The Focus of Chapter 30 was on “Shaping the Future”. The world is changing and developing every year. Technology is advancing, globalization is occurring, and new levels of accountability are expected. Student Affairs is definitely not the same as it was 30 years ago. Much has changed in universities, but Student Affairs is changing right along as well. Many of us in our assistantships are developing new things that have never been attempted before. Describe something you are working on or have worked on in your assistantship that was a response to changes in student affairs, student expectations, or economics.
This is definitely an interesting blog and I am excited to see some of the responses of other hot topics and changes some have encountered in student affairs. This blog for example hasn’t been done in the past for Dr. Miller’s class but the dynamics of students’ wants and needs are changing everyday. In my assistantship we have been working on learning outcomes for our department. Gary could have very well done all of these learning outcomes himself and told myself and Alyssa that this is the what we need to focus on, this is how we are going to accomplish it, and this is how we are going to assess it. Instead he gave us an opportunity to work alongside him and has us creating a learning outcome each. It is giving us a great learning opportunity to understand what will be expected of us when we get into the field.
The Office of National Scholarships is a relatively new office at USF (it was started in the 2009-10 academic year) so everything that we are working on is fairly new. From what I understand, ONS was created to meet the desired characteristics & achievements of the university. From what I have experienced thus far, though, we need to work to meet student expectations more than we do now. Currently, we are trying to meet university expectations and students are not clear about what we do and the services we provide.
In the Office of MD Admissions over in the USF College of Medicine, we have made a lot of recent changes. One of the most recent changes we have made has been our interview day process. Typically and historically medical school interviews consisted of applicants only coming to our medical school to be interviewed by faculty members and medical doctors. We have changed our process from that to a more inclusive format. We allow applicants to be interviewed by faculty members, receive a tour of the College of Medicine, have a panel discussion with current medical students, learn about our clinical and residency programs, and get a hands on experience with our Center for Advanced Clinical Learning where they can use the Harvey Heart Simulator and have interactions with standardized patients, just like our first year medical students. This new interview process develops a sense of inclusion towards our applicants so they can truly gain a positive experience of our medical school. In addition to the interview day process, we have moved to an online-based application system called AMP. AMP allows students applications, recommendation letters, transcripts, and other requirement to be put in an online database that would allow my colleagues and I to process their applications at a faster rate. Processes applications at a faster rate allows us to meet the demands of the ever-changing society by being able to respond to our students quicker and not be caught up in paperwork. Taking things a step further, the College of Medicine has made changes on the academic side as well. We have recently changed the curriculum of our medical students to a more comprehensive and applied based format. This was based upon the retention rates of medical schools around the country. This shows me that universities are ever-changing not only on the student affairs side, but academics as well.
New Student Connections is doing everything possible to keep up with the changes that occur in student affairs. An ongoing discussion with our staff since early fall has focused on extended hours for the office. Ironically, it ties into our discussion this past Tuesday in our Ecology class. With the new generation of students entering college, we have been trying to determine if having our office open past 5pm would be of good use. Would they actually utilize the services that we offer if we are open longer? During the Fall Week of Welcome celebration, our office extended its hours an extra hour. However, there wasn't a huge difference with traffic in the office. The conversation, however, has continued because of the impact that our office has, and we do want to reach as many individuals as possible. In the end, they have to want the help as well. Who knows what Spring WOW will bring...
Justin, that was awesome of Gary to give you and Alyssa the experience to work alongside him rather than him tell you what needed to be done.
Our College Student Affairs program at USF has to compete with many other CSA programs throughout the country when recruiting students to come to our program. This is a change in expectations because you can no longer wait for applicants to apply and then select the best ones, students have to be sold on the idea of coming to USF over other institutions. Students have so many options that it is simply not enough to offer a good program, but you have to physically offer them something to come to your campus over another campus.
This semester I worked with Dr. Henry and another team member to develop a proposal to submit to the graduate school to receive recruitment funding to allow 10 students travel stipends to come to our annual Open House event. This is congruent with the changes in student affairs because in previous years, students have been expected to pay for their own travel expenses to Open House. Assisting 10 students to attend Open House will not only attract the most well-rounded and talented students to the program, but it will assist the CSA program at USF in being competitive with other CSA programs throughout the country that already offer this travel stipend.
The Honors College is currently pushing toward having everything done online and electronically. One recent addition for students is the E-portfolio, which was featured in an article on the USF homepage recently. Students log in to create a professional profile of themselves. It is so much more than an online resume; they can add articles they have had published from doing undergraduate research and other information that would capture the attention of employers and truly convey their personality. Plus, it's a lot more fun to browse through someone's E-portfolio than stare at a bland sheet of paper with words on it.
In my specific assistantship, I am currently struggling to find the best way to communicate with my students. As mentioned in one of the articles we read recently, many of today's college students find email to be antiquated and they rarely check it. On the other hand, I feel that it's inappropriate for me to be texting the students I work with as a means of communication. Problems can arise with them contacting me during hours I am not in the office and expecting an immediate response, or blurring the line between adviser and student. As the times change, so too will the ways we communicate with students.
Laura that is a great marketing strategy. Even if I wasn't someone who was selected for that I would still appreciate that the program thought of students in that way. I hope this years applicants appreciate that!
In order to utilize money for other things Housing & Res Education focused on social networking this year. This year the Selection committee decided to utilize facebook for RA Selection. We posted all information session days and other valuable information on the page. We have other small promo items that were inexpensive. In previous years this committee purchased t-shirts for advertising which costs too much money. Our goal this year was to have about 400-500 applicants and between the first three sessions we had about 150 students. On the Sustainability committee we are really trying to lead by example so at our GoBull Thanksgiving luncheon on Monday we will be sharing some of our initiatives with the entire Housing department. We are trying to be more concious of waste that comes from our department. Recycling has become an issue, students want to recycle but the bins aren't near each res hall.
