Philosophy of student affairs professional development

The Search for Perfecting Student Affairs Competence

Dan

In today’s Inside Higher Ed, Maria Stewart addresses perfectionism and the inability to acknowledge mistakes. The article couldn’t come at a better time because I’ve seen a few examples lately of folks in our field aiming to defy reality:

Student affairs professionals are not superhuman. We make mistakes.

I believe Dr. Stewart’s points apply well to us: admit the mistake, explain the reason why it was mad, determine how it will not happen again, and seek forgiveness. These are all things we can do better. We can be transparent about our faults. We can receive forgiveness and deal with those who will  not accept our apology. I think the biggest problem is when we are called for the mistake and then our hubris emerges: it was not a mistake. It was someone else’s fault.

And we make the same mistake again.

When considering our competence and confidence to do this work, we have a lot of expectations on us: attend to the distinct needs of diverse populations of students while also doing what is best for all. We have to mitigate risk and attend to the law. We have to abide by ethical principles. We have to act in alignment with student affairs values and principles. If we are doing these things, making the effort, and the mistake happens, then we learn from it and move on.

I believe that if we ground our work in an intentional way and exercise due diligence, then when the mistake occurs most will be willing to forgive and most likely the majority will at least forget.

What have been your mistakes? How did you move on from the mistake? What did you learn?

 

What does it mean to be “authentic” in student affairs work?

Dan

A lot has been written about authenticity in student affairs work. In the ACPA and NASPA Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Practitioners, the Personal Foundations competency states that at the intermediate level one should be able to “identify the effect between one’s personal and professional lives, and develop plans to manage any related concerns”. Ultimately, we have been asked to bring our “authentic selves” to our work with students.

I believe the concept of authenticity has a ton of baggage that comes along with it: as the concept exists somewhere within the parameters of what YOU think is appropriate and what OTHERS in the profession think is appropriate. You have to be ready to know just how much of the REAL you is appropriate to share. You also have to know when your work and professional selves intersect and when they are separate. Ultimately, you have to reconcile to what extent your approach to authenticity aligns or counters with the perspectives of others and the expectations of the field. It is for you to reconcile and if you can come away saying “I am authentic” then that’s great. If you come away thinking that you have a hidden or contradictory self then you might consider what needs to give. Either way, a harsh reality is that you will be asked to explain yourself. Just have your response ready and prepare to disagree with someone that your idea of authenticity and theirs may differ.

What issues do you think place your authenticity into question?

To what extent does our walk and talk need to be synonymous?

What can you do to “manage related concerns” and strengthen your personal foundation?

 

 

Student Affairs New Years Resolution: Reconsidering the Concept of Life/Work Balance

Dan

January 1st came and went; many student affairs professionals assuredly made a resolution to achieve “life/work balance”.

Maybe the resolution should be reconsidered and clarified:

Do we actually work more/less than other salaried professions with comparable educational credentials? Teachers? Association executives? Nonprofit community leaders?

Are we looking at a definition of balance that is based on the myth of a 40 hour work week for those in salaried positions?

What is it that consumes our time? How could we approach our work differently to properly influence the lives of our students and complete the duties of our position in 40-45 hours?

In the course of your day, how much time do you spend on Facebook? Twitter? Walking to get coffee at the student union? How much time are you WORKING vs. BEING IN THE OFFICE/ON CAMPUS and what is appropriate in terms of expectations of WORK?

Do you fit in time during the work day to participate in professional associations? Listen to webinars, read journals, etc for your professional development?

Do you appreciate what is likely a good 20 days paid-vacation a year off between holiday breaks that many in the private sector don’t receive?

Are you happy in your work and willing to make the concessions of time and income to stay in student affairs? If not, what needs to change? If your skill set was applied in some other career would you work less/make more?

Does your environment feel healthy in general and is there a sense of collegiality and support for achieving the level of balance that works for you? If not, what needs to change?

In my dissertation research, one participant talked about an “integrated self” in her description of life as a student affairs professional. As a graduate student she knew that others around her saw her as inbalanced, but she believed in the work she did. She was partnered and had other things to do, but checking her email at 9 at night was something she believed she needed to do to maintain some sanity. Good or bad, she recognized student affairs was a profession that required her to integrate her personal and professional selves rather than hope they could remain compartmentalized.

There’s a lot of literature in student affairs and other professions that address productivity and issues with salary/hours work conflicts. There’s resources such as PayScale that can help you to understand salaries of professions and how we compare. Ultimately, student affairs is about reconciling expectations (of success, influence, economic security, etc.) with realities (we will often fail and be frustrated, we won’t be paid what we think we’re worth).

Additionally, the life/work balance we all want should be driven by our individual goals; not someone telling you what is and is not appropriate. If you are convinced that you’re off balanced because of what YOU believe to be your professional goals and values, then it’s time to reconsider the resolution to be more balanced and figure out what needs to change to allow it to happen.

