Campus Life
STRATEGIC PLAN
CAMPUS LIFE
Table of Contents PAGE
03 04
SECTION 01
Welcome SECTION 02
Vision & Mission 07 08
SECTION 03
Student Affairs Values SECTION 04
History 10 12 16 18 19 19
SECTION 05
Timeline SECTION 06
Our Findings SECTION 07
Our Future SECTION 08
Leadership Framework SECTION 09
Works Consulted SECTION 10
Acknowledgements
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Welcome I serve as the executive director of Campus Life, an area within Student Affairs made up of extremely dedicated, talented, and passionate staff. We are uniquely positioned with one mission statement and three learning outcomes to represent our collaborative, collective impact approach to student engagement. We cultivate a campus culture that is inclusive, vibrant, and sustainable. We restructured in 2015, focusing on resource allocation, staffing, and assessing our programs and services. We examine ourselves and our work in an effort to explore how we could improve and further enrich the Northwestern community. We began this process with the intent to remain reflective, curious, bold, and unapologetic about our possibility. Our scope focuses on the synergy of the Campus Life experience to lift up our individual departments, programs, and activities. We examine the current state of Campus Life, seek clarity
CAMPUS LIFE STRATEGIC PLAN
embarked on this strategic planning journey to critically
about our desired future, and draw inspiration from literature and data to inform our next steps. As a result, we authored statements of how we plan to bridge the gaps between our current and desired reality. We revealed more questions than answers throughout this process. This document offers transparency and shares both our process and our outcomes with our stakeholders and constituents. This plan will not serve as an answer key; rather, guide us as we create goals, allocate resources, and challenge our structures and systems to pursue equity. We look forward to our upcoming program review with internal and external stakeholders to build upon this foundational strategic plan. I am grateful for the time, energy, and collaborations our team experienced with our campus and community partners throughout this process and I look forward to facilitating our implementation phase. We take pride in our work, our division, our university, and our profession. We will continue being critical of ourselves and our work, center students with marginalized and minoritized identities, and lead and serve with integrity. We invite you to join us in the future of Campus Life at Northwestern.
B RE N T T U RN E R Executive Director
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Vision & Mission VISION Aligning to the Student Affairs Vision, we will be full partners in the student learning experience. In Campus Life, we strive to use a racial equity lens to create pathways of engagement leading to learning, community, and support.
M I SS I O N The mission of the Northwestern University Division of Student Affairs is to educate students, engage the community, and enrich the Northwestern experience. To that end, Campus Life facilitates transformative experiences with students to explore their potential, engage in community, and contribute toward a more just and equitable world.
CA M P US L I F E L E A RN I N G O U TC O M ES Students who engage in programs, activities and services provided by Campus Life will [or will be able to]... •
Identify personal interests, values, strengths, and identities and use these attributes to positively shape their communities at Northwestern and beyond. (Personal Development, Interpersonal Competence, Social Responsibility, Cognitive and Practical Skills)
•
Hone leadership and relationship-building skills and apply them to strengthen their organizations and communities at Northwestern and beyond. (Interpersonal Competence)
•
Articulate how their co-curricular involvement integrates with their personal and professional goals. (Personal Development, Social Responsibility)
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Student Affairs Values I N T EG RI T Y
We exercise the highest ethical and professional
standards in our advancement of the student learning experience and in relationships with community and external partners.
We commit ourselves to creating a Northwestern community that facilitates full and equal access to learning in and outside the classroom. We assess our programs, services, and institutional climate to contribute to an equitable and inclusive Northwestern experience.
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SO C I A L J UST I C E
I N N OVAT I O N We look for creative and sustainable approaches to enhance our work, challenge assumptions, and promote strategies to advance student learning and success. We inspire and are inspired; we infuse energy and passion into the pursuit of our vision and mission.
C O L L A BO R AT I O N We practice open, authentic, and civil communication. We seek first to understand. We partner with one another, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members in a collegial manner that is consistently professional, respectful, and empathic.
ST E WA RDS H I P We strive to be thoughtful and responsible with our natural and institutional resources, facilities, and spaces.
