ROBERT MORRIS UNIVERSITY
WINTER 2015
FAMILY Connections ADVICE TO PARENTS…HOW TO MAINTAIN A POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR STUDENT This issue of Family Connections is focused on providing parents and families with some advice and recommendations about how to stay engaged with and support your student during his/her college experience. It is a difficult transition to make. Your child, whom you have nurtured and protected since birth, is now considered an adult. They are studying at a university, where quite possibly you are paying the bill. It is a difficult paradox—you want them to become independent, but you still want to nurture and protect them. How do you find a healthy balance? As a parent of first-year college students as well, I understand and share your perspective and emotions. I thank the Office of Residence Life, the Counseling Center and the Career Center for their thoughtful submissions in this issue.
I hope you have had, or will have the opportunity to visit Moon Township and RMU this Fall. The campus is alive with excitement and energy during this transition from warm weather to the crisp, cool days of fall. We’ve already enjoyed Homecoming and Parents & Families Weekend, fraternity and sorority recruitment, fall sports contests, the annual Career Expo, and numerous academic and student engagement events. We look forward to the Almost Midnight Breakfast, Winterfest, the start of basketball season, and various holiday celebrations all of which will be held later this semester.
I also invite you to read further about the appointment of Dr. Christopher B. Howard as the next president of Robert Morris University. Dr. Howard will serve as the eighth president of the university. He succeeds Dr. Gregory Dell’Omo who departed RMU in June. The Colonial family eagerly awaits Dr. Howard and his wife, Barbara Noble Howard, to arrive early next semester.
Family Connections is a publication designed for the parents and families of Robert Morris University students. It is compiled by the Office of Student Life and printed in cooperation with the Office of Public Relations and Marketing. Editions are printed in the fall, winter, and spring of each academic year. We are interested in your feedback about this publication. E-mail your comments and suggestions to studentlife@rmu.edu.
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THE ROLE OF RECREATIONAL SPORTS ON CAMPUS While your son or daughter might not be an NCAA Division I athlete, they can still gain some of the same benefits that varsity athletes do by participating in a club or intramural sport. Club sports typically differ from intramural sports by including competition against club teams from other colleges, while intramural leagues consist of students within the university. In a 65 item survey of RMU club sport participants from the 2014-15 academic year, the following were the top five areas of growth cited by participants: • • • • •
Understanding of sport Sense of belonging Opportunities for unique memories School pride Leadership ability
Literature supports these types of outcomes for recreational sports participation. A study done at Ohio State University in 2012 found that participation in sports at any level had a positive outcome towards a student’s self-efficacy and leadership development. Each year our club and intramural sports grow as our residential student population continues to grow. Students can register throughout the year for intramural sports at imleagues.com/rmu and club sports at dosportseasy.com/rmuclubsports. For questions about opportunities in recreational sports, please have your student contact recsports@rmu.edu.
THE RMU PARENTS BUCKET LIST… COMPILED BY CURRENT STUDENTS • Take a selfie with Bronze Bob • Walk the Massey Garden • Head to “The Joe” or “The Chuck” to attend an RMU Athletic event • Enjoy a Lock N’ Load Sandwich at RoMo’s Café in the Nicholson Center • Take a walk on our wonderful Nature Trail • Have your younger child(ren) attend Little Siblings Weekend with your student • Get an awesome milkshake at Yorktown Café • Enjoy a coffee and relax at the Gazebo • Go ice skating or hit a bucket of golf balls at the RMU Island Sports Center
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A MESSAGE TO PARENTS OF RESIDENT STUDENTS The transition of going to college can be challenging for students and the entire family. Sending a student to college can be both exciting and stressful. For a successful transition, your student will need your support. The Office of Residence Life would like to help parents and families make this transition easy with the following useful tips. If your student is having a roommate conflict or does not seem to be engaged in college, before you contact a Residence Life staff member, consider the following: • Students tend to call a loved one when they are having a stressful day, sometimes just to talk out their problems. You should consider asking them what positive things are going on in their college experience. • If their roommate conflict needs attention, suggest that they reach out to their Community Advisor (CA). CAs are here to help because they want students to have the best possible experience at RMU. • By putting the responsibility of the situation on your student to make a decision and take the initiative, students learn to make better decisions for themselves and develop problem-solving skills.
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• You can also help by encouraging your student to speak with their assigned Area Coordinator (AC) located in the Office of Residence Life. The ACs provide supervision to the Community Advisor staff. • Students can find more helpful roommate tips at: studentlife.rmu.edu/residencelife/roommate-information Keeping in contact with your student has become easier today with technology. In previous years, a phone call once a week or the occasional letter or care package from home was the only contact a student had with their families. New technology makes it easier to remain close, which may have a negative affect on a student’s development. Students who remain close to family and friends at home often do not fully engage in their college experience. Try some of the following tips: • Try not to be your students “crutch.” Talk with them regularly, but it may not need to be daily. Your conversations may be more meaningful when you catch-up with them once a week about everything that happened on campus during that week. • Send your student a care package so they know you are thinking of them at home. • Be efficient in allowing your student to grow independence. It will be very rewarding for both of you!
