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February 7, 2002

Examining the role of Student Affairs in students' education

In January 1997, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg moved the Office of Student Affairs administratively from the chancellor's office to the Office of the Provost. In announcing the change, the chancellor wrote, "Few units are more critical to our educational mission than the Office of Student Affairs…. Most of our overall educational goals can be achieved only if there is an even higher level of coordination between academic and student life initiatives."

Unit-wide, there are 160 staff members in Student Affairs. The office comprises the Counseling Center, Disability Resources and Services, International Services, the Learning Skills Center, Placement and Career Services, Residence Life, Sexual Assault Services, Student Activities, Student Health Service, the University crew coaches and the Student Judicial System.

In the past year, the Special Projects unit has been discontinued and the First Year Experience/New Student Programs unit has been moved under Admissions and Financial Aid.

At the time of the Student Affairs administrative transfer, the office was under then interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Robert Gallagher. (Gallagher's title had the interim tag removed in 1999.) After Gallagher announced his intention to retire as vice chancellor in June 2000, Provost James Maher appointed Jack Daniel, vice provost for Academic Affairs, to chair a search committee for Gallagher's replacement.

On July 1, 2000, Sharon Johnson was hired and began leading the office under a new title, vice provost for Student Affairs and dean of students. A year later, Johnson resigned and accepted a faculty appointment in the School of Education's Department of Administrative and Policy Studies.

Maher named Robert Pack, vice provost for academic planning and resources management, acting dean of students for July and August; then Daniel, who also continues as vice provost for Academic Affairs, assumed the title interim dean of students last Sept. 2.

At the time he appointed Pack and Daniel, Provost Maher said the two vice provosts "will work with me to continue the restructuring of the Office of Student Affairs," until a permanent replacement is appointed.

According to Daniel, no timeframe has been established for beginning a search for a permanent dean of students. He said the position will continue to report directly to the provost.

After one term as interim dean of students, Jack Daniel acknowledged that a certain amount of tension in the Office of Student Affairs greeted his arrival.

Daniel called an office-wide meeting in September to lay out what he termed "the dawn of a new era" in Student Affairs. He told the group that the office is the most important center on campus to help students in the transition from high school, but that the office's responsibilities were much more far-reaching.

Staff soon recognized that he was there to do a top-to-bottom evaluation of the office, including requiring written reports from unit directors on their staff and on their unit's mission, goals and priorities, and establishing weekly directors' meetings, where unit heads discuss and critique strategic plans.

"I think that when I arrived in September, there necessarily had to be a considerable amount of anxiety," Daniel said. "It had to be there given the changes in leadership over the last several years. There was the interim nature of the leadership between Sharon Johnson's departure and my arrival with the shifting of leadership from Vice Provost Pack to me, and the transitional leadership from Gallagher being interim, to Gallagher being there, to Gallagher [retiring and] giving way to Sharon Johnson, so in the last five or six years there's been heavy transition. It was a structural problem."

Daniel said additional tension resulted from some Student Affairs staff misreading him. "There are people who don't know me, who confuse my lifetime concern for facilitating access for African Americans and think I might be over-committed to that, that that might prevent me from seeing the entire picture of the needs of all the students or all the staff," Daniel said. At first glance, people see him as militant or strident or uncompromising, he said.

"I would say that the truth is that in certain things I am uncompromising, but I think those are good things. There's no tolerance for mediocrity, no tolerance for inappropriate involvement with students. There's no tolerance for anything except making Student Affairs the highest quality entity it can be. So, yeah, I'm pushing that very hard, but it shouldn't be confused with being strident," Daniel said.

"If you ask me now, I'd say I think those tensions have eased. I'll speak for myself: I've learned a tremendous amount about Student Affairs and about the people in Student Affairs, so it's been an educational experience for me. I think we've gone a long ways from that anxiety [last term] and I think we'll go even further this term."

Daniel said his top priority as interim dean of students is to develop the synergy between student services and the University's academic side, with the expectation of presenting an overall strategic planning document for Student Affairs to the provost this spring.

"That plan could include merging units within Student Affairs and will include changing some staff assignments," he said.

Among the restructuring under consideration is merging the Learning Skills Center, Disability Resources and Services, the Counseling Center and Sexual Assault Services, or, alternatively, merging Disability Resources and Services, the Counseling Center and Student Health Service.

"I requested that the directors of these units explore the concept of merging by putting in draft form what that would look like. I'm reviewing that right now. What we want to do is enhance services to students, improve cost effectiveness and continue to build a center of excellence," Daniel said.

Daniel also required directors to review the positions of staff who hold associate or assistant director titles. "It was my considered opinion that some sections of Student Affairs are over-managed," he said. "I also thought that working titles of associate director and assistant director were not always accurate for what the people did, particularly as the titles related to administrative responsibilities."

Daniel said those working titles are under review, and that a few have been changed, although he declined to be more specific.