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History In 2013-2014, a Student Organization Resource Center, or the SOURCE, opened on the third floor of Norris and serves as a gateway to Campus Life. The SOURCE is a multi-purpose space where all students collaborate, learn, and explore in an inclusive environment that cultivates community, advances leadership, and promotes wellness. It also serves as a space where students advance their own academic learning. An inaugural Executive Director of Student Involvement was hired in 2014 to supervise the Center for Student Involvement, (CSI) and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, (OFSL). Then in fall 2015, the area was reorganized and renamed “Campus Life.” Three units make up Campus Life: Fraternity & Sorority Life, Leadership Development & Community Engagement, and Student Organizations & Activities. In envisioning student involvement and leadership at Northwestern, Campus Life works collaboratively to support the multidimensional work of students and their organizations. Therefore, we are intentionally co-located in the SOURCE, and each of the three departments has an ampersand in the title to symbolize a student’s multiple affinities. All of the departmental programs and activities align to one mission statement and three learning outcomes to underscore our alignment in the same direction.
&
F R AT E RN I T Y SO RO RI T Y L I F E
FSL has been a part of Northwestern since
1859, playing an important role in the lives of thousands of students and alumni. Their educational programs, social activities, service projects, and leadership development opportunities contribute beyond the University community. Northwestern hosts chapters across four governing councils that range in mission from social to service to cultural; however, each chapter was founded on the principles of scholarship, service, leadership, and community. Over the last few years, the office has intentionally focused on supporting existing chapters through three thematic educational initiatives: harm reduction, leadership development, and social justice.
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&
L E A D E RS H I P D EV E LO P M E N T C O M M U N I T Y E N G AG E M E N T
In partnership with the division of Student Affairs, the office of Leadership Development & Community Engagement serves as a connector, convener, and collaborator to support students’ development pursues justice & equity through student leadership development and engagement in the community with their non-profit and K-12 partners. LDCE serves as the hub for the Northwestern Leadership Framework (see page 18), which was developed in 2016-17, and guides Student Affairs and other departments as they plan programs that engage students in developing their leadership capacity, understanding of themselves, and understanding their leadership in the context of our complex world. LDCE develops sustained partnerships on campus and in the community that advance student learning, transformation, and commitment for a just, equitable, and sustainable world.
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ST U D E N T O RG A N I Z AT I O N S ACT I V I T I ES
SOA seeks to engage students in involvement
opportunities that build a sense of belonging and community at Northwestern University. Students have the opportunity to participate in over 400
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and engagement on and off campus. The team
student organizations on campus or create one of their own. The team provides support, advising, and training for students and their organizations. Through educational and programming opportunities, SOA encourages students to work to find their passions, develop ideas, and think creatively about their student organizations. An Inclusive and Barrier Free Student Organization Engagement Initiative was launched in 2016-17 with the goal of creating a more inclusive and accessible student organization culture. Staff in SOA continue to work with registered student organizations to reduce or eliminate selection processes and financial barriers to membership, programming, and participation.
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Timeline In its third year of existence, Campus Life embarked on a strategic planning process to guide the future. Focusing on foundations and theories, existing assessment practices, and various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analyses, the process was led by three guiding questions: 1. Where is Campus Life now? 2. Where do we want Campus Life to be in the future? 3. How do we plan to get there? From September to December 2018, the Strategic Planning Committee focused inward to audit and examine current and desired operations and relationships. From January to March 2019, the focus moved to conversations with external partners and constituents to gather multiple perspectives. The results informed our vision for the future in four priority areas outlined on pages 16—17. This strategic plan will complement the Student Affairs strategic themes to guide our actions and decisions as a unit both internally and externally. During our implementation phase, we will use this document to seek alignment in mission clarity, resource allocation, and goal setting. Operationally, each department will be expected to use the commitments within each of the four areas to create, execute, and assess initiatives, programs, services, and spaces. Additionally, our program review will provide further recommendations to build on this foundational plan. We recognize this is an ongoing and continuous learning process where we must reevaluate often as well as solicit flexibility to meet the needs of our students and community.
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Our Findings
2 1 3 Our strategic plan developed in three main areas: Foundations & Theories, SWOT Analysis, and Assessment & Evaluation. Each of these is described below and provides a foundation to implement our strategic plan theme areas.
