Apr 9, 2024
Navigating Unprecedented Challenges
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a myriad set of challenges, upending the traditional norms and necessitating an urgent pivot towards empathetic leadership. Higher education, a particularly affected sector, had to swiftly evolve, fostering an environment where staff felt supported amidst the ensuing chaos.
Embodying Transparency and Support
Amy Hecht from FSU and Matt Imboden of Wake Forest University underline the importance of transparent communication and authentic actions from leaders. Through initiatives like FSU’s Culture and People program, leadership at these institutions exemplified the care and long-term investment in their staff’s career trajectories. Similarly, David Chao from the University of Pittsburgh highlighted a newfound focus on self-care, crucial for maintaining a balanced support system for students.
Spaces for Grief and Adaptation
Andy Wiegert at Washington University and Rachael Amaro of Cal State Fullerton share the vital role that organized grief spaces and an open line for support can play in sustaining staff well-being in times of loss. Melinda Stoops from Boston College emphasizes how institutional efforts to secure staff job assurance during such periods is a testament to caring leadership.
Professional Development and Well-being
Investment in professional growth and well-being, as recounted by Jackie Yoon from Harvard, ensures that employees feel valued and are more likely to contribute positively. The approach by Shatera Davis’s leadership at Northeastern in Seattle during the pandemic harmonizes with this by preserving jobs and maintaining a connected community despite quarantine.
Leading by Example
The narrative of Leanna Fenneberg from Duquesne University describes leading staff reductions with care, prioritizing a loving environment even during departures. Moreover, Darlene Robinson of Seton Hall University speaks to the strategic support provided by listening leaders who aid employees during career transitions.
TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:00:01]:
Welcome to student affairs voices from the field, the podcast where
we share your student affairs stories from fresh perspectives to
seasoned experts. This is season 10, continuing our season 9 theme
of On Transitions in Student Affairs. This podcast is brought to
you by NASPA, and I'm doctor Jill Creighton. She, her, hers, your
essay voices from the field host. Hey, essay voices. Welcome to our
second of 3 bonus episodes from the annual conference. Chris and I
were able to move about the conference and talk to a couple dozen
of you about your thoughts on the various foci areas. Today's
question will focus on the 2nd conference focus area, which was
Care in Chaos.
Dr. Jill
Creighton [00:00:42]:
And the question we asked you was can you share an example of a
time or a hope when a supervisor or organization provided effective
care and support to employees during times of significant change or
uncertainty in their careers. A lot of you had some really
wonderful examples of how your organization
Acquanetta
Pinkard [00:01:07]:
I'm Acquanetta Pinkard. I am from Montgomery, Alabama. I work for
Alabama State University and I am a trio professional for 23 years.
I believe that my supervisor as well as my campus have been very
conscious of caring for the employees, giving us what we have need
of whether that's time off, whether that's just opportunities to
take a minute break, areas on campus where we could take minute
breaks, and also providing just that continuum of care where we
feel the liberty to be able to talk. So I think that that's what
I've experienced.
Taylor Cain
[00:01:45]:
I'm Taylor Cain. I work at the University of Georgia and serve as
the director of engagement leadership and service there. Well, I
mean, the one that comes most comes to mind first, most recently we
had, unfortunately, 2 deaths on our campus. 1 of a former student
and one of a current student. And while all of us were trying to
spring into action to figure out how to care for students, in the
midst of that, I was really impressed by the institution trying to
find also ways to support those who were caring for those students.
Our vice president for student affairs, who is newer to her role
but not to our institution, made really intentional efforts to
reach out to folks via email or text or when she saw them to take
the time to show appreciation and care for the work that they were
doing, recognizing the importance of it, but also encouraging folks
to take care of themselves. And I think little acts like that go
much further than some people may realize. And I think it meant the
world to the staff who were doing the work. In times of crisis
or difficult issues on campus, it's always really nice, I think, to
have that recognition and affirmation of you're doing a great job
and I'm right here beside you. But don't forget to take care of
yourself too.
Adrienne White
[00:03:01]:
I'm doctor Adrienne White. I'm the director of student success
coaching at George Mason University, and I use sheher pronouns. I
think my supervisor during COVID was remarkable in terms of how she
supported us during certain times. And personally, during COVID, my
mother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. And so on top of
dealing with personal things, I'm now having to also grapple with
how am I supporting my team at the same time. But then, also, how
am I supporting myself during all of this and putting well-being at
the forefront of our work. And I was extremely blessed to have a
supervisor that allowed me the autonomy to create well-being
opportunities for my team, but also well-being opportunities that
worked for me as well because I was my mother's primary caretaker.
And so, I adjusted my schedule.
Adrienne White
[00:03:53]:
I went on 4:10 hour workday schedule because I needed to go to all
a lot of doctor's appointments and be there with her during her
treatment, and that was a significant moment in my life, in my
career. And having the support of my supervisor and knowing that my
supervisor has my back, right, knowing that my supervisor supports
the decisions I need to make to take care of myself and to my team,
you just can't put a number on that. It's incredibly important and
has completely transformed my thought process and my leadership as
well.
