But what does starting off on the right foot mean? While there isn’t a solitary answer to this question, there are some key points to consider when you’re preparing to kick off another year in Student Affairs.

1.  Mental Preparation– It may not be on your to do list, but it’s important to be in the right frame of mind with the start of the school year.  For those employees who are on 10 or 11 month contracts, you’ve got to dust off the sand, shake the water out of your ears and get ready for business.  For those who’ve been working all summer, it’s time to slip out of the doldrums and back to the quick-paced world of the fall semester.  The specific means by which you prepare your mind for the change is a unique and individual experience, but for me it means easing my way back in with brainstorming and positive thinking about what is to come.  Sure, I know I’m going to be insanely busy through August, but if I look at it as an exciting time, it becomes a good stress rather than an overwhelming one.

2.  Organization of Physical Space– You may be moving offices or simply reorganizing the same desk, but either way, it’s important to refresh your work space.  Clear off old materials that you won’t need.  Make sure you have important materials in easy reach and conveniently located to achieve necessary tasks.  Setting aside a work space in the home is also a good idea, since we’re bound to bring work home every now and then.

3. Communication with Staff– Communicating clearly with supervisors, colleagues, and student staff members is an important part of starting off on the right foot.  Expectations should be clearly expressed. And perhaps more importantly, proper welcomes should be extended to begin (or maintain) good rapport and a comfortable working situation.  Which brings me to the last point.

4. Proper Welcomes to Staff and Students– Student staff members are about to go through an intense training and a busy academic year. Returning students need to readjust to campus life. New students need to feel that sense of belonging.  All of these things can be facilitated through a proper welcome.  A proper welcome may include emails or Facebook groups prior to arrival; newsletters and bulletin boards upon arrival, information, small tokens of appreciation, etc. The most important welcome is a smiling face and positive communication.

While those include some very general aspects of starting the year off right, everyone has their own unique methods.  I like to work in themes, creating my training sessions, welcome packets, etc. around it.  And I absolutely insist on a fresh, clean agenda planner to start of the year.

What’s your method for getting the year started off right?

Devon Purington is a Residence Life Coordinator at Penn State University-Hazleton.

This article has been cross-posted at A Patchwork of Student Affairs, a blog of random thoughts on Student Affairs.

Materials needed:

Two (or more) sheets of paper

Pencils (preferably the stencil pencil kind)

Or use a whiteboard/chalkboard

(Groups should be 5 or less/group)

Preparation:

1. Design two like house outlines (basic blueprints with basic room options)

2. On back of each, list:

Rooms needed:

Kitchen

Bathroom

Living room

Master bedroom

Spare bedroom

Upstairs bathroom (shared between the two bedrooms)

Appliances needed:

Oven, fridge, sink, pantry, island, counters, cupboards, dishwasher

Sofa, couch, TV, coffee table, plants (x3)

Soap and towels

Bed, armoire (x2), treasure chest, nightstand (x2)

Repeat for spare bedroom (add a desk)

Rules:

Designate 2 “parents”

Divide group into (two) equal halves

Parent 1 = you know the ins-and-outs of home building. Feel free to help with all aspects of the basic design. Give pointers but allow for choices!

Parent 2 = you try to help with basic design but have no prior experience. Accidentally, you give the group bad advice and misguided direction. Five minutes into the activity, you get frustrated and leave.

Allow for 15-20 minutes for groups to finalize their houses.

Once completed, ask the following questions (plus your own):

1. How did the “parents” help/hurt?
2. What were the difficult decisions?
3. Why did you place/label each room where/what?
4. What are the differences between groups?
5. How does this relate to first generation college students?
   1. Parents who can help/ parents who are inexperienced
   2. Some decisions are made without understanding
   3. Communication between student-home is stressed
   4. Transitioning as a freshman becomes immediately more difficult
   5. Does FGCS correlate with low socio-economic status (SES)*?

Treat this as a basic start to get the discussion/training session started. The point of the project is to metaphorically show students that matriculating through a successful college career is similar to building an efficient house— it helps to have an experienced architect. However, it takes student leaders and student affairs professionals to make sure that each student who does not have an experienced parental architect is aware of the plethora of resources offered by their university.

Remember, first-generation college students (FGCS) and students of low socioeconomic status (SES) are not necessarily correlated and should be understood as separate but equally important variables when further understanding our student populations.

Tyler Martin recently completed his M.Ed. in Higher Education and is seeking a position in Student Affairs.

We can certainly wonder why he didn’t just ask someone about work-study. The answer: He didn’t want to look stupid or stand out.

