Workshop for the SEC ALDP hosted by the University of South Carolina, Feb. 6, 2014

1. ALDP Workshop
February 6, 2014

2. Welcome to
Carolina!
This presentation can be viewed online
at: slideshare.net/UofSC_SAAS

3. Learning Outcomes
Participants will:
• Obtain a contextual understanding of the world
of student affairs
• Frame current issues facing student affairs and
academic administrators
• Share views of participants by engaging in
discussion

4. What is Wisdom?
Wisdom:
Is not simple accumulation of knowledge
Is not paralyzed by ambiguity, but in fact
embraces uncertainty
Is expert knowledge about life in general
and good judgment in the face of complex,
uncertain circumstance
You know it when you see it
- Ansberry (2000)

5. wisdom [wiz-duh m]:
the ability to view more things
with a “blank slate.”

6. Anyone can do
Student Affairs, right?

7. Mission: Collaborate with campus and external constituents to provide access,
facilitate students’ progress and persistence, advance learning, and shape responsible
citizens and future leaders.
Goals
 Manage the comprehensive and collaborative efforts of the university to meet student
enrollment goals, and provide essential programs and services to recruit and enroll new
freshmen and transfer students and facilitate their successful transition to the university.
 Improve student progress and persistence to degree completion by increasing student
engagement in campus life and by providing and supporting essential programs,
services, and educational activities that lead to student success and satisfaction.
 Collaborate with campus and external constituents to provide essential programs and
services that advance learning, at the university and in the higher education community.
 Provide essential programs and services that shape responsible citizens and develop
future leaders, in collaboration with university, community and external partners.

9. Historical Role of Student Affairs
What happened to the Good Ole Days of
In Loco Parentis?

10. Historical Role of Student Affairs
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Disciplinarian
Custodian
Educator
Integrator
Combined: contingency (threats and
opportunities) manager
- Garland (1985)

11. Student Affairs is a Profession
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Theories
Statement of Ethics
Professional Preparation Programs
Journals, Books, Monographs, Research Studies
Listservs, social media, websites
Professional Associations
Standards of Good Practice
Certification Programs
CAS Standards for Professional Practice
Foundations
Has many associated professional organizations
Practicum and internship
Graduate assistantships apprentice programs

12. Sample Student Affairs
Functional Areas
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Academic Advising
Academic Support Services
Admissions
Adult Student Services
Alumni Relations
Athletics
Campus Ombudsperson
Campus Recreation
Career Services
Community Service Programs
Commuter Student Services
• Counseling
• Disability Services
• Emergency Management
Services
• Enrollment Management
• Family Services
• Financial Aid
• Greek Life
• International Student Services
• Law Enforcement and Safety
• Minority Student Affairs

13. Sample Student Affairs
Functional Areas
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Student Activities
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Student Conduct
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Multicultural Student Affairs •
Orientation
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Parent Programs
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Registrar
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Residential Life/Housing
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Retention & Assessment
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Sexual Assault Services
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Specific Facilities Management •
Student Government
Student Health Services
Student Legal Services
Student Life
Student Media
Student Success Programs
Student Union
Testing Services
Visitor‟s Center/Tours
Women‟s Student Services

14. Principles of Good Practice in
Student Affairs
Engages students in active learning
Helps students develop coherent values and ethical standards
Sets and communicates high expectations for student learning
Uses systematic inquiry to improve student and institutional
performance
• Uses resources effectively to achieve institutional mission and goals
• Forges education partnerships that advance student learning
• Builds supportive and inclusive communities
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- Chickering and Gamson (1991)

15. A Perspective on Student Affairs
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The academic mission of the institution is pre-eminent
Each student is unique
Bigotry cannot be tolerated
Student involvement enhances learning
Personal circumstances affect learning
Out-of-class environments affect learning
A challenging and supportive community life helps students learn
The freedom to doubt and question must be guaranteed
Effective citizenship should be taught
Students are responsible for their own lives
Student affairs professionals should be experts on students and their
environments
Students should have meaningful experiences that assist in learning and
practicing good life management skills and habits
NASPA, 1987