What would life/work balance mean to you?

How functional area associations support professional development over time

Dan

I work in student affairs assessment. I came up through working in fraternity/sorority life programs and leadership. I have not worked on a campus directly with students in fraternities/sororities for six years though I have done consulting in this area and continue to volunteer in a range of ways. A person asked me why I continue to attend and see value in the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors Annual Meeting (AFAAM) because I no longer work in this functional area. There are three main reasons I continue to see value in active involvement in and attendance at the AFAAM.

First, I think functional area associations do more than just educate on the functional area. Many of the skills that are explained as necessary in the ACPA and NASPA Professional Competencies document as intermediate and advanced can be learned in the functional area association. The functional area is often just the context in which you work, but AFAAM has workshops on multicultrual competence, assessment, supervision, etc. While explained in part for a F/S Life Office, these are skills we need in any area and skills we can continue to develop/improve across the career span.

Another reason is that I approach any information as learning. I don’t tend to go to some of the workshops that are a little more activity oriented – such as how to plan recruitment – but there are plenty of sessions at the AFAAM that while I’ve likely attended a session on the topic before, I can pull something new from hearing it again.

Finally, I believe in mentoring and generativity in the student affairs profession. I go to AFAAM and often do several workshops or participate in activities that help graduate students with resume preparation. I get a lot out of contributing to help others and in turn I develop increased competence.

Are you involved in a functional area association even though you’re a mid-level generalist or working in a different functional area? Why do you stay involved?

Student Affairs’ Role in Increasing Student Self-Efficacy

Dan

I’ve been spending some time exploring the concept of self-efficacy, particularly as it relates to the role of student affairs professionals. Self-efficacy can be defined as  “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations. In other words, self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation” (http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/self_efficacy.htm).

It appears increasing self-efficacy may also be a tactic to helping students along other developmental processes such as identity development, self-authorship, and moral development. Basically, if we can help students develop self-efficacy, then we can help them:

1. Do well academically.

2. Develop a sense of confidence to succeed in a diverse college environment (sometimes in spite of hurdles they have overcome).

3. Become sound and ethically grounded leaders

4. Intervene when there is a problem.

The University of Memphis Division of Student Affairs has adopted self-efficacy as one of its learning objectives, which we call the Vision for Students. Self-efficacy can be mapped back to any of the six CAS Learning Domains, particularly cognitive complexity and its dimension of critical thinking. We can also find that self-efficacy is implicit as we seek to develop the Student Learning and Development core competency in the ACPA/NASPA Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Practice.

I’m fortunate to have a great supervisor who studied self-efficacy of women in STEM programs. I recently interviewed her to learn more about self-efficacy and the recording of this 14 minute interview can be found here.

What do you do to influence students’ self-efficacy? How can we be more intentional about prioritizing self-efficacy as a desired student affairs goal?

We’re Losing Our Minds! Learning as Primary vs. Hopeful Byproduct

Dan

Keeling and Hersh (2012) explain as colleges and universities move toward a focus on increased graduation rates and meeting students’ expectation to “get me a job”, we forget what should be primary to our existence and purpose in society: helping students learn. While graduation rates and job placement numbers matter, are we satisfied that students enter society without some of the basic skills they should have learned under our guidance? Many of our graduates lack essential skills. Does college/university really accomplish what the world needs it to?

Student affairs needs to ask the same question: if we cannot prove that students learned as a result of our programs, what value do we have?

We are at a point when all we do should be about learning. We should not just hope it occurs. Keeling and Hersh (2012) tell us this. Guiding documents of student affairs tells us this – in fact, in a recent essay, Jim Barber and I explain that while not always first on our mind, learning has always been a byproduct of good work in student affairs. In the ACPA/NASPA Student Learning and Development competency, at the basic level, we are expected to “Identify and construct learning outcomes for both daily practice as well as teaching and training activities”.

What else do we need to hear before we’re just being negligent about our work in student affairs? Why are people still not prioritizing learning? Why don’t we use language that more meaningfully connects what we do to learning? Why don’t we view our role as educators? Really, why has this been so hard?

It’s hard because we can’t see or feel learning as much as we can see a student happy with her residence hall experience or relieved after we’ve provided her with counseling services for stress management. Student affairs folks like happy – that’s not a bad thing – but when we see her happy we can also meet our other obligation by asking her (in some way) what it was she learned as a result.

What will it take for you to prioritize learning? If you already do, what are the strategies you use to infuse learning more strongly into your work?

 

Collaboration as a Means to Developing Professional Competence

Dan

Last night I attended an event for the Colleges of Memphis initiative. I think it’s awesome. I love the idea that our 14 colleges in the area, each somewhat distinctive from the other, are partnering to educate some 66,000 college students. Collaboration in this context means centralizing data, marketing, and sharing ideas. It also means looking out for the betterment of the whole versus only the interests of the individual institution.Collaboration takes time but in the end, people are better off.

