Dealing with change within Student Affairs

June 14th, 2011 | Posted by Brian Gallagher in Campus Issues | Tidbits | University - (13 Comments)

If you count the years that I was an undergraduate student, this June is the fifth June that I’ve been in a Student Affairs environment that has dealt with change.  This is also the fifth time I’ve been able to observe those around me handle (or not handle) the change.  I almost wish I could do a quick survey of professionals to find out which departments/divisions/institutions are not changing something about what they do between now and the fall.  Although, the assessment person in me would cringe at the thought of not changing — thus, not improving at least something!

Typically, what I’m referring to here might be staffing structures changing, new professionals coming in, professionals moving on from a certain institution, offices moving, offices merging, programs ceasing to exist, programs expanding, new policies. This is the change we’re talking about here.

I’m not as surprised when our students, student leaders, or student staff are concerned by the upheaval — this is part of the developmental stages they are going through as undergraduates (see any number of excellent published developmental theorists).  At my current institution, we have just hired a new director of my department and a new vice chancellor for student life.  In my (expert) opinion, both are great hires.  All of the pro-staff know that the exiting professionals are going (or have gone) to excellent positions – moving themselves ahead in outstanding opportunities.  However, from the perspective of someone who is not on the division listserv (namely an undergraduate student) they might not know or understand that whole process.

Last year, at this time our department was saying goodbye to an assistant director, filling her position with a new hire, and we did a restructure to add a new full time position.  All of the undergraduate staff members were confused and very anxious about who would be their supervisor.  What really blew my mind, however, was how some of the Graduate student staff members (yes, my peers) were dealing with these changes.  Lines like “Oh my gosh! What are we going to do without our current Assistant. Director???!?”  There were lots of little freak out moments.

It just amazes me how some professionals handle this change very well while others are completely baffled and overwhelmed.  I agree and can completely empathize that often change might lead to someone losing their job or a job change for the negative.  Perhaps my perspective on this will change next year when I’m a professional staff member.

For now, however, I see change as a good thing.  Rarely is it what I predicted.  I’m usually the one who asks “why” and wants to really understand what we’re doing.  But, even when I disagree with the change, I’m usually willing to roll with it or at least give it a try.

In interviews we ask candidates “How do you deal with change?”  Is this a good question to ask?

How do you see those around you dealing with change?   How do you handle change?  How might you handle change better or differently?

Brian Gallagher is a graduate assistant in Residence Life at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.

Defining Access to Higher Education

March 10th, 2011 | Posted by Stacy Oliver in University - (4 Comments)

Kate Feeney, a graduate student at Iowa State University, contacted me earlier this week. For a class project, she was soliciting answers to the following question:

What does access to higher education mean to you?

I took the better part of a day to think about it before responding. What a great question — and something we talked about a lot in graduate school, but maybe haven’t given as much consideration to since graduating.  My response to Kate:

To me, college access is about making higher education accessible and affordable to people from diverse populations, including but not limited to ethnic, racial and socioeconomic differences. It does not mean providing college education to everyone; rather, it provides means for everyone who wants to pursue the opportunity. Access and success are often confused in higher education — access provides the opportunity; it’s up to students to build success.

 

How would you answer Kate’s question?

,

Student Affairs: Transcending Org Charts

March 7th, 2011 | Posted by The SA Team in University - (13 Comments)

A day in the life of my job includes buying ad space from a local newspaper, working with a freelance designer, planning the graduation ceremony, issuing a press release, and managing a campus website. One thing it rarely includes is contact with students (unless that’s on facebook). I no longer work in student affairs, but I’m sure glad I got my start there.

Because of my experience and graduate education in student affairs, I know how colleges work. I’ve got a pretty good handle on student development in college. Although it’s different in every case, I even understand how college affects students. I can apply this knowledge to marketing, program development, assessment, or telling my campus’ story to invested community members. I truly feel that if I didn’t get my start in student affairs I wouldn’t understand the heart of an institution of higher education: the students.

