Multicultural Competence

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?

Gone to a Workshop and Think You’re An Expert? Think again.

Dan

I love college students. I’ve made working with them my life’s work. That said, there’s a few things that can drive me a little crazy about educating college students, particularly when it comes to out of classroom educating.

Sometimes, college students think they have all the answers or know it all once they’ve done one leadership retreat or attended one workshop. Really? You know it all now? Think again.

The same kind of inflated sense of competence and confidence is often articulated by us as student affairs professionals. Go to a conference session on leadership programs and come back and you know it all. Attend the social justice institute and you’re the campus expert on inclusion. Listen to a webinar on assessment and think “I can write the best survey questions ever!”. Think again.

It’s time for student affairs professionals to demonstrate our field’s value of lifelong learning. We hold up the ongoing learning that a student experiences across her/his time as an organization leader, participating in community service, and attending our campus programs and events. We know students do not learn all it takes to demonstrate leadership in one program and we should remember that we cannot become experts in the same manner. Learning something takes time. Incorporating it into our framework as we conduct student affairs practice takes even longer. Becoming an expert? Well, that’s a life’s pursuit.

Considering how context and culture influences how we apply lessons in our work is another factor for consideration. You might know a thing or two about cultural competence in one setting, but is the same level of understanding sufficient in another? Again, as educators we must adopt a commitment to lifelong learning – always improving.

Think about the things on which you may have a high level of competence and confidence: what can you do better? Examining the ACPA/NASPA Professional Competencies is one way to be humbled: do you really know everything at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels? And what are you doing to develop the long list of attributes needed to demonstrate sufficient and advanced skills in each of the competency areas?

Having Conversations to Help Students Hold Up The Sky

Dan

I’ve become familiar with the “Half the Sky” thanks to my familiarity with the Circle of Sisterhood initiative. I love the initiative but hadn’t read the book or watched the movie until this week.

What I watched has affected me. Stories of sex trafficking, rape, and depriving education for girls and women across the world. I felt helpless.

And not to mention all the crap that we’re dealing with in our own country. I want to help, but where do I start? It’s more than me helping with money – it’s about me helping others to care for the cause. Part of my responsibility is to get better at having those conversations, particularly with the students with whom I work.

But am I really ready?

25 year old entering student affairs Dan could have told a student the value of the cause – almost asking them to adopt my passion. But could he have helped the student understand how they can work to put her/his own interests to the side in order to prioritize others over self? That would have required much more intentional conversations than I typically had.

40 year old, 15 years in student affairs, Dan still struggles with this. Why do I feel so unprepared?

It’s even harder when young adult development basically tells us that our college students aren’t necessarily prepared to place their own (immediate) interests above themselves. Also, there are social structures that can inhibit the kind of development we need and the environment in which it needs to happen. A lot of things are working against me.

For example, I find it problematic that sorority women on college campuses often place the interests of their male counterparts ahead of their own. But it’s my job to have the conversations to help them move closer to owning their space, standing up for their rights, and then standing up for the rights of women everywhere. Not to mention that some of the things which with they are preoccupied matter little when they are possibly the students with the most resources to do something more than just be a stereotype. I also need to help men understand why they should care about issues that have been historically viewed as women’s issues.

I know I have to get better at this, because I want the world to get better. What kinds of things are you doing to increase your competence to have conversations with students about these topics? What kinds of things do you do to move students along the developmental and social goals that student affairs educators should be working toward?

 

 

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Expanding the Understanding of “other”

Dan

I continue to focus blog postings on exploring Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Practitioners (ACPA & NASPA, 2010). This week is the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion competency.

The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion competency “includes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to create learning environments that are enriched with diverse views and people. It is also designed to create an institutional ethos that accepts and celebrates differences among people, helping to free them of any misconceptions and prejudices” (ACPA & NASPA p. 10).

In the beginner level , student affairs professionals should be able to “analyze the interconnectedness of societies worldwide and how these global perspectives influence institutional learning” (ACPA & NASPA, p. 10). Applying this to your practice, are you able to explain how seemingly divergent religions intersect and overlap (and conversely how they may differ)?

In the intermediate level, professionals must do more than know about social justice but also they should “facilitate others learning and practice of social justice concepts” (ACPA & NASPA, p. 11). For example, if you’re in a conversation with colleagues about diversity topics, do you know the resources and experts to whom you can direct others for information when you yourself may not have all the answers (no one does).

The advanced level has a significant focus on one’s role in enacting policy. To develop skills in this area you might consider what you already know about institutional policies relative to topics such as access and how the functions in which you work can implement practices that are in line with those polices.

What do you need to do to increase your skill set in the equity, diversity and inclusion competency?