"that pit in your stomach when you know you've supported your student leaders all you can without doing the program for them but no matter how many times you ask about specific details you still know that they aren't going to have a good attendance and aren't prepared because it doesn't seem like they are always paying attention when you talk to them..." feeling.

I'm an experienced advisor. I know the balance between training, checklists, and "on the job" experience that students need to be successful.  However, sometimes they just need to do it.  Yes, I know that this student I'm taking about is inexperienced.  Yes, I know that I have a role in helping to save her from failure for her events.

However, how is she going to learn if I do it all for her?  Is it ok for her to experience an event that has low attendance?  I always ask, "what's the consequence of failure? What's the risk?"

I confess to you, the SABlog community, that I am hereby pushing her into the "cold swimming pool" of event responsibility.  I'm staying right next to her with a life raft at every turn, but if she chooses to keep swimming in this wacky direction I need to just go with her and let it happen.

Have you ever been in this position? 

I'll let you know how tonight goes.

Gary Alan Miller

I couldn’t have been in my graduate assistantship more than 24 hours when I first heard about these “expectations” that they had for me as a Graduate Hall Director. I had to chuckle, given that the only recollection of expectations I had experienced prior to that point were courtesy of Mad TV’s “Lowered Expectations” sketches. Don’t get me wrong… I had been given expectations prior to that in my roles on campus and in the classroom, I just hadn’t recalled covering them with such zest. We discussed the expectations of us (in our roles), expectations we had of each other (as a team), expectations of our supervisor, and expectations of the experience (of which I had no idea what I was getting myself in to). I had yet to see how expectations played out in supervising students, but I was sold. I turned around two weeks later and did the same with my Resident Advisers – and every group of students that I have worked with since.

Expectations have served me well. Over the years I’ve been able to avoid a lot of difficult conversations – except for one. I remember sitting in a staff meeting during that year as a Graduate Hall Director as we had reached the tipping point of spring semester. We worked together, we lived together, and for the most part we enjoyed spending time together. Things were starting to break down within our team and I was getting to the point where I didn’t know what to do. Then the moment came where (either in pure frustration or pre-contemplative enlightenment) I asked my staff “What do you want from me?” Trust me when I say that I make it sound more glorious than it was.  Imagine more of the frustration and less of the enlightenment.

As I sat there listening to their thoughts, comments and feedback I was struck by how reasonable it all sounded (despite my stubbornness). I could even relate it back to my own experiences in college where I didn’t understand what was happening in the community around me. I had become so caught up in my own job and responsibilities that I didn’t take the time to think about how I was asking them to do theirs. Through that conversation we revisited the expectations that we set at the beginning of the school year and the results have become the foundation of the “Supervisor Agreement” that I still use with my students to this day.

Now, at the beginning of any supervisory relationship with student employees I go beyond sharing my expectations of them to sharing the expectations I have of myself. My agreement with them says that “I will strive to:”

Following a conversation with the student about what else they would like from me as a supervisor it’s signed like a contract. I think that we often forget that we’re not the only ones with expectations in a supervisory relationship (with students and professionals). In my experience, these conversations have gone a long way in establishing an environment that encourages open communication, mutual respect and trust – way beyond anyone’s expectations.

Do you share your expectations for yourself with your students? What do you think are the most important expectations that we can hold ourselves to when we are supervising students?

I’ve had my fair share of memberships to national professional associations in my four+ years in student affairs, namely ACPA and ACUHO-I.  I’ve had the privilege to attend the national meeting of both organizations at least once.  Although I value what the national orgs do for our profession (especially publications and job placement), I must confess that at the moment I’m getting more professional development from my state association, WCPA.  Many of my colleagues belong to UMR-ACUHO, and likely feel the same way.

Why I ♥ My State Professional Association

 No membership fee.  Yes, I know this is not a benefit that comes with many associations, but our state association eliminated the membership fee about a year ago.  However, most state/regional associations have membership fees that are significantly lower than national associations.

Shared experience.  Most of the people in the association can immediately relate with my professional experience, and I with theirs.  We all have similar types of students, are working under the same state budget (those of us in public institutions, anyway), and are impacted by the same local events.