In my assistantship believe it or not we are slowly trying to make athletes more accountable. With school, travel, scheduling, I am trying to work with coaches, to make athletes learn how to do things on their own and take accountability for their actions. There is also a push to have more athletes in the community, and to give back. Athletics needs to give back to the community that has shaped it, and be mentors to the kids that look up to them. With the times changing it is hard though with many student athletes coming in with a sense of entitlement, and come without any sense of responsibility because their parents or someone else has done the work for them before. It can be difficult and frustrating sometimes, but there has to be a realization for them. Once they finish their four years most collegiate athletes have to face the real world.
In my assistantship I am actually working on upgrading technology for students. The scholarship section of financial aid is in the process of updating the scholarship database. Right now when a student searches for scholarships it brings up every one regardless of what each individual qualifies for. Within the next year or so they hope to switch over to a new database that will consist of a student being able to enter their U-number and it will only pop up specific scholarships that they qualify for and can apply right there online. The whole application process will be online and it will allow for students to even attach resumes and essays. Basically, there will be no more mailed out scholarship applications to the donors. The whole process will be electronic and a lot quicker.
Wow Laura, I had no idea that the CSA program was doing that this year. I think that is a wonderful idea and will attract more out of state students to attend open house. I know that open house was definitely one of the deciding factors for me when choosing a program but it was also very difficult financially to attend and I would like other prospective out of state students to have the opportunity to attend. Andrea hit it right on point with our assistantships. I believe that this all ties in to our society changing as well as generational changes. As technology advances our students are changing and it becomes quite a challenge to find the best ways to communicate with them without creating conflicts. On a different note, Andrea and I have a Friday Seminar Series where we invite our students to attend seminars to help them in their transition and progress throughout college. We are working to make our seminars more interactive for students, because as we all know, they do not need to sit through another lecture that they will most likely not listen to. On the 19th we have a stress management seminar. Instead of discussing stress management techniques we are actually going to have a yoga instructor come in and teach them yoga and meditation techniques to help them relax before finals. I truly believe that this will be more effective. Students nowadays need to be involved and engaged. I think this transition in our seminar series will show more involvement amongst our students and will lead to a greater turnout for future interactive seminars.
I am helping the TRAC office create a more user friendly, interactive website for all advising information. This is meant to be developmental in tone, but also meet students where they are at, have the information they desire in the way they are looking to learn it, and avoid the boring list of Frequently Asked Questions. This is definitely in response to the growing demands of Millenial students but will also help ease the amount of phone calls and in person visits for simple questions that are easy to answer.
Like the Honors College, we are also looking to go paperless. It is an ongoing process, but we hope to have all ARC petitions submitted electronically, like the College of Arts and Sciences does now.
The BBC is relatively new and has many more students than in years past. A new concept we are trying to implement next year is to have student committees in the community to plan events, community builders, a mentor program, and tutoring sessions. The problems we are facing this year revolve around students not becoming as involved with the community as we would like them to be. My supervisor attended a conference recently on living-learning communities, and felt that this would be great to implement in the BBC. Holding students more accountable for their experiences will not only allow them to be more involved, but it will also give them a wider range of experience. This is constantly emphasized in their business majors, as they are trying to build their resumes before even arriving at college. Similar to Andrea, I have also been brainstorming ways to communicate with students outside of email. As much emphasis as I place on checking their email regularly, students still seem to miss important messages. Fortunately, I have access to their floor, and can physically deliver messages (yet, do they read that paper slipped under the door?). I have only resorted to this once, because I feel that as business students they should be professional and respond timely to emails. Facebook messages may end up being the last resort…
When Gary presented to our class he touched on why Student Government is unique in Florida (and a few other states) and I wonder if that’s where Student Governments across the country are headed. Sometimes I think the students I work with have an absolutely ridiculous amount of power and control (a voting member of the board of trustees?! Millions of dollars to dish out?!). But…when I think about the emphasis the field now places on learning outcomes I realize how much my students are learning. That is a lot of money to have control over…but it’s also a lot of responsibility and I think they grasp that pretty well. We’re teaching our students a lot about responsibility, budgeting, communication, and cooperation (after all, they’ve got to decide together where the money goes). I’ll be interested to see if student governments across the country start to give a little more power to the students, because I do truly believe they learn more for having it. It makes our job a lot harder, as Gary alluded to it’s a tough advising role, but I do see a lot of benefit in it for the students and at the end of the day that’s what we’re here for.
This is a tough statement for me to elaborate on. Financial Aid, while a necessary and valid aspect of the University doesn't really seem to offer a bunch of opportunity in terms of describing how "I've changed something in the program." Well, even though it is not necessarily just because of my implementation, policies have apparently changed with the economy in its current condition.
Long gone are the days when Financial Aid would simply hold excess funds and pass them along to students who qualified for them at a later date. Several instances have occurred where I had the unfortunate displeasure of telling a student that they owed the university several thousand dollars because they didn't fill out a form, or that they had a hold on his or her account because of a $1 fee that was added by their college after the paying of tuition.
Funding has declined because of falling revenue. There has been some counter balance of this with the implementation of Direct Loans. Instead of the government giving out billions of dollars for free to lending institutions (so they can charge interest for money they didn't even have to "purchase") the government now "directly" sends the money to student.