I was surprised when colleagues asked me if I understood how orientation worked, how a conduct situation should be handled, or if I knew what FERPA was. It was even more disconcerting when I realized how timid students were when they occasionally came into my office in the administrative wing of the building. For a bit, I was like a fish out of water. Then I realized I was more like a fish who’d evolved to walk on land, but retained knowledge of what it was like under the sea. I can only imagine how difficult it is to work on campus and not understand what our students are going through or how I’m impacting their life. Regardless of our place on the organizational chart, we should all strive to understand our students.

Chances are, not everyone on your campus has the depth of training in student development and higher education administration that you do. What are our campuses doing for staff members like that? Should an understanding of student development theory be an expected competency of any university employee? What about the history of higher education, identity development theory, or an understanding of oppression and privilege? Does that background help them better serve students and the institution, regardless of their role?

If you’re “classically trained” in student affairs, have you taken time to reflect on the foundation that’s been built for your career? Do you think your education and experience has prepared you for leadership roles in higher education or any other industry?

I no longer work in student affairs, but I’m still a student affairs professional.

Debunking the Myths of Privatized Housing

December 6th, 2010 | Posted by Scott Helfrich in Campus Issues | Careers | Resident Life | University - (7 Comments)

In my office on the upper campus of a university in a not-so-far-away galaxy, I have a Darth Vader action figure sitting on top of my bookshelf (still in the packaging of course!) My current supervisor gave this to me in December 2005 as a “tongue-in-cheek” welcome for making the transition from working on-campus to now working for a national, ”for-profit” student housing development and management company. Please understand the context: I was a full-time, unionized area coordinator at a public university for five years suddenly making the leap to the proverbial Residence Life equivalent of the “Dark Side.”  And yes, I was one of those folks holding the flag rallying with my colleagues to prevent these Stormtroopers from outsourcing our jobs and changing the Force of good student affairs practices!

Five years later, and having been promoted to another university location with a larger student community, I now have a different, and potentially more objective, perspective. Having a total of 18 years of experience  in all sectors of higher education across the country, I’d like to invite you to “walk a mile in my shoes” as I debunk 5 myths about privatized student housing.

MYTH #1: Privatized housing doesn’t care about students. This was one of my biggest concerns regarding the private management of student housing. What I came to find out is that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only do they care, but are always looking to improve their housing communities to meet the ever-growing demands of student and their parents. I wouldn’t be working for and with people who didn’t truly care about students. Additionally, I am confident in saying that the company I work for is especially concerned about student safety and security and does its best to maintain an environment that’s conducive for student learning. I can’t though, however, say the same for local negligent landlords that seem to be rife in every campus town’s community. Plus I’m given the freedom to create practically any residence life programming initiatives that I want in order to better serve my students.    

MYTH #2: Privatized housing is only looking to make a buck. While every company (and university) has to worry about the bottom line, it is possible to create profits while also expanding and maintaining a great product and great service. And nowadays, students and parents especially vote with their feet! If they aren’t getting the most out of their campus and / or housing experience, they’ll simply pick up and leave. And while we want to provide a comfortable living environment with worthwhile amenities, we still care about their well-being and personal development. This is a win-win for everyone!      

MYTH #3: Privatized housing is looking to take jobs. When I came to personally know the executives of my company, I found that they weren’t sitting in a small dimly lit room rubbing their hands together and twirling their moustaches conspiring to take jobs away from student affairs professionals. In actuality, they are actually trying to expand the field to include new people. (I am a living example of that!) Is it true that on-campus personnel could have managed a newly constructed, off-campus university-affiliated housing community thereby not creating a new job within the housing department? Of course. But with the leaps and bounds colleges and universities (particularly public ones) have to go through now to get any new housing constructed given the economy is nothing short of a miracle so they all but have to use this option (and may be required to use outside management due to financial-related requirements). And in many cases, campus personnel do indeed continue to manage their housing that is renovated or newly constructedby a third-party vendor.