Susan Hua
[00:04:29]:
Hi. My name is Susan Hua. I use sheher pronouns, and I'm the
director of diversity, equity, inclusion at the Community College
of Aurora, which is an MSI HSI just outside of Denver, Colorado. A
hope that I have for supervisors or organizations to provide
effective care and support to employees is to really just be
intentional about how they are mentoring and having conversations
with their employees during times of uncertainty during their
careers. I think it's helpful to understand and really holistically
look at your employees instead of just seeing them as one role or
one fraction of your department, and to really understand that they
have lives outside of the field as well, and to understand how to
support their whole selves in the work journey that they have.
Aileen Hentz
[00:05:09]:
My name is Aileen Hentz. I'm at the University of Maryland as the
program director of academic and student services. I think constant
communication was very important during times, especially when
we're looking at budget cuts, furloughs, when we're looking at
possible changing in policy that could have an impact on our office
or our jobs. Just not being left in the dark was incredibly
important, I think. So that kinda constant communication, opening
things up. I loved when my supervisor was like, you know, I'm not
supposed to tell you all this, but I'm gonna tell you anyway
because I feel like you need to know. And that was really helpful
for me when we were facing some of those uncertainties.
Stephen Rice
[00:05:49]:
Stephen Rice, director of the Office of Community Expectations at
the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.
I've been very fortunate to have a lot of supervisors who really
take the time to get to know me and provide me with the resources
and support. And so when tough times happen, they're able to really
provide me with that information that I need. My current
supervisor, Darren, always takes the time out to really talk to me
about different cases and different situations. When things go
awry, cause I work in student conduct, really provides that support
that I need for those of things. And as an effect of that, I'm able
to do that for the team that I supervise of 6 individuals to really
help them in their growth through or different times and provide
them support. And it goes with 1 on 1 conversations, getting to
know who they are, what they're passionate about, understanding
their strengths, tapping into those strengths, seeing things that
they may not see about themselves, and really getting them to to do
those different things and challenging support them in the way so
they are very effective, in what they do. And as a result, they
have better tools when they're looking for the next step that
they're able to move forward with it.
Amy Adam
[00:06:47]:
Hi. This is Amy Adam, and I am from the University of Missouri in
Columbia. I have been a student services support manager for 20
years serving graduate students. I've been so, so lucky in my 20
years with supervisors and organizations. I work in the School of
Information Science and Learning Technologies. So we have mostly
distant students, but all of the faculty and staff are located in
the same building. Really, my first supervisor, doctor John Wedman,
was one of a kind. He passed away about 9 years ago, but he really
was that mentor to get me into student services and really just
encouraged me to advocate for myself, advocate for my students, and
to build the relationship with faculty, but to remember not to let
them take advantage of me and the willingness that I have to do
work. So, really, just making sure that I keep students first
and foremost in my goal for my job has been the biggest thing. And
really even through COVID, my current department chair has been
amazing with flex time and just making sure that we take time for
ourselves. You can't just sit at your desk all day. You've gotta
get out, gotta get water, go take a break, go play with your dog.
So I just feel very lucky that I've had that type of relationships
with my supervisors.
Stephanie
Cochrane [00:08:14]:
Hi. I'm Stephanie Cochrane. I'm the director of student services at
Northeastern University in Toronto. I'm here for NASPA for just the
Sunday pre conference around graduate students. That's a great
question. I think COVID created a huge shift in our entire world
and our way of thinking about student support, and our dean at the
Toronto campus has been really effectively caring for our our
employees as well as our students, thinking about hiring the
correct resources, asking for input from the people who are working
there and dealing with the students on a daily basis to see what
our students need and keeping that student centered mindset at all
times.
Amy Hecht
[00:08:52]:
Hi. My name is Amy Hecht. I'm the vice president for student
affairs at Florida State University. I've been there 7 years now.
At Florida State, we've launched a new position and program called
Culture and People, and it's really about helping people feel at
home in Tallahassee where FSU is located, connecting to other
people outside their division, celebrating people, and rewarding
them, and also developing them, coaching them, and that's been very
helpful for people to feel supported and valued, but also that
somebody cares about their long term career trajectory.
Shatera Davis
[00:09:32]:
Hi. My name is Shaterra Davis. I use sheher pronouns. I'm the
director of student affairs at Northeastern in Seattle. I think the
most recent time and then the most impactful time was during the
pandemic when I worked in housing before and everyone thought that
they wouldn't have a job because our students were moving out. And
so our leadership did a really great job of saying this is where
we're at. I'm being transparent on what the leadership
conversations were and then ultimately giving us opportunities to
do other work besides being, like, resident directors in order to
keep our jobs and keep our housing during that time. And then doing
the most to make sure that we all felt community because while we
were having to quarantine, we felt that we were all by
ourselves. None of us have roommates, and so being
intentionally using the spaces and the meetings we had to, like,
build communities, check-in, and still just being transparent on
where we're at and, like, how we're supporting students, but also
how we're supporting ourselves during that time.
Andy Wiegert
[00:10:25]:
I am Andy Wiegert, Director of Graduate Student Affairs, Arts and
Sciences, Washington University in Saint Louis.
