Week of June 22-June 26

Hours:
Monday: 8:00am - 12:00pm
Tuesday: 8:00am - 3:00pm
Wednesday: 8:00am - 12:00pm
Thursday: 8:00pm - 12:00pm
Friday: 8:00am - 10:00am

This week I prepared presentations for Orientation leader training that begins next week. Tuesday was the Campus Life retreat, where the different campus life areas under Tim Ecklund got together to discuss assessment results. It was a day in heaven for me and I developed 2 goals for this summer and the upcoming year:

(1) To develop a system for assessing a campus culture quickly. Basically I want to be able to walk onto a campus and have a "5 easy step" system for understanding what the existing interaction between academic and student affairs is, do things get done? how do things get done? who are the movers and shakers on campus? who are the Debbie Downers, and what's my role in it all?

(2) Develop a framework for communicating assessment data and results to a variety of audiences. Everyone in that room was coming from a different level of understanding of statistics, assessment, data, etc. I want to be able to identify the "Need to Know" background stuff, communicate it so people with no previous experience can understand enough of it, but so people with some experience still get something out of it. Also, I think what should drive the results section is Meaning. I'm finding that when it comes to assessment results, student affairs (generally speaking) people firstly enjoy cartoonish assessment tools, and secondly expect the data to speak. How do I say, "the question(s) you begin with determine what statistical analysis you use, which determines how you can interpret the results. All assessment needs to be theory and hypothesis driven.

Hal Payne made a cameo and stressed the importance of the post-product marketing...or something of that nature. In essence, once students make their deposit, convincing them that this is that right place for them - get them to participate and buy into the community and the experience. He thinks we should get shirts that say "Student Affairs: We're here to help" and shirts for students that say "BSC the right choice for me"

I think that's a little too obvious.

I thought about that for awhile, and building off of x+1, My vote is for a "You are Here" campaign. It's broad enough that it can be customized by each department, e.g. "You are Here: discovering your future" for student employment or career services, or "You are Here: at the beginning" for orientation, or "You are Here: so are We" for counseling services or another support office.