MYTH #4: Privatized housing personnel are not qualified. I’m the same guy that I was when I on the university payroll, and now have even been able to expand my skill set and professional experience. To be honest, the reason why I left is because there wasn’t an opportunity to be able to supervise full-time professional staffers and manage and develop large department/division-sized budgets. I’m proud to say that I have that skill set under my belt now. I have many colleagues in the privatized housing arena who are higher education and student affairs experts with degrees in college student personnel, counseling education, and higher education administration. They also actively participate in ACPA and NASPA activities and are well in-tune with the latest news and national trends regarding student housing and development.  

MYTH #5: Once you go to the Dark Side, you don’t come back! Philosophically, for me, there is no dark side. The campus I serve has embraced me as one of their own: I attend department and division meetings, collaborate with faculty and staff on living-learning opportunities, help to train campus community advisors & student leaders, and am a general resource for the campus. So while the Darth Vader on my bookshelf was a token of a light-hearted joke, I use it as a symbol to remember to stay true to my profession, create bridges for student development opportunities, and serve as a role model for innovative and research-based student affairs practices no matter who I work for.  

Scott M. Helfrich is the director of upper campus housing with Allen & O’Hara Education Services, Inc. at California University of Pennsylvania, co-owner of Student Life Consultants, and the creator of http://www.studentlifeguru.com.

 

, , ,

Blog Reflections: Student Leader Development

September 20th, 2010 | Posted by Cindy Kane in Budgets | Campus Issues | Club/Org Recruitment | Collaborative Learning | Conferences | Creativity | Leadership Training | Low Cost Programming | Online Tools | Orientation | Professional Organizations | Technology and Programming | Uncategorized | University | Web/Tech - (0 Comments)

I always hope for that perfect storm of aligned experiences when sending a small group of organization representatives to a conference.  In my mind, the students will be empowered with questions and ideas to pursue upon the return home; their energy ignites a new sense of motivation in their group; and they begin to pursue their new definition of the future.

Sound great?

Hasn’t happened for me yet, either.

Sure, our students had some great presentations and excellent experiences but nearly always my student groups struggle to accurately communicate the true picture of what they experienced.  They struggle to not use too many “inside jokes” when describing their time at the conference and nearly always ended up engaged in a conversation about “why can’t we send more people next year?”  Given that our travel funds are not likely to increase anytime in the near future, we needed a new plan.

So, my insanely talented staff member (that’s you, Matt!) says, let’s try blogging.

Our office now requires any students traveling to conferences sponsored by our department to blog each day while they are there.  We create a blogging site for the group’s travels and make each of them the authors. I love the fact that those of us not attending the conference can keep track of their experiences and that we can comment and have dialogue while they are there. We also send the site around to our student affairs colleagues and division leadership so that they can get some insight into student experiences.

This has enabled us to document these travel experiences and now see, in writing, what we already knew about the impact of spending time with other students who are similarly committed to common goals.  As one of our student orientation coordinators posted, “I don’t think I ever got completely used to everyone actually understanding ‘Orientation Speak’ and being able to have in-depth conversations about different aspects of their programs.”

The use of blogs has enabled our students to do more active reflection on these conference experiences and has allowed us to use the sites to help other students understand what the experience might be like the next time around. We get pretty active commentary from participants about what they like and don’t like about the conferences and, when warranted, our structured reflection topics allow for some time for them to pause during a busy conference and make meaning of this experience that the university has offered to them.

For our department, we reported themes communicated in these blogs as part of our annual report in hope of illustrating the impact that off-campus professional travel has on our student leaders.  Themes of increased pride in our university, increased confidence in their own leadership efficacy, and enhanced sense of community with other student leaders certainly made this student affairs professional proud.

