FALL QUARTER 2016
DEANS’ UPDATE
TABLE OF CONTENTS 02 | Message from Student Affairs Vice President Patricia Telles-Irvin
06 | New University Commons
04 | CAPS Removing the 12 Session Limit
10 | Black Student Experience Report Released
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Division of
STUDENTAFFAIRS Deans’ Update FALL QUARTER 2016 Dear Colleagues, As we move into the fall quarter, it is my pleasure to again update you on three important initiatives for the Division. These initiatives continue to help us support our mission of educating our students, engaging our community, and enriching the Northwestern experience. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) has expanded access to students, lifting the 12 session limit in student treatment plans. The task force review clarified CAPS role as a short-term counseling service that provides personalized care plans for students requesting CAPS services, in addition to recommending this policy change. Our hope is that our students will benefit greatly from this change.
Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia Telles-Irvin
While recognizing this progress, we continue to develop next steps in building a more inclusive community. The Black Student Experience Task Force identified 14 themes and 14 recommendations in a year of robust study, backed by data and strengthened by student voices, in the journey toward better meeting Black student needs. Finally, the recent unveiling of the trustee-approved University Commons design has clarified our vision for the future epicenter of University life. In this update, we preview more of the plan for this modern, open building set to replace Norris University Center through a larger space built to connect. As campus energy has shifted from Wildcat Welcome’s energetic tempo to the familiar rhythm of the fall quarter, I wish you all a productive and enjoyable start to this academic year. Please know that we sincerely appreciate your dedication to our students and our University. Warm regards,
Patricia Telles-Irvin
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Vision WE WILL BE FULL PARTNERS IN THE STUDENT LEARNING EXPERIENCE. The Division of Student Affairs partners with the academic schools/colleges and other University Divisions in allegiance with the University’s vision and mission to advance student learning and success.
Mission THE MISSION OF THE NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS IS TO EDUCATE STUDENTS, ENGAGE THE COMMUNITY, AND ENRICH THE NORTHWESTERN EXPERIENCE. We pursue our mission through providing learning programs, services, and mentoring to maximize students’ potential, removing barriers to learning, strengthening readiness to learn, and sustaining a safe and healthy Northwestern community.
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CAPS REMOVING THE 12 SESSION LIMIT After an extensive and robust review, Northwestern’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) has lifted its longstanding 12 session limit when determining student treatment plans. The task force, led by David Shor, Director of Clinical Services, and composed of CAPS leadership, the Dean of Students, and student leaders, made this important recommendation. This change will continue to provide therapeutic services that are meaningful and accessible for students. CAPS remains a short-term counseling service, like similar services at our peer institutions. However, the open-endedness of the new policy is designed to encourage students to use sessions when needed, without worry of a session limit. Providing students with personalized care plans as recommended by the task force, will work to connect students with different counseling and psychiatric resources on and off campus to best meet the student’s individual needs. You can read more about CAPS personalized care plans here: www.northwestern.edu/counseling/clinical-services/clinicalservices-overview/personalized-care-plan-mtgs/index.html
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NEW UNIVERSITY COMMONS ANNOUNCED Northwestern University has unveiled its model showcasing the major construction plan to replace Norris University Center with a new, modern facility called University Commons that will serve the wider community. Plans call for the new building to be approximately 209,000 gross square feet, which will be 41,000 square feet larger than Norris Center and a 21 percent increase in usable space, to further enhance student engagement and community. Trustees recently voted unanimously to proceed to the next phase of design development of the project, located on the current site of the Norris University Center on the Evanston campus. Meanwhile, there is an effort underway to raise funds for the building project.
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“The University Commons will be the beacon on the lake that will bring campus members together in a place that promotes community, engagement, and inclusion,” said Patricia Telles-Irvin, vice president for Student Affairs, when she unveiled the model of University Commons in August. The new University Commons will provide expanded spaces, services and programs for members of the Northwestern community. The project includes the following elements: •
Dynamic, open structure that is more accessible from multiple sides on two levels.
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Significantly larger multipurpose room, an auditorium with a bigger stage for performances, a black box theatre, and areas throughout the building for impromptu performances and gatherings.
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Indoor and outdoor space for performances, recreation, student organization collaboration, meetings with faculty, presentations on research, visiting with friends, quiet study, and relaxation.