Gosh. Yeah. I mean, we've kind of seen a lot in our time.
Obviously, having gone through COVID is the one that stands out the
most, but we've also recently experienced things like, you know, a
tragic death of a student. And that's really difficult because you
have administrators who are both trying to support students, but at
the same time are also experiencing their own grief and trauma. And
so it really has been neat to see some of our leaders recognize
that, acknowledge that, and create spaces not just for our students
to grieve, but also for our staff, our faculty, and support
folks.
Scott Peska
[00:11:10]:
Hi. Scott Peska, Waubonsee Community College, assistant provost of
student services. I would say that this was a few years back, quite
a few years back when I worked in res life, but I recall when 911
took place right there was some real challenge with direction
during that time and really giving staff the space to not only help
their students go through and kind of process, but to give us time
to process individually was really important. And to really think
about you're gonna deal with a lot of crisis management in higher
education. And so are you prepared for this? You need to get
yourself in a space to do that. And so being able to give us time
to actually give us strategies, talk to people that were crisis
managers and kinda looking at preparing that, that was helpful.
Dilna Cama
[00:11:53]:
Dilna Cama. I am a director within student life at the Ohio State
University, and I am part of the off campus and commuter knowledge
community. My most recent supervisor, he did our organization was
down to 2 of us, and we were essentially scratching everything and
building a start up. And his support and the way he really reminded
me we can do anything, we can't do everything. And that's something
I remind myself each and every day. And so really keep making sure
that I'm focused on what is most important has really allowed me to
remain positive. And definitely the way in which he provided
support, I think, was very notable.
Sabina Kapoor
[00:12:42]:
My name is Sabina Kapoor, and I'm currently a a full time doctoral
student with Capella University. I spent over 20 years in higher
education as a staff within student affairs, student success, and
academic affairs. So as I progressed in my career, I've focused
more on staff so that they can better serve students. And I wanna
go in deep with that, so that's why I'm pursuing the doctorate in
IO Psychology because I wanna look at the relationship between the
organization and the employee. What comes to mind is a few, the
pandemic. During that time, a lot of universities were downsizing,
and my university that I was at was no exception. And so it was
really interesting because it was unprecedented in how many people
were part of a workforce reduction. And so how the university
supported people at that time, it was interesting.
Sabina Kapoor
[00:13:31]:
I think the university really didn't know how to. And then you had
the people that stayed that weren't, let go. And so I felt like
they had survivor's remorse, and so it's real interesting. And so I
think now is something hopefully, that won't happen again to that
extent, not just my previous university, but other universities and
colleges as well. But if it did, I think institutions know now how
to handle that better and have that human touch.
Carlie Weaver
[00:14:01]:
Hello. I am Carlie Weaver with Rose Hulman Institute of Technology.
I'm a programs coordinator for the student activities in Union
office. I'm not really sure how to answer that because I do feel
like I don't really find myself being uncertain in my career
because my supervisor, Kristen Merchant, hurt you, and Kristen
Lloyd are very, very supportive in helping me to find my footing in
my own voice and my role.
Roxanne Wright
Watson [00:14:31]:
Hi. My name is Roxanne Wright Watson. I'm from Lehigh Carbon
Community College in Pennsylvania, and I'm happy to be here. I
think my direct supervisor, my dean, is supportive of what we do in
the classroom, how we help our students. And in particular, a
situation that I can recall is during COVID. During COVID, I think
they were supportive to us in terms of having to just switch from
face to face classes to online classes. The support was there. The
support in getting things to instructors, supervisors did and how
they helped us, the supervisors did and how they helped us as
faculty. Yes.
Carla Ortega
Santori [00:15:27]:
My name is Carla Ortega Santori. I work at Rice University. I am
the strategic initiatives manager at the Door Institute For New
Leaders at Rice University, and my job is really about helping
students elevate their leadership capacity and to also elevate the
capacity of all campuses to do really great leader developments in
education. I think everyone went through significant changes in
2020. Obviously, our director and leader was really great about
embracing that level of uncertainty and creating a safe space for
everyone to also attend to their needs, be they professional or
personal. Another big, I think, time of uncertainty or significant
change was when we changed directors, and I think both the outgoing
and incoming directors were really great at defining our roles and
clarifying expectations really clearly, so that was really helpful.
Laying out a vision and also being okay with if we needed to change
that vision or significantly alter it to accommodate our current
needs was also really helpful.
Rachael Amaro
[00:16:41]:
I'm Rachael Amaro. I'm the admissions and academic advisor for the
Department of Educational Leadership within the College of
Education at Cal State Fullerton. I think a good example of that is
the faculty who's the director of our EDD program. We had a really
rough patch in our department, you know, between the faculty. The
faculty were having issues with each other, which of course, the
students pick up on, everybody picks up on. It makes the whole
environment a little challenging, but my EDG director was always
very level headed and very understanding and always open to saying,
hey, if there's something going on, like, please let me know, like,
don't, you know, don't keep things. It's important that I know
what's happening so that we can all figure out what is going on and
how everybody's feeling, at least in the office side, because the
fact are gonna be themselves. They were having some issues with
each other.
