Guiding Documents in Student Affairs: How We Shape Our Work

Last fall the new APCA/NASPA Professional Competencies document was revealed. Our division of student affairs at the University of Memphis has intentionally applied the previous professional competencies through our professional development challenge programs, individualized professional development plans, and our annual Memphis in May Student Affairs Conference. We have even assessed the extent to which our staff felt these competencies to be (1) important and (2) in their skill set. These competencies have helped us to be very intentional in our ongoing search for competence and confidence in student affairs work.

The new document has a few changes within, including combining some previous competency areas (Personal Foundations and Ethics are now combined) and adding new ones (Hello, Technology!). Language has been modified to reflect more modern approaches to student affairs concepts. The new document is friendly for the reader as it aims to help us to understand the bottom line utility of each competency area as well as some of the key changes made within these areas.

The revisions make sense to me. Good job ACPA and NASPA…..

But all of this will not matter if we are not continually intentional in analyzing how these competencies play out in the work we do. None of it will matter and it will just be another association document unless professionals take the time to reflect on the gap between their current skill set and those necessary to do this work.

When I did my dissertation research, one of the factors that participants highlighted as influential in their development of a set of student affairs values was the use of guiding documents: CAS Standards, some of the seminal works of our field such as the Student Personnel Point of View, and association ethics statements were items they mentioned as very influential in directing how they should work and what they should value.

I recently interacted with a participant from my study at a professional conference. When I asked if they had seen the new ACPA/NASPA professional competencies, they had no idea (this person has been “in the field” for almost six years now). Another person in the conversation said “oh yah, I’ve seen those” but explained she had not found the time to review them. And I realized, I hadn’t given them much attention either. I had not been intentional about using the documents that should guide the work I do.

We just had our annual Spring Break Professional Development Challenge at the U of M. Staff is encouraged to come to workshops that will enhance their professional competence. We tie all sessions back to at least one of the ACPA and NASPA professional competencies. It was the first time I had probably uttered the statement “hey we have new competencies to guide our work” since the revisions were released over six months ago. I had even failed to tie this new document back to the work we’re doing here and it’s my job to coordinate and promote professional development in our division.

It has reminded me that the value of guiding documents to professional work is significant. It has reminded me that using these documents needs to be at the forefront of my mind as I create learning experiences with and for students, staff and faculty. It has reminded me that while it is so often overused in our field, being intentional matters in order to ensure we are achieving the goals and objectives of our programs: using these documents means we are creating and conducting programs with intention to achieve what our field has said is important. Moving forward, I commit to incorporating these competencies into my professional development plan in more meaningful and appropriate ways.

Have you reviewed the newest version of the ACPA/NASPA professional competencies? What stands out to you as areas of focus?

What kinds of things do you need to do in order to enhance your competence and confidence within each of these competencies?

 

Change Fatigue? No Time To Rest!

I like change. Really, I do. However, I’ve become change fatigued. I’m thinking that much more change and I may become change averse.

It’s not that I’m unwilling or that I’ve become set in my ways. I know I can still embrace change as it’s part of who I am: I have challenged and been challenged to change. However, right now I have been forced into change so much that I’m not quite sure I know what I am to do or how to slow things down in a way that allows me to “get good” at anything.

I know that as a result of change I have been given new opportunities, but I have also lost some of the things that once made me happy. That’s life but I just feel like the pace right now is so much faster. So much harder to manage. It is harder to stay on top of things or to know to what I should aspire.

I’ve written before about how change sometimes stick and sometimes it does not. For two years I have been in the midst of serious changes, both personally and professionally. I am a new father (which of course has me reflecting). Where I work has had numerous changes in the organizational chart as a result of people retiring, downsizing, addressing inefficiencies, etc. I have new professional responsibilities. I have new volunteer responsibilities in an organization that is going through massive changes as many of our board members are retiring after very long tenures. I have had to change my approach to professional development and have placed myself into educational opportunities that are different than what I have done before. I’ve even changed my diet a bit to try to address what happens when you approach those middle 40s.

Change is both awesome and awful all at once – a dualism I have always explained to others while being more likely to describe the awesome part over the awful part. It’s becoming a little more balanced nowadays.

