University Housing Services Town Meeting

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University Housing Services Town Meeting

• February 2, 2006

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• Welcome!

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• Human Resources (HR) update
• Performance Review Process
• Fall 2006 Application process
• Returning Resident Process
• Conference / Overnight Guest Program
• Parking info

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• Joe West status
• Building issues and updates
• Signage
• Bike Racks

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• Student Satisfaction Learning Outcomes
  Assessments EBI / CSU

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• Special Interest Living Areas
• Student Staff Class
• Conferences

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• Greater Expectations Living, Learning, Belonging
• The Kite Runner
• Area Updates
• Peer Recognition!
• Questions Answers

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Greater Expectations

• Moving Toward Learning and Belonging
• San José State University
• The following slides are from a summary of
  several presentations from the Greater
  Expectations for San José State University
  retreat which was held in January 2006.
• (Summary was created by Dr. Eloise Sitgliz,
  Associate Vice President for Student Services to
  the Student Affairs Leadership Team. For the full
  presentation, please see me.)

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Association of American Colleges Universities
(AACU) Report

• Greater Expectations for Colleges and
  Universities
• Moving from focusing on what is taught to what
  students learn.
• Bringing effective use of technology into
  teaching and learning.
• The need to prepare students to live and work in
  a global community.
• Shift from information transfer to identity
  development

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A changing world for the next generation

• More high school grads go to college today (about
  75)
• Knowledge-based economy employers care
• what you know and
• ability to adapt
• Global economy work environment
• Greater need to be able to function as part of a
  team
• Work is becoming more interdisciplinary a
  broader knowledge base / less specialization
• More skepticism of universities and need for
  accountability- government, employers, parents
  what are we getting for our money?

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The transformation means we need to focus on

• What students learn, not what we teach
• Both what is learned and how it is learned
• Active, collaborative experiential learning
• Connecting classroom knowledge and co-curricular
  experiences with a focus on student development
• Information and technological competency
• Attention to diversity inclusive excellence
  (a welcoming community that cares about each
  students success)
• Integrative learning--- revisioning all that we
  do.

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And, we need to focus on

• The whole student experience and student
  transitional and developmental needs
• Assessment to verify that learning outcomes are
  being achieved
• Continual improvement
• Administrative structure to help ensure that
  students integration are valued

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SJSU will be known for

• The value it places on the integration of
  liberal and professional education and
  theoretical and applied knowledge.
• --------Learning------
• Providing a welcoming, inclusive environment and
  exemplary student support services from
  application to graduation.
• -------Belonging------

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Things to keep in mind

• Need to continue to move to a culture of
  learning.,.. NOT just for students
• Employee development and discussions
• Financial support for conferences and reading
  materials and campus forums
• Appropriate reward structures

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Obstacles

• Student expectations may not match what the
  university needs to provide
• Examples
• LA Daily News article of 5/1/05 on CSUNs
  reduction in GE units from 58 to 48 student
  reactions
• Im all for being well-rounded and stuff, but you
  have to have some kind of limit. We just want to
  get in here, get our degree and start our
  careers.
• Emphasis on teaching rather than learning
• Heavy work loads
• Lack of single well coordinated message about
  learning.

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Opportunities

• Hardworking and dedicated SJSU employees
• Student desires to achieve something at SJSU
• Accrediting bodies and others nudging us
• Various Academic Senate and campus activities,
  including e-portfolio
• Growing focus on Vision 2010 and SJSU Values
  across campus in looking at what we do and how we
  do it

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• Student Engagement, Retention Graduation
  Rates Bob Cooper AVP Undergraduate
  Studies Thalia Anagnos - Director of Assessment

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• Of the 1400 frosh that enrolled in 1997, only 800
  (57) graduated by 2005

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Components of Student Engagement That Lead to
Student Success.