The interim dean of students also has asked unit directors to evaluate in writing the unit's priorities, "to list them from most to least important and to answer the question: If they were asked to shift 5 percent of their current budgets, where would that money go? I've also asked them to rate the plans of the other directors. Down the road, the money across units might be re-allocated based on these priorities, but I want to make it clear that recommendations that come out of this process have the full participation of the staff."

Daniel cited several specific proposals he expects to implement within Student Affairs over the coming months:

* Residence Life should develop a comprehensive living-learning plan for each dormitory. "I've instructed Denine Rocco (director of Residence Life) to develop a work plan. She has traveled to the University of Iowa, and will travel to other institutions known to have successful living-learning environments in place. Not to imitate other programs, but to take best practices and mold them to the unique features of our campus; in effect, to develop our own best practices drawing on other models."

* Participation in the Pitt Pathway needs to be increased. Daniel said he told Marvin Roth, Placement Center director, to increase enrollment in the program, which melds career placement with academic services by identifying students' strengths, interests and goals in order to help students choose the appropriate courses.

* The Student Health Center needs to study student use of alcohol. "There is an obvious relationship of alcohol abuse and negative behaviors," Daniel said. "But the health center must be involved more directly in health education. It also needs to promote a healthy lifestyle and that is part of the students' learning process. To do that, we want to learn more about student behaviors and not be merely reactive," he added.

* Student Affairs staff should have much more input into academics. Daniel said this includes Freshman Studies 1, the required one-credit course designed to acclimate students to a college environment. "Once the academic purposes are set for FS-1, how can, for example, Residence Life add to those purposes and curriculum? The point is that all learning at this University is supplemental to classroom learning.

"In terms of our faculty knowing what Student Affairs does, I have challenged our staff to bridge that gap: To make sure they know about any and all new academic initiatives, such as new programs; to be aware of the annual academic planning process that schools and departments go through; to be aware of the process of developing academic programs; to discuss [the process] with faculty; to find out what academics is up to. I put the burden on us. But I do think that faculty will reach out, that our faculty have been waiting for this."

* All units in Student Affairs should be more conscious of diversity. Daniel noted: "We have many populations on this campus: we have diversity of religions, race, national origins, gender, sexual orientation. How do you deliver the kinds of services needed by different groups?

"Take counseling: It is not an objective science," Daniel said. "One's culture must be taken into consideration. Asian students have certain needs. All groups do. I want every unit in Student Affairs to think about that, to think of how they are delivering services necessary to meet those needs. Student Activities, for example, needs to know what speakers to bring in that can address those different student audiences.

"Each unit must show that they are addressing that. If they get back to me that they need training in these areas, that's what they'll get."

* Student Affairs should be more receptive to student input and feedback. Daniel said the Provost's office has launched a series of student leadership forums, open meetings where student concerns can be aired directly to Student Affairs and other University officials.

At the first of these open forums, held Nov. 7, Student Government Board President Jeff Alex said, "We [students] greatly appreciate the opportunity to have our concerns heard, especially by those who are in a position to do something about them."

In addition to Daniel and several Student Affairs unit heads, panelists included representatives of the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor, Public Safety, the Housing Resource Center and Property Management.

Students voiced concerns about on-campus housing, registering complaints about everything from slow elevators and broken washing machines to dormitory flooding and unfair meal plan policies.

"We're not here to bash anyone or to attack ideas," Daniel told the student forum audience. "What we're seeking here is dialogue, reasoning and discussion, and not just discussion, discussion, discussion, but action. We want to show that students can in fact come together with administrators and staff and that dialogue can lead to positive actions."

As a result of students' suggestions, other forums are planned on financial aid as it relates to retention, and on campus security. "I'd like to schedule at least two a semester," said Daniel.

In addition, Daniel is establishing a standing advisory committee in Students Affairs that will provide advice to the Provost's office and Athletics on issues involving student access to the Petersen Center. Another working group will be established for students to air concerns about Pitt athletics, Daniel said.

"These are some of the examples of what I want to see that will bring about a shift to high-quality services by the highest quality staff," Daniel said. "What is of critical importance to the success in Student Affairs is to develop the synergy between the office and the academic areas, to foster a complete undergraduate education and promote the growth and development of the whole human being."

Daniel led a similar re-evaluation of the College of General Studies between August 1997 and July 1999 as interim dean. He oversaw the preparation of the college's strategic plan.

"My role in that was analogous," Daniel said. "The fundamental principles are the same: How do you take existing resources and use them in a focused way?"

Daniel also served as chairperson of the search committee that led to the hiring of Sharon Johnson in July 2000. During that search process, Daniel said in a September 1999 open forum that the committee would take its time recommending candidates, because choosing the wrong candidate "could set [Student Affairs] back a decade."

Was Johnson the wrong choice for the position, given that she resigned after a year?

"I'm not going to comment on her success or failure," Daniel said. "What I will say is that, when the many people who have asked me why would I now take on this role, I tell them I have a sense of responsibility to this institution and a deep commitment to students, and I consider it a personal and professional obligation to make sure we do not lose that decade."

–Peter Hart


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