Small, powerful network of professionals.  The membership to my state association is currently a little over 300.  Although that pales in comparison to the thousands of people that belong to national organizations, it’s a powerful group for me.  Should I try to get a job at any other institution in this state, knowing just a few of those 300 may help me get my foot in the door.

Involvement opportunities.  It took me approximately 30 seconds to join the Professional Development Commission; all I had to do was walk into the meeting.   Some of my colleagues have been on the Executive Board since they were in grad school or their first entry-level position.  All it takes to become a leader in this association is to announce that you’re willing.

Easy-to-attend conferences.  The conference is short (2 days) and held in a central location each year.  Also, it’s affordable.  Registration was $150, which included 4 meals, and hotel rooms were well under $100 per night.  The yearly Professional Development Institute is always at a campus within driving distance; this year it’s on my campus.  That sure makes me likely to attend.

Positive, engaging membership.  This year I presented at the conference for the first time, and I met a number of grad students and professionals eager to talk about my area of interest.  They provided lots of positive feedback, and ideas I could bring back to my campus.

Are you a member of a state/regional association?  What types of experiences have you had?  How has it compared to your experience with national associations?   

And here are the results from the last poll.

If you cannot view this poll click here.

Some connections between programming and academics are easily apparent.  When you bring in lecturers and other speakers, their primary purpose is to educate. Speakers from environmental and human rights groups aren’t there for fun-- they’re there to teach your students about the world.

But there are other, not so obvious co-curricular uses for your programs.  Reach out to the faculty on your campus. There are professors you already know who are supportive of student activities. Meet with them and discuss how student activities can be supportive of their teaching, too.

Some departments will have an distinct connection.  The music department on your campus produces graduates with great musical skills.  Perhaps the students (and faculty) could benefit from a master class presented by a performer you are bringing to campus.  Maybe the performer could speak to music majors
about the “real world” of the music business, and help them to create a career plan to follow after graduation.

The comedians that you bring to campus also have relevant skills and experiences to share.  They have appeared on stages all over the country, and they may have been featured in films and on television.  Wouldn’t the students in your theater or drama department love to talk with a real live successful
comedy star?   See if you can’t set up a question and answer session with theater majors.  What valuable lessons your students could learn about life in New York City or LA!

The human mind is an amazing thing, and your campus probably has a number of psychology majors trying to understand it. Wouldn’t they learn from interacting with the hypnotist or mentalist you’ve booked on your campus?

Most humanities classes have a requirement for students to attend a number of cultural events during the term, such as a concert, a play, an art gallery, etc.  Your humanities faculty could certainly select a number of programs from your upcoming semester’s events for students to attend.  Just imagine thirty or forty (or more) students boosting your audience when an entire humanities class shows up.

Another very obvious connection is with spoken word performers.  Poets practically live for poetry, and would leap at the chance to speak to an English class.  That might jump-start a freshman’s appreciation for poetry, and produce a future Billy Collins or Sylvia Plath. 

The mass communications department on your campus may have a class in the history of the cinema. By co-sponsoring with them, you could present a film series of classic motion pictures that would serve the entire student body in addition to the film classes.  Everyone should have a chance to see Citizen Kane or The African Queen, not just film majors.

This isn't as easy as it looks.  I know you've experienced resistance (and resentment) towards your programs by faculty.  But try putting the past behind you, and reach out to your faculty again.  To quote Rick in Casablanca, it might be "the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

four tracks of sessions designed to give a range of options;

Three session blocks,

Two student governments joining up to "host" the event,

...and one big day of programs from 9:30 am - 4 pm.

We had our Student Leadership Summit here on campus this past weekend in conjunction with another area institution.  My colleagues and friends at our neighboring campus were also experimenting with more leadership offerings and so we decided to work together and host one conference for both campuses.All this went into the event, yet one of our most active student leaders (and a student I trust and respect immensely!) can only say "this didn't suck as much as I thought it would."

I know it's a challenge to recruit participants in events that are "for your own good" events carrying no credits or other types of merit awards.  However, our employers and graduate schools are calling for our students to arrive on their doorsteps with "leadership skills" and we have to answer that call.

Our event today offered some seriously high quality topics and, I believe, met students at a variety of levels.  But, I think that in our effort to be "all things," we probably lose some focus.  It leads me to wonder, what's it going to take to get the "average student" out of bed on a Saturday morning if one of my "frequent flyers" is already expecting it to "suck" even before it starts?