If you’d like to take a look at one of them, here’s a link to the blog from our delegates at the National Greek Leadership Association conference in Hartford, CT this year.

http://bscgreeksgotongla.blogspot.com/

And just for fun…check out the Wordle the blog for our Student Orientation Coordinators’ trip to the regional NODA Conference (at the top of this post) and the Wordle for our Program Committee’s travels to the NACA regional conference (2) pasted below.  Looks to me like they had a good experience…and had some fun along the way!

So, how do you facilitate reflection when your students travel? Any interested in blogging?  If you are, let’s correspond and if our students attend the same conferences we can cross-promote their sites!

Campus identity: The move to authenticity

September 8th, 2010 | Posted by Lisa Tetzloff in Marketing | Uncategorized | University - (0 Comments)

Recently a marketing consultant visited our campus and reported that the “branding” trend is over. I interpreted this to mean that 1) I can cross personal branding off my “to do” list, and 2) our campus can eliminate its struggling branding committee.

Oh, don’t cancel the committee meetings yet. The new trend reportedly is…authenticity. Say what? At first I was irked to think that authenticity was being commandeered as a marketing trend. Then I said to myself, “It’s about time.”

I probably should have seen it coming. Domino’s, for one, has gone “authentic.” Its commercials show customers condemning the old product—bland sauce, crust like cardboard–with corporate execs committing to addressing these issues. Okay, so maybe I’ll give their pizza another try.

I recently visited a campus that I’d been reading about in journals and hearing about at conferences. With its spectacular Web site, this institution is obviously working to craft an image of quality and innovation. This university is motivated to get out of the shadows of a better-recognized sister institution. However, the “truth” isn’t quite the image the campus is projecting, at least not yet. What I experienced, though, is that this campus is unique and wonderful in its own right. Students love it because of what it is—not because of what it’s seeking to become.

We owe our students authenticity. And, in fact, the students on our campus, and probably yours, know very well what we’re about (regardless of our brochures and Web sites). Students like our park-like setting, size, and non-party atmosphere. They say they enrolled here for the “three T’s”: trees (we’re surrounded by an arboretum), toilets (all residences have private bathrooms), and tunnels (our academic buildings are connected by concourses). Sometimes they’ll add a fourth T: teachers. Faculty and administrators cringe at students’ descriptions. I would, too, if I didn’t also know that our students are receiving a high-quality education at an affordable price. Try representing all of that with a brand.

A colleague of mine once described our state’s residents as “hardworking, family-centered, traditional, obedient, accepting: that is, not expecting too much, and not being too disappointed when not too much happens.” Perhaps this is a bit of an exaggeration, but it is anchored in truth. Our campus, perhaps not surprisingly, reflects our state. It’s a comfortable, safe place with solid students who are involved, who don’t get bothered by much, and who ultimately want decent-paying careers. We can connect best with prospective students by giving them a genuine, multi-dimensional perspective of our campus. They will decide whether it’s a good fit.

Has your department or campus defined its “brand”? If so, how has it impacted your institution? In light of budget cuts and declining enrollments, is your campus looking into changing its identity or changing how it represents its identity?

[With all this said, our community does enjoy a bit of a national reputation, built around a certain professional football team. But even the team is considered by many to be “authentic” (or more authentic than most). Community members (the team is owned by the community) shun diva-like behavior. Still, we’re a polite and forgiving people who will give a hero’s welcome to our misguided former quarterback, when he returns home to retire his number.]

, , , ,

Run as fast as you can – it’s August!!!

August 16th, 2010 | Posted by Licinia Kaliher in Leadership Training | Resident Life | University | Work/Life Balance - (0 Comments)

I was running very early the other morning with my kids in a stroller. For the first half of the run I concentrated on my running speed, talking to the kids, and asking myself why did I get up so early (and push two kids in a stroller). I was so focused on my own needs and keeping the kids “entertained” that I forgot where we were going. After a half hour, I turned around to head home but this time I was aware of the trees, the sound of the creek next to us, the tweeting of the birds, and the pounding sound of my shoes and the stroller tires. It was at this point I realized how much running was like what we in student affairs do to prepare for the upcoming academic year.

