WINTER QUARTER 2018
DEANS’ UPDATE
TABLE OF CONTENTS 02 | Message from Student Affairs Vice President Patricia Telles-Irvin 04 | Willard Hall Open House: A Celebration of the Past and Future 06 | NCA Winter Internship and Job Fair
STUDENT AFFAIRS
08 | Welcome Lucas Christain 10 | CAPS Expands Mental Health Resources and Programming 12 | Black House Renovation
Division of
STUDENTAFFAIRS Deans’ Update WINTER QUARTER 2018 Dear Colleagues, It’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through the school year. It has been another busy year, and I am proud of the work that the Division of Student Affairs has accomplished. On behalf of the entire Division, I would first like to extend a warm welcome to Lucas Christain, the new director of the Office of Student Conduct and assistant dean of students. Christain joined Northwestern in July and has already been impacting our community and its expectations of standards. Northwestern Career Advancement (NCA) has continued working hard to support our students’ professional goals. During its annual NCA Winter Internship and Job Fair in January, students connected with over 90 employers including 50 Northwestern alumni who returned to campus to recruit students. NCA also piloted the Fairs App in conjunction with the event to keep students apprised of job fair updates.
Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia Telles-Irvin
As well as supporting our students’ career development, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) has expanded its programming to support our students’ mental and emotional health. This year CAPS launched a meditation app, online mental health screening, drop-in counselling around campus, and more. To keep up with our ever-changing student body, the ten-year Housing Master Plan is underway to update campus and continue meeting our community’s needs. The most recent renovation is Willard Hall, which reopened in January. Its new Engagement Center, fitness room, and updated dining spaces are sure to create a more collaborative and connected student experience. The Black House is also set to undergo renovations which, with the help and hard work of the Black House Feasibility Study Steering Committee, is making great progress. I am confident that with their efforts, the renovated space will be a great resource and community center for Black students at Northwestern. As always, I appreciate the dedication you continuously put into strengthening our Northwestern community and am excited to see what Spring Quarter brings. 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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WILLARD HALL OPEN HOUSE: A CELEBRATION OF THE PAST AND FUTURE
and laundry facilities also provide an improved residential experience for students.
Northwestern President Morton Schapiro and other members of the Northwestern community joined together to celebrate the renovation and re-opening of Willard Hall on January 24. At the open house, speakers acknowledged the work of the architects, contractors, and staff responsible for carrying out the renovations, celebrated Willard’s 80-year history, and placed the re-opening in the context of Northwestern’s ten-year Housing Master Plan.
While Willard’s stately architecture and star-studded former residents (including Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers) provide a link to Northwestern’s past, its state-of-the-art new features will set a course for a more connected, collaborative future for campus residential life.
President Schapiro specifically praised the work of the architectural firm behind the project, Weese Langley Weese, for preserving the 1938 building’s historic character while updating its amenities to contemporary standards. Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia Telles-Irvin highlighted the communitybuilding potential of Willard’s new common areas, with classrooms and lounges providing the opportunity for the south campus community to learn, relax, and spend time together. Willard’s updated features include a full-service Fran’s Café, a late-night dining option that returns to Willard from its temporary location at 1835 Hinman. A fitness center, brand-new furniture, and remodeled bathrooms
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WINTER INTERNSHIP AND JOB FAIR HELPS STUDENTS PLAN FOR THE FUTURE
From non-profits to government agencies to multinational corporations, the 2018 Northwestern Career Advancement (NCA) Winter Internship and Job Fair connected students to a diverse group of potential employers. On January 23 and 24, over 90 employers met with students planning for their futures, including 50 Northwestern alumni who returned to campus to recruit students for their organizations. Some students were in search of summer internships, while others looked for a full-time job in anticipation of their upcoming graduations, but they all had options at the fair.
The new business-casual dress code, instituted for the first time this fall, helped make the fair accessible to all students. Before, the cost of buying formal attire had been a barrier that prevented some students from attending the fair. With the new dress code, these students didn’t need to pass up an opportunity to build professional connections due to a lack of current financial resources. Overall, there were approximately 1,450 student check-ins across the two days of the fair, an increase from last year’s Winter Internship and Job Fair that was partially attributable to this new dress code. Another exciting recent addition to the NCA Winter Internship and Job Fair was the new Fairs App.