If you are in the same boat as we are and are currently wondering where to begin, I'd like to offer a few thoughts:

• Think about leadership training, leadership education, and leadership development as three separate things.  Your campus should figure out if the true goal is to focus on just one of these or on all three.
• Do you have to choose "a model?" 
   I had a great conversation with my colleague from the other campus today about this.  Choosing a model offers ability to gain consistency between programs and departments around campus.  However, it doesn't mean just throwing programs together organized around the 7 C's of the Social Change Model or doing one workshop in each of the 5 Practices of Exemplary Leadership.  You can still teach what you need to teach, but use your models as a framework for writing your learning outcomes for your program as well as a litmus test for knowing whether your programs are truly "comprehensive." 
• Look at a long term plan to establish a comprehensive effort over time, presenting programs with multiple points of entry for students.
  If a junior suddenly realizes they are interested in some leadership programs, make sure they can jump in just as easily as a freshman can. 
• Decide if your programs are for positional leaders or for every student on campus.                           
  If your campus activities office is sponsoring these leadership workshops, you may have to work to adjust a perception that these programs are only for those in positional roles.  This has been a difficulty for us and, based on today's event, is still something we need to address here.

Not every campus has the luxury of having one office or even one staff member who can devote time to leadership education.  So, here's our "money question." 

If you had to choose one area of focus for your leadership programming and could only offer 1 or 2 programs a year, what do you choose?

• Leadership training?  (train your club/organization/positional leaders)
• Leadership development? (cultivate more of your students to be involved with leadership experiences)
• Leadership education?  (educate your students about what leadership is)

I hope to hear your comments!

(commercial: Join us on Twitter for #sachat on Thursdays at 7 Central Time.  It was all kinds of fun last week!)

One of my personal areas of interest in sustainability.  This morning we had a staff meeting in another area of campus.  I left my reusable coffee cup at home asuming we would have ceramic cups at the meeting (sometimes our director splurges and provides us with drinks at these meetings), and I was saddened to find paper cups instead! I dejectedly used my first disposable cup since July!

This got me thinking about the things we are doing at Penn State to educate students about sustainability and whether or not they are actually making a difference in the long term. For example, two weeks ago was Penn State’s “Great Recycling Challenge.” This is a very exciting project where we encourage students to recycle as much as possible. Staff members from the Office of the Physical Plant actually audit the garbage for the week and determine which residence hall area recycles the greatest percentage of their recyclable trash. Students get daily updates on their recycling efforts, and there is a lot of friendly competition from the areas to see who can win the Great Recycling Challenge trophy. (For laughs, here I am with the trophy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bck134/3945667667/ ) The area I supervise is the three-time defending champions . . . . but are my students more likely to recycle when they graduate? I don’t know (and I doubt it).

What sorts of sustainability projects are going on in the student affairs offices at your institution? How do you assess their effectiveness, and how do they contribute to student learning at your institution?

 
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Shows like So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars and have created a resurgence of interest in dance. Capitalizing on this trend, our Student Association’s Activities Coordination Board decided to tap into this energy by creating a homegrown show that captured the trend but made it our own: Plattsburgh’s Best Dance Crew (PBDC).

The campus was a buzz about PBDC, but even so, we were wondering how successful the program would be. To add to our anxiety, on the night of the event the skies opened up and panic pervaded our already tightly wound nerves as we waited with baited breath to see what the turn-out would be. Since this was a non-ticketed program, we had no clue as to the number of people who would be in attendance. Facebook numbers hardly ever reflect reality, but we would have been happy with the 200 FBers indicating an interest. Additionally, we built into the show a raffle, campus celebrity judges (people like Penny our Dining Hall card swiper) and opportunity for the audience to vote for the overall winner. The question was: would it be enough to get those 200 people out on a night like this?

The doors opened, our preshow started and the audience poured in. They just kept coming, and coming. To put it into perspective, our undergraduate student population is 5,736. When the show was over, we recorded just over 800 in attendance. That’s roughly 14% of our student population! (Our comedy series typically brings in between 200-300.) The result, as my students have put it, was an Epic Show.