For those who run, setting new goals is as common practice as increasing your running pace to prepare for a half-marathon. A running plan is developed to achieve goals. Either daily or weekly achievements are set toward the final goal.  Similarly for student affairs professionals, summer is seen as an opportunity to refresh, renew, and begin new practices. This is often reflected by analyzing the previous year’s assessment reports, new policy development, and project management. We set deadlines, do project review, develop policies and procedures. The summer moves along until August.

For runners, injuries may accrue due to the pressure of the training program. They have been so focused on meeting goals that they forgot to listen to their body. The end point may be close, but they continue or increase their training sessions. For student affairs professionals, August means training and preparation. The grand plans developed during summer are set in motion. We spend endless hours in training sessions and meetings. We push ourselves and our team to the max, prepping campus for the arrival of our students.

Then “the wall” hits. For the runner, the body reacts to the training and pressure it is under and a fight between the runner’s mental and physical strength occurs. They begin to question why they run at all if this is what running is about. This can also happen for student affairs professionals during this time period. We may ask ourselves: Why are we here? Why are we doing this?

Some student affairs professionals (and their staff) can be over-trained, and overwhelmed by the pressure of meeting new goals. We work endless nights getting ready for the grand arrival of our students but suffer burn-out and exhaustion when they do arrive. Yes, the students are moved in and ready for classes but we are no longer happy to see them. Runners also experience this “over-training” concept. They have worked so hard toward their goal but are no longer are joyful on achieving it. The body may fail and even though the goal is in sight, the runner might stop altogether because the desire is gone.

I realized this quickly on that morning run. I was so focused on my goals, on what I was trying to achieve that I forgot why I was out there running. I was pushing (literally and figuratively) towards something so hard that I didn’t allow the goal to be “right there” with me. For runners, this is called “the zone”. I have only experienced this a few times in my running experience so I’ll try my best to explain it. “The zone” is where the body and mind unite and in motion together. The world around you seems to move in slow motion even though you are running. You can hear your heart beat and your mind working together. Thoughts seem to flow in and out but never distracting you from your path. A greater awareness of self comes into place.

For student affairs, I advise that we take a step back and find our “zone”, especially during August. Let’s release the pressure we have on ourselves to have everything ready for our students. Look around and be in the moment with your colleagues and your staff members. Enjoy their laughter and awkwardness in getting to know each other. Listen to their conversations, rather than thinking of that batch of emails you have to send out once you get back in the office. We push so hard to put our grand plans into action that we forget to step back and allow them to develop organically. The students will come no matter what. It’s best for us to finish the race, at ANY pace than to not finish at all.

Now, I’m off for a casual run (physically and mentally). Are you ready to join me?

Licinia “Lulu” Barrueco Kaliher, Ed.D., is a Ray Street Complex Director at the University of Delaware.

The magic of high-impact learning experiences

April 26th, 2010 | Posted by Lisa Tetzloff in Diversity | Event Ideas | Leadership Training | University - (71 Comments)

We all want to create learning experiences that transform lives. Students spend such a short time in college (which may be even less with three-year degrees!)–what opportunities can we offer that will have a big impact? This challenge seems impossible at times, especially with tight resources. However, when we are able to pull one off, it can appear almost magical.

That’s the way I would describe the weeklong Lakota cultural experience offered recently to UW-Green Bay students. I had the pleasure of accompanying students to the Pine Ridge Reservation and Rapid City, South Dakota, to build relationships with the Lakota people, to learn about their culture, and to participate in service with them.

From our arrival to our departure, we encountered opportunities to stretch our minds, hearts, and bodies. Our guides encouraged us from the start to observe and listen, to learn and understand, to resist judgment.

In this frame of mind, we witnessed Lakota people, who, despite past and present losses, demonstrated true generosity, compassion, spirit, and hope. We heard a bit about Lakota history, defined by manipulation and worse; however, we heard a great deal more about a future defined by tribally driven education, cultural restoration, and community development.