What other terms do we use in higher education that are uncommon outside our culture and that create barriers to those who want to experience our world?

Consider these:

Student Affairs/Academic Affairs: Affairs? Really?

Engagement: Our marketing department created a huge banner that simply says, “Engage.” A faculty member quipped: “When did we start promoting marriage?”

Bursar: Financial services?

Chancellor/Provost: Few students understand what they do. These titles don’t help.

Union: This word makes me think “labor union” or “credit union,” not a place where college students hang out. Many schools have already changed this to “center.”

Discipline: Student conduct? A field of study? Both?

What words can you add to this list? Perhaps your institution has already changed some of its language. If so, what words do you use? How many of us distribute a list of campus terms and their meanings during Orientation? What can we do to lessen or eliminate the need for these translations?

I’m told that changing the names of things is costly (signs, brochures, and all). Not changing them may cost even more. The student I spoke about at the beginning of this post got the job after all. Imagine if he also could have been spared those moments of frustration and humiliation. Words matter.

As I pulled into my driveway and shut off the ignition, I watched as the grasshopper leapt off my car into my wife’s flowers and went about his business – five miles from where he had started.  Now, five miles for me is no big deal – I could walk it if I had to.  But this grasshopper, while large, was still only two inches long and now was over 317,000 inches from where he had started.  He was, essentially, in a brand new environment, and was there because he hung on as I made my way to my house.  He appeared happy, jumping through the lilies and daisies, but he was in a brand new place, vaguely aware of where he was, with little knowledge of how to get back to where he started… much less where to go from there.

Jump back to new student orientation.

Last week we welcomed over 5,200 students to campus for orientation (our first-year class will be closer to 6,400 when all is said and done).  While our student leaders were exceptionally trained by my colleagues, I get the sense that many of the new students in their groups ended up being along for the ride, despite the best efforts of the leaders to teach students to fend for themselves.  The university where I work is a large, land grant institution that enrolls students from all 50 states and over 120 countries.  Many of our students are far more than 5 miles from home, and, as such, it is easy to get here and simply be along for the ride.

So it got me thinking.  How often do I work with students or colleagues and bring them along for a ride versus letting them get to the same destination on their own?

I get asked a lot of questions, and most of the time I answer them outright… essentially driving someone to their answer.  But could I have helped that student or colleague get to that answer on their own?  Guide them, rather than drive them?  Probably.  The end result being that if I can teach them to find the answers on their own I can be the consultant/guidance they need, not necessary the driver/provider that they currently see me as.

My goal this year is to help people get themselves to where they’re going, rather than just get them there with a simple answer.

It’s going to be an adjustment – for me because I’m used to providing answers, and for them because they’re used to me just giving them the answer. But lest they become like my grasshopper passenger and end up a long way from where they started with no map in hand, it’s an adjustment I have to make.

What adjustments do you have to make to ensure that folks just aren’t along for your ride?

Matt Pistilli coordinates evaluation and adminstration for Student Access, Transition and Success Programs at Purdue University.

It’s the most wonderful time of year. The school supply displays are up in major retailers. Commercials are touting the must have shoes for back to school. Every week a Bed, Bath and Beyond catalog appears in my mailbox to highlight some new thing that college students need for their dorm rooms. Beneath all of the commercialization, the anticipation for the upcoming school year is palpable. It’s a time of new beginnings and opportunity on the horizon.

I took a much needed break on a Saturday afternoon in early July to see Toy Story 3. Armed with a wad of tissues and the warnings of those who had gone before me, I thought I was prepared to say goodbye to Woody, Buzz, Andy, and the rest of the gang. As I watched Andy go through the process of preparing to leave for college and make decisions about what he would take with him and what he would leave behind, I realized how wrongly many of us are doing our jobs this time of year.

What’s on your desk right now? Look around. Is it the welcome week schedule? The latest round of room assignments? Updates to degree requirements for advisees? A revised syllabus for the first year experience course you teach?

We are enthused about the opportunities that we provide to incoming students, and rightfully so. As a collective field, we have a lot to offer our students. We have classes, programs, events, activities, organizations — all of them our toys. New ones! Shiny ones! Ones that our new friends have never seen before!

But in our excitement, we sometimes forget about the toys that our students have relegated to bags in their attics and basements, the things they leave behind and give up to be with us on our campuses. We lose sight of the people they are because we’re so focused on the people they can become.  They are away from family and friends; they made choices about schools and may have cold feet. Over the next weeks as students begin to arrive on our campuses, remember for a minute what you felt stepping onto campus for the first time. Remember your friends who weren’t with you and the newness of everything around you.  Think about what you left behind and the trepidation you felt about replacing those things too quickly.