As a side note, I recently heard that Governor-elect Rick Scott wants to cut at least 6,000 state government jobs. Since education is usually one of the first chopping blocks for budget cuts--ridiculous I know...--do you guys think that student affairs might get affected by this someday? To be honest, I'm not really sure. I wonder if the university has its own jurisdiction and perimeters in regards to jobs. What would happen if someone decided that grad assistants weren't all that necessary and should be disregarded (I don't think this would be the case, because we save the university money by working part time and with minimal benefits....)?
One thing that the Office of Orientation is working on right now is virtual orientation. We are trying to have an online orientation session for those individuals who cannot attend a personal session, such as those serving in the armed forces, illness or other reasons. It is our hope to have an interactive orientation for those students to utilize so they can get as much information as possible. Another component of this virtual orientation is the move to have students complete a orientation "tutorial" before they attend their orientation session. Student would be able to sign in to their personal online account and choose the topics we assign them to complete, as well as a choice of video interactive information they can choose. We are partnering with the colleges to have them complete videos tha thave information specifically targeted for those students. If I am an engineering student, one click of a button through orientatino online and I will have a video telling me everything I need to know before I come to campus. With this new feature, we are hoping to eliminate time and resources thta come with answering questions during a session. This way, students will have knowledge and be prepared for orientation and USF before they ever set foot on campus.
I will continuing from what Chance said about the change to direct lending. This program impacts students as they come into our office. One of the most frequent questions we had during the summer and the beginning of fall was why aren’t my loans dispersing? When checking the accounts I saw many of these students had not completed a new master promissory note; did they realize that they needed to. Even though the financial aid office sent a newsletter out to all students letting them know about the switch to direct lending and the need to complete a new master promissory note they still said they didn’t know. Like Andrea and Anglea said, students don’t always read emails and since that is the way financial aid communicates with students it can be hard to make sure everyone is on the same page about the financial aid process.
One thing that I got to work on this semester is budgeting for my ops student employees. In our departmant some of our staff are gaining more responsibilities, with that being said I proposed the raising of some staff's pay rate. Since I am still a student myself I was taken through the in's and out's of how that proposal reall works. The MSC is getting bigger and bigger and with that we are starting to need more staff, attaching more responsibilities to current staff etc. This shows how the population in student affairs employees is growing tremendously. This is very positive and shows growth physically, financialy and economically.
Not so much in my assistanship but when I was working in and with secondary education, how technology can be purposefully utilized to achieve educational objectives, was a huge topic of discussion. So few teachers know how to use technology, let alone how to utilize it intentionally and meaningfully in the classroom. Doing lesson plans online highlighting how the lesson plan relates to ISTE NETS and Florida Sunshine State Standards was a big deal, as was creating a class wiki, a Facebook page for a course, and utilizing online surveys, softwares, and games to make learning more meaningful in today's classrooms. Many of these things are simple and just take a little creativity and forethought (and appropriate resources/access of course but that's another issue). As the world continues to change, it's going to become more important for teachers/professor/advisors/counselors to know these technologies and how to use them with ease. This is no longer optional or a bonus!
In Financial Aid we are making adjustments based on student expectations constantly. Right now, we are sorting through responses to the most recent survey responses we received about financial aid issues and concerns. We rebuilt our website and it was updated last month based on previous survey responses. We also track contact numbers for phone call, counter visits and scheduled appointments to adjust staffing patterns based on peak usage hours and times of year. We are always seeking ways to improve our performance and meet the needs and expectations of the students. These adjustments and review have allowed me a chance to grow in my position as well. I am tabulating the survey responses now and we are already working towards goals for next year. The continuing efforts are going to serve the students well in the future.
As Monica mentioned we are making much more use out of social media. On just my staff this year we have two RAs who are in charge of our Facebook and Twitter pages and using those media to reach out to students. Something that we are trying in Training and Development is giving students various options. We have realized that our students will get more out of an experience if it is something they choose to do. So in response to student expectations we are working toward offering them options during both their training sessions and professional development sessions which will hopefully lead to higher satisfaction.
It seems to be a popular answer, so I'll go into some detail about it, but we also have been utilizing social media with a much greater emphasis recently in the CLCE. It goes beyond just Facebook and Twitter, as we're trying to find new ways to manage pictures (we're having continuing conversations about the differences in usage between Picasa pics and Facebook). We're encouraging students to get on the Facebook fan page and tag their friends so that their friends will go look at the picture and "like it" or comment on it.
We've also began using social media for marketing of events the day of the event. For example, just yesterday, we hosted a sign up party for one of our big events and we announced, via Twitter, that the first 25 people to register would win some prizes - t-shirts, water bottles, etc. The response has been outstanding.
What we are challenging ourselves to do now is to consider the future development of these tools. Facebook and Twitter are old news by now - technology wise. There will be something bigger and better eventually, or the applications themselves will grow to include new features.
Our next big venture is in podcasts and Eyejot webcam videos that we will hopefully include in weekly or monthly emails to our students on the listserv. Its a total shot in the dark to know if it will be successful or not but often times with technology, you try it and if it works great, if not, nobody really notices. There's too much else out there for it to be memorable, so it's really low risk.
Chance, I did not know this, but honestly I do not think we will be affected by this especially because of what you mentioned. Grad assistants are necessary and we do save everyone a lot of money. It would be interesting to find out , however, if the university has some sort of policy on this. Nice little turn around Chance!
I came to work in the OFSL in July and since I got here the very first thing I started working on was changing our paper registration system for social events to an online registration system. It is something the students had been asking for for a while now and with all the new online registration technology programs out there it was something that we could very easily do. So I started researching other schools online registration systems and the process they used to allow their students to register their events. I spent about 2 months developing our new registration system to be online, and while it is light-years from where it was last year, I have an entire page of updates that need to be implemented for next years registration system.