Rachael Amaro
[00:17:29]:
The staff, obviously, we were okay with each other, but obviously
it all affects everything, so I really appreciated her always being
so confident and always so caring and open, and always checking in
and making sure we were doing okay when we had some rough times
with our own leadership within our department, she was always the
one person that we knew we could count on. And, you know, she's the
one person that asks how you're doing, Jess, how your parents are
doing. It's just those simple acts make a big difference.
Christine
Wilson [00:17:59]:
I'm Christine Wilson. I am in student affairs at UCLA. I have two
roles. 1 is as the executive director for academic partnerships and
the other is the program director for our director for our masters
in student affairs program. I saw the leadership of our student
affairs organization exhibit tremendous humility and vulnerability
directly after the pandemic when there had been some things that
were not seen that impacted fairly large number of staff, and they
were unseen largely because of the pandemic. It was much harder to
get a pulse on what was happening, and what was happening did
impact a lot of people. And in order to heal that, our leadership
really had to show tremendous humility and vulnerability. And the
fact that they did that allowed the healing to begin to
happen. And a year later, the organization was healthier, even
maybe a little better for what they've learned.
Olivia
Ruggieri [00:18:53]:
Hi there. My name is Olivia Ruggieri. I'm the associate director of
administration operations for Northeastern University Seattle
campus. I grew up in Pennsylvania, went to college in Florida, and
came out here in 2013, but I've been working for the university
since since 2018. I would say that right now, there's a big shift
towards, not centralization, but standardization of policies across
our network of campuses. And so while for folks, at my level, like
the ops leads on our campuses, we already do a lot of coordination
between each other. We know each other well. But for the folks on
our teams, like our operation specialists, our event specialists,
they had not yet built their network with each other.
Olivia
Ruggieri [00:19:34]:
And so, coming out of our Vancouver campus, someone named Kayla
organized a, mentoring, like, work group for all of those folks,
which has been really amazing. So now, folks who are new to the org
are mentored by folks who have been here a little bit longer. Those
folks are mentored by people that whose roles they might be
interested in the future, and I've found that this has helped some
of that standardization that's coming across all of our campuses,
and we're gonna be well equipped for the future.
Christle
Foster [00:20:05]:
Hi. My name is Christle Foster and I'm from Chesapeake College
located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in Y Mills. I'm gonna
point to the pandemic since it's so recent and I will say that our
leadership at Chesapeake was very responsive and one of the things
that they definitely emphasized was care. Self care as well as
caring for our students and I've seen that change even when we
returned to the college. With the CARES funds that we have, a lot
of it was allocated to students who are going through mental health
challenges as well as financial challenges, food insecurity,
housing insecurity, and there was a lot of response in which those
funds were put to, trying to retain those students and also help
those students over those challenges.
Nathalie Waite
Brown [00:20:46]:
My name is Nathalie Waite Brown. I am the assistant dean of
students and director for graduate student life at Stevens
Institute of Technology located in Hoboken, New Jersey. From a
personal perspective, the institution that I worked at when I
joined a few years following, we had a new president that came to
the institution, and it was during a time where there was a lot of
turmoil. And I believe that the leadership that remained really was
committed to retaining staff and faculty in a way that was
intentional and purposeful, not just for our students, but also for
the climate of the employees and welcoming and supporting the new
president. And that's something that's been impactful in my career.
That was 11 years ago, and it it's still something that resonates
with me.
Dae'lyn Do
[00:21:28]:
My name's Dae'lyn Do. I use sheher pronouns, and I am the associate
director for the Women in Science and Engineering Residence Program
at the University of Michigan, and I am coming into the position of
the WISA CASE co chair. I mean, I have been lucky to have some
really great supervisors in my career and definitely supervisors
who focus on that work life balance and really making sure that
they're taking care of their employees and not giving them time for
themselves when they've had like a high busy time. Making sure that
we're building in those days and those breaks for ourselves,
whether it's in the day to day or whether it's in the busier
seasons. I feel like I have been really lucky to rely on some great
supervisors who just really prioritize that and know that we are
workers outside of we're people outside of our jobs too.
Natalie DeRosa
[00:22:18]:
So my name is Natalie DeRosa and I'm from Lehigh Carbon Community
College in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania. So my supervisor has been
an amazing support for me personally when some of my programming
had the plug bolt on it this year, and being that space where I can
just grieve that that happened, that meant a lot to me. And also,
we're still looking for ways to bring back the programming. I work
at a community college, so sustaining programming is always a
challenge for us. So being able to talk to my supervisor about it
and have her be just right there as we're experiencing it has
lended a lot of support to me professionally.
Dan Volchek
[00:22:58]:
Dan Volchek, assistant dean of student success at Harvard Griffin
Grad School of Arts and Sciences. My relationship with expect that
and hope that in a supervisor. So as we're going through changes
and uncertainty, both professionally in the career and at the
institution, they were working as a team and they were talking. And
sometimes that has happened and sometimes that hasn't, but that's a
very important way to get through when issues come up.