• Time and energy students devote to purposeful
  activities (engagement)
• Institutional support (resources, learning
  opportunities, services) that fosters student
  participation in purposeful activities.
• (Kuh et al., Student Success in College)

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Example NSSE questions

• During the current school year
• How often have you asked questions in class or
  contributed to class discussions?
• Come to class without completing the readings?
• Discussed ideas from your readings or classes
  with faculty outside of class?

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Using NSSE to Define Some Benchmarks

• NSSE identifies five clusters of effective
  educational practices.
• Level of Academic Challenge
• Active Collaborative Learning
• Student-Faculty Interaction
• Enriching Educational Experiences
• Supportive Campus Environment

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Comparison with Comparable Institutions
2002
2004
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Enriching Educational Experiences
ItemsHighlighted items directly relate to our
work

• Participate in co-curricular activities
• Practicum, internship, field experience, or
  clinical assignment
• Community service or volunteer work
• Foreign language coursework study abroad
• Independent study or self-designed major
• Culminating senior experience
• Serious conversations with students of different
  religious beliefs, political opinions, or
  personal values
• Serious conversations with students of a
  different race or ethnicity
• Campus environment encouraging contact among
  students from different economic, social, and
  racial or ethnic backgrounds
• Participate in learning community

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Supportive Campus Environment Items

• Campus environment provides the support you need
  to help you succeed academically
• Campus environment helps you cope with your
  non-academic responsibilities (work, family,
  etc.)
• Campus environment provides the support you need
  to thrive socially
• Quality of relationships with other students
• Quality of relationships with faculty members
• Quality of relationships with administrative
  personnel and offices

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How Does this Align with Vision 2010?

• A student-centered campus
• A vibrant educational institution focused on
• Academic rigor
• Social Responsibility
• Mutual Respect
• University known for
• Welcoming environment
• Inclusive environment
• Exemplary Student Services

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Achieving Student Success

• Creating Conditions That Matter

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Marginality versus Mattering

• Students who feel they matter at an institution
  are more likely to persist and develop than those
  who feel they are on the margins and not
  connected (Schlossberg, Lynch Chickering,
  1989)
• Emphasize quality of student interaction with
  faculty and staff
• Students need to feel they belong

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Students are more likely to persist and graduate
in settings that ...

• Foster learning
• Expect them to succeed
• Provide clear and consistent information about
  requirements and effective advising
• Provide academic, social and personal support
• Involve them as valued members of community

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Students Sense of Community (Cheng, 2004)

• Closely associated with being
• Cared about and treated in a caring way
• Valued as individuals and accepted as part of
  the community
• A part of a quality social life on campus
• The most negative influence on a students sense
  of community comes from feelings of loneliness

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How to Foster a Sense of Community on Campus

• Celebrate traditions and heritage
• Encourage free expression
• Accept and treat students as individuals
• Foster positive relationships among ethnic
  cultural groups
• Provide active learning and social interaction
• Provide assistance to lonely students

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How College Impacts Students

• Through
• Academic Experience
• Academic Achievement
• Living On-Campus
• Co-curricular Involvement
• Interpersonal Involvement

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Academic Experience

• The greater a students engagement in academic
  work, the greater the intellectual development
• Student learning is linked to effective teaching
• Undergraduate grades have a positive influence on
  the prestige of the job entered, career mobility,
  and earnings

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Co-curricular Involvement

• Has a positive influence on persistence
• Enhances self-confidence, interpersonal, and
  leadership skills
• Involvement in clubs/organizations positively
  influenced first year scores on critical thinking
  skills

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Impact of Living On-Campus

• Living on campus is perhaps the single most
  consistent within-college determinant of impact
• Markedly different experience than students
  living off campus
• Students living on campus more likely to persist
  and graduate than commuting students

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Interpersonal Involvement

• The content as well as frequency of involvement
  with faculty and peers affects the impact of
  college
• Having friends of another race has significant
  and positive effects on racial ethnic attitudes
  and values
• Peer influence is a statically significant and
  positive force in persistence decisions

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Implications for SJSU

• On the right course Promote Goals 2010
• We all need to articulate what it means to be a
  student-centered campus
• Enhance opportunities for peer interactions
• Enhance partnerships between student academic
  affairs
• Pay attention to campus climate diversity is not
  demographics
• Ensure students feel cared about valued
• Reward student-faculty interaction
• Provide enriching in out of class experiences

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How Will We Know When the Culture Has Changed?