Stressed out guy at work.jpg

(http://libbygill.com/libby-gill/is-your-team-suffering-from-change-fatigue)

I sometimes wonder: what is expected of me? What if I don’t subscribe to the new normal? What if I mess up and make a mistake? Not that these things weren’t considerations previously but when things are constant you at least know the standards of performance. I don’t know constant anymore. I know I still enjoy what I do, I love my family, and I plan to follow through on commitments. However, I am more afraid of personal and professional failure than ever before in my adult life. Am I just older?

There’s a concept called “gracious space” that I find interesting. It basically says that in this environment, your voice is welcomed and your thoughts and concepts matter. You can try out new approaches or ideas here and if they don’t work, we’ll forgive you and we’ll all move on. To some extent it is judgment “light” and allows people to put an idea out there and see how others respond. I buy into this concept but not all do because sometimes what you say publicly can influence how you are seen and appreciated organizationally. In a change environment this is a major risk.

Sometimes in change environments, gracious space does not happen. Sometimes in change environments you lose, fail, get fired, get reprimanded, and hurt yourself or others. There is nothing gracious about any of that. So, you monitor around you. You try to not let the fatigue do you in. You figure out your allies and test ideas with them. You assess situations and people and determine what is a safe place to try and what places are best to maintain status quo. You look for the gracious space and you consider scaling expectations, because there is nothing more frustrating in a change process than adjusting expectations.

So, it’s likely I’ll be OK through all of this: I often reflect more on how I show up in spaces than necessary. However, I wonder about colleagues who may be struggling or may not be aware of what competencies they need to better manage the change.  I wonder what others need to do in order to persist and thrive in these environments. I wonder what plans they have to increase their competencies needed to excel at change and the confidence to implement change plans.

How are you managing change fatigue?

What have you done to enhance your ability to manage change?

Where do you find your gracious space and how can you create those opportunities should they not exist?

 

 

 

 

Regaining Focus to Advance our Professional Competence

I haven’t posted for a while. There have been a few reasons: first, we had a baby in August and the fall was just keep head above water time. Second, the spring has been busy, but not so much that I couldn’t find a little time to write some blogs. To be honest,  it was more a matter of what to post about. I have toyed with all kinds of topics and frankly felt a little paralyzed by having too much to say. I was just so unfocused.

So it hit me that I should write about how focus is important to efforts to increase our competence and confidence. For me, I had that focus for a long time. I was clear on my goals. I was clear on aspirations and knew what skills I needed to develop to get where I wanted to go. However, in the last year it was gone and personal life aside, I really didn’t have a professional excuse for it because I’ve always been “busy” at work. I’ve always prided myself on getting things done. Getting things done right now isn’t as much of a problem as is how what I am doing connects to where I want to be in the near future.

What my new professional self is to look like given my new priorities as a dad is what I now need to discover, and I need some focus to figure out my professional goals at this point in my career and life.

I have written previously about how intentionality is a value of the field of student affairs. Intentionality runs opposite to what I have experienced myself lately: this lack of focus. And you know what, that has impacted my work and my professional development. I have become less intentional I’ve dabbled in a lot of topics and have not retained much of it. I have had difficulty concentrating on tasks. I get distracted by the littlest things such as the bird out my window right now. Hey birdie. What’s up. Nice day out……

There’s good resources out there on getting focused and finding what matters to you. I have recently discovered this via a few friends on Facebook and I think I need to use it to guide what I do. I always like a good venn diagram and this one is one of the best!

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So I’m making a commitment to get more focused. I’m thinking that using this model will help me though I might edit it to add that “I could be great at it” and “It’s something I hope to love” and “The world needs it and I don’t yet have it” and “This is a skill I need to continue to get paid”. I know I need to get excited about my professional life, both present and future, again and I think it’s coming.

I think it’s likely I need to “survive” this semester and then revisit what matters to me professionally when I’m not distracted by the noise around me. Hopefully that doesn’t mean you won’t get another blog posting before then but I don’t know.

What are the things on which you need to focus?

What are the things that are distracting you?

What can you eliminate from your daily routine to minimize the noise and renew your focus?