16. High Impact Practices
Important student behaviors include:
• Investing time and effort (engaged beyond involvement)
• Interacting with faculty (or professional educator) and
peers about substantive matters
• Experiencing diversity
• Responding to more frequent feedback
• Reflecting and integrating learning
• Discovering relevance of learning through real-world
application

18. Three Unequivocal Findings from the
College Impact Research
(Pascarella and Terenzini, 2005)
1. The impact of college on desired outcomes is
cumulative, the result of many experiences inside and
outside of class over a substantial period of time.
2. Cognitive and affective development are inextricably
intertwined, influencing one another in ways that are
not immediately obvious or knowable.
3. Certain out-of-class activities have the potential to
enrich student learning, especially with regard to
practical competence.
-Kuh, 2010, NILOA

19. Assessment for Improvement:
Astin’s I-E-O Model
ENVIRONMENT
INPUT
OUTCOMES

20. The business model for higher education is
crumbling – is the
academic/teaching/learning
model crumbling as well?

22. “A „crumbling paradigm‟ is a condition
in which an institution or industry has outlasted its
operating assumptions. The condition is detected
when the business or the mission results of an
industry or a company within an industry are flat
or declining while more and more resources are
consumed. When this happens, the institution or
industry goes into an irreversible decline until a
new operating model takes its place.”
- Gartner (Lopez) (2013)

24. Drivers for Change
• State and federal funding challenges
– Pressure for prioritization of resources
• Public‟s demand for access, affordability
and accountability

25. ….the challenges
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Fiscal support is decreasing
Costs are rising
Family incomes are flat or falling
Demographics are changing
The admissions arms race is escalating
Expectations for demonstrating our value
are growing
- Whiteside and Verzyl (2012)

27. New Performance Metrics
Input to Output

28. New Performance Criteria
• Freshman to sophomore
retention rates
• Sophomore to senior
persistence rates
• Graduation rates
• Length of time to degree
• Placement
• Gainful employment
• Manageable debt
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Institutional default rates
Value added
Life-long learner
# of Pell Grant recipients
NEXT:
Transferability

29. From: The New Yorker, May 23, 2005.

30. New Performance Criteria
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Workplace Readiness
Civic-Service Competencies
Life Management Proficiencies
Life-Long Learner
Four Year College Completion

31. How do we Keep our Customers
(oops!) Students from Failing?
How to Prevent
Your Customers
from Failing
Stephen S. Tax, Mark Colgate
and David E. Bowen
Spring 2006

32. How do we Keep our Customers
(oops!) Students from Failing?
• How do we create high expectations that
our students will move from surviving to
thriving?
• How do we get students to assume
ownership for their learning, both in the
classroom (ITC) and beyond the classroom
(BTC)?

33. - Schreiner, et. al. (2012)

34. Randy Bass, 2012
http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/disrupting-ourselves-problem-learning-higher-education

35. A Collaborative Agenda for
Student Affairs and Academic Affairs
Is your institution focusing on:
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Personalized learning systems? (Big Data?)
Integrated ITC-BTC Learning?
Managing Bad Behavior?
Complying with state and federal laws?
Using educational and business “best practices?”
Employability and workplace readiness?
Assessing ITC-BTC learning to drive relentless focus on
student success?

36. What is your
institution‟s definition
of a successful graduate?

37. Obstacles to our Success
Elements that are holding us back:
managing performance
silo thinking
turf wars
professional rivalries
resource allocations
bad supervisors
change aversion
unclear future direction
resource allocations
vacuum thinking
Internal Communications
*think about how research universities are structured and operate

38. And We Can’t Forget…

40. Now – “could
you sleep at
night when
the wind
blows?”

41. Anyone can do
Student Affairs, right?
But who would want to?

42. Students are…
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The most important people on the campus…
…without students there would be no need for the institution
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Not cold enrollment statistics…
…but flesh and blood human beings with feelings and emotions like our
own.
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Not people to be tolerated so we can do our thing…
…they are our thing.
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Not dependent on us…
…rather, we are dependent on them.
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Not an interruption of our work…
…but the purpose of it. We are not doing them a favor by serving them.
They are doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so.
From: Noel-Levitz. “Enrollment Strategies That Work in Attracting and Retaining Students”