To follow up with Ryan's comment, the social media party we hosted yesterday had a great turnout that was much better than we expected. We are also considering using four square to promote our programs by having students check in with the center and earning prizes such as tshirts and awards in that way.
From what I understand in the CLCE the department itself is on the cutting edge of student affairs trends. We are innovative in the extent that the combination of leadership and civic engagement has not yet become a mainstream idea. In itself civic engagement is still often referred to as volunteerism or service. While the students are volunteering their time the center's mission is to actively engage them in service so that they develop the knowledge to be conscience citizens. Leadership is often a stand alone department across many campuses and the integration of civic engagement ensures that the leaders we develop are ethical as well as influential.
We have been making a push to update technologically. All of our registrations are currently semi online and as of next semester we will be 100% online. As a rec center we are updating everything as everyone has seen to catch up with the time not just technologically but also to keep up with other university trends. Our department has been working on the social media aspect by adding a twitter and updating our website constantly. Davina works on the facebook and twitter for campus recreation which inclused IM updates. I think in the long run updating technoligally will be great but as the semester has gone on we face a ton of refusal and disapprovment by students and staff. Some people are just not up to change and forcing people or not allowing them to play makes for some unsatisfied patrons.
Holy smokes, where do I begin? At USF and now at HCC, there is what I like to call "resistance" form those who have been around for quite some time. A major part of my position here is helping instill new ideas and train people on new methods of transcript evaluation, inbound calling systems, advising etc. We actually just went to an electronic application a couple years ago!! This is due to some push back from those who believe in the "that's the way it has always been done" philosophy. Another big push recently was concerning transcript evaluation processes and certain checks and balances we put in place to ensure a timely and efficient process. We also started staggered registration to prevent systems crashes from occuring like they had in the past. I could go on forever with this topic........
This one is hard for me to comment on. In the career center we are implementing a lot of new programs but they have not been finalized yet.... I can tell you next semester!!
But something that we did launch this semester that i helped with and I will be taking over next semester is the Student Representative program. This is where student can help us at the career networking fair. We created this as it is a current trend we are finding in other centers, i.e. FSU. It also allows students to become involved with the career center and have a backstage look at the career fair.
In the office of Pre-education advising, we encounter many students who believe that education would be fun to work with children. The volume of interested individuals is steady and it is possible that the expectations for applying to this program will be made more difficult. For example, the College of Education could become highly competitive, similar to the nursing program. Another significant trend that affects the COE is a high number of transfer students. Working with transfer students can be very challenging; they often bring much baggage and expect instant credit for previous course work. It is good for us to observe trends in our field, and even more important to share them with one another.
At Outdoor Recreation something that I have started and been working on that student affairs actually made it one of our main initiatives is the Borrow Our Bike program. I can honestly say I am proud to see the program having so much success. When I came into the assistantship the money was just approved and it was just an idea and thankfully I was given range to make it my own. Student affairs felt like the campus needed more green initiatives and loved the idea of students having a chance to ride bikes for recreational use. This initiative was actually at the bottom of Campus Recreation’s priorities when we turned in our initiatives and student affair’s made it our number one priority. I can say that it is coming along great though and next year I already am in the works of making a satellite location so we can rent out more bikes.
The most obvious change in my assistantship occurred after I was hired in the spring but before I physically began to work. The Office of Student Programs and the Office of Student Organizations were combined to create the Center for Student Involvement after a year-long assessment of the previous structure and attempting to get in line with current CAS standards. However, I feel that I work in an extremely dynamic environment where we are looking to change the way things have been done. Just recently, we realigned the layout of the Homecoming Executive Board, we are in the process of creating a new Bulls Nite Out Board which was previously just one position under Campus Activities Board, and I am currently working with my director to enhance and improve the University Lecture Series, especially after some not so positive press that was recently printed about the quality and type of speakers on this year's lineup. I believe any programming office will have to remain dynamic and continue to evolve to meet the needs of an ever-changing student population in how we reach out to them and with what type of programming. What worked in previous years may and probably will not work in the future.
One of the things we have really tried to embrace in my office is maximizing our utilization of technology to communicate with students. We've realized that students communicate in new ways and that if we could put as much as possible online, that we would get a much better response. A good example of this would be utilizing Google forms instead of having people send 100 different emails. All USF students have access to Google documents, email, and calendars, so we utilize those as well when working with students. In the few months that I have been there we have also dramatically updated our website with every possible form a student would need so that they did not have to physically come in and pick them up. While we might be behind the ball on some things, I thing we're doing some exciting stuff with Google and it has made our response rates to questions and sign-up sheets all the more easier. One of the new initiatives I'm interested in is incorporating QR codes into our physical printed materials to help direct students back to our new online content. And of course, this completely sidesteps the fact that we now use Twitter and Facebook to communicate with students. I think as technology changes we'll see cooler and different ways to reach out to students.
Ch. 30: In my assistantship, I am working with my supervisor and my students to develop learning outcomes for their student organization. In the past, Honors Council students would simply leave Council with just an inclination that they had gained valuable lessons. However, by setting out learning objectives and outcomes for their student organization, it will offer our students a clear and defined aim for them to attain while participating in their student organization. This will hopefully enhance their experience while serving on Council, as well as establish concrete and measurable expectations as a result of participating that they can use in future endeavors.
The Focus of Chapter 30 was on “Shaping the Future”. The world is changing and developing every year. Technology is advancing, globalization is occurring, and new levels of accountability are expected. Student Affairs is definitely not the same as it was 30 years ago. Much has changed in universities, but Student Affairs is changing right along as well.