 

 

How Professional Association Conferences Give Me Life and Drain the Hell Out of Me

I attended my 18th Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors Annual Meeting in December. I’ve written previously about  how attendance at a functional area association, even one outside of my day to day work and after 18 years of work in student affairs, is still an opportunity to learn about good work in the field of student affairs. In addition to learning, professional and personal relationships I’ve developed through AFA give me a sense of belonging and hope.

All of this aside, professional associations also drain me and give me cause to worry about our field. Here’s how one experience can both enriching and draining all at the same time.

Learning: I attend conferences to learn. I do this in three ways: attend sessions, facilitate sessions, and connect with colleagues to talk about issues. Student affairs association conferences, for the most part, tend to have good content and good facilitators doing the work. I always feel like I’m learning, even in sessions that might be “routine” for me. I have a learning orientation, but….

Not everyone does. Student affairs professionals must realize that we are not at conferences to vacation. Resources are put behind us to participate: Time away from work, money from the dwindling higher education budgets, etc. If I could change one thing about how people approach their time at professional conferences it would be that everyone would recognize this need to learn and then teach others. Additionally, no matter how much fun you have or how many relationships you want to nurture (for personal and professional reasons), attending sessions is tantamount. It is not in question: you go to things, you participate in learning for some significant period of time each day at the conference and then you share what you learned with others upon return.

Relationships: I attend conferences to maintain and nurture relationships. These are  professional and personal and often both. I appreciate those who have mentored and supported me and I try to pass that on to others. I enjoy time talking through issues. I enjoy time at dinner. At the bar. I enjoy time exercising before sessions start. I truly enjoy these relationships, but….

These relationships can be draining: some are terrific and there’s not so much an issue with the relationship but more about the time spent nurturing them. Staying up all night hanging with friends is something that’s particularly challenging if I also want to prioritize my learning. I have to figure out how to spend better time with people rather than less. There are also some relationships I need to spend time on repairing and some that I need to let go of – not for any reason other than I can’t be everything to everyone. My best self never shows up in that scenario.

Because I value supporting others, I find that I spend a lot of time at AFA in particular, but at any conference, I want to mentor and support. This means lots of hallway conversations, coffee and lunch meetings, fitting in discussions between sessions or at dinner, the bar, etc. I won’t stop doing this BUT it is time away from some of my prioritized relationships; can I support others while being supported myself?

Drama: Associations come with drama (don’t even get me started on the ACPA/NASPA consolidation matter) and AFA is no stranger to this. It’s particularly salient in AFA because (1) we’re a relationship oriented function, (2) not everyone plays nice together in the sandbox, and (3) for me, I’ve been so engaged in so many ways that I traverse in different circles, know different things, etc.

I see nothing valuable about unfounded drama. Sometimes the conversations that result from discussions (i.e. the never ending perception of an in/out crowd in professional associations, members’ perceptions of how leaders are doing) can be powerful, rewarding, learning experiences, but…

I have to step away from the drama. I often think I’m not immersed in it, but I become immersed because I respond to it. Because I value relationships, I want to ensure that all have the right information and we all know drama comes from perceptions that something isn’t right and that someone wasn’t involved or didn’t have the right information.

I also wonder if the drama continues to suck the life out of the relationships, how can we make progress? How can we move beyond territory and ownership to shared goals? Prevalent in AFA and any association, this is a real problem in student affairs: are we always truly about the right things or do we let personal hangups influence our work?

So, what does this mean for me and how can someone take this and use it for their own association experience:

1. If I am focused on learning, how can I do this in a way that doesn’t exhaust me. I am less willing to compromise the learning orientation but I also may need to be less involved in creating the learning experiences. Maybe going to sessions or facilitating one or two sessions rather than facilitating five is a good idea for me.

2. If I am focused on relationships, what do I need to do to prioritize the ones that matter most, incorporate opportunities for mentoring and relationship building, and minimize the time spent in interactions that may be valuable/important but not priorities? How can I ensure relationship building occurs and still get enough sleep to prioritize learning?

3. If I am focused too much on drama, or fixing perceptions, I get wrapped up in the things that drain me the most. My investment in professional associations is meaningful and I demonstrate care through my contributions. However, I can’t change the perception of all persons and I need to determine when I have crossed the line between getting involved in meaningful discussions about the future of an organization and the experiences of members and that of being dragged down into drama ridden, mean or spiteful. and often uninformed conversations.