Vaughn Calhoun
[00:23:31]:
Vaughn Calhoun, Seton Hall University, hehim. I think,
interestingly, you know, coming out of the pandemic, we were so
used to being at home for 2 years and then coming back to campus
with the thought of we're gonna be there a 100% of the time when
literally our lives have readjusted based on on the pandemic. So
one thing I advocated for was a work from home policy. We didn't
have one across the institution. It was based on each department.
So putting together a proposal, which was then accepted by our vice
president and saying that, you know, this is what we can do. So
that, I think, was really powerful because our staff knew and got
the message that our executive administrators care.
Darlene
Robinson [00:24:14]:
My name is Darlene Robinson. I'm the RISE general and director for
Seton Hall University. I can speak to that in a sense that being
that I'm just moving in to this career, I spent over 15 years in
the financial aid department, and I just moved over to student
services. And with this move, the supervisor that I currently have
now has been very strategic in listening to me as a person, asking
questions of how and what I need, and how he can be of service as
well as influence. Whatever it is that I need to do my job in
the
Miguel Angel
Hernandez [00:24:59]:
Hello. My name is Miguel Angel Hernandez. I am the associate vice
president and dean of students at San Francisco State University. I
have been very fortunate as a individual to have had amazing
mentors, supervisors, sponsors throughout my career. Faculty
members that have really taught me, guided me, coached me at
different aspects of my career. And so when I think about a
specific time, the easy place for me is thinking about what we as a
community, as a planet, have navigated these last 4 plus years of
COVID through that particular global crisis. I think about the
patience, the openness, the modeling that I saw from supervisors,
from organizational leaders related to bringing people in, leaning
in to the moment, to what individuals needed, and really giving us
the capacity to rethink how we approach work, life, care, concern
for each other and for the students that we serve. And so one of
the things that I work very hard to do is not to romanticize that
global crisis, but I am trying to make sure that I don't forget the
lessons that were learned from the flexibility, the love, and the
care that we demonstrated to each other to be able to navigate that
time and that space. And so that would be something that I
saw both from supervisors and from organizations. I hope that we
continue to allow those experiences to be centered as we move
forward in our work.
David Chao
[00:26:29]:
Hello. My name is David Chow. My pronouns are hehim. I serve as the
director of IT for student affairs at the University of Pittsburgh,
and I'm also the chair of the technology knowledge community. For
sure during COVID, I think everyone became so much more attentive
towards self care. And I'm not even just in higher education, I
feel just like in the workplace in general, everyone just seemed to
be working harder than their parents type mentality. And I think
since then we've understood about the balance that, you know, we
can't assist our students and serve them if we don't take care of
ourselves as well. And some of the advice we give to them, we
should probably take as well.
Melinda Stoops
[00:27:01]:
Hi. I am Melinda Stoops. I serve as the associate vice president
for student health and wellness at Boston College. In terms of
looking at times when there's been significant change or and
uncertainty in everyone's life. And in higher education, there were
just all of us going home for periods of times and uncertainty in
what our roles were in specific moments when everyone's off campus.
How are our roles different, and what can we do to contribute, and
what are we needed to do to contribute? And I feel like that that
was a time where there was a lot of uncertainty, and I think one
thing I appreciated about that was my institution's stance of
there's a lot of uncertainty, but we are really going to make a
real point to care for our employees during this time. Now with
that said, again, we were off campus, so caring can show up in
different ways. But feeling like they were like, we are concerned
about employees. We wanna make sure that you all are healthy,
that you all know that your job is secure, and just that really
that in and of itself went a long way. And it felt so fortunate
because I know not everyone was in that same position, and I felt
very privileged to be able to receive that support from my
employer. I know that my colleagues on my campus were as well.
Derek Grubb
[00:28:26]:
Derek Grubb, Dean of Enrollment Management for Red Rocks Community
College in Colorado. I've been fortunate to have a lot of
supervisors and colleagues I think that I've learned from how to be
effective, but one more recently was past president. Really taught
me the value valuing people, celebrating even the small wins, and
really how that promoted a environment of caring, great place to
work mindset.
Matt Imboden
[00:28:50]:
My name is Matt Imboden. I use the he, him pronouns. I serve as the
chief student services officer in the School of Business at Wake
Forest University in North Carolina. And, for the past few years,
I've also been chairing the administrators and graduate and
professional student services knowledge community for NASPA. So I'm
sure there'll be some point at which my mind doesn't completely
shift to the COVID experience when somebody asked this kind of a
question, but I am not at that point yet. So my mind as you were
speaking, Chris, went immediately to COVID as a time that I think
revealed leadership or lack thereof depending on the experience.
But that's exactly one of those stressors I just talked about in
terms of uncertainty that you were talking about because my
goodness. I remember feeling particularly impacted when people walk
the walk and just didn't talk the talk of either high level
administrators who personally sacrificed in the face of budget cuts
to touch their own compensation or to really demonstrate not just
sort of with words, but showed me that they're in this too and that
makes you want to give as an individual and I think role model that
for other people on your campus. And so that stands out for me of
throughout all that COVID uncertainty when all of us were pulling
out the depths of our leadership ability and administrative
capabilities just to see people who, went beyond the talk and
really walked the walk of leadership.
