Ethical Foundations

Sometimes Professional Development Goals Just Don’t Happen

Dan

It’s August 5th. I haven’t written a blog since May. We have a baby “due” in a week. I’m running on all cylinders to get my day time job, all my volunteer responsibilities (including chairing a large scale association committee), and a consulting project done.

With all of this, I can’t help but feel a little bit of failure. It is a failure that I have manifested in this pile:

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This is my professional development reading pile that I’ve more or less collected since March. It was my summer reading – journal articles, monographs, reports, and even a whole book (which I at least have skimmed). It was my plan to stay on top of my career long practice of reading as much of the resources that come my way about this field of higher education and student affairs. I’ve never skipped (at least skimming) an entire issue of the research journals from all Associations to which I belong. The pile includes topics which with I am familiar and also new topics about which I want to learn. Reading has been pivotal to my professional development.

And I failed at it.

Or did I? I’m not sure. Maybe I’ve just had to rethink things. Maybe this isn’t an “I’m so busy – whoa is me” blog post. Maybe it’s really a “I’m rethinking – good for me” blog post.

Looking ahead, I know I will have to rethink my professional engagement outside of work. I resigned a committee role last week. I’m wrapping up that large scale association committee chair project. I have two other volunteer roles that I may have to skate through at least for a few months. I’m going to have to do what I can but not necessarily what I want on consulting projects. I’m deeply committed to staying on top of my CAS involvement but even in that role I’m going to need some patience for a little bit. I’m working collaboratively on a book and a monograph chapter (neither project I am rocking at the moment). Finally, there’s potential that my dissertation will finally see an article come to light – if I can take the time to revise as explained by a journal editorial board.

And that’s just for the things OUTSIDE of my job, which has become more demanding and exciting than ever before. By nature of what I am now doing, I am learning new and different things.  However, I know I need to wrap up or at least get things to a place that when Baby Bureau comes I can take a little time away and enjoy my life. This means cocurriculars and it means work.

Again, maybe this is a rethinking blog, not a whining student affairs “I’m so busy” blog.

I have to think about if I failed at my professional development goals or I had to change them to meet the demands of work and life. I wonder how often others examine how their needs for professional development have changed. For the first time in 18 years, I won’t attend the AFA Annual Meeting in December (more for personal obligations than for not seeing value, but still). I don’t plan on submitting workshop proposals for NASPA or ACPA, which means I likely may not be able to go to either of those conferences. I am also wondering, what would it look like to do my job REALLY well? I’m good at my job, but what if I focused on really doing my job exceptionally well and taking some of the time I’ve used to do other things to improve my practice in my primary professional role? That last question alone is a COMPLETE shift in thinking for me.

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably wondering “why did you take the 30 minutes to write the blog when you have so much other stuff to do” and you might even think “stop complaining and get on with what you have to do”. You’re a bit correct in that I could have done something else, but I felt the need to share the story because I bet someone else feels the same kind of dissonance around changing their approach to how they experience life as a student affairs professional. There’s a chance that someone else, like me, was feeling like a failure.

There’s also a chance that someone else, like me, decided to take these feelings of failure and to view them as a potential triumph in our effort to examine what we need to do versus what we’ve always done. It’s time to put that pile away and realize that things are changing for me. I’m kind of excited for that process. We’ll see how I do.

What professional practices do you need to change?

What professional goals do you have that might get in the way of doing what you do now really well?

 

 

 

Infusing Daring Greatly into our Practice of Caring Greatly

Dan

There’s a lot of talk about transforming student affairs practice – we need to move the needle from routine to impactful. At the recent ACPA conference we were challenged to dare greatly  – a concept I believe in and feel compelled to act on. While our field has been taught to CARE greatly – convey a sense of compassion and empathy for the students with whom we work – I’m not sure the general field of student affairs is ready to DARE greatly. Collectively, I believe:

We’re not doing enough to demonstrate our contributions.

We’re not doing enough to end negative behaviors.

We’re not doing enough to create a work/life balance that makes sense.

I wonder what needs to happen to move the needle. What would make student affairs practitioners capture the moment and dare greatly?

Don’t get me wrong. Lots of people are doing amazing things: Changing lives and influencing students. People are trying to make a difference. This isn’t a condemnation, but rather an examination of what could change if we aim to dare greatly versus only care greatly.

Daring greatly might mean taking some of the following risks to become better professionals in this important field:

Using assessment to influence our work and infusing tactics to collect evidence of our contributions. We’d spend less time on hoping we’re making an impact and more time on finding ways to determine so as a natural part of our work. Our advising and helping tactics would infuse assessment into them, asking common questions, documenting our answers, using themes to determine strategies for improvement. We would take the leap to transform our work, all the while still conveying care and commitment.