We’ll see how I do. I don’t get as invested in ACPA or NASPA issues and tend to focus my learning and relationship orientations pretty well there. I imagine trying out this new balancing approach to engagement in professional associations, specifically their conferences, will end up with lots of hiccups rather than perfection, but I am committed to trying.

What are your experiences like in professional associations? How do you engage at conferences? What do you love and hate about these organizations?

Increasing our Competence to Influence Student Retention and Persistence

If you work in higher education in Tennessee, you know that we’re all scrambling to adapt to a new model of funding. We are no longer funded on how many students are here on Day 14 of the semester. As part of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission Complete College Tennessee Act, institutions are now funded based on retention, referred to as outcomes based funding.

We’re feeling this at the University of Memphis as our base funding has been cut significantly over the last five years and we have yet to see the effects of our efforts to significantly increase our retention and graduation rates. We’re on the cusp, but that’s not good enough. We all have to be working toward helping students come here, stay here, and graduate from here. It has to be the job of all, particularly student affairs.

Now, there is evidence that students involved in activities and such are more likely to stay, but I would argue that dispositions have a large influence in those numbers and few in student affairs could provide evidence that students perceive their programs influence the decision to come and stay here. Furthermore, student affairs professionals have to more strongly connect their work to the goal of retention. You might work with the Student Programming Board, serve as a hall director, coordinate programs for identity groups such as students with disabilities, or run the student union but you’re not doing your job here in Tennessee unless you think your primary job is to influence retention and graduation.

We should each examine how the ACPA/NASPA Professional Competency areas connect to retention. Consider some of the following examples:

Through developing skills in advising and helping, how are we strengthening our conversations to incorporate questions about decision to stay, influence of involvement in staying, engaging student leaders in helping their peers to persist and graduate?

Looking at the different skills in equity, diversity, and inclusion, do we have the competence to support students from diverse backgrounds considering the facts that might influence their decision to stay (e.g. first generation status, campus climate issues for LGBT students).

If we are committed to the competency of student learning and development, are we creating experiences and connecting students to opportunities to become engaged in activities/programs/services that connect their in-class learning to their out of class learning, thus strengthening the perception that college, in its entirety, helps them become something they aspire toward.

There are few meetings anymore that I am in that we aren’t discussing how student affairs contributes to retention. These meetings have made me think more and more about how I should be developing the skills needed so that when I interact with students I can meet their individual and group needs and connect them more strongly to the institution, in the hopes they will stay and graduate.

What kinds of things are you doing to push the needle up on retention?

Does your student affairs division have a culture in which staff identifies that they directly influence retention and they are working toward increasing retention and graduation rates?

 

 

The Student Learning Focused Advisor

I finally finished reading “Learning is Not a Sprint” edited by Darby Roberts and Kathy Collins. The books’ great overall but I feel two of the chapters are particularly important for student affairs professionals to read.

In chapter five Katy King explains the responsibility student advisors and student employee supervisors have for helping students learn. Based on the DEEP (Documenting Effective Educational Practice) project conducted by higher education scholars in 2005, she identifies 10 strategies to promoting learning in advising and supervising roles. I won’t dive into the ten practices, as you could buy the book and it would make this blog too long, but King argues that all we do should focus on learning. Period. She writes that filling the roles of mentor, teacher, supervisor, leader and follower can help students learn from those who advise and supervise them. King does well to apply several concepts and frameworks to basic advising strategies. She ends with the resolution that this is a shared journey between advisor and student and it is one that each person will be all the better for as a result of experiencing.

In chapter six Krista Jorge Bailey brings forth the concept of the “student learning focused” advisor/supervisor. She explains that student affairs professionals have an obligation to develop the skills needed to teach the students with whom they work. She acknowledges that this may be a difficult process, as it’s a paradigm shift for many. She explains John Kotter’s Leading Change model, which has been applied in so many different contexts including higher education. Through providing tactics for each of the eight steps of the change process, Bailey helps us to see how we can better integrate learning.

I’d recommend reading “Learning is not a Sprint” for these two chapters alone – both can aid in increasing your competence and confidence to enact the ACPA/NASPA Core Competencies of Student Learning and Development and Assessment, Evaluation and Research. I believe these chapters by King and Bailey bring forth great ideas to integrate learning approaches into our work.