43. To Stimulate Your Thinking
A. The Big Questions
B. Collaborative Endeavors
C. Student Affairs Worries

44. The BIG QUESTIONS
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Should certain student services be centralized (career services/internships,
study abroad programs, academic integrity, orientation, advisement,
writing and math centers) and managed by professional staff educators?
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Is it time to disrupt and re-center the curriculum to formalize the BTC
experiences and ITC experiences to provide students integrative learning?
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Are academic administrators and faculty working collaboratively with
student affairs professionals to provide students three full semesters (fall,
winter, summer) and to provide summer courses that enable a four-year
degree culture? Are online educational pathways supported by online
virtual student services?

45. The BIG QUESTIONS
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What learning assessments can academic administrators, faculty and
student affairs educators pursue that will improve the quality of the
undergraduate learning experience?
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How important to your institution is students‟ satisfaction with their
undergraduate educational experience? What role can we as educators play
in ensuring students have both an enlightening and satisfying experience?
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Should research institutions like ours adopt more of a student-centered
focus? Should students (and their parents/families) be considered
customers? Clients? Consumers? Stakeholders? Or Students? Would any of
these frames of reference change our practices?
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How will the trend to hire more adjunct or non-tenure track faculty impact
the BTC activities institutions are promising their students?

46. Collaborative Endeavors
First-year seminars and experiences
Learning communities
Diversity/global learning (study abroad)
Employability and workplace readiness
Student learning assessment
Student recruitment
Student retention
Capstone courses
Advising clubs and organizations
Academic advising
Internships
Civic education
Support for students with disabilities
Alumni relations and fundraising
Classroom management
Service learning, community-based learning
Student well-being, Healthy Campus 2020
Leadership development
Orientation
Intercollegiate athletics
Student success centers (Supplemental
Instruction)
Professional/talent development
Student satisfaction
Student ombudsperson
Student recreation
Student mental health, counseling
Spirituality and religion
Academic integrity

47. Student Affairs Worries
Contingency (threats and opportunities)
management
Men in crisis
Financial literacy
Student mental health
Campus safety, emergency management
Social media strategy
Interfaith leadership
Freedom of speech/protected speech
LGBTQ friendly
Integrative learning
Social justice
Suicide
Student identity capital
Life management skills
Title IX, VAWA, Campus SaVE compliance
Cost of student misbehavior
Freedom of religion, freedom from religion
Club Med or Higher Ed
Managing parents
Student satisfaction and ROI
Assessment, strategic planning and
innovation
Expertise on students
Output measurements for performance
College completion agenda
Online student services
Fees for services
Off-campus student services
Student legal services

49. References
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Ansberry, Clare. “Older and Wiser.” Wall Street Journal Millennium Edition. 1 Jan
2000.
Chickering, A.W. and Gamson, Z.F. (1991) Applying the Seven Principles for Good
Practice in Undergraduate Education. New Directions for Teaching and Learning
Number 47, Fall 1991, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Garland, Peter H. Serving more than Students: A Critical Need for College Student
Personnel Services. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 7. Washington, D.C.:
Association for the Study of Higher Education, 1985.
Pascarella, Ernest T., and Patrick T. Terenzini. A Third Decade of Research. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Schreiner, L.A., Louis, M.C., & Nelson, D.D. (Eds.) (2012). Thriving in Transitions: A
research-based approach to college student success. Columbia, SC: University of
South Carolina, National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and
Students in Transition

50. References
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Schuh, J.H., & Gansemer-Topf, A.M. (2010, December). The Role of Student Affairs
in Student Learning Assessment (NILOA Occasional Paper No.7). Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning
Outcomes Assessment.
Whiteside, D. & S. Verzyl. (2012). The Higher Education Landscape –
Unprecedented Challenges and Unprecedented Opportunities. Chicago, IL.: ACT
Enrollment Planners Conference.