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Downloading the app allowed students to see the profiles of employers in attendance and to find employers based on selected criteria. The app also helped organizers quickly update students during the fair. In addition, the implementation of the app allowed NCA to go paperless, helping create a greener Northwestern. Other special elements included a free professional photo booth where students could get headshots to use on their LinkedIn profiles, as well as approximately 50 employers who were interested in speaking with first-years and sophomores about current or future opportunities. These opportunities are valuable as they allow young students to start developing their professional skills early. Overall, the NCA Internship and Job fair allows both undergraduate and graduate students to make influential professional connections without leaving campus. Given the busy schedules of Northwestern students, the convenience and ease of on-campus job fairs is greatly appreciated in making the job search process less stressful.
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NEW ASSISTANT DEAN OF STUDENTS JOINS THE OFFICE OF STUDENT CONDUCT Christain spent the last nine years at Carnegie Mellon University working in Residential Life, Fraternity and Sorority Life, and the Office of Community Standards and Integrity, and he said his time there made him really appreciate working with the driven student population that he has also found at Northwestern.
The Office of Student Conduct (OSC) welcomes a new Director and Assistant Dean of Students Lucas Christain. Christain joined the team in late June and already has been making an impact. “When I joined [the OSC], it was the first time we’d been fully staffed,” Christain explained. “A lot of my role is helping actualize some of the visions of the folks that came before me by building the structure of the office and advancing some of the initiatives that we want to get off the ground.”
“I see that students are socially active here and that matters to them. I enjoy that kind of population; people that have a hunger for doing things and working hard,” Christain said. “Our office and work is about helping students find pathways to do that in ways that are safe and allow for them to have their voices heard, but also do those things within the construct of our standards and expectations.”
On a typical day, Christian spends his time doing everything from working directly with students to resolve conduct issues to coordinating with other departments to ensure that students are getting the most of their Northwestern experiences. No matter what he’s working on specifically, though, he’s always working toward his goal of creating a better understanding of and respect for community standards.
Christain spends his free time reading, exploring Chicago, and cheering on the Pittsburgh Penguins with his partner and two young sons. “My time is often spent thinking about the concept of being a father and having two young boys and spending as much time with them as I can,” he said. “There’s a lot of time spent there just the world of exploring being a father and us being a family.”
“Working with students to help them understand expectations and standards and why those things are relevant in the world is really important when you think about giving someone the power of an education and a credential like a Northwestern degree,” he said. “I look at my job as less about keeping people in line and more about creating a culture where people understand that expectations and standards matter an exceptional amount when you have power.”
Christain earned a B.A. in history and minor in sociology and an M.A. in student development in post-secondary education from the University of Iowa.
Of course Christain can’t reach this goal alone, which is why he said he appreciates the team mentality in the OSC and the partnerships the office has created with various other departments, including Fraternity and Sorority Life and Student Organizations & Activities. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the professionals I get to interact with across campus. There’s really incredible staff who are doing really great work and care deeply about the experience of the students,” Christain explained.
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CAPS EXPANDS MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES AND PROGRAMMING Big changes have come to Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) this year. In an effort to offer a more diverse range of resources and encourage students to utilize them, CAPS has implemented a new program, launched an app, and made its counselors more accessible than ever this school year.
The newest counselor at CAPS, Kanika Wadhwa, has been working with the Let’s Talk program as well as taking on appointments as the on-staff women’s advocacy and wellness specialist. Since joining the staff in the fall, Wadhwa said she has enjoyed working with the “compassionate and dedicated staff at CAPS.”
Breathe is the new meditation and relaxation app, available through the NUHelp app. “Northwestern students are busy and on-the-go,” CAPS psychologist Monika Gutkowska said. “We wanted to create brief mindful acts that speak to our students.” The app launched this fall, and CAPS is now working to add a subsection that is targeted toward specific stressors that graduate students face.
“CAPS administrative staff have been very supportive of my ideas and implementing a new perspective to ensure a successful transition of my position to the greater Northwestern community,” Wadhwa said. “This has resulted in more robust and close collaboration with campus partners like the Women’s Center and CARE, which is a crucial aspect of my role at CAPS.”