Meet yourself where you were at to better equip yourself to meet new students where they are.

The Tufts University policy is as follows:

Host Responsibilities:

Any resident student who will be hosting an overnight guest must adhere to the following expectations:

• You must obtain permission from your roommate(s) before your guest arrives to campus.
  
• If you live in a staffed residence hall you must obtain an Overnight Guest Registration Form from your Resident Assistant…
  
• You may not allow your guest (whether Tufts affiliated or not) to occupy your room without your presence or give your room key or building fob to your guest(s) under any circumstances.
  
• You are responsible for the behavior of your guests at all times and are liable for any damages incurred to your room or the residence hall as a result of your guest's behavior/actions.
  
• You may not engage in sexual activity while your roommate is present in the room. Any sexual activity within your assigned room should not ever deprive your roommate(s) of privacy, study, or sleep time.

Many times it is hard for roommates to have these and other tough conversations; they are coming from home with their own room and now they have to share a space with someone. In Residence Life, we want to be able to give the residents skills that will help them in the future. I know when many of my residents had to have these conversations, it was probably the hardest thing to do; but it gave them conflict management and other skills that have helped them out in the future.

(Wayne State)

And thinking like a typical resident, what would be considered as "sexual activity?" Making out? Hugging? In today's society, that is ambiguous; it's not necessarily the actions, but the motivation behind them (in my opinion). If you are going to tell them not to do it, then I believe then you should define what that is for them. I can see how this could lead into some potential problems. And if a resident was to engage in this type of an activity and the roommate was present, what would happen? Would they get kicked out of the room? It's their room too and they have a right to use it as they see fit. With that said I like MSU's residence hall policy; it splits it between primary and secondary rights.

Michigan State's residence hall policy is that as a resident your primary rights are to read and study without interference, sleep and have access to belongings, and the right file grievance in your room. Any secondary rights, like having guests or having sex, cannot override those primary rights. Yeah there are some grey areas, but that allows the roommates to set the tone in their room for themselves, not the college or university. You could also do things like Wayne State's Roommate Agreement, where there is a list of questions and answers that help facilitate those conversations.

(My roommate and I at MSU in 2003)

For more articles related to Tufts' Policy, click here!

With our Welcome Week right around the corner I figured I would give it a shot and a “Find People” search for “Welcome Week” resulted in over two-dozen profiles. I perused the list to find a handful of very active profiles, some schools where I had friends working and a good number of schools you could tell were just testing the waters on this “Twitter thing.” By the time I decided I needed some dinner, I had added about a dozen schools to the list of people that I follow. These schools; from all over the United States and Canada, representing public and private institutions, large and small student bodies, and variations in orientation program designs have been an absolute joy to follow.

It wasn’t until the middle of this most recent Welcome Week on my campus that I noticed a trend. Each of those 12 schools, plus the three that I have worked at, had the same essential elements that make up the core of their programming schedule.  I realized that it’s a lot like a potluck dinner with friends. You were assigned to bring dessert and spend all afternoon whipping up an apple pie from your secret family recipe. You arrive at the potluck ready to show off your culinary aptitude when you realize there are two other apple pies already on the table. Even though they all contain the same essential ingredients, you find through tasting a sample of each that the three pies offer a distinct and unique experience for your palette.

Likewise, the Welcome Week experience is unique to each campus community. Inspired by my new friends that I have been following on Twitter for the past two weeks and the dutiful encouragement by my mother to learn to cook for myself, I would like to share with you my recipe for Welcome Week Casserole:

Start with your main ingredients; Move-In Day, some academic programming, and a healthy helping of student volunteers.

These ingredients create the base of your program. A semi-captive audience now resides on-campus that has survived (arguably) the first rite of passage on campus – carrying boxes to the (insert number that is actually one higher than the number of floors in your tallest residence hall) floor, maneuvering around the predictably broken elevator, and managing to avoid a parking ticket.

The academic programs are usually easy to identify… they contain the word “Academic” in the title and are usually frontloaded into the first full day of Welcome Week.

The student volunteers are often just as easy to identify — they are dressed alike and may be carrying large brightly colored objects (to be used in icebreakers). These students are often ridiculed by their peers on campus for being “too energetic,” “too happy,” or just downright “annoying.” Even though their motivation is sometimes in question (early move-in, the influence, recruiting for student organizations, building a social network, etc), I respect them more than almost anyone that works in Student Affairs. They are the front line of our programs, often being asked to fulfill expectations far beyond what would be imaginable for 18-21 year olds in a volunteer position.

Next, add one serving of a formal welcome program.