ReplyDeleteMany of us in our assistantships are developing new things that have never been attempted before. Describe something you are working on or have worked on in your assistantship that was a response to changes in student affairs, student expectations, or economics.
This is definitely an interesting blog and I am excited to see some of the responses of other hot topics and changes some have encountered in student affairs. This blog for example hasn’t been done in the past for Dr. Miller’s class but the dynamics of students’ wants and needs are changing everyday. In my assistantship we have been working on learning outcomes for our department. Gary could have very well done all of these learning outcomes himself and told myself and Alyssa that this is the what we need to focus on, this is how we are going to accomplish it, and this is how we are going to assess it. Instead he gave us an opportunity to work alongside him and has us creating a learning outcome each. It is giving us a great learning opportunity to understand what will be expected of us when we get into the field.
ReplyDeleteThe Office of National Scholarships is a relatively new office at USF (it was started in the 2009-10 academic year) so everything that we are working on is fairly new. From what I understand, ONS was created to meet the desired characteristics & achievements of the university. From what I have experienced thus far, though, we need to work to meet student expectations more than we do now. Currently, we are trying to meet university expectations and students are not clear about what we do and the services we provide.
ReplyDeleteIn the Office of MD Admissions over in the USF College of Medicine, we have made a lot of recent changes. One of the most recent changes we have made has been our interview day process. Typically and historically medical school interviews consisted of applicants only coming to our medical school to be interviewed by faculty members and medical doctors. We have changed our process from that to a more inclusive format. We allow applicants to be interviewed by faculty members, receive a tour of the College of Medicine, have a panel discussion with current medical students, learn about our clinical and residency programs, and get a hands on experience with our Center for Advanced Clinical Learning where they can use the Harvey Heart Simulator and have interactions with standardized patients, just like our first year medical students. This new interview process develops a sense of inclusion towards our applicants so they can truly gain a positive experience of our medical school.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the interview day process, we have moved to an online-based application system called AMP. AMP allows students applications, recommendation letters, transcripts, and other requirement to be put in an online database that would allow my colleagues and I to process their applications at a faster rate. Processes applications at a faster rate allows us to meet the demands of the ever-changing society by being able to respond to our students quicker and not be caught up in paperwork.
Taking things a step further, the College of Medicine has made changes on the academic side as well. We have recently changed the curriculum of our medical students to a more comprehensive and applied based format. This was based upon the retention rates of medical schools around the country. This shows me that universities are ever-changing not only on the student affairs side, but academics as well.
New Student Connections is doing everything possible to keep up with the changes that occur in student affairs. An ongoing discussion with our staff since early fall has focused on extended hours for the office. Ironically, it ties into our discussion this past Tuesday in our Ecology class. With the new generation of students entering college, we have been trying to determine if having our office open past 5pm would be of good use. Would they actually utilize the services that we offer if we are open longer? During the Fall Week of Welcome celebration, our office extended its hours an extra hour. However, there wasn't a huge difference with traffic in the office. The conversation, however, has continued because of the impact that our office has, and we do want to reach as many individuals as possible. In the end, they have to want the help as well. Who knows what Spring WOW will bring...
ReplyDeleteJustin, that was awesome of Gary to give you and Alyssa the experience to work alongside him rather than him tell you what needed to be done.
ReplyDeleteOur College Student Affairs program at USF has to compete with many other CSA programs throughout the country when recruiting students to come to our program. This is a change in expectations because you can no longer wait for applicants to apply and then select the best ones, students have to be sold on the idea of coming to USF over other institutions. Students have so many options that it is simply not enough to offer a good program, but you have to physically offer them something to come to your campus over another campus.
This semester I worked with Dr. Henry and another team member to develop a proposal to submit to the graduate school to receive recruitment funding to allow 10 students travel stipends to come to our annual Open House event. This is congruent with the changes in student affairs because in previous years, students have been expected to pay for their own travel expenses to Open House. Assisting 10 students to attend Open House will not only attract the most well-rounded and talented students to the program, but it will assist the CSA program at USF in being competitive with other CSA programs throughout the country that already offer this travel stipend.
The Honors College is currently pushing toward having everything done online and electronically. One recent addition for students is the E-portfolio, which was featured in an article on the USF homepage recently. Students log in to create a professional profile of themselves. It is so much more than an online resume; they can add articles they have had published from doing undergraduate research and other information that would capture the attention of employers and truly convey their personality. Plus, it's a lot more fun to browse through someone's E-portfolio than stare at a bland sheet of paper with words on it.
ReplyDeleteIn my specific assistantship, I am currently struggling to find the best way to communicate with my students. As mentioned in one of the articles we read recently, many of today's college students find email to be antiquated and they rarely check it. On the other hand, I feel that it's inappropriate for me to be texting the students I work with as a means of communication. Problems can arise with them contacting me during hours I am not in the office and expecting an immediate response, or blurring the line between adviser and student. As the times change, so too will the ways we communicate with students.
Laura that is a great marketing strategy. Even if I wasn't someone who was selected for that I would still appreciate that the program thought of students in that way. I hope this years applicants appreciate that!
ReplyDeleteIn order to utilize money for other things Housing & Res Education focused on social networking this year. This year the Selection committee decided to utilize facebook for RA Selection. We posted all information session days and other valuable information on the page. We have other small promo items that were inexpensive. In previous years this committee purchased t-shirts for advertising which costs too much money. Our goal this year was to have about 400-500 applicants and between the first three sessions we had about 150 students.
On the Sustainability committee we are really trying to lead by example so at our GoBull Thanksgiving luncheon on Monday we will be sharing some of our initiatives with the entire Housing department. We are trying to be more concious of waste that comes from our department. Recycling has become an issue, students want to recycle but the bins aren't near each res hall.