Twelve student leaders worked for months to pull this show together. During our Monday Quarterback session everyone concurred this was a special program for our campus that yielded results beyond our wildest expectations, and while not proven scientifically, be believe that the homegrown infusion of a current interest got folks to buy in. I encourage you try to it.

Some of elements we use:

• Created a limited edition shirt for committee and give-aways
• Required Auditions
• Prize $100 Mastercard Gift Card Per person on Crew
• Held A Teaser Show Day of PBDC (61syx Teknique also performed in at show)
  
  (hope to post a link with more photos and video - soon)
  
  
   
  Photo with ACB Entertainment Committee and Winners of PBDC
  
  
  

It was not without irony that a few weeks ago I attended a day-long conference on transfer student success here at UNC and on the same day that, via Tivo, I watched the premier of the new NBC series Community.  It was quite the contrast:  In the conference we discussed issues like imposter syndrome and the perception of quality in our community colleges.  Watching the pilot of Community I was bombarded by stereotypes -- students who don't care, faculty who can be bribed, deans who are young and incompetent, and so forth.

That's not to say I didn't laugh.  Actually that's not to say I even took it out of our Tivo (or more appropriately, had my wife take it out of Tivo).  But, I did feel a twang of guilt for watching.

That twang of guilt was similar in size to the twang of anger I get from watching How I Met Your Mother (which I love) in which one of the main characters has to "settle" for a career as a Cornell professor rather than pursue his real passion for designing buildings.  Yeah, because that feels rights -- can't cut it as a designer, but faculty member is easily attainable.  But, I digress.

My wife tells me I shouldn't try to hold television to a high standard regarding their statements on academic institutions... or any standard about anything, really.  But, I can't help myself.  I do get upset, at first for them for writing such things and secondarily at myself for enjoying it. 

Should I feel guilty enjoying a program that reinforces a host of stereotypes related to my profession?  Maybe, or maybe not.  But, I can't stop watching. Has this happened to you before?

Gary Alan Miller

Working in Residence Life I have seen this scenario play out numerous times. The roommate A comes in and sees roommate B doing the nasty or Roommate B is sleeping while Roommate A is getting her kicks. It happens. However, now Tufts has placed a policy ban of sex while your roommate is in the room. Is this going too far?

The Tufts University policy is as follows:

Host Responsibilities:

Any resident student who will be hosting an overnight guest must adhere to the following expectations:

• You must obtain permission from your roommate(s) before your guest arrives to campus.
• If you live in a staffed residence hall you must obtain an Overnight Guest Registration Form from your Resident Assistant…
• You may not allow your guest (whether Tufts affiliated or not) to occupy your room without your presence or give your room key or building fob to your guest(s) under any circumstances.
• You are responsible for the behavior of your guests at all times and are liable for any damages incurred to your room or the residence hall as a result of your guest's behavior/actions.
• You may not engage in sexual activity while your roommate is present in the room. Any sexual activity within your assigned room should not ever deprive your roommate(s) of privacy, study, or sleep time.

Many times it is hard for roommates to have these and other tough conversations; they are coming from home with their own room and now they have to share a space with someone. In Residence Life, we want to be able to give the residents skills that will help them in the future. I know when many of my residents had to have these conversations, it was probably the hardest thing to do; but it gave them conflict management and other skills that have helped them out in the future.

(Wayne State)

And thinking like a typical resident, what would be considered as "sexual activity?" Making out? Hugging? In today's society, that is ambiguous; it's not necessarily the actions, but the motivation behind them (in my opinion). If you are going to tell them not to do it, then I believe then you should define what that is for them. I can see how this could lead into some potential problems. And if a resident was to engage in this type of an activity and the roommate was present, what would happen? Would they get kicked out of the room? It's their room too and they have a right to use it as they see fit. With that said I like MSU's residence hall policy; it splits it between primary and secondary rights.

Michigan State's residence hall policy is that as a resident your primary rights are to read and study without interference, sleep and have access to belongings, and the right file grievance in your room. Any secondary rights, like having guests or having sex, cannot override those primary rights. Yeah there are some grey areas, but that allows the roommates to set the tone in their room for themselves, not the college or university. You could also do things like Wayne State's Roommate Agreement, where there is a list of questions and answers that help facilitate those conversations.

(My roommate and I at MSU in 2003)

For more articles related to Tufts' Policy, click here!