This program is usually designed as a way for administration and faculty to welcome new students to their community. Placed near the beginning of the week and with the pomp and circumstance associated with a commencement ceremony, these students officially become members of the academy. More than anything, this is a wonderful opportunity to involve campus partners in the orientation experience. (I think that campus spam blockers have been upgraded to weed out any emails with the words “invite,” “welcome week,” and “late night” in them.)

Now, gently fold in some diversity programming.

Probably the most unique of all Welcome Week components, I can think of nothing else more responsive to the make-up of the student body, campus and local social values, political influences and comfort level of orientation staff/committee members. It is worthy of graduate school case studies discussing the balance between challenge and support. 

For some spice, a pinch of University Athletics will do.

If you have a marching/pep band, it is a must. Be careful though, there is a high probability that it will not go as you planned with the Athletic Director or Athletics Event Coordinator. Coaches are paid the big bucks to make game time decisions. In front of the new students, filled with a lot of energy, and in an effort to increase attendance and support for all of the athletic teams on the roster – there are plenty of opportunities for “game time decisions.”  

Finally, the secret ingredient…

I can’t tell you what that is because it’s a secret! But, you know what I’m talking about. It’s the pink elephant on the campus. Every campus has one… it can take the form of large unsanctioned parties off campus, student groups hosting events in hopes of recruiting new students, or alternative “orientation programs” presented by jaded upperclass students. You won’t find it on the Welcome Week schedule, but if you ask any current student they can tell you when it happens. You may find something on the schedule for that day and time… it was probably put there because of the secret ingredient.

Mix it all together and place in an oven at 90 to 100 degrees for three to five days, or until ready.

My favorite part is putting it all in the oven. Mostly because I don’t have to do anything, but also because now it just leaves me with anticipation of the deliciousness that will result. I don’t know what’s happening inside the oven, all I know is that if I’ve done everything that I’m supposed to my casserole will come out exactly as planned. We go through great lengths to plan a week of events for new students on our campuses. Within all of this, is an inherent trust that our campus community will do their part to achieve the desired result. We arm new students with the ingredients to be successful; we engaged them with information and entertainment (edutainment… if you will); we give them access to successful upperclass students, faculty and alumni; and, then we hope for the best.

I can’t think of anything more rewarding and anxiety producing all at the same time. Hopefully we’ve set the table for an incredibly meaningful college experience. Now that I’ve stepped away from the table, full and ready for a nap, it’s time to make some notes and adjust the recipe as needed. The best part of it all is that we can rest assured that none of us will be bringing the exact same dish to the next divisional potluck.

    Imagine what I'll know tomorrow as I start my official
journey in Higher Education and Student Affairs at Baylor
University.  I am anxious and excited to go to class and begin my new
apprenticeship.  I can't image what I will know to tomorrow and in the
next two years.  I feel as if I am a freshman once again the night before
college begins.  I wonder what classes will be like and how this journey
will shape my future career. As a new member to this blog, I plan on writing
about "hot topics" that come up in class as well as issues pertaining
to my apprenticeship.  Also, I will comment on life as a graduate student
in this area.

    I decided to pursue this degree and eventually a career
in student affairs because I wanted to impact students' lives outside of the
classroom.  College is an extremely important time for many students and
experiences outside of the classroom are just as important as experiences
within the classroom.  Many students attending college don't realize that
some of the most important knowledge that they will gain won't come within the
four walls of a lecture hall but rather the four walls of a dorm room. 
Our job as current and future administrators is to make sure that this
knowledge does not fall on deaf ears.

    So, I can't help to think about the first year students
getting ready to start their undergraduate education.  What will they know
tomorrow… a week from now, a month from and even four years from now? Will
they learn from their mistakes? Their world of knowledge is going to explode
and they probably don't even know it yet.  Will they be willing to engage
in this atmosphere and truly experience everything college has to offer?
Honestly, I wish I could go back to my first year of college just to have that
experience again of feeling so small in a giant world but at the same time,
knowing that this journey will make this giant world a little bit smaller and a
little bit more manageable.  As administrators, it is important to
remember that the future is in these students' hands and that they have a lot to
learn in a very short amount of time.

Imagine what I'll know tomorrow but more importantly…what they will
know… tomorrow. 

The Res Life Priority statement reads:

The author, Adam Kissel, Director of FIRE's Individual Rights Defense Program, goes on to state "It is evident
that ResLife cannot bear to rid itself of the mission of teaching
students that they need to recognize their responsibilities as ResLife defines them." Later, he questions the use of a book to promote discussions about sustainability and student awareness of related issues.