In my assistantship believe it or not we are slowly trying to make athletes more accountable. With school, travel, scheduling, I am trying to work with coaches, to make athletes learn how to do things on their own and take accountability for their actions. There is also a push to have more athletes in the community, and to give back. Athletics needs to give back to the community that has shaped it, and be mentors to the kids that look up to them. With the times changing it is hard though with many student athletes coming in with a sense of entitlement, and come without any sense of responsibility because their parents or someone else has done the work for them before. It can be difficult and frustrating sometimes, but there has to be a realization for them. Once they finish their four years most collegiate athletes have to face the real world.
ReplyDeleteIn my assistantship I am actually working on upgrading technology for students. The scholarship section of financial aid is in the process of updating the scholarship database. Right now when a student searches for scholarships it brings up every one regardless of what each individual qualifies for. Within the next year or so they hope to switch over to a new database that will consist of a student being able to enter their U-number and it will only pop up specific scholarships that they qualify for and can apply right there online. The whole application process will be online and it will allow for students to even attach resumes and essays. Basically, there will be no more mailed out scholarship applications to the donors. The whole process will be electronic and a lot quicker.
ReplyDeleteWow Laura, I had no idea that the CSA program was doing that this year. I think that is a wonderful idea and will attract more out of state students to attend open house. I know that open house was definitely one of the deciding factors for me when choosing a program but it was also very difficult financially to attend and I would like other prospective out of state students to have the opportunity to attend.
ReplyDeleteAndrea hit it right on point with our assistantships. I believe that this all ties in to our society changing as well as generational changes. As technology advances our students are changing and it becomes quite a challenge to find the best ways to communicate with them without creating conflicts. On a different note, Andrea and I have a Friday Seminar Series where we invite our students to attend seminars to help them in their transition and progress throughout college. We are working to make our seminars more interactive for students, because as we all know, they do not need to sit through another lecture that they will most likely not listen to. On the 19th we have a stress management seminar. Instead of discussing stress management techniques we are actually going to have a yoga instructor come in and teach them yoga and meditation techniques to help them relax before finals. I truly believe that this will be more effective. Students nowadays need to be involved and engaged. I think this transition in our seminar series will show more involvement amongst our students and will lead to a greater turnout for future interactive seminars.
I am helping the TRAC office create a more user friendly, interactive website for all advising information. This is meant to be developmental in tone, but also meet students where they are at, have the information they desire in the way they are looking to learn it, and avoid the boring list of Frequently Asked Questions. This is definitely in response to the growing demands of Millenial students but will also help ease the amount of phone calls and in person visits for simple questions that are easy to answer.
ReplyDeleteLike the Honors College, we are also looking to go paperless. It is an ongoing process, but we hope to have all ARC petitions submitted electronically, like the College of Arts and Sciences does now.
The BBC is relatively new and has many more students than in years past. A new concept we are trying to implement next year is to have student committees in the community to plan events, community builders, a mentor program, and tutoring sessions. The problems we are facing this year revolve around students not becoming as involved with the community as we would like them to be. My supervisor attended a conference recently on living-learning communities, and felt that this would be great to implement in the BBC. Holding students more accountable for their experiences will not only allow them to be more involved, but it will also give them a wider range of experience. This is constantly emphasized in their business majors, as they are trying to build their resumes before even arriving at college.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to Andrea, I have also been brainstorming ways to communicate with students outside of email. As much emphasis as I place on checking their email regularly, students still seem to miss important messages. Fortunately, I have access to their floor, and can physically deliver messages (yet, do they read that paper slipped under the door?). I have only resorted to this once, because I feel that as business students they should be professional and respond timely to emails. Facebook messages may end up being the last resort…
When Gary presented to our class he touched on why Student Government is unique in Florida (and a few other states) and I wonder if that’s where Student Governments across the country are headed. Sometimes I think the students I work with have an absolutely ridiculous amount of power and control (a voting member of the board of trustees?! Millions of dollars to dish out?!). But…when I think about the emphasis the field now places on learning outcomes I realize how much my students are learning. That is a lot of money to have control over…but it’s also a lot of responsibility and I think they grasp that pretty well. We’re teaching our students a lot about responsibility, budgeting, communication, and cooperation (after all, they’ve got to decide together where the money goes). I’ll be interested to see if student governments across the country start to give a little more power to the students, because I do truly believe they learn more for having it. It makes our job a lot harder, as Gary alluded to it’s a tough advising role, but I do see a lot of benefit in it for the students and at the end of the day that’s what we’re here for.
ReplyDeleteThis is a tough statement for me to elaborate on. Financial Aid, while a necessary and valid aspect of the University doesn't really seem to offer a bunch of opportunity in terms of describing how "I've changed something in the program." Well, even though it is not necessarily just because of my implementation, policies have apparently changed with the economy in its current condition.
ReplyDeleteLong gone are the days when Financial Aid would simply hold excess funds and pass them along to students who qualified for them at a later date. Several instances have occurred where I had the unfortunate displeasure of telling a student that they owed the university several thousand dollars because they didn't fill out a form, or that they had a hold on his or her account because of a $1 fee that was added by their college after the paying of tuition.
Funding has declined because of falling revenue. There has been some counter balance of this with the implementation of Direct Loans. Instead of the government giving out billions of dollars for free to lending institutions (so they can charge interest for money they didn't even have to "purchase") the government now "directly" sends the money to student.
