University Times

Interim Dean of Students Jack Daniel is evaluating the mission and goals of the Office of Student Affairs, primarily to foster synergy between that office and the academic side of student life.

Mid-level administrators in three of the larger units within Student Affairs — Residence Life, Placement and Career Services, Student Activities — offered some of their thoughts on the evaluation.

Emily Aubele, assistant director of Residence Life, academic initiatives, said her unit is working on broadening the opportunities students have, both academic and social, to interact. In a university the size of Pitt, with 5,300 students living in university housing, organizing a comprehensive strategy for the 11 residence halls under Residence Life is a daunting task, Aubele said.

"We don't view residence halls as just dorms," Aubele said. "There are formal and informal interactions among student residents and with Residence Life staff that supplement the academic experience and contribute to a 'holistic approach' to student life."

This includes scheduling in-house groups focused on an area of study such as math or writing, and having rotating social events and informal debates on current topics such as the merits of genetic research, students' body image, diversity, the pros and cons of marijuana legalization — whatever is on students' minds.

"We try to support and facilitate program instruction. We have living-learning communities for CBA (College of Business Administration) students, nursing students, engineering students. In a way, the philosophy goes back to the days of the first colleges, when student living areas and classrooms were all in one building," Aubele said.

"We encourage peer-to-peer interactions. Students feed off of challenging each other. Most important is the creation of an environment that advocates and promotes learning — of all kinds. But a living-learning plan must take into account that students shouldn't have to feel like they're in class all the time. So we have social events, coffee houses, films. A lot of our programming is geared toward developing a sense of community, which may on the surface appear to be mere socializing, but is also a learning experience."

According to Aubele, the feedback from students supports the living-learning approach.

"The responses by students, both formal and informal, are that this really works. Students say, 'I needed a direction and this really helped,' or 'I learned about myself,' or 'I learned math,' or 'I learned about different perspectives on social issues,' or 'I learned to respect other opinions.' "These strategies have been much more supported [by the administration] over the past couple years. But I think they can be emphasized even more, which is what I think our goal is."

Marvin Roth, director of Placement and Career Services, was asked by Daniel to increase student participation in the Pitt Pathway, a program that merges career placement with academic services by identifying students' strengths, interests and goals in order to choose the appropriate courses, majors and pre-career activities.

Roth said the Pitt Pathway, launched three and a half years ago, currently has 900 undergraduate participants. "And we're pleased with that, but we are proposing efforts to increase that number. I've been talking with deans about ways to schedule information sessions with their students to spread the word about the Pathway."

Roth said he has met with Arts and Sciences Dean John Cooper and Associate Dean Patricia Beeson about augmenting Freshman Studies 1 — the one-credit course designed primarily to aid freshmen in the transition to college life — with some of the Pathway principles.

Other efforts include contacting newly admitted students prior to freshman orientation, increasing the Pathway's exposure at orientations events, formalizing the enrollment procedure of the Pathway, which now includes a registration process, and rewarding students with certificates as they accomplish each of the four steps in the plan, Roth said.

"Too many schools our size are oriented toward job searching by itself, and often not until junior or senior year. This is much more comprehensive. As students travel each of the four steps of career development — self-discovery, career exploration, job experience and career-plan implementation — we want to acknowledge that. If a student completes two half-day activities, like doing a self-assessment, visiting with a career counselor, doing an interest inventory, the student gets a certificate and that is reflected on the transcript."

Roth said the participants in the Pitt Pathway automatically are put on an e-mail listserve and notified about job fairs, recruiters' visits, job opportunities and the like. He said his unit is developing follow-up surveys to measure how Pitt graduates feel the Pathway affected them in their career and life choices.

"Eventually, we should have data about the benefits of the Pitt Pathway to our graduates," Roth said, "and that should help sell it to future students."

Generally speaking, Roth supports what Daniel is advocating for Student Affairs, he said. "I think it's important for any unit to solidify its goals and vision in order to be viewed as a unit with a purpose, both within and outside itself. Part of this process of strengthening the Pitt Pathway addressed that issue as well. Directors are meeting weekly and seeing what others do. It makes for a more cohesive office overall."

Director of Student Activities Joseph Cavalla said his unit has several tasks underway as part of Daniel's evaluation process of Student Affairs.

"We're focusing on the types of skills needed for our students to develop into leaders in terms of what programs we should offer and how to improve those that we do offer," Cavalla said. "Although we evaluate our programs every year, we've been asked [by Daniel] to take a closer look at the various student organizations, like the Student Government Board, the Intrafraternity Council, the Black Action Society and many others, and how we can help them. In other words, we've been asked to review what's included in our various services to these organizations."

As for the synergy that Daniel is stressing between student and academic affairs, Cavalla maintained, "There is an educational component in almost everything we do, whether it is leadership development, conflict management, volunteerism promotion.

"Many of our programs promote service options with an emphasis on volunteerism. Some of it is on the individual level, advising a student interested in putting time into service of how to go about it, like letting them know about volunteer fairs, and getting them on listserves for information about volunteer organizations.

"Some of our efforts are at the group level, like helping the Pan Hellenic organization with its neighborhood clean-up projects, and organizing student blood drives."

Cavalla said he also was asked by Daniel to look for ways to strengthen the relationship between students and faculty. "Collegiality with faculty is an important goal of what we do. The Pitt News is a good example, with the Student Activities advisers putting students in the business end of the paper in touch with the faculty from our business school who can advise the students on sales and advertising and other parts of the production of the paper."

Cavalla acknowledged that Daniel emphasized the importance of maintaining proper student-staff relationships. Daniel told Student Affairs staff that students are not the staff's children, peers, lovers, friends or political allies.

"I don't really think it was a problem," Cavalla said. "We're all professionals here. But it is important to have a clear understanding of the appropriate line between staff and students."

A veteran of 15 years at Student Activities, Cavalla is particularly concerned with administrative turnover. "I really believe we need stability," he said. "There have been a number of changes in the reporting structure and the leadership in Student Affairs during my years here. But [Daniel] has made it clear that he's interim head until the administration feels we're ready for a permanent head. We're all doing what we can to get to that point."

–Peter Hart