Kissel's
accomplishments, including a Harvard education, followed by a master's
degree from the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought,
are impressive. He is obviously skilled in rhetoric and social
criticism. But like anyone hoping to win a debate, he juxtaposes
selective information with rhetorical devices to imply an answer, and
throws in a little bit of condescension and bile to send anyone who
might disagree with him running for the exits.

I'm both disturbed and undecided about FIRE. On the one hand, they seem to have people who have worked with the ACLU and other organizations I respect. I even
find myself agreeing with some of their criticisms. But is an
organization that recently lamented that a cyber-bullying law might keep them from doing their job
really the best defender of freedom on American campuses? To me, it's
an open question, and a fair one, with no clear answer in sight.

But back to the rhetoric.

It's
not my place to speak for the University of Delaware, or even for my
own institution (Penn State), but as someone who believes he is working
for the betterment of my university and the profession, and who got
into this field to help students find their way through college and
into the real world, I feel I have a responsibility to engage in the
conversation.

First, bolding the part of the educational priority about sustainability only makes it seem ominous to dumb people. Cut
it out. I mean, really. If students aren't worried about doing their
required readings in their classes, they aren't likely to have a cow
about whether their RA, Resident Director, Director of Residence Life
or anyone else tells them they need to read a book and think about
their environmental footprint, how they can save resources, or whether
they ought to recycle. Even the oft-mentioned RA who told freshmen that
they had to attend a "Mandatory" meeting in an announcement to his
floor would probably tell any one of his residents privately that no
one is going to make you read the book, and that "Mandatory" isn't
really MANDATORY.  Some RAs
will always tell their residents that, no matter what their supervisor
says, because it's cooler to pass the buck than to come across as gung-ho
about something that "old people" want you to talk about. It's RA
apologetics in action, the RA-wanting-to-be-a-cool-kid equivalent of
saying "I'm just here for the room, dude. Come to my meeting and don't
make me look bad."

Second, Residence Life is in the Business of Education. Just because we provide tangible services (room and board plans, mediations,
room changes, emergency services and crisis response) doesn't mean we
can't delve into the theoretical, by encouraging exploration,
activities, and reflection on broader life issues such as making
friends, maintaining relationships, sharing space, and managing
conflict.  After all, when the classroom building closes and the
professors go home, the students spend the rest of their college lives
with us. We see how isolating it is for some students to leave the
comfort of their families and hometowns, and to connect with new
people. We work with the kids who get kicked to the edges of new social
networks in the halls, who feel invisible, who have never interacted
regularly with people who are demographically different from them,
or who have never experienced environments where it is safe to be
themselves. We help settle conflicts between students and take
practical actions like granting room changes, but we are not simply a
loose amalgamation of services, or a shelf with a specific product on
it. Classes prepare you for specific careers, but the rest of college is a
testing ground for life, where every person a student encounters is an
input variable, and every interaction part of a series of ongoing
social experiments. Co-curricular plans and programs should serve as
catalysts for reflection and refinement of values. Professionals may be
teachers, observers, or participants in the process, but learning
happens in the individual. Good curricula should
provoke thought and reflection, rather than prescribe agreed-upon ideology. It is always up to the student to decide what to do with the knowledge they gain.

I
think that most of us in this field understand that, and well, if you
don't understand it philosophically, understand it practically. You can tell people what to think about, but don't tell them what to think. It
is enough to know that students have been presented with information,
thought about it, and then made decisions they can live with. When it
comes to this co-curricular stuff, this is where we seem to be
struggling at times.  How specific should your outcomes be, in order to
be measurable? How general should they be, to support a broad array of
discussions, activities and reflections, and to allow for freedom of
speech, freedom of inquiry, and freedom of thought?

Third, what is the value of "faculty oversight," and who counts when you talk about "faculty?" For example, Kathleen Kerr and Jim Tweedy at UD
both have doctorates, and Kerr teaches classes for master's and
doctorate programs in Education, while Tweedy oversees the university's
RA Classes. It's right on their website, so FIRE should have noticed
when they lifted their pictures to use in a recent FIRE "documentary"
about UD's
program.  Does that count for anything? It really should, since we are
talking about the practice of education. It seems to me that having a
doctorate in the field, and teaching classes at a university would
qualify someone as a member of the "faculty." If it doesn't, does that
mean that a larger body of faculty should oversee every teaching
activity, and parse over everything a professor in the college of
business says or does, for example? Wouldn't that limit the exploration
of ideas, remove incentives for creative thinking, and effectively
create a cold and hostile environment in the classroom? I think it
would. But then again, I'm only an administrator. What do I know?