As a side note, I recently heard that Governor-elect Rick Scott wants to cut at least 6,000 state government jobs. Since education is usually one of the first chopping blocks for budget cuts--ridiculous I know...--do you guys think that student affairs might get affected by this someday? To be honest, I'm not really sure. I wonder if the university has its own jurisdiction and perimeters in regards to jobs. What would happen if someone decided that grad assistants weren't all that necessary and should be disregarded (I don't think this would be the case, because we save the university money by working part time and with minimal benefits....)?
ReplyDeleteOne thing that the Office of Orientation is working on right now is virtual orientation. We are trying to have an online orientation session for those individuals who cannot attend a personal session, such as those serving in the armed forces, illness or other reasons. It is our hope to have an interactive orientation for those students to utilize so they can get as much information as possible. Another component of this virtual orientation is the move to have students complete a orientation "tutorial" before they attend their orientation session. Student would be able to sign in to their personal online account and choose the topics we assign them to complete, as well as a choice of video interactive information they can choose. We are partnering with the colleges to have them complete videos tha thave information specifically targeted for those students. If I am an engineering student, one click of a button through orientatino online and I will have a video telling me everything I need to know before I come to campus. With this new feature, we are hoping to eliminate time and resources thta come with answering questions during a session. This way, students will have knowledge and be prepared for orientation and USF before they ever set foot on campus.
ReplyDeleteI will continuing from what Chance said about the change to direct lending. This program impacts students as they come into our office. One of the most frequent questions we had during the summer and the beginning of fall was why aren’t my loans dispersing? When checking the accounts I saw many of these students had not completed a new master promissory note; did they realize that they needed to. Even though the financial aid office sent a newsletter out to all students letting them know about the switch to direct lending and the need to complete a new master promissory note they still said they didn’t know. Like Andrea and Anglea said, students don’t always read emails and since that is the way financial aid communicates with students it can be hard to make sure everyone is on the same page about the financial aid process.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I got to work on this semester is budgeting for my ops student employees. In our departmant some of our staff are gaining more responsibilities, with that being said I proposed the raising of some staff's pay rate. Since I am still a student myself I was taken through the in's and out's of how that proposal reall works. The MSC is getting bigger and bigger and with that we are starting to need more staff, attaching more responsibilities to current staff etc. This shows how the population in student affairs employees is growing tremendously. This is very positive and shows growth physically, financialy and economically.
ReplyDeleteNot so much in my assistanship but when I was working in and with secondary education, how technology can be purposefully utilized to achieve educational objectives, was a huge topic of discussion. So few teachers know how to use technology, let alone how to utilize it intentionally and meaningfully in the classroom. Doing lesson plans online highlighting how the lesson plan relates to ISTE NETS and Florida Sunshine State Standards was a big deal, as was creating a class wiki, a Facebook page for a course, and utilizing online surveys, softwares, and games to make learning more meaningful in today's classrooms. Many of these things are simple and just take a little creativity and forethought (and appropriate resources/access of course but that's another issue). As the world continues to change, it's going to become more important for teachers/professor/advisors/counselors to know these technologies and how to use them with ease. This is no longer optional or a bonus!
ReplyDeleteIn Financial Aid we are making adjustments based on student expectations constantly. Right now, we are sorting through responses to the most recent survey responses we received about financial aid issues and concerns. We rebuilt our website and it was updated last month based on previous survey responses. We also track contact numbers for phone call, counter visits and scheduled appointments to adjust staffing patterns based on peak usage hours and times of year. We are always seeking ways to improve our performance and meet the needs and expectations of the students.
ReplyDeleteThese adjustments and review have allowed me a chance to grow in my position as well. I am tabulating the survey responses now and we are already working towards goals for next year. The continuing efforts are going to serve the students well in the future.
As Monica mentioned we are making much more use out of social media. On just my staff this year we have two RAs who are in charge of our Facebook and Twitter pages and using those media to reach out to students.
ReplyDeleteSomething that we are trying in Training and Development is giving students various options. We have realized that our students will get more out of an experience if it is something they choose to do. So in response to student expectations we are working toward offering them options during both their training sessions and professional development sessions which will hopefully lead to higher satisfaction.
It seems to be a popular answer, so I'll go into some detail about it, but we also have been utilizing social media with a much greater emphasis recently in the CLCE. It goes beyond just Facebook and Twitter, as we're trying to find new ways to manage pictures (we're having continuing conversations about the differences in usage between Picasa pics and Facebook). We're encouraging students to get on the Facebook fan page and tag their friends so that their friends will go look at the picture and "like it" or comment on it.
ReplyDeleteWe've also began using social media for marketing of events the day of the event. For example, just yesterday, we hosted a sign up party for one of our big events and we announced, via Twitter, that the first 25 people to register would win some prizes - t-shirts, water bottles, etc. The response has been outstanding.
What we are challenging ourselves to do now is to consider the future development of these tools. Facebook and Twitter are old news by now - technology wise. There will be something bigger and better eventually, or the applications themselves will grow to include new features.
Our next big venture is in podcasts and Eyejot webcam videos that we will hopefully include in weekly or monthly emails to our students on the listserv. Its a total shot in the dark to know if it will be successful or not but often times with technology, you try it and if it works great, if not, nobody really notices. There's too much else out there for it to be memorable, so it's really low risk.
Chance,
ReplyDeleteI did not know this, but honestly I do not think we will be affected by this especially because of what you mentioned. Grad assistants are necessary and we do save everyone a lot of money. It would be interesting to find out , however, if the university has some sort of policy on this. Nice little turn around Chance!