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“I am so grateful to all who have participated in this process,” observed Julie Payne-Kirchmeier, associate vice president for Student Affairs. “It began with our students expressing their need for a more inviting, inclusive, and engaging space, and it has evolved with significant stakeholder feedback into a powerful, Northwestern-focused design.” The timeline for construction, usage of temporary space, and the opening of the University Commons is still being finalized and will be shared once it is complete. A model of the design is on display on the ground floor of the Norris University Center.
BLACK STUDENT EXPERIENCE REPORT RELEASED Through the growth and expansion of our work and a number of initiatives, including the work of the department of Campus Inclusion and Community, as well existing and new assessments, we learned that satisfaction among African American/Black undergraduate students needed to be addressed. As a next step to improving student satisfaction, in spring 2015, vice president for Student Affairs Patricia Telles-Irvin made it a priority to explore and address the satisfaction of today’s African American/Black undergraduate students at Northwestern University.
protests for more inclusive campuses. The need to conduct systematic research and comparison with past reports, demands, and University responses was clear. Student Affairs made thoroughly reviewing and improving the Black Student experience a priority. Research questions asked the task force to examine not only recent data, but also situate this analysis within the context of the historic experiences of Northwestern’s Black students. Fourteen themes and recommendations emerged from the survey data and focus groups. Student quotations supplement the full report, in recognition of the vast range of Black students’ narratives and experiences.
NUHS: KEEPING NORTHWESTERN HEALTHY
Based on assessment information and conversations with our students, faculty, and staff, a better understanding about the experiences of our Black undergraduate students needed to be assessed. Therefore, a task force was created composed of faculty, students and staff to examine the issue.
Fundamental changes to community experiences require full participation. To better understand students’ expressed needs via data and student quotes, review the full report and its recommendations here:
www.northwestern.edu/inclusion/reports-reviews/ black-student-experience-report/task-forcemembership/index.html
www.northwestern.edu/inclusion/reports-reviews/ black-student-experience-report/background/assets/ black-student-experience-task-force-report-2016.pdf
Last fall, “The Concerned Students of Northwestern University” submitted a list of demands, as Black students nationwide shared their experiences in
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The following points summarize the report’s themes to direct progress, also synthesized in fourteen recommendations: 1. There is much diversity within the African American/Black student community at Northwestern. This diversity makes it difficult— if not impossible—to describe a single, all encompassing, Black student experience. Intersecting identities must be considered.
within their residential units and in various student groups. 9. Space is important to African American/Black undergraduates. This includes the Black House and spaces where African American/Black students feel comfortable socializing.
2. “Being the only one” in multiple campus settings day in and day out is isolating, lonely, and exhausting for African American/Black undergraduates. Many wonder if they belong at Northwestern.
10. African American/Black students do not feel a part of—sometimes even shunned by—the predominantly White fraternity and sorority community at Northwestern. 11. The Black community at Northwestern is welcoming for many African American/Black students but, at the same time, it can also be unwelcoming for others.
3. Current undergraduate African American/ Black student satisfaction with their overall Northwestern experience lags behind that of every other racial/ethnic group. Moreover, it is on the decline. There are a myriad of contributing factors.
12. Doubts about their own preparation for the academic rigor of college—sometimes just nagging self-doubt and sometimes reality —coupled with a lack of knowledge of where to go for help, breed frustration. This is particularly acute for African American/Black undergraduates in STEM fields.
4. African American/Black student satisfaction is likely influenced by what is occurring elsewhere in the country as well as local campus bias incidents. 5. Perceptions of the racial/ethnic campus climate at Northwestern vary among African American/Black students.
13. African American/Black students report many faculty are not trained or comfortable dealing with classroom micro or macroaggressions and/ or controversial topics. African American/ Black students further report that cultural competency is lacking for many staff with whom they interact across the University.
6. Witnessing or experiencing harassment or discriminatory behavior is part of the everyday experience for many Northwestern African American/Black students. 7. Not all African American/Black students experience Wildcat Welcome as welcoming.
14. African American/Black students put forth numerous ideas to improve the Black student experience at Northwestern. Leading the list was increasing the number of undergraduate African American/ Black students.
8. Summer and pre-orientation programs are powerful mechanisms to build community and sources of support. After Wildcat Welcome, African American/ Black students described finding community
www.northwestern.edu/inclusion/reports-reviews/black-student-experience-report/recommendations/index.html
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STUDENT AFFAIRS
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