This fall, CAPS created an online mental health screening, an anonymous assessment that is accessible to anyone in the Northwestern community. The short survey only takes about 10 minutes and can help identify symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance abuse, and bipolar disorder. “It’s a good place to start if you’re not sure if you should seek professional help,” Gutkowska explained. “People always think, ‘Oh, everyone’s stressed out. My problems aren’t big enough.’ This screening can help encourage people to seek help if they need it and destigmatize counseling.”
In addition to building stronger relationships with other offices on campus, CAPS has been working to make their services more accessible to students. Once students determine if counseling is right for them, they can now book their phone consultation via the new online scheduling system. “Online scheduling encourages people to take the first step,” Gutkowska said. “It can be hard to pick up the phone, and we want to create the easiest access possible to our services.”
Gutkowska also pointed out that the screening could be a valuable resource for faculty or staff who are unsure if they should refer a student to CAPS. Another easy way for students to decide if they should seek help is through Let’s Talk. The new program stations CAPS counselors who are available for walk-in appointments across campus. Counselors are located in the International Office, the Women’s Center, University Library, the Black House, and the Multicultural Center.
Of course, even with all of these new programs and updates available, Gutkowska said that students who are in crisis situations are still always encouraged to talk to CAPS’ on-call counselor. The 12 session limit was lifted in Fall 2016, enabling students to continue seeking help through CAPS as needed.
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BLACK HOUSE RENOVATION In spring 2015, Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Patricia Telles-Irvin made it a priority to assess and improve Black undergraduate students’ experience at Northwestern University. She created the Black Student Experience Task Force, composed of faculty, students, alumni, and staff, to examine the issue. They determined 14 different themes and recommendations on which the University should focus its efforts to improve Black student satisfaction.
an icon for the Black community, but it needed a renovation. Therefore, reimagining its use for future generations while honoring its legacy became a concrete objective in the effort to enrich the Black student experience at Northwestern. In September 2016, Dr. Telles-Irvin formed the Black House Feasibility Study Steering Committee composed of faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, alumni, staff, and architects, and co-chaired by Executive Director of Campus Inclusion and Community Dr. Lesley-Ann Brown-Henderson and Associate Vice President and Chief of Staff for Student Affairs Dr. Julie Payne-Kirchmeier.
One of these recommendations advocated for the development of more spaces in which Black students felt comfortable and could find resources, programming, and community. The Black House, located at 1914 Sheridan Road, has always been
“This has been one of the best Steering Committees that I have worked with,” Dr. Payne-Kirchmeier said, “and this has been one of the most significant projects from a meaning standpoint for students and the community. It’s just been an honor to be part of this, and I’m so excited to see where the team takes it.” The next steps in the process included reviewing previous reports, architecturally assessing the facility, creating community engagement opportunities, and organizing a charrette, a meeting in which all stakeholders in a project brainstorm ideas, resolve conflicts, and map solutions. As a result of the charrette sessions, a nearly unanimous design concept surfaced among the stakeholders. In order to design a program that envisioned the right mix of space functions in the facility, the architectural firm working on the project, Moody-Nolan, presented the preliminary findings and the current concept. The Northwestern community provided valuable feedback on the projected plans and the spaces that should be prioritized.
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“We have an idea of themes by floor, and what we are asking people to do now is to write their preferences in terms of what’s most important,” Dr. Brown-Henderson said. ”Based on that, then we’ll start literally putting walls to the themes.”
Henderson hopes to reveal the schematic design on the 50th anniversary of the Bursar’s Office Takeover on May 3 at the Black House. For more information please visit the Black House Renovation Project.
Moody-Nolan’s Chicago and Washington, DC Director of Operations Renauld D. Mitchell said, “For us, coming into this work, it was clear from day one, that the campus environment and the greater campus community is firmly committed to this and spare no opportunities, spare no resources to get this right, and make sure that every voice is heard, that every perspective is accounted for, so that at the end of this, when the house is built everyone is satisfied with the result.” The renovation is currently in the schematic design stage, which entails translating the current concept into a design that embraces the student suggestions and the Steering Committee discussion. Brown-
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STUDENT AFFAIRS
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