SWOT A N A LYS I S
We conducted a SWOT analysis with the Campus Life staff members. The intention of the exercise is to identify themes in each of the four domains. Strengths and weaknesses focus on internal characteristics over which we may have control, and opportunities and threats focus on external factors that affect our work
FO U N DAT I O N S & T H EO RI ES
and where we may not have control.
We began our process by auditing the many foundations and theories in the literature that inform our practice as individual departments and at our intersections within Campus Life. An ever-evolving list, we primarily use
ASS ESS M E N T & EVA LUAT I O N
theories in experiential learning, student involvement,
Our programs, services, and spaces are designed
cultural humility, leadership education, transition, social
with intention to contribute to student learning,
change, critical race, identity development, emotional
build community, and foster support. We audited our
intelligence, moral development, and engaged pedagogy.
evaluation methods and assessments across the division
We center the experiences of our students first, and use
to capture data relevant to Campus Life. We know that
the ACPA Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and
many national and institutional assessments measure
Decolonization as a foundation for praxis.
the impact of our area and can inform our practice by describing where our work fits into larger trends. On the
Additionally, as student affairs professionals, we aspire
local level, we are capturing attendance participation
to the competencies outlined by ACPA and NASPA in
data at many of our Campus Life sponsored and
the areas of Advising and Supporting; Assessment,
supported events to input into the Student Engagement
Evaluation, and Research; Law, Policy, and Governance;
Integration Database. We aggregate data by specific
Leadership; Organizational and Human Resources;
variables to inform marketing, perceived barriers, and
Personal and Ethical Foundations; Social Justice
needs assessments of specific Northwestern populations
and Inclusion; Student Learning and Development;
to enrich their individual and collective experience.
Technology; and Values, Philosophy, and History. These
Comprehensive datasets inform future decisions in the
rubrics help us navigate growth and change in the
intentional design of our work.
profession as we seek to best serve our students.
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FO U N DAT I O N S & T H EO RI ES L I T E R AT U RE See our works consulted on page 19. A few of our favorite texts:
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STRENGTHS Relationships, Unique skills and competencies, Staff passion
WEAKNESSES Lack of intentionality of using theory to guide practice and assessment, Perceived silos, Communication and marketing
S
w
THREATS Competition, Perceived scarcity of resources, Achievement culture, Task over talent
O T OPPORTUNITIES Collaboration, Innovation & technology, Influence positive culture change
SWOT Q U EST I O N S We visited with our external partners and constituents to ask the following questions: •
What do you think of when you think of Campus Life?
•
What programs does Campus Life support, advise, or is known for?
•
How aligned are we to our mission and student learning outcomes?
•
What do you think Campus Life could stop, start, or continue?
•
How could we improve our partnerships with your area to advance both of our missions?
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ASS ESS M E N T & EVA LUAT I O N AT A G L A N C E
71%
Attendance at many Campus Life programs is tracked in the student engagement integration database for analysis. Here are a few points of interest to date: Of the events scanned during 2017-18, we saw 8% higher
44%
In the student engagement database pilot year, Campus Life programs contributed to over 71% of the attendance across Student Affairs programs and events.
representation of students who have high financial need compared to the total undergraduate population sample. In 2017-18, Campus Life had 7% higher representation of students of color than the respective total across the undergraduate population. Similarly, in 2018-19 there was 7% lower representation of white students compared to the total population sample.
undergraduate population by school, with 3% higher representation from the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences. Since 2014, Campus Life staff have conducted 19 assessment projects through the Student Affairs Student Learning Working Group program. Results from these unique projects have informed positive change in
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In 2018-19, attendance was representative of the total Of the 50 events tracked in 2017-18, Campus Life saw 44% of the undergraduate population in attendance.
the delivery, curriculum, or outcomes of our initiatives. Some of the ways we continue to capture data: •
Canvas Course Training Analytics
•
Community Engagement Coalition
•
COFHE Enrolled Student Survey
•
Fraternity & Sorority Life Standards of Excellence Program
•
Fraternity & Sorority Experience Survey
•
Leadership Collective Impact Group
•
Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership
•
National College Health Assessment
•
SOURCE usage data
•
Student Engagement Integration
•
Recent Alumni Survey
•
Registered Student Organization Advisor Surveys
•
Registered Student Organization Contract Database
•
Relationship Mapping
•
Student Activities Assistance Fund
•
Student Organization Conduct
•
Wildcat Connection Analytics
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Our Future
SO C I A L J UST I C E : AC C ESS I B I L I T Y & EQ U I T Y
Campus Life is committed to contributing to the eight
Campus Life is committed to pursuing social justice
dimensions of wellness by educating and empowering
by illuminating and supporting students’ identities,
students to make healthy decisions that enhance
operating from an intersectional framework, and
individual and community well-being. We believe in
grounding our practices and policies in this value.