• Student-centered language
• People arent saying Thats not my job
• Widespread commitment to student success
• Alignment with other elements of the organization
• New hires selected because they can contribute to
  student success
• ???

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Student Advising Center (SAC)

• Currently serve 5000/semester
• Transfer information Prog. 1500
• Frosh Orientation
• 2567 students and 1307 parents
• Late drop 1100 and withdraw 200
• Summer Bridge 100
• TOTAL gt 10,000
• Providers 10 Advisors

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Media Clips Before and After
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Peer Advisors

• Extend the cohort of peer advisors
• Trained, supervised
• Provides jobs for students
• Promotes belonging
• Makes connections between faculty and staff with
  many students via the peer mentors.

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Community and Connections Themesfor action and
measurement

• Communication (Building awareness)
• Actual involvement
• Feeling connected (receiving benefits)
• Contributing to community (providing benefits)
• Accomplishing learning outcomes
• Aesthetics that are pleasing
• Technological communities

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CommunicationActions

• Develop a central calendar
• Include a support infrastructure
• Categorize all events and activities in various
  ways
• Multiple methods of distributing information
• Develop a newsletter for parents and other family
  members
• Tell families how important involvement is for
  their students

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CommunicationActions

• Include co-curricular activities on academic road
  maps
• Use Pod-casts

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Feeling Connected (receiving benefits) some ideas

• Send all new employees a welcome package
  immediately upon acceptance
• Include SJSU sweatshirt (or other gift)
• Be ready for arrival of new employees
• Office or other work space ready, business cards,
  keys, email account, computer, voice mail,
  supplies, name plate
• Extended hours for evening students

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Feeling Connected (receiving benefits)Actions

• Make students feel individually valued for coming
  to SJSU
• Welcome students to SJSU with free t-shirts, pin,
  bumper sticker, water bottle, coffee mug, or
  other tangible to students upon receiving intent
  to enroll
• Give free stuff at intervals throughout the
  year
• Recruit students individually into
  living/learning communities

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Contributing to community Questions to ask
ourselves

• Do I mentor others?
• How often do I invite others to activities and
  events?
• Come see what I do and where I go
• Do I show concern for the personal well-being of
  community members?
• How often do I say thank you?

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Accomplishing learning outcomesMeasurements-
Questions to ask ourselves

• How well can I work with people from various
  cultures?
• How many in the community who have significantly
  different life experience from my own do I talk
  with at a personal level?
• What have I done when I suspect a student or
  other community member is lonely or depressed?
• Can I tell students the objectives of the Career
  Center, the Student Health Center, the Disabled
  Student Services Center, areas other than the one
  for which I work in our own department.

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Accomplishing learning outcomesActions

• Promote diversity programming
• Curricular
• Co-curricular
• Recruiting practices
• Promote SJSU history
• Celebrations with alums from the 1950s
• Informative signage for our buildings, with
  pictures
• Celebrate Lucky Day (in honor of Principal Lucky)
• Celebrate campus accomplishments
• Athletics, teams, clubs, organizations,
  departments
• Awards to individuals

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Aesthetics that are PleasingMeasurements

• What are the quality ratings of faculty and staff
  offices, department offices, common areas,
  meeting rooms, classrooms, on-campus housing?
• Painted
• Lighting conditions
• Cleanliness
• Uncluttered
• Pleasing furnishings
• Condition of floor
• Accessibility
• Ensure safety

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Conclusion

• Culture shift
• Model life-long learning on campus
• Model community and connections
• Involve everyone

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Lifelong LearningThe Kite Runner reading group
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Thank you for all that you do!