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COUNSELING CENTER ADVICE TO PARENTS At the RMU Counseling Center, we understand that when your student goes away to college, you will have many questions and concerns about how best to support him or her during what can be both a very exciting and stressful time of transition. We've gathered some tips and resources we hope will help you figure out how you can remain involved in your student's life, while also allowing them the increasing independence they need to manage the challenges that come with college and growing into capable adults. • Encourage your student to handle their academic affairs as independently as possible. It can be tempting to intervene and handle it yourself when your student has questions about, or difficulties with, admissions, their advisor, Residence Life, course registration, a grade, or a certain professor. When you resist swooping down into a situation to try to fix everything, it lets your student develop the problem-solving skills that will be critical to their success in college and beyond. You can, of course, be available for advice! • Familiarize yourself with campus resources, and when your student approaches you for help, before offering suggestions, ask what they've tried so far to handle the situation on their own. If they are struggling in a class, have they sought out tutoring? If they are having roommate issues, have they talked to their CA or other friends on campus for insight and feedback? If they aren't sure if
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their major is right for them, have they talked to their counselor in the Center for Student Success? This encourages your student to think creatively and critically when it comes to life's challenges and allows you to reinforce that there are supports available on campus to help them. • Show your student that you miss them, but you are doing okay. Students often worry about how their parents and families are doing without them, particularly if they are the last child to 'fly out of the nest.' It's important that you take good care of yourself as you and your student both adjust to their being away from home. • Reflect on the mistakes you made and challenges you faced as a young adult and what you learned from them. This will allow you to maintain a healthy and balanced perspective when your student inevitably makes, what seems like, a big mistake. Remember that during college, most students will make some mistakes. • If your student has any history of depression, anxiety, grief or loss, or any other mental health struggle, please encourage them to come to the Counseling Center. Our services include crisis/walk-in counseling, one-on-one therapy, psychiatric medication management, grief peer support and other psychoeducational groups, and outreach across campus.
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• Lastly, let your student know that we have Thrive Leaders, a team of student leaders who serve as ambassadors for the Counseling Center and are out-and-about at events across campus meeting students and explaining how the Counseling Center can offer them support. Make sure your student knows to visit them in their signature light-blue shirts at events across campus. Our Thrive Leaders are here to assist the Counseling Center in educating students on important issues including underage drinking and drug abuse, sexual violence prevention, suicide prevention, and feeling empowered to intervene and speak out when they see situations happening on campus that aren't okay. SOME RESOURCES We'd also like to make sure you know about our social media and internet outreach, to familiarize yourself with our website, and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
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TWITTER AND FACEBOOK We publicize Counseling Center events and share resources that might be useful for students and parents. twitter.com/rmu_counseling facebook.com/rmucounseling OUR WEBSITE RMU.EDU/COUNSELING We provide in-depth resources and education on mental health and wellness topics such as ADHD, eating disorders, depression and anxiety, suicide, and healthy relationships. PINTEREST We have lots of quick, fun, and helpful tips for your student. We really encourage you and your student to consider our Pinterest a onestop-shop for learning skills and getting ideas to help them when they are struggling. pinterest.com/rmucounseling INSTAGRAM Lastly, our Thrive Leaders maintain an Instagram where they post lots of pictures keeping your student up-to-date on what Thrive and the Counseling Center has going on on campus. Your student can follow them @RMU_THRIVE.
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NONPROFIT LEADERSHIP ASSOCIATION: AN EXCELLENT ADVENTURE! What do these three organizations have in common: a faith-based health center serving our neediest neighbors, a storefront selling recycled craft supplies, and a philanthropic foundation worth billions? No, this is not a trick question! These are but three of the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit organizations that Robert Morris University students visited during the Nonprofit Leadership course offered over spring break. While it might be hard to believe, 10 students from diverse majors and class years chose this four-day engaged learning experience over the traditional spring break vacation. They were not disappointed! Led by professional staff from RMU’s Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management and the Office of Student Civic Engagement, the students spent six to seven hours each day, Monday through Thursday, traveling around the city of Pittsburgh from the Northside to Downtown to the East End, scoping out the wide variety of missions, programs and leaders who make up Pittsburgh’s vast and diverse nonprofit sector. The four-day immersion experience included touring the art studios and job training programs at Manchester Bidwell Corporation, which now replicates its program model in cities across the country and around the world; visiting the cats and dogs at the
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Animal Rescue League (ARL) while learning about the need for such shelters and its plans to build a new state-of-the-art facility next year; and catching the vision for community redevelopment and sustainability at the Kingsley Association, which is at the forefront of building new housing and greenspace to replace urban blight and strengthen the inner city. Whether exploring the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum or taking a walking tour of public art, students were surprised to discover the many different types of nonprofits doing “really cool stuff” all across the city. They also were greatly inspired by the passionate and dedicated professionals, including RMU graduates, who led these organizations. As one student put it at the end of the four days, “I had no idea….” That was just the reaction we were going for when Robert Morris University created the Nonprofit Leadership Association Certificate Program, which this course is a part of. If your student is passionate about giving back to the community and would like to explore career opportunities in the nonprofit sector, please encourage him or her to be in touch with Donna Anderson, director, Student Civic Engagement at andersond@rmu.edu for more information.