community care and compassion, and will center support,
Campus Life seeks to advance social justice by
inclusion, and wellness in our programs and spaces.
acknowledging systems of power, privilege, and
•
W E L L N ESS
We will work with students to re-imagine cultural
oppression and actively work to dismantle these systems
norms of success that rely on titles, competition,
with and on behalf of students.
and over-commitment that will allow all forms of
•
We will lead the effort to ensure that student involvement at Northwestern will be free
leadership to be valued. •
strategies and skills to foster a holistic, safe, and
all backgrounds, and ensure students with
beloved community without hazing, unsafe alcohol or
marginalized and minoritized identities see themselves and their culture represented in the •
other drug abuse, or sexual misconduct. •
to grow a culture of reflection and the integration of
We will build meaningful relationships with
experiential Campus Life programs into students’
leadership development, and dismantling campus
learning and development. •
We will move from transactional operations to
cultural norms around involvement.
transformative relationships with students as an
We will use racial equity impact assessments to
effort to influence positive change.
guide our decisions and strategy. •
We will support students as mentors and advisors
program offerings of Campus Life. students and create opportunities for mentorship,
•
We will educate students on harm reduction
from barriers of engagement for students of
We will interrogate how our programming upholds power, privilege, and whiteness, and reallocate resources to pursue racial equity in our work through an intersectional lens.
•
We will practice wellness and healthy communitybuilding as a Campus Life staff.
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PA RT N E RS H I PS & C O L L A BO R AT I O N
Campus life is committed to being a resource to all
Campus Life is committed to developing and maintaining
constituents, and using a student-centered lens to ensure
meaningful relationships and partnerships both on and
that our programs are equitable, visible, and responsive.
off campus to enhance student learning, community, and
We believe that our programs and services educate
support. We will lead efforts and partnerships on proven
students, engage them in co-curricular experiences, and
practices around innovation, access, and sustainability in
enrich the Northwestern experience.
campus programming.
•
•
We will focus our work in the intersections of the
actively reflect on how their social identities
model the student leadership framework.
impact their involvement, and support student
We will center students as we improve upon,
organizations in living their social justice values
develop, and decolonize tools such as calendars,
through the use of the leadership framework. •
We will collaborate with student affairs and
planning processes.
academic partners to support students in exploring
We will create a culture of evidence by assessing
their interests and making meaning of their
our programs, services, and spaces using the
experiences.
Student Engagement Integration model of learning, •
We will create a culture where our students
three departments, using a collaborative approach to
program offerings, physical spaces, and event •
•
•
We will co-create programs with campus and
community, and support.
community partners to support the experiences of
We will ensure that assessment, planning, and
our students with marginalized and minoritized
communication intentionally centers the voices
identities.
and experiences of students with marginalized
•
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C O M M U N I CAT I O N & ASS ESS M E N T
We will foster collaborations and capacity-building of advisors to student organizations and fraternity/
and minoritized identities to ensure programs and
sorority chapters to be co-educators of our students.
services are equitable. •
We will develop long-term, reciprocal partnerships. We believe the challenges facing our university, community, state, nation, and world are complex, and require us to center community
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wisdom in our collective pursuit of justice.
LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
FRAMEWORK
There is no beginning or end point of leadership
This framework can be used on an individual or group
development, but rather it is a lifelong iterative process.
and organizational level. Each of the 5 core concepts has
The intersections and layering of the circles give us an
additional sub-competencies to help further define the
opportunity to explore how leadership concepts are
broader concept.
inextricably linked and what leadership development may look like in multiple contexts.
The two outer circles guide our understanding of leadership.