Evette
Castillo Clark [00:30:01]:
Evette Castillo Clark, vice president for student life and dean of
students at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon. I'll think
of myself in this as a supervisor. When you can't give or when I
can't give the gift of money, I know that in times of need or
support to my team, I'm gonna give the gift of time. So when I look
at them, if my team or my staff are exhausted, I always talk to
them about tag in and tag out. If you need the time or you need the
break, me as a supervisor, I have to be very understanding of that.
If you can't always offer additional monies for stipend, you gotta
give the gift of time. And you have to understand that people need
to regroup, and people need people need time to refuel and regain
their energy. So in times like this, campus climate issues, post
pandemic breaks are needed, and I think I also have to model that
as well.
Madeline Frisk
[00:30:56]:
I started this job at Portland State in 2021, was working remotely
up until the fall term. I started in the spring term at our
institution, so navigating that shift from remote to in person and
also having colleagues that I'd basically just met in person was
definitely a difficult time for me, but my boss was very supportive
and everyone was very welcoming. I found a community both with our
union on campus as well as with my co workers and boss, and that
was a great experience being initiated into a really wonderful
community at Portland State.
Gene Zdziarski
[00:31:32]:
This is Gene Jarski. I'm vice president for student affairs at
DePaul University. I can think of a couple of situations. I
will go back 25 years to Texas A&M University when I was a
young staff member there, and we had an unfortunate tragedy of our
traditional bonfire collapsing. And, 12 individuals were killed and
27 others were seriously injured. And the amount of attention and
care that was taken by the institution beginning with the president
who came in and basically said to all of us who were trying to
respond and trying to work with the situation, I don't care how
much it costs. I don't I want you to do the right thing. I want you
to do whatever it takes to take care of people, and that was such a
reassuring thing as you're trying to manage through such a
challenging time, and so, for me, that was a significant
moment.
Gene Zdziarski
[00:32:36]:
I also had one when I was at DePaul University, and we had a
speaker come to campus that really, disrupted the campus community
tremendously. I had actually recommended to the president at that
time that being a private institution, we could make some decisions
about whether or not this speaker really should come to campus. And
he said at the moment, no. I think we need to have a process, a
plan for that, but we're not in that place right now. I think we
need to go ahead and do this. After it happened and there was a lot
of backlash from the campus community, he stood by me the entire
time and worked with me in meeting with all the different
constituencies, stakeholders, and student groups to really listen,
hear people out, and then help us begin to build a plan for how we
would address that in the future, and that was pretty significant
to me.
Lyza Liriano
[00:33:22]:
Hello. My name is Lyza Liriano. I currently serve as an area
coordinator at DePaul University in housing and residence Life.
Originally, I am from Brooklyn, New York. Yes. So prior to my role
at DePaul, I worked at the University of South Florida, Tampa, and
this was only about 2 years ago when there was a lot of political
change happening in Florida, and impacted my identities as a queer
woman of color. I didn't feel safe being in Florida, but my
supervisors at the University of South Florida specifically
provided me with hope knowing that I would be safe at my
institution, and not only that, that I could still be there for my
students. No matter what legislation was saying, we still wanted to
build that community and make sure that our students really felt
like their needs were being heard. And so I felt that as a
professional, and we kind of instilled it to all of our student
body as well. So although I did end up leaving, I left knowing that
my students were in great hands.
Jackie Cetera
[00:34:24]:
Jackie Cetera. I use sheher pronouns, and I serve as the director
of residential education at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
For this, examples of when this has worked out really well has been
when administrators and leaders within the institution really
important for leaders to pour into their people and provide
guidance even when it might be really hard to do so. Providing
space to talk through situations and scenarios and to keep people
informed is really, really important.
Lisa Landreman
[00:35:09]:
My name is Lisa Landreman. I'm the vice president for student
affairs at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. I think that
COVID is the best example. I feel really proud as an organization,
as an institution, how much we held space for our employees, that
we gave regular frequent communication as a team of people who were
managing the crisis, particularly early on. We did really regular
communication. We stayed abreast of what was happening in the
world. We thought well about our community. We allowed a lot of
flexibility with work even though we were in person for our
students.
Lisa Landreman
[00:35:46]:
We gave options both for students and employees to do hybrid work
or remote work as needed. I think we also gave a lot of flex to
parents who were or people who had family members they were caring
for, and so I think we were clear about our expectations for, you
know, maybe some of our goals were on hold because we were tending
to what was most immediately important and what was reasonable to
ask people to accomplish at a time when we were all caring so much
in our personal and professional lives. I think that was a way that
I was really proud of how we managed that.
Jackie Yun
[00:36:22]:
Hi. I'm Jackie Yun. I take the she series, and I serve as the
executive director of the Harvard Griffin GSAS Student Center.
Sure. I think I've been lucky at my institution that they have
invested heavily in my professional development, and I have been
able to go to them and say, I want to learn this thing. This is how
I think this connects to what I do. And maybe in some cases, it
doesn't always really connect, but they understand that providing
me the support to keep learning and to try new things keeps me at
the institution and keeps me doing good work for graduate
students.