Despite the short time we spent with various individuals, we formed strong connections. Each person we met deepened our understanding, not only about the Lakota people but also about ourselves. We observed values that some of us will build into our own lives: a broader definition of family, a spiritual connection to all things, and a reverence for our elders and their wisdom. Lakota resilience and tenacity empower us.

I almost missed this trip. It had been many years since I last crawled into a crowded van and drove for hours to get to a destination, whether that was an R.A. conference, NACURH, or some other lively and learning-filled event. Like living-in perhaps, road trips seemed a thing of the past for me. A selfish quandary rightly resolved.

This trip’s life is far from over. The group is presenting its experiences to the campus in a couple weeks, a participant is writing a paper on Wounded Knee for a history class, and next fall we will facilitate a discussion of the book Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog as part of our leadership programming. And that’s just the beginning.

I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to join the students on this journey. It was a transformative experience for all of us and a program thick with learning: history, culture, white privilege, economics, and so much more. Magical.

Were you lucky enough to have a transformative experience as an undergrad? What are some recent high-impact learning experiences you’ve been a part of or observed? Who is finding success creating quality experiences with limited resources?

View the UWGB Student Life Facebook page for photos from our trip.

Lisa Tetzloff is director of student life at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

, ,

In grad school? A little help from birds

April 19th, 2010 | Posted by Lisa Tetzloff in University - (0 Comments)

Congratulations to those who are earning master’s and doctoral degrees this spring! I applaud you. (Go to the ceremony. Hoods are cool.)

If you’re just getting started in a program or you’re already well under way, know that both are huge accomplishments in themselves. Your hood is patiently waiting.

As I progressed through my master’s and doctoral work, I was kept afloat by 1) Anne Lamott and 2) advice from wise colleagues and mentors.

Lamott is the author of Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994). The title story is a guide for school and life. It goes like this:

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”

Class by class, page by page, and sometimes even word by word. That’s how I got through my academic programs. To be sure, it wasn’t always a burden. In fact, there were periods when I was so jazzed by my research that my productivity soared. Other times the impossibility of it all seemed almost paralyzing. Bird by bird.

Like Lamott, students ahead of me in my programs and faculty mentors also were invaluable. Their advice?

1) Choose a research topic that you really love because the honeymoon doesn’t last long, and you’ll need something to sustain you through the difficult times. I studied Native American involvement in the women’s club movement. This topic still makes me giddy. (What does it have to do with higher education? Everything. But that’s a story for another day.)

2) Use every paper and project in your classes to explore a facet of your research topic. A paper on today’s tribal colleges provided me with unexpected resources for my dissertation. Start generating your literature review from Day One.

3) Take advantage of the times when you are really in the groove, when eating seems like an unnecessary distraction from your work. These times are critical, and they are fleeting.

What advice can others give? What kept you (keeps you) going? How did it feel to finish? For the Ed.D.s and Ph.D.s out there, in what ways does your doctorate matter?

I thought about giving up many times. Life’s unexpected challenges don’t stop to accommodate classes and papers. But, if you’ll excuse an overused metaphor, academic work is a marathon, not a sprint. We take it step by step. And when we cross the finish line at commencement, the feeling is indescribable.

You’ll want to experience it for yourself. We’ll all celebrate.

, , ,

Everything’s Political – College Students and the Need for Problem-Solving Education

April 13th, 2010 | Posted by Craig Berger in Collaborative Learning | University - (0 Comments)

As a graduate student in a Student Affairs in Higher Education program, I endeavor to eventually work on a college campus, encouraging students to mind their civic habits and responsibilities, while simultaneously teaching them about life throughout that journey. In order to fulfill graduation requirements for my masters program, I must work in an office on campus for twelve hours a week; such an experience usually involves creating some form of original work. In working with a leadership institute on campus, I have managed to perform my own bricolage, mixing two seemingly disparate elements together: politics and education. I have organized a series of discussions in which students having no knowledge of politics can contribute to a conversation, along with the political elite on campus, on what politics means to them. I guess one could metaphorically associate this effort with the training wheels needed for what is hopefully a life-long career marrying civic responsibility with education.