Using different approaches to issues of alcohol, drugs, hazing, etc. Students know it’s against the law – who cares. How about we get more creative and talk about the way these things undermine our relationships. Students seem to like each other by and large – there is some level of care there – maybe appealing to a sense of compassion for others might move the needle to end extreme and negative behaviors. We’d teach students how to take the risk. We’d support them through their enactment of the interventions we developed together.

Being more intentional with how we approach our work. We don’t need to be everything to every student. We need to convey care and concern. We need to handle their needs, but we do not need to lose ourselves as we seek to help them find the answers. Most life/work balance issues I’ve seen come as a result of caring greatly – certainly not a bad quality in a human being – but when we dare greatly, the way we demonstrate care may change.

So many good people work in student affairs. There is such a commitment to helping students. However, for us to dare greatly, we must be clear that our frameworks for practice must change. We must make progress on the things that we continue to push to the margins and we have to figure out ways to move the needle from routine to extraordinary. As we focus on change of our environment, we too will change. We’ll become more competent at demonstrating care while also daring students and ourselves to be all that we can be.

The Ongoing Search for Student Affairs Competence: Becoming the Well-Rounded Student Affairs Professional

Dan

The search for competence: it’s the framework I have used for this blog since its inception just over a year ago. The ongoing quest to be our best is a part of a career in student affairs. Through the simple search for competence we actually can become better and more confident in our work.When we become better we are more equipped to serve our students. The best student affairs professionals I know put students first, but they don’t sacrifice their own learning: they are deeply committed to ongoing professional engagement and development.

However, I believe that the majority of student affairs professionals do not focus on developing the entire set of skills and prefer often to focus on only a few at a time (and possibly only a few at all). I am convinced that our pursuit to be really good at one thing will ultimately be a downfall in modern-day student affairs work. We can’t afford for you to rock at advising when your understanding of legal issues is dismal. We can’t afford for you to be a great supervisor but have zero concern with assessment of your programs.

Student affairs is an ironic field: those who come into the field through a student affairs preparation program, are typically taught to be generalists but new professionals often go into functional area positions that are specialists such as residence life, advising, fraternity/sorority life, and career development. While our generalist skills might come in handy now and then, we default to what defines us as specialists: advising residents in your learning community, helping students schedule their classes, aiding leaders in managing complex organizations, and counseling students as they determine potential career paths. We focus so much on specific skills that those we don’t (or choose not to) use routinely just go by the wayside. The best athletes practice all parts of their game and work all parts of their bodies – therefore, shouldn’t the best student affairs professionals practice every part of ours?

Enhancing our competence in all areas of student affairs work requires an intention that many student affairs professionals lack: as we are so responsive to the demands of our students, we often forget to take the time to determine pathways for strengthening our competence and confidence in all the skills necessary to student affairs work. We are not bad professionals for this, in fact if the metrics that people around us care about is how accessible we are to students, then you might be perceived well; however, are you truly developing the competence you need to interact with all of those students? What skills would make you even better at serving your students?

Well-rounded student affairs professionals are important to our field. We have to create environments in which all staff are clear that expertise in an area is good but some level of understanding in all areas is expected.

At the University of Memphis, we have been intentional about creating a framework for ongoing professional development. All training sessions tie back to the ACPA/NASPA Professional Competency areas. Next week we will have our annual Spring Break Professional Development Challenge; participants are encouraged to take part in as many sessions as they can fit into their week (it is spring break) and each session addresses at least one of the 10 professional competencies. I love this week and almost 40 of our staff must also appreciate the opportunity because they have signed up for at least one training!

It’s our hope that this intention will help our staff realize what they know now, what they need to know, and how they can fill the gaps between what they are expected to do and their current skill set. To help others, I have highlighted those I find to be most engaged in their work and ongoing professional development in our weekly newsletter. We can all learn from examples and aspire to be like those who are the most focused on high levels of professional engagement and ongoing development.

We also have developed an individualized professional development plan, using the Competency areas, that can be used to help staff figure out how to accomplish their professional goals. The value of professional development has become an ethos here: coming down from our VPSA, through her AVPs and permeating the director/associate dean level.

Personally, I believe we can do even more! I’d love to see all staff be held accountable for demonstrating at least the basic level of the ACPA/NASPA Competency areas. What if we had to prove annually that we worked on one attribute within the  basic level of each competency area? What if our work was evaluated on our demonstration of each competency level? It would require a high level of intentionality and we’d be laser focused on being the best we can be in order to make a difference in the lives of students. We have to be more intentional to become the well-rounded student affairs professional we are needed in modern day higher education.

What are your professional goals? What competencies do you need to work on to reach your goals? How would you rate yourself in each of the 10 Professional Competencies?

When Bad Assessment Happens to Good Student Affairs Assessment Professionals

Dan

Recently, I’ve conducted some bad assessment.

Two surveys on different occasions in which there were issues that any basic assessment professional should catch.

I’ve let a survey go out that has double barreled questions!

That same survey had political implications, asking controversial questions within a tradition laden population. It wasn’t for work or for formal research, I reasoned. So, I didn’t take the time to do the survey right and get people bought into asking the questions.