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POSITIVE CAREER CONVERSATIONS YIELD POSITIVE RESULTS As a parent, the success of your student is an important goal. However, sometimes what you see as being helpful can be perceived as interfering or pushy. So, you must walk a fine line in helping your student attain their career goals. With that in mind, however, you can be an asset and positive support to your student’s career development in the following ways: • Listen to your student’s dreams, goals, challenges and plans in an open, non-critical way. Provide suggestions to help them clarify, realistically evaluate, and reach those goals.
Some upcoming fall programs offered by the RMU Career Center include the following: JUMP-START YOUR JOB SEARCH Wednesday, Nov. 4, 4–6:00 pm; Sewall Center VETERAN NETWORKING EVENT Wednesday, Nov. 11, 4–6:00 pm; Sewall Center PATHWAYS TO FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT Thursday, Nov. 12, 1–3:00 pm; Sewall Center CAREERS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES Monday, Nov. 16, 12–3:00 pm; Sewall Center
• Choose your words thoughtfully while engaging with your student. For example, instead of saying “Have you found a job/internship yet?,” you may ask “How is your job/internship search going?” While the former can be perceived as critical and puts pressure on the student, the latter is an open-ended, non-judgmental conversation starter. Also, your awareness that the typical length of a job search can vary by fields will help you have more empathy with your student as they pursue their career goals. • Encourage them to visit the Career Center from their freshmen year on to take advantage of resources, programs, and individual counseling.
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In addition to these programs, individual advising and resume reviews, job and internship postings through the online ColonialTRAK system, practice interviews (by career counselors and local employers), and a career resource library are available to students on an on-going basis. • Recognize that employers are not only looking for candidates who possess the necessary job-specific skills. Communication, interpersonal, leadership and other soft skills are also very important. Many times these skills are developed through part-time jobs, volunteer work and contributive involvement in a student organization. If your student is not currently pursuing these avenues, suggest the importance of becoming a well-rounded, results-oriented individual during college. • Emphasize the importance of internships and practical work-based experiences. Although an internship or other workrelated learning experience may not be required for your student to graduate, in today’s world however, it is almost always required for them to get a job in their field. In addition, completing multiple careerrelated experiences will not only build additional skills, it will help your student clarify their career goals.
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• Help your student to network. Making connections is an important part of the job search, and you can be an important first step in that process. Through your personal contacts, you may arrange an informational interview or job shadow experience for your student to help them learn more about their field as well as start to build their professional network. • Become involved with the Career Center. Posting jobs and internships, conducting practice interviews, serving on panel discussions, and networking with other students are just some of the opportunities available for you to help RMU students and show your student your commitment to the university. While you cannot force your student to take advantage of the opportunities available to them, your positive support and encouragement are critical to help them understand and develop their job search skills and professional presence while at RMU. Contributing Resource: Denham, Thomas J. (2013, September 12) A Parents’ Guide to Career Development. Courtesy of the National Association of Colleges and Employers
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LEADERSHIP FOR THE FUTURE Christopher B. Howard, D.Phil., has been
students.” Howard added, “Just as importantly,
named the eighth president of Robert Morris
members of the RMU community have
University. Howard, 46, is a distinguished
demonstrated a willingness to innovate in a
educator, dedicated public servant, and
manner rarely seen in the academic world,
decorated Air Force veteran who is currently
resulting in remarkable growth and success.
president of Hampden-Sydney College, a
I am both honored and humbled by the
private Virginia college for men and one of the
opportunity to serve as its eighth president.”
nation’s top liberal arts institutions. He will
Richard Harshman ‘78, vice chairman of
join Robert Morris on February 1.
the RMU Board of Trustees and chairman
“Dr. Howard is a high-energy, charismatic,
Howard rose to the top of a national list of
of its Presidential Search Committee, said and visionary leader who believes in the power
candidates because of his vision, energy,
of mentorship – a perfect fit for RMU,” said
and charisma, as well as his record of success
Gary Claus ‘74, chairman of the university’s
at Hampden-Sydney.