Leanna
Fenneberg [00:36:55]:
Hello. This is Leanna Fenneberg. I'm the incoming chief student
affairs officer at Duquesne University. I think so many of our
institutions are going through reductions in force. I've
personally, been impacted by those, and I've had to lead those with
staff. And those are some of the most critical times for the people
who are departing and for the community members who remain. And so
I think of those difficulties as we all have budget reductions and
how we can provide a loving supportive environment for all of the
employees, even those who are directly affected in helping them
support in their next journey and making difficult decisions and
communicating those, but doing that in a ethic of care and concern
for the individual and providing that kind of supportive community
during some of our most difficult times.
Jake Murphy
[00:37:41]:
Jake Murphy. I'm the director of prospective students services at
OSU Institute of Technology, and I am over all recruitment and
retention efforts at the university. Probably best example is my
most recent position with a supervisor. I've just been in the role
like about 2 years now. The university had been in a perpetual
decline of enrollment for the last 10 years and it was morale was
low. Everything was like absolutely terrible and my supervisor
employed strategies to make sure that since we can't necessarily
pay people the best in student affairs affairs sometimes, that she
gave us the opportunity to use whatever time we needed to be felt
supported and it really helped all of, like, bolster morale and
just helped us avoid burnout which was great.
Larry Pakowski
[00:38:29]:
Larry Pakowski. I'm the vice president for student engagement,
inclusion and success at Aims Community College in Greeley,
Colorado. I think COVID is a good example for us all that we all
shifted to a remote environment overnight, and then some schools
came back sooner, some schools came back later. And I think it was
really an exercise in making sure that we not only forgot our
people, but also the mission of the college and ensuring that we
were doing what we needed to do by students, but also our employees
as well.
Jillaine
Zenkelberger [00:38:56]:
Hi. I'm doctor Jillaine Zenkelberger. I am the program coordinator
over at Graduate Student Life at the University of Notre Dame.
Yeah. So actually, a really good example is this year, we have a
new dean of our grad school, Mike Hildreth at University of Notre
Dame. And with any new head, new leadership, there's always, like,
oh, what is this gonna mean for changes in our programs? But he's
really taken the time to, like, sit down and listen to what our
offices need and what our students need so that not only are we
addressing students' concerns, but we're doing it in a way that's
practical for us as employees. Because I think that sometimes we
focus only on one side of initiatives and forget, like, well,
somebody has to do it and has to have the capacity to do it. I
think he's done a really good job and our team at the grad school
has done a really good job of keeping those two things in mind.
Kristen
Merchant [00:39:49]:
Hi, everyone. I'm Kristen Merchant. I am from Rose Hulman Institute
of Technology. I am the associate director of the union and student
Activities Office there and also the director of our lead programs.
So my boss's name is also Kristen, but her name is Kristen Lloyd.
She always just supports us with whatever we need, asks how we're
doing. If she can sense that we're kind of feeling burnt out or
tired or exhausted, she always takes the time to check-in with us
us and give us some extra time off if we need it, and she just
always helps make sure that we feel confident in our roles, and
that just makes me feel very, very supported and confident in my
roles.
Joe Lizza
[00:40:25]:
My name isDr. Joe Lizza. I'm the director of the Chamberlain
Student Center and Campus Activities at Rowan University in New
Jersey. When I was a few years within my first full time job, I
knew I wanted some type of change, and I had very supportive
supervisors that provided me those opportunities knowing that the
growth at the time in my current role and maybe the growth at the
institution wasn't necessarily there, but they gave me some tools
both through mentoring, but also through professional development
opportunities to kinda seek out that next step. And they were just
very upfront. I feel like sometimes people kinda string you along.
They were very upfront to say, we love your work. You're doing a
great job, but maybe your next step is not here. And they really
provided that support to look elsewhere, which ultimately then
allowed me for advancement outside of that original
institution.
Joshua Allred
[00:41:19]:
My name is Joshua Allred. I work at Louisiana State University in
the College of Agriculture as their manager of student services.
Sure. So we had a a pretty significant restructuring in our office
a while back, like, about a year ago when our assistant dean left.
And I work in an academic affairs unit so they took that time to
really kind of restructure and move some pieces around. And so
there was an uncertainty in terms of, are our jobs secure? Are our
jobs moving around? Are we gonna have some significant changes in,
like, what are what's under the purview of our our jobs. And again,
I think having strong leadership and having them assure us and and
talk through us the entire time as things were being discussed and
actually listening to our input and getting feedback from us about
our experiences being kind of the boots on the ground people
working with students, I thought was really helpful and thoughtful.
I think sometimes frustration, especially in uncertainty and during
times of change, comes from folks at the top who don't necessarily
have the most recent experience working with students in, like, a
really direct way, making these really big sweeping decisions and
not always taking into consideration the opinions and the feedback
from folks who are doing just that.