E
CS
IC ST JU S • I C E & ET H I C
E
S
STANDING SE NDER L F • U • U LF N D SE ER S TA
ET
C TI
E
&
TH I
• J U ST
&
STANDING SE NDER LF U • U F • L ND SE ER G ST N I D A N
leadership.
S
JU • • J U ST I C E ET H I C S &
HI C
• J U ST
BUILDING & MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS
STRATEGY & REASONING
S I C E & ET H I C
GROWTH EFFICACY AUTHENTICITY
The very center of the diagram represents our aspirations for
student leaders: a strong sense of authenticity and one’s own unique contributions to leadership, a
EXECUTING CHANGE
CS
of leadership as a positive change
recognition of the need for continual growth and development as a leader,
HI
represent the interconnectedness
and increased agency and
ET
process. Each one of these
confidence to engage in leadership
concepts represents cognitive and
challenges.
&
E
&
practical skills that are essential to
ET
HI
CS
U • J • JU S ST I C E & E T H I C
I ST
C
E
NG DI N
C TI US • J
The three interlocking circles
the practice of leadership.
NG DI N
STANDING SE NDER LF U • • U An awareness of who we are (values, F L NDstyle, and experiences) and our E S ER about justice and ethics have beliefs G N ST influence on how we I a direct D A N perceive, experience, and engage in
STANDING SE NDER L F • U • U LF N D SE ER S TA 18
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Avolio, B. J., & Hannah, S. T. (2008). Developmental Readiness: Accelerating Leader Development. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 60(4), 331-347. Break Away. (n.d.). Active citizen continuum. Retrieved from http:// alternativebreaks.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Active-CitizenContinuum-2014.pdf
Kelley, R. E. (1992). The power of followership: How to create leaders people want to follow, and followers who lead themselves. New York, NY: Doubleday/Currency. Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Komives, S. R. (2009). Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of leadership development. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Komives, S. R., Longerbeam, S. D., Owen, J. E., Mainella, F. C., & Osteen, L. (2004). A Leadership Identity Development Model: Applications from a Grounded Theory. Journal of College Student Development, 47(4), 401-418. Komives, S. R., Lucas, N., & McMahon, T. R. (2013). Relational leadership model. Exploring leadership for college students who want to make a difference. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education? Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(1), 7-24.
Burns, J. M. G. (1978). Leadership. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
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Chickering, A. W. & Reisser, L. (1969). Education and Identity. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Murphy, S. E., & Reichard, R. J. (Eds.). (2011). Early development and leadership. New York, NY: Routledge.
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Schlossberg, N.K. (1981). A model for analyzing human adaptation to transition. The Counseling Psychologist, 9(2), 2-18.
Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (2019). CAS professional standards for higher education (10th Ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Crenshaw, K. W. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersections of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 139-168. Dugan, J. P. (2017). Leadership theory: Cultivating critical perspectives. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Ellis, S. E. (2010). Strategic Planning in Student Affairs. New Directions for Student Services, 2010(132), 5-16. doi:10.1002/ss.v2010.132
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Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W.L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16, 315-338.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.
Schlossberg, N. K. (1989). Marginality and mattering: Key issues in building community. In D. C. Roberts (Ed.), Designing campus activities to foster a sense of community (pp. 5-15). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Seemiller, C. (2013). The student leadership competencies guidebook. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Shankman, M. L., Allen, S. J., & Haber-Curran, P. (2015). Emotionally intelligent leadership: A guide for students. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. A. C. (1977), Stages of small group development revisited. Group and Organization Studies, 2(4), 419-427.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum. Gay, R. (2014). Bad feminist: Essays. Heifetz, R. A., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press. Higher Education Research Institute. (1996). A social change model of leadership development: Guidebook version III. College Park, MD: National Clearinghouse for Leadership Programs. Hinton, K. (2012). A practical guide to strategic planning in higher education. Society for College and University Planning.
Acknowledgements The Campus Life team would like to recognize the members of our strategic planning committee: Kelly Benkert, Marcus Cole, Kaitlynn Durham, Jake Fields, Kourtney Gray, Travis Martin, Resti Miranda, and Brent Turner. We are grateful for the time, critical perspective, and knowledge from all of our constituents and partners. A special thank you to the staff in Student Affairs Assessment & Planning, Student Engagement, and Student Affairs Marketing.
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