically – to support, recognize, and praise your student leaders on an ongoing basis?

So often, I have seen my students succeed by planning great events – just single, unrelated events that have some broad, student appeal. One day, a concert. The next day, a movie. The following week, a lecture. And the week after that, a comedian.  But, what I really like is when my students come together to plan events all around some themed week.

This year, my department took this unique approach to some of our programming. We have implemented “departmental” programming. Essentially, this means, all of our Resident Assistants (yes, I am in residence life) work together – collaboratively – to plan around the same departmental theme.

We have planned & implemented four departmental themes this year – Safety & Security Week, Alcohol Awareness Week, Hunger & Homeless Awareness Week, and, in the coming month, we will be doing Multicultural Week.

The idea behind these themed weeks was to create a departmental-wide effort to recognize these various topics/ideas/themes.  Our RAs split into teams, and each of those teams was responsible for planning a program using our theme. Each RA team had a day of the week, Monday through Friday, so that we could offer at least one program per day that week.

Some of our programs were passive, but most were active, interesting, and fun approaches at educating and entertaining our student population.

Alcohol Awareness Week featured everything from an educational spin on Beer Pong to the widely-favorite “Drunk Buggy” program. Hunger & Homeless Awareness featured a pledge to fast for 24 hours and a movie (“Pursuit of Happyness”), among other things. And Safety & Security Week included a casual, sit-down chat with our campus police officers (“Cop Talk & Donuts”), as well as a program on Driving Safely in Winter Weather.

Yes, this may sound like a typical approach to programming from a residence life office; but my experience with Student Activities Boards and other programming bodies are proof that themed weeks work effectively for these students as well. I’ve seen Winter Weeks, Homecoming Weeks, School Spirit Weeks, and more. You can create a themed week around any topic imaginable.

What are the benefits?

Among other things, you hopefully involve more people in the planning and implementing process, which, in turn, increases the number of students to whom your events appeal. Themed weeks also lend themselves to great advertising and publicity. Not only can you promote each, individual event; but you will also have the ability to promote the entire week’s events together.

Themed weeks can be difficult to implement successfully, but they are very rewarding ways to program on a college campus. I hope you will consider implementing a NEW themed week at your institution. If you already use themed weeks to program, tell us about your experiences.

If you’re like me, you work at an institution with less than 2,000 full-time students. In fact, the number at my institution is floating between 1700 and 1800 right now.  To prevent my other readers from losing interest in this blog, let me preface by saying, "Hey, this might apply to you, as well!"

Anyhow, some of us work at smaller institutions and are oftentimes challenged to overcome significant budget shortcomings year after year. Because of our already small budget, these "shortcomings" are truly noticeable and downright frustrating at times.

So, how do we battle these shortcomings?  How do we pinch our pennies, so to speak?

1. We co-sponsor.  A few months back I blogged about the importance of co-sponsorships with events on our campus. Co-sponsorships enable our students to plan great events and assures that we’ll have the money available since the cost is being split between more than one group’s budget. At my institution, we are soon holding a very large Casino Night event that is pooling resources from four different organizations – the Alumni Association (paying for food), the Student Activities Board (paying for the casino games & prizes), and our Resident Student Council and Student Government Association (splitting the cost for live entertainment/band).

2. We "create" our own events.  Instead of paying expensive agencies to come in and host large-scale events, such as game shows and other such events, we do our best to create our own.  A colleague of mine at another small institution has gone as far as creating his own "cheap" – but effective – versions of Wheel-of-Fortune, Jeopardy, and Deal or No Deal. 

3. Take advantage of community events & community partnerships.  Many times this will depend on your location and seasonal temperatures.  Anyhow, if your town has an annual Festival of sorts – let’s say, a pumpkin/fall-themed festival – take advantage of this "FREE!" activity. Perhaps, all you need to do is promote it to your students and provide transportation… and, viola! – a very low-cost event.  Plus, very minimal effort on your part.

What else do you all do to "pinch pennies"?

This time of year I start to hear that all-important question from my student leaders – “How do we recruit members this year?” When I meet with these students during our summer get-togethers, this is one of the hottest topics of discussion. Every student club & organization is looking for the best way to solicit new members.

Here are five sure-fire ways to help your student leaders attract new members.