My motivation for pursuing what can be an all-too-frustrating task was initially selfish. I was a political science major. I didn’t have the guts to denigrate characters in political attack ads or the logical skills needed to practice the law. I liked living and working on a college campus as an undergraduate. Voila. Student affairs allows me to straddle the line between politics and education.

But, as many a graduate student has come to know, this line I speak of is fictional. That’s the lesson I have learned this year, perhaps nowhere better than these dialogues. Navigating a curriculum rooted in social constructivism, understanding that there is never a “right” answer, but merely socially-constructed knowledge, has sharpened my realization that politics is in everything we do. Yes, it’s in presidential elections every four years. It is in the partisan bickering and strategizing that goes on in Washington. But it is also in fraternity and sorority elections. It is in where you get your coffee in the morning. It is in the choice of news you wish to consume. Politics is everywhere.

My experience with undergraduates at my former place of employment and my current institution reveals to me that I was not alone in seeing the line. Politics can be compartmentalized into a convenient box. Students associate politics with Washington DC, voting, Congress, and the like. In one of our political dialogues this month, one of the students expressed boredom with politics. “Whenever I see politics on TV I change the channel,” they explained. “It’s just not fun. I don’t really want to get involved.” Yet, the act of channelsurfing itself is political. They did get involved in their decision to forego public affairs programming.

Unfortunately that involvement was unseen, and small in magnitude. I am recognizing that while student affairs practitioners and scholars spend quite a bit of time on social justice education, we tend to spend less time on civic education, developing the set of tools needed to engage in one’s community. While service-learning and voter registration drives have been trendy on college campuses over the last two presidential elections, engagement in local and state politics continues to suffer. It’s no wonder students associate politics with dysfunctional Washington.

If we were to take a problem-solving approach in our student affairs practice, we might make some headway.

Embracing a problem-solving approach to learning would be appropriate if we seek to rid higher education of the “mind/body split” that compartmentalizes intellectual discussion from one’s public actions (hooks, 1994, p. 16). A problem-solving approach would require the construction of deep and sustainable relationships between student affairs educators and the rest of the faculty, staff, and administration; a problem-solving-based model would necessitate an emphasis on the common good, meaning that students would see departments and offices role model this approach by collectivizing agendas as much as possible and placing the institution’s mission (which would ideally emphasize problem-solving) above their own. In addition to the construction of strong relationships, a problem-solving approach would encourage student affairs educators to create Freirian relationships with students; with an emphasis on community problem-solving, student/teacher and teacher/student “learn from and teach each other” – “doing ‘with’ rather than ‘for’” (as cited in Manning 1994, p. 95).

In this model, collaboration is the name of the game. The common good is at the heart of this effort, with problems uniting academic disciplines, student affairs staff, and students as opposed to egos, departments that are siloed off from each other, and disengaged students. To get here, we do need to re-examine our social justice efforts.

In order to face society’s problems today, our students must first begin the process of understanding and exploring their identity, their values, and how they view difference. In addition, the educational nature of problem-solving demands from students the ability to see an issue from another’s perspective. Following these tough lessons, students also need to learn about power and privilege, the source of many of the problems our students will be trying to solve.

Politics does not have to be perceived as a bad thing. The derivation of the word — “polis” is the Greek word for a city or state, thus “politikos,” or politics, means affairs/issues of the city/state — is hardly negative. However, college students unfortunately associate the broken system currently in Washington with politics; consequently, “politics” gets a bad name and other, more positive opportunities for political engagement become invisible. With just a bit more effort, student affairs practitioners can reveal the other side of politics — civil conversations, learning from others, changing their realities to help themselves and others — and align programs with our institutions’ “citizenship”-laden mission statements.