I’ve also found that collaboration is a great way to increase professional competence.

For example, I didn’t come up through health services, but because I collaborate with  our Student Health Center, I learn about how students use their services and the issues they face. I collaborate with academic affairs colleagues on research and assessment initiatives, particularly around our focus on retention. Sometimes collaboration stems from a meeting with a colleague and sometimes I stumble across the opportunity because I am on a university committee.

I’d like for us in student affairs to increase efforts to collaborate. At the beginning it takes time and possibly can be a bit of a drain on human and fiscal resources, but as these collaborations persist, they can actually improve our use of resources. Those are the benefits for the institution, but for me as an individual, I feel like collaboration makes me a better professional.

Collaboration may look different based on your function and your tenure in this field. How can you better incorporate collaboration into your work so that you develop increased professional competence and confidence?

Image below borrowed from http://collegesofmemphis.org/

Assessment, Evaluation and Research: Incorporating Practices Into Our Work

Dan

As with past blogs, I am incorporating the ACPA/NASPA Core Competencies. This week, I address Assessment, Evaluation and Research. Each is distinct from the other. For the purpose of this short blog, I will focus on assessment.

Ultimately we have to find ways to have an assessment framework to do our jobs rather than conduct assessment on top of our jobs. What does it mean to be an assessment oriented student affairs educator? Let’s look at some of the characteristics of professionals at different stages of competence and answer the question.

At the beginner level, one must be able to “facilitate appropriate data collection for system/department-wide assessment and evaluation efforts using up-to-date technology and methods”. An assessment oriented educator views any interaction as an opportunity to collect data. Meeting with student organization presidents over time, why not ask each of them the same question, such as “What are you dealing with in your organization?”. Good notes and analysis of these notes can reveal themes. Themes inform decisions. Using data to inform decision making is one part of good assessment.

Intermediates should be able to “prioritize program and learning outcomes with organization goals and values”. An assessment oriented educator knows the goals she/he wants to accomplish and aligns goals with that of the division and institution. Conversations with students help us collect information to know to what extent those outcomes are accomplished.  At the simplest level, taking the time to reflect on these conversations and document our observations makes existing practices assessment practices. Such practices reveal answers to our questions about what students are learning.

Those in the advanced level focus on such things as using assessment data to make strategic decisions. If you’re having the conversations and you are documenting your observations, at some point you can see if the human and fiscal resources you’re applying are paying off. Making decisions based on this data will help you to be more strategic in the services, programs and resources you provide. Assessment is a precursor to good planning.

It’s likely you’re already doing the following in your work: Having conversations, which leads to making decisions. Really, the missing piece is assessment of those conversations and the use of the assessment results to inform decisions.

How do you incorporate assessment already? What do you need to do to become more competent and confident in assessment, evaluation and research?

Relationships with Colleagues as Professional Development

Dan

I’ve focused my postings lately on ACPA/NASPA Core Competencies and CAS Standards, but this posting has  different framework: relationships.

Today I had coffee with a colleague with whom I had very limited previous interaction. I thought he and I would have things in common: we attended the same conferences, worked in the same functional area, and emailed about different questions. I knew him from a listserv but sensed that he’d be a good person with whom to have a professional relationship.

I was right.

Engaging in a discussion with colleagues about different issues we face and how we’re going about addressing these issues is really stimulating for me (coffee helps too). I approach my conversations with colleagues as friendly, but it’s clear that while we’re building a relationship, we’re benefiting a lot from each other: we’re increasing our competence in student affairs work.

I believe professional relationships should be intentional: providing support as you build these connections and possibly a friendship. It would be a missed opportunity to not engage in “shop talk” as I create collegial friendships.

How do you approach relationships with colleagues as opportunities to develop your competence and confidence?

CAS Standards: What they’re good for!

Dan

I’m a CAS fan! Recently the latest edition of the CAS Standards was released and there’s a lot in there to be fanatical about!

New standards include Services for Transfer Students, Campus Police and Security Programs, and Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Prevention Programs. Revised standards include the Fraternity and Sorority Advising Programs. More information on the 8th edition of the Standards can be found at: http://www.cas.edu/index.php/updates/

So why should higher education professionals, most notably student affairs educators, use these standards?

1. They provide a shared framework across functional areas. Because CAS has common general standards for ALL of its 41 sets of functional area standards, we have a starting point for collaboration.

2. They provide an assessment tool – do we know we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing well? And, of course, the learning domains kind of kick butt!

3. They provide a launching point for discussions about how our collective and distinct functions support goals of higher education: learning and retention in particular.

4. They’ve been tested time and again – we have had standards for over 30 years. It’s time we infuse these deeply into our work.

How do you use the CAS Standards? What have you found helpful about them? How have they improved your practice?