Have you read “Learning is not a Sprint”? What are your thoughts about key takeaways?

 

Identifying Models of Excellence in Professional Competence

I’ve embarked on a project lately – I want to hear from colleagues about why they view the competencies of the student affairs profession as important and how they have gone about developing skills, attributes, values and knowledge that make them “stand out” as models of excellence.

Within our division of student affairs, I’ve interviewed one person that I believe stands out for each competency. We’ve got lots of examples of people who do really great work and know what they’re doing, but this project focuses on not only having the competence but listening to their stories of how the skill evolved and what kinds of watershed moments have facilitated the growth of that competence. It isn’t always about being the best but rather these staff members stand out as having the work ethic and commitment to improve on an existing foundation of success. It may be the director of student leadership and involvement who has worked hard to clarify his professional purpose and approach to enacting this approach  (Personal Foundations) or the coordinator of a student success program geared at first-generation students who believes that theories of learning and development should guide her work (Student Learning and Development).

In a soon to be released Division of Student Affairs newsletter, I’ll share the interviews I conducted with these staff. In the meantime who in your division of student affairs would you hold up as a role model for each competency? What makes that person “special”? Take the time to have the conversation with her/him to learn about their journey and how you can increase your competence and confidence in enacting the competencies that are needed to do good work in student affairs.

Helping a Division of Student Affairs Focus on Professional Development

When I was hired for my position as Director, Student Affairs Learning and Assessment, I was tasked with divisional professional development. You can imagine that it was a task that I was really excited about but also a bit anxious – how does one exactly help to meet the needs of diverse student affairs professionals at a school such as the University of Memphis?

Within the first six months, a task force was appointed to examine how we might be more intentional in helping our colleagues. As a result of that task force, a series of recommendations were made. We’ve used the ACPA/NASPA Core Competencies and CAS as frameworks that inform our approach. We’ve focused on increasing competence and confidence to help us work toward divisional goals. You can find our report here.

One of the things we’ve tried to do is be intentional about getting resources into the hands of our staff. It then becomes up to them to accept the individual responsibility to develop the plan they need to focus time and energy on developing the competencies relevant to their current and desired future roles. I am really excited about the energy that has come from a monthly professional development newsletter. You can see October’s issue as well as past issues here. We’re highlighting staff who are engaged in their work and value professional development. It’s a fun way to acknowledge people and also to use podcasts.

What things are you doing in your division of student affairs to engage colleagues in conversations about professional development?

Student Learning and Development: Don’t Vector Me!

I have a friend who shared this picture with me recently:

I’ve been known to apply theories in my work. Some folks say they have no use for theory, but I think that’s because they view the application as much more obvious or blatant than I do. I would never tell a student she’s hanging out in a vector. What I would do is examine how her behavior and see how a theoretical framework can inform my efforts to help her.

In other blogs I’ve offered thoughts on other ACPA/NASPA Core Competencies such as advising and helping and equity, diversity and inclusion. This posting focuses on the core competency of student learning and development. Consider how one might advance through the three stages of competence using the following examples:

At the basic level, one should be able to “identify the limitations in applying existing theories and models to varying student demographics”. For example, Chickering’s (and Reisser’s later accompaniment) was primarily on White students (not intentional). There’s limitations when you avoid race and ethnicity, and other issues of pluralism, when considering identity. How could you connect theories to inform the diverse identities of our students?

At the intermediate level, one should be able to “utilize theory to practice models to inform individual or unit practice”. Ironically, we presume this level of competence should occur by the time one departs our grad prep programs. Few, if any entering student affairs professionals have actualized to the intermediate level of competence in anything! Why should we expect them to in the area of theory application?

Finally, at the advanced level, one should be able to “analyze and critique prevailing theory” – Chickering ain’t perfect but it’s a framework. No theory is perfect and for us to apply unconditionally is inappropriate. However, as we critique let’s consider what is still applicable.

Applying theory isn’t so much about informing students where they are; applying theory should be about us understanding natural human development to inform where we want to help them to go. How do you apply theory successfully in your work and how can you be more intentional to make it meaningful and contribute to the success of students?