Board of Trustees. “The Search Committee was impressed “In the future, it is those higher education
with the way Dr. Howard was able to build
institutions truly committed to providing
on the traditions of his current institution and
the foundational tools of critical thinking,
to translate those traditions to contemporary
written and oral communication, and a deep
and more diverse generations of students,”
understanding of the world we live in, coupled
said Harshman, the chairman, president,
with the opportunity to delve deeply into the
and CEO of ATI. Howard has been president
professions, that are poised for success,” said
of Hampden-Sydney since 2009, during which
Howard. “RMU is an ‘all of the above’
time enrollment and retention have grown,
university bolstered by an exceptional faculty,
alumni giving has reached 33 percent, and the
able staff, engaged alumni, dedicated board,
grade-point average of the incoming freshman
supportive friends, and bright and motivated
class has risen. In 2011-12, Hampden-Sydney
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climbed 17 spots in the U.S. News and World
Howard was raised in Plano, Texas, where he
Report rankings, the largest jump among any
was a star running back in high school and
Top 100 liberal arts colleges. During Howard’s
captain of the state championship football team.
tenure as president, Hampden-Sydney
He is a Distinguished Graduate of the United
produced its first Truman and Goldwater
States Air Force Academy and received the
scholars in 20 years, as well as a Rhodes finalist
Campbell Trophy, the nation’s highest academic
and numerous Fulbright and Rotary scholars –
honor for a senior college football player. He
thanks in part to the Office of Fellowship and
earned an M.B.A. with Distinction from the
Advising the college created under his
Harvard Business School and a D.Phil. in
leadership. Hampden-Sydney received the
politics from Oxford University while on a
largest gift in its 240-year history under
Rhodes Scholarship.
Howard, and the college will soon break ground on a new student center.
Howard served as a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve, and earned a Bronze Star for
“Dr. Howard has experience both within and
military service in Afghanistan. He served as
outside of higher education, having worked in
U.S. Reserve Air Attaché to Liberia and as
the corporate world and having a distinguished
intelligence operations and places officer with
career in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve,”
the elite Joint Special Operations Command. In
said Claus. “He has experience with and
2011, President Barack Obama appointed
insights into different models of education,
Howard to the National Security Education
from Ivy Leagues to large publics, from small,
Program Board. Howard previously was vice
liberal arts institutions to military academies.
president for leadership and strategic initiatives
And, on the more personal side, his own
at the University of Oklahoma, and has worked
background reflects the character and values
for General Electric and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
we see in RMU’s students and alumni.”
He is the co-author of the book Money Makers: Inside the New World of Finance and Business and a member of the Board of Directors of the
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American Council on Education, the NCAA
Howard succeeds Gregory G. Dell’Omo, Ph.D.,
Division III Presidents Council, the Baylor
who left Robert Morris in June after 10 years to
University Board of Regents, and the
become the president of Rider University in his
prestigious Young Presidents’ Organization.
home state of New Jersey. Since Dell’Omo’s departure, RMU has been led by David
Howard co-founded the Impact Young Lives
Jamison, J.D., who is also the university’s
Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that
provost.
brings South African students of color to the U.S. for summer educational and cultural tours. His wife, Barbara Noble Howard, is the foundation’s executive director; she is originally from Johannesburg, South Africa. They have two sons, Cohen, a senior at the University of the South, and Joshua, a freshman at Middlebury College.
LITTLE SIBLINGS WEEKEND…..COMING IN WINTER 2016 Join the RMU Residence Hall Association and Office of Residence Life for Siblings Weekend 2016! This is a fun opportunity for residential students at RMU to bring their little siblings to campus for a weekend filled with events and
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activities for all ages! More information will be made available in January, including dates, a tentative schedule, and how to register siblings to join their student.
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STUDENT LIFE Robert Morris University 6001 University Boulevard Moon Township, PA 15108 RMU.EDU
FAMILY Connections UPCOMING EVENTS Visit rmu.edu for the university’s full calendar of events. NOVEMBER Native American Heritage Month 4 4-5 9 19 30
Pittsburgh Speakers Series presents Dr. Sanjay Gupta, 8 p.m., Heinz Hall RMU Band Recruitment Weekend Diwali Celebration, 8 p.m., PNC Colonial Café Diversity Speakers Series presents Native American Heritage Month Celebration, 4:30 – 7 p.m., Sewall 2016–17 Community Advisor Information Session, 7 p.m., Salem Meeting Room
DECEMBER 1 3 4-5 7-12 8
2016–17 Community Advisor Information Session, 7:30 p.m., Salem Meeting Room Cram Jam, 9 a.m.–9 p.m., Center for Student Success Winterfest (Various events scheduled) Final Exams Almost Midnight Breakfast, 10 p.m.–Midnight, PNC Colonial Café