I came to work in the OFSL in July and since I got here the very first thing I started working on was changing our paper registration system for social events to an online registration system. It is something the students had been asking for for a while now and with all the new online registration technology programs out there it was something that we could very easily do. So I started researching other schools online registration systems and the process they used to allow their students to register their events. I spent about 2 months developing our new registration system to be online, and while it is light-years from where it was last year, I have an entire page of updates that need to be implemented for next years registration system.
ReplyDeleteTo follow up with Ryan's comment, the social media party we hosted yesterday had a great turnout that was much better than we expected. We are also considering using four square to promote our programs by having students check in with the center and earning prizes such as tshirts and awards in that way.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand in the CLCE the department itself is on the cutting edge of student affairs trends. We are innovative in the extent that the combination of leadership and civic engagement has not yet become a mainstream idea. In itself civic engagement is still often referred to as volunteerism or service. While the students are volunteering their time the center's mission is to actively engage them in service so that they develop the knowledge to be conscience citizens. Leadership is often a stand alone department across many campuses and the integration of civic engagement ensures that the leaders we develop are ethical as well as influential.
We have been making a push to update technologically. All of our registrations are currently semi online and as of next semester we will be 100% online. As a rec center we are updating everything as everyone has seen to catch up with the time not just technologically but also to keep up with other university trends. Our department has been working on the social media aspect by adding a twitter and updating our website constantly. Davina works on the facebook and twitter for campus recreation which inclused IM updates. I think in the long run updating technoligally will be great but as the semester has gone on we face a ton of refusal and disapprovment by students and staff. Some people are just not up to change and forcing people or not allowing them to play makes for some unsatisfied patrons.
ReplyDeleteHoly smokes, where do I begin? At USF and now at HCC, there is what I like to call "resistance" form those who have been around for quite some time. A major part of my position here is helping instill new ideas and train people on new methods of transcript evaluation, inbound calling systems, advising etc. We actually just went to an electronic application a couple years ago!! This is due to some push back from those who believe in the "that's the way it has always been done" philosophy. Another big push recently was concerning transcript evaluation processes and certain checks and balances we put in place to ensure a timely and efficient process. We also started staggered registration to prevent systems crashes from occuring like they had in the past. I could go on forever with this topic........
ReplyDeleteThis one is hard for me to comment on. In the career center we are implementing a lot of new programs but they have not been finalized yet.... I can tell you next semester!!
ReplyDeleteBut something that we did launch this semester that i helped with and I will be taking over next semester is the Student Representative program. This is where student can help us at the career networking fair. We created this as it is a current trend we are finding in other centers, i.e. FSU. It also allows students to become involved with the career center and have a backstage look at the career fair.
In the office of Pre-education advising, we encounter many students who believe that education would be fun to work with children. The volume of interested individuals is steady and it is possible that the expectations for applying to this program will be made more difficult. For example, the College of Education could become highly competitive, similar to the nursing program. Another significant trend that affects the COE is a high number of transfer students. Working with transfer students can be very challenging; they often bring much baggage and expect instant credit for previous course work. It is good for us to observe trends in our field, and even more important to share them with one another.
ReplyDeleteAt Outdoor Recreation something that I have started and been working on that student affairs actually made it one of our main initiatives is the Borrow Our Bike program. I can honestly say I am proud to see the program having so much success. When I came into the assistantship the money was just approved and it was just an idea and thankfully I was given range to make it my own. Student affairs felt like the campus needed more green initiatives and loved the idea of students having a chance to ride bikes for recreational use. This initiative was actually at the bottom of Campus Recreation’s priorities when we turned in our initiatives and student affair’s made it our number one priority. I can say that it is coming along great though and next year I already am in the works of making a satellite location so we can rent out more bikes.
ReplyDeleteThe most obvious change in my assistantship occurred after I was hired in the spring but before I physically began to work. The Office of Student Programs and the Office of Student Organizations were combined to create the Center for Student Involvement after a year-long assessment of the previous structure and attempting to get in line with current CAS standards. However, I feel that I work in an extremely dynamic environment where we are looking to change the way things have been done. Just recently, we realigned the layout of the Homecoming Executive Board, we are in the process of creating a new Bulls Nite Out Board which was previously just one position under Campus Activities Board, and I am currently working with my director to enhance and improve the University Lecture Series, especially after some not so positive press that was recently printed about the quality and type of speakers on this year's lineup. I believe any programming office will have to remain dynamic and continue to evolve to meet the needs of an ever-changing student population in how we reach out to them and with what type of programming. What worked in previous years may and probably will not work in the future.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things we have really tried to embrace in my office is maximizing our utilization of technology to communicate with students. We've realized that students communicate in new ways and that if we could put as much as possible online, that we would get a much better response. A good example of this would be utilizing Google forms instead of having people send 100 different emails. All USF students have access to Google documents, email, and calendars, so we utilize those as well when working with students. In the few months that I have been there we have also dramatically updated our website with every possible form a student would need so that they did not have to physically come in and pick them up. While we might be behind the ball on some things, I thing we're doing some exciting stuff with Google and it has made our response rates to questions and sign-up sheets all the more easier. One of the new initiatives I'm interested in is incorporating QR codes into our physical printed materials to help direct students back to our new online content. And of course, this completely sidesteps the fact that we now use Twitter and Facebook to communicate with students. I think as technology changes we'll see cooler and different ways to reach out to students.
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ReplyDeleteIn my assistantship, I am working with my supervisor and my students to develop learning outcomes for their student organization. In the past, Honors Council students would simply leave Council with just an inclination that they had gained valuable lessons. However, by setting out learning objectives and outcomes for their student organization, it will offer our students a clear and defined aim for them to attain while participating in their student organization. This will hopefully enhance their experience while serving on Council, as well as establish concrete and measurable expectations as a result of participating that they can use in future endeavors.