Another survey was pretty well done and had many eyes on it, but I realized the challenges of administering a home-grown survey using both paper and electronic modes. There were issues printing at natural question or page breaks. I printed eight versions before I got it perfect. Then I used print job seven for making copies and provided participants with an instrument in which three questions were hard to read because the words were cut in half – if only I had that extra .25 of an inch on the sheet.

Reality is that even I – someone who does assessment, and likes to think he does it well – can have those bad days. Even the best at developing instrumentation and protocol should involve others in the review and development. It is vital to examine political implications of assessment before “just putting an idea out there to see what people think”. No! Stop! Don’t do it. Don’t just put the survey out there just to see what they say. There are implications. Think about whether the implications are worth handling after the survey is sent out (even to a convenience sample of friends on Facebook).

It reminded me that we all have to be working toward maintaining and increasing our competence and confidence daily. We can backtrack. We can let things slide. Designing a poor survey likely won’t end up being the biggest tragedy around but there’s implications that must be addressed. I should have known better. People expect more from me.

What are the skills you need to improve/maintain that will make a difference in how others perceive you?

What are the mistakes you’ve made when aiming to do something you’re good at but ultimately you failed miserably?

Ethical considerations in Las Vegas

Dan

I’ve been to Vegas before and I’ll admit, I hadn’t thought about my ethics as a student affairs professional until going there for a professional conference. Personal time with friends at my bachelor party (not quite The Hangover but admittedly there were similarities) and a friend’s wedding were reasons I spent several days in Vegas in 2005 and 2006. While I know I can’t completely disconnect my personal and professional ethics, these were times for me and not my work. I certainly wasn’t thinking of the ethical principles of student affairs work during either visit.

Many people see me as someone who asks colleagues to make good decisions at conferences: I believe that it’s your responsibility to represent your institution well and to use their resources well. It’s not a vacation. You’re working.

I had a few folks talk to me about their challenge with a convention in Vegas, particularly because student affairs professionals must be good role models for students. You might read that as student affairs professionals should not have fun, but I read it as we make decisions to act in ways that reveal our values and permits students to see our authentic selves. At the least when WE act in ways that counter what students perceive to be our expectations of behavior for THEM we might be seen as hypocritical.

I think I have fun and sometimes that involves consuming alcohol. I’m honest with students about decisions I make. I can justify those decisions and feel ok with them – a basic part of handling ethical decisions. So how did that play out in Vegas?

Upon reflection, I think it is great that we had our convention in Vegas. It is the perfect place to examine your ethics. It’s a great test for us as professionals. So, let’s consider some actions I took that may present ethical considerations for me while representing my university and myself.

Did I partake in drinking alcohol? Yes. I had two to four drinks a night each time spread out over at least three hour spans. Typically wine or beer, except for those two straight bourbons while playing blackjack.

Did I visit any establishments in which people remove their clothes or are scantily dressed? No unless you count Cirque de Soleil.

Is playing 90 minutes of blackjack a problem? Possibly. I played from 5:30-7 before the IU reception. I could have been at a meeting or session.

I went to sleep between 11-12 each night. Slept no later than 6:30 each morning. I could have stayed up later, but I had stuff to do the next day or had just done enough that day – I’m not old but 41 year old Dan can’t rally the way he used to. Bedtime wasn’t set for me. I chose to go when I needed. If I had been up later I hope I still would have gotten up as early and went to as many sessions as possible.

Did I skip sessions? See above. Between three presentations, meetings, and attending others’ sessions I participated in about eight hours of structured professional development each day. Spent many more hours talking to colleagues about important student affairs topics and lots of conversations on other interests I’d say we’re good for me professionally because they were good for me personally. Spending time with your best student affairs friends is just good!

There are other considerations that may be ethical dilemmas.

Did I go to a state in which issues of social injustice exist (see views on AFA or NASPA in Phoenix during 2010 and 2012). Yes. Prostitution is legal. Women are objectified for money. Guess as we throw around social justice, inclusion, intercultural competence as a value we better be prepared to address all issues not just the ones popular right now. Then again, if we only had student affairs conferences in states with no laws that undermine our associations’ values we’d likely just end up in Vermont or Iowa. Neither of which are places people want to go for conferences!

I’m happily partnered. I don’t hook up. I’m safe there.

Are these considerations that everyone should examine? I don’t know. I do. I firmly believe that these are my considerations and I don’t tell you that they should be yours. I do know that student affairs professionals struggle with all of these issues.

The only judgment I make is that I believe people should use their institution’s resources appropriately and go to sessions, not use it as vacation. After that though, I don’t judge. Drink all you want. See whichever sex naked as much as you want. Gamble away. Ultimately, you will need to reconcile to what extent these are or are not compromises to your ethics, those of your institution and those of the profession. At some point we will have to defend our actions to colleagues – just be ready to defend your decisions.