1.       Reach out to the incoming first-year students.
I love summer orientations with the incoming new students. These students have the most energy and are the most eager and willing to get involved. In fact, many are already talking about starting new organizations and joining ones that suit their interests. If you can make contact with these students early on, perhaps during summer orientation or freshmen-specific programs, you’ll be in good shape. The typical incoming freshman is looking for a way to become connected to the university as quickly as possible. Involvement in an organization is one of the easiest ways for them to make that happen.

2.       Face-to-Face Interaction
This is a no-brainer. Recruitment starts with your student members. They must believe in their organization and believe in getting their friends and classmates involved. They must be able to articulate the purpose of the group and do so enthusiastically. True recruitment is a result of one student raving about his/her experience to another student who in turn wants to become a part of that experience.

3.       Strong marketing campaign.
Although most student activities/affairs professionals will tell you that face-to-face student interaction is the number-one way to get students to buy in to your organization, I would argue that a solid marketing campaign is just as effective. Start early. Use slogans. Use photos of students, but not just any students – smiling students! Give away branded (imprinted) items… if your budget permits, of course. Get your organization in the student newspaper, on the Web, on Facebook, and on the walls throughout your campus. You want people to know that your organization exists and is alive and well at your institution. A student club that has poorly designed marketing materials gives off a lackluster impression to prospective members. (Look for more a marketing blog from me next week…)

4.       Advertise the perks of membership.
Students are selfish beings. In fact, we all are.  Remember Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs”? This theory is based on the assumption that we have basic needs that we need to satisfy. Our students have needs, and they usually join our clubs & organizations in order to meet their personal needs. What is it that your organization can offer to students to help fulfill their needs? Once you figure out what that is, make sure your students don’t hesitate to spread the word.

5.       Have a plan.

If your students don’t have a plan, I can guarantee their recruitment campaign will be rather unsuccessful compared to the group who sat down during the summer or early fall and planned out their recruitment efforts. There needs to be a conscious and collective effort by everyone in the organization in order to get members. I don’t believe in leaving recruitment up to a single committee chair, because recruitment is the responsibility of the entire group membership. It’s important that you and your students believe in this philosophy, as well.

There’s a phrase floating around in the higher education profession right now that none of us professionals like hearing. It brings shivers to our spines and sometimes tears to our eyes.

OK, maybe it’s not quite that bad… but none of us like hearing the phrase “budget cuts.”

However, these so-called budget “cuts” (or what I call “shortages”) are a reality for many of us today, and those of us working on smaller campuses feel the pain more than anything. How do we as advisors and directors help our students battle these shortages?

This professional thinks collaboration is the key when it comes to battling budget shortcomings. Collaboration is becoming more and more accepted at institutions across the country. It is no longer a rarity to see an Admissions department and Student Activities office working together. The campuses who have embraced this approach will surely reap great benefits.

Personally, I’ve come to appreciate the value of collaboration between departments and student organizations. In fact, nothing makes me happier than to see two student organizations pull off an activity or event in which both groups played a significant role in making it a success.

There are so many benefits to collaboration – including higher attendance and response to your programs, less financial commitment from your office or organization, and a higher quality program or event, to name a few. Theoretically, when you co-sponsor or collaborate on a program, you have twice the people involved but only half of the finances from your department or office.

As a supervisor of Resident Assistants (RAs), I am constantly encouraging my staff members to consider the benefits of collaboration – both with other RAs and with other organizations, such as the Student Activities Board (SAB). When one of my RAs plans a typical program for his residents, he might reach an audience of 10 to 20 students, which seems just fine considering he only has $25-$30 to spend on this program. However, when he calls up the president of the SAB and gets this group on board, he has instantly multiplied his audience threefold simply by having the program discussed at the next SAB meeting.

From a residence life perspective, it can be especially beneficial for a campus programming board to partner with a representative (such as an RA) within a residential life office. One might argue – and some previous research would suggest – that students who live on campus are more invested and participate in campus events at a higher rate than commuters. Therefore, one might suggest that having someone from the residential life office involved would be a sure-fire way of reaching this population.

As the advisors to these various student organizations, we should be encouraging our student leaders to think about collaborating more often. I think we will find that our students will become less selfish and more apt to consider the “big picture”.  In addition, they will learn to appreciate collaboration as a concept long after earning their bachelor’s or associate’s degree.

Just as important are our own efforts to collaborate with other departments. Before we can encourage our students to embrace this concept of collaboration, we must embrace it. And why shouldn’t we?