Joshua Allred
[00:42:25]:
Wow. So one of the things I continue to do is try to be innovative
and think what's next? What more can I do to support students and
support student success? I don't wanna come in and do the same
programs over and over again. I want to do my best to collaborate,
whether it's with my partners in academic affairs or my partners in
student affairs. But whenever uncertainty comes, then that says,
how do I make sure that students are successful? Because in
uncertainty, they wanna make sure that what you're doing is
supporting student success. So that's what I do. At Texas A&M,
specifically, we just had a major change in who our president is,
and we changed from the College of Education to the School of
Education and Human Development. There were a lot of the
professionals within the College of Education and Human Development
who weren't happy with that change and thought that our peers
around the country would look at us and say, School of Education
and Human Development, we're a college, we do more, we're a
research one institution, why is that happening with us? And,
again, during that time of change and that time of uncertainty, our
focus in the Burns Center was how do we make sure that we are
supporting our students and making sure our students are
successful? How do we make sure those persistence and retention and
graduation rates continue to stay high and how can we raise
them?
Judy Traveis
[00:43:58]:
Hi, everyone. I'm Judy Traveis. I'm the associate dean for the
Graduate Student Success Center at the University of Florida. I
would say recently, I'm from the University of Florida and the
Florida landscape has been impacted greatly with big issues in the
DE and I space. And I think throughout it all, leadership had town
hall meetings and general counsel available to help shape and
create our programs so that they can live in the new world.
Katie Caponera
[00:44:31]:
I'm Katie Caponera, director of student life at Harvard Divinity
School. This past academic year has been one of the most
challenging that I've experienced in my 15 years in higher ed, and
I know it's been challenging on many campuses. It's felt
particularly difficult at Harvard. We're very much in the national
spotlight, but I think that what's helped me get through those
challenging pieces and times have been the supportive colleagues
and my supervisor who's been amazing at checking in and keeping
everybody up to date on what's going on, talking through what we
may be facing, and being very clear about what expectations are and
what strategies are to approach what may be coming to us given the
different types of uncertainty and and challenge that are
present.
Kathy Dilks
[00:45:19]:
My name is Kathy Dilks, and I am the director of graduate student
and post doctoral affairs at the Icahn School of Medicine, the
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Supervisors have always
been very, very helpful. I think one of the best tips they've ever
given me is perception is reality. So anytime that I come with
questions or uncertainties or even in my professional outlook, I
remember that one phrase over and over again, and I strive to put
my best foot forward if I've always had the luxury of working with
other people who are able to answer questions, able to guide me
along the way.
Julie Payne
Kirchmeier [00:45:58]:
Julie Payne Kirchmeier, vice president for student success for the
u Indiana University. It's not really a system. It's a multi campus
university, but we can say Indiana University System if that's
easier for folk to kinda place the role. It keeps me steady as a
leader and as a member of an organization. It keeps me steady. And
be vulnerable, as we talked about. It's a harder one to answer, I
think, because particularly the past 4 years have just been so
upside down for all of us. And so finding examples of care and
support in such an uncertain time, relating back to question 1, is
really hard.
Julie Payne
Kirchmeier [00:46:30]:
But I will name a moment, and it was pre the disruption that we all
know of COVID, but it was so fundamental and so just roiling with
uncertainty is when I was at Northwestern as the associate vice
president and chief of staff, and our vice president passed away.
Beloved, long, long battle with cancer, and I will say her name,
Patricia Theus Urban, an icon in our field. And it was one of those
moments you knew eventually was coming, but it doesn't make it any
easier. And the pain and the shock and just the sadness that just
infiltrated the division and the campus, and there was a lot of
burden that was put on our division to plan her memorial and a
whole host of things. So, you know, like, good student affairs
professionals, we just jump in and get it done. But during that
time, we really tried to provide spaces, conversations, moments,
touch points, remembrances of her, and not just at the memorial. We
would take moments throughout the coming year to pause, to
remember, to talk about, to laugh, to, you know, all the things
that you wanna do to move through a really painful time. And, you
know, I can look back on it, and that was 5 almost 5 years ago now,
which is kind of mind blowing.
Julie Payne Kirchmeier [00:47:40]:
And I'm really proud and honored to have been part of a community
that did that for each other. I'm not gonna stand here and say it
was me. I'm not gonna stand here and say it was a small group. It
really was that full community of student affairs that came
together and did that. I think one of the sad things for me is that
you don't often see that happen outside of student affairs in
higher education, and I think we've got to do better
Julie Payne Kirchmeier [00:47:59]:
as an
Julie Payne Kirchmeier [00:47:59]:
industry, as a field, in industry, as a field in remembering that
we have to show up for each other in these really important ways,
large and small.
Dr. Jill Creighton [00:48:10]:
This has been an episode of Student Affairs Voices from the Field,
a podcast brought to you by NASPA. This show the content. If you'd
like to reach the show, please email us at sa voices at naspa.org
or find me on LinkedIn by searching for doctor Jill. We always
welcome your feedback and your topic and guest suggestions. We'd
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within the larger podcasting community. This episode was produced
and hosted by doctor Jill Creighton, that's me, produced and audio
engineered by doctor Chris Lewis. Special thanks to the University
of Michigan Flint for your support as we create this project.
Dr. Jill Creighton [00:49:03]:
Catch you next time.