Collaboration and Efficiency

Hours: 8:00am - 12:00pm

General acclamation to the office setting. Figured out a workspace and set a stable schedule for the remainder of the summer and filled out payroll paperwork. Created a framework for tracking Orientation Leader work hours in both Residence Life (3hrs/week required) and the Orientation office (2hrs/week required). Joined an in-progress discussion with Fred and Janelle from Residence Life as well as Dr. Kenyon aimed at combining Orientation Leader and Residence Assistant training.

The important part of the day was the meeting with Dr. Kenyon and residence life staff to discuss how orientation leaders and resident assistants can share training, especially because some of the topics overlap and a significant number of the individuals overlap. The challenge is that the content is not exactly the same because the audiences are different. The interactions that each student leader will have with the first year student take place in a unique context (residential vs. non-residential), and so the focus of implementing each training topic is unique. While this is inconvenient for speakers like Dr. Kenyon, who want to speak to both groups about implementing a Civil & Caring community, the efficiency in the short run does not outway the efficiency in the long run. Additionally, the student leaders will benefit from a presentation that is more tailored to them.

Collaboration is always a goal for student affairs. As academic are the primary mission of the college/university, and the role of student affairs is to support the academic mission, collaboration is necessary. In this case, we have good intentions to collaborate, and absolutely see the usefulness in collaborating, but the struggle is where do res.life and orientation leader training meet? They definitely overlap in terms of skills, topic areas, and concepts, but how do we get the focus and timelines to meet while giving enough attention to the specifics of each area?