STUDENT
AFFAIRS
QUARTERLY
SUMMER QUARTER 2014 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS Student Affairs Newsletter
We welcome your feedback, questions, and submissions. Chael Wright-Isak, Editor chael@northwestern.edu
Message from the Vice President.................................3 SA Staff Awards Ceremony........................................4
Jessica Toro, Graphic Designer
Student Affairs Learning Outcomes............................8 Spotlight on Northwestern University Veterans Association....................................................11
Jill Norton, Photographer
Night at Northwestern................................................12
Patricia Telles-Irvin, Publisher
Women Residential College New Scholar..................13 University Career Services Updates.............................14 Growth, Change, and Outreach Services for Students with Disabilities......................................16 Recognition.................................................................18 Did You Know?...........................................................19 New Staff....................................................................20
Volume 11. Summer 2014 2
MESSAGE THE FROM
VICE PRESIDENT
Summer is a wonderful time to reflect on our past accomplishments as a division, share our success, and celebrate our achievements. It is at this time of year, one filled with celebration and ceremony, that I often reflect on our guiding principle of “commitment to excellence”. With this divisional focus on exceeding the expectations of our students and each other, we are able to accomplish amazing things and live up to the promise we make to our students, that of being full partners in the student learning experience.
Within this summer edition of the Student Affairs Quarterly, you will find direct evidence of this guiding principle. Take a moment to review the award-winning achievements of your fellow Student Affairs colleagues as you read about their outstanding work in our review of the Student Affairs Awards celebration. These staff members have gone above and beyond in their work, their ideas, and their approach to create outstanding solutions. In addition, as you read about our Student Learning Outcomes and our poster session, reflect on the progress our division has made as we continue to pursue the realization of our mission. And finally, when you review the additional program, individual and departmental achievements, take a moment to thank your colleagues for their daily commitment to our work and our students.
Message from the Vice President
During his commencement address, Chicago Symphony Orchestra conductor, Riccardo Muti, described the power of music, saying “this mysterious and elusive art can make people better.” I believe our work in Student Affairs is much like music, and it impacts our students’ lives in tangible and significant ways. In these moments, remember the power of your work to help make our division, our university and our students lives better. Our work is powerful, important, and critical for so many. Thank you all for a truly excellent year, and I look forward to what we will accomplish together in the coming year! With gratitude,
Patricia Telles-Irvin
Message from the Vice President 3
SA Staff Awards Ceremony
SA STAFF AWARDS CEREMONY
The Student Affairs Awards ceremony took place on Friday, June 27 at Parks Hall in Alice Millar Chapel. The Student Affairs Excellence Awards showcase outstanding work by our colleagues over the past year, and are directly linked to our divisional core values of Integrity, Collaboration, Social Justice, Innovation and Commitment to Excellence. Congratulations to all who received the awards and to those who work so hard each day to move this division forward.
INNOVATION AWARD The Innovation Award is given to a Student Affairs’ staff member, department, or group for generating one or more creative, novel, and sustainable initiatives within the last year to enhance our work, challenge assumptions, foster organizational health, and promote student learning and success.
2013 – 2014 Recipients Dean on Call Application Anthony Kirchmeier (Off-Campus Life) Hao Luo (SAIT) (Not Pictured) Chris Walker (SAIT)
INNOVATION AWARD 2013-14
COLLABORATION EXCELLENCE AWARD
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The Collaborative Excellence Award recognizes a Student Affairs’ staff member, department, or group for successfully partnering with colleagues outside of the Division of Student Affairs to design and implement programs, activities, and/or services that enrich the Northwestern experience, further student learning, advance social justice, and/or optimize resources.
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ORATION COLLAB ARD NCE AW LE EL C EX
2013 – 2014 Recipients Debit Card Group or Initiative Judy McHugh (Norris) Theresa Delin (Residential Services) David Hartmann (Residential Services) and Frank Zambrano (Norris) (not pictured)
2013 -14
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INTEGRITY AWARD The Integrity Award is given to a Student Affairs staff member who has consistently demonstrated the highest ethical and professional standards in one or more instances in the past year. Top nominees will be easily recognized as stellar citizens of Student Affairs who consistently uphold our values and guiding principles.
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2013 – 2014 Recipient Tom Syzmanski (Norris)
SOCIAL JUSTICE AWARD The Social Justice Award recognizes a Student Affairs staff member, department, or group for engaging in activities outside the framework of their regular responsibilities to help create and foster a Northwestern community that is equitable and inclusive.
2013 – 2014 Recipients Step-Up Program Lesley-Ann Brown (Campus Inclusion and Community) Laura Stuart (Health Promotion and Wellness)
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE: COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE AWARDS
2013 – 2014 Recipients Roberta Baer (CAPS) Mary Goldenberg (Residential Services) Student Assistance and Support Services staff: Mona Dugo and Katrina Reynolds
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T TO EN TM
EXCELLEN CE
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The Distinguished Service – Commitment to Excellence Award recognizes Student Affairs staff members who have exhibited outstanding achievement in one or more of the following areas: 1) leadership in a national/international professional organization; 2) significant service to Northwestern; 3) development and research activities; 4) mentoring activities; and/ or 5) long-term service to the Division of Student Affairs. Distinguished Service – Commitment to Excellence Awards are presented to no more than five members of the Division each year.
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INTEGRITY AWARD
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STUDENT AFFAIRS LEARNING OUTCOMES
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Students who engage in Student Affairs programs, activities, and services will develop an integrated sense of personal identity, a positive sense of self, and a personal code of ethics.
INTERPERSONAL COMPETENCE Students who engage in Student Affairs programs, activities, and services will develop healthy, respectful, and collaborative relationships with others.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Students who engage in Student Affairs programs, activities, and services will demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to social justice and apply that knowledge to create safe, healthy, equitable, and thriving communities.
COGNITIVE AND PRACTICAL SKILLS Students who participate in Student Affairs programs, activities, and services will acquire and use cognitive and practical skills that will enable them to live healthy, productive, and purposeful lives.
On June 25, 2013, thirty-one members of the Division of Student Affairs presented the results of their department student learning assessment projects at a Poster Gallery Session held in 122 Parkes Hall. The posters illustrated 1) the learning outcomes for each program/activity, 2) the assessment strategy, 3) the teaching strategy, 4) the major findings (quantitative and qualitative), and 5) the next steps. These Student Affairs staff members are to be congratulated for the fine work they did this year.
At Northwestern University, we believe student learning happens throughout and across the college experience. These four broad, division-wide student learning domains and related student learning outcomes statements define/describe the co-curricular learning that takes place through the programs, activities and services offered by Student Affairs. These learning outcomes also consider and reflect the missions and strategic plans of the University and Student Affairs. These learning outcomes were developed over an 18-month period by members of the Division of Student Affairs who became known as the Student Learning Working Group 1. 6
SPOTLIGHT ON NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY VETERANS ASSOCIATION
Northwestern University has over 275 veterans, veteran dependents, and active service members or reservists among its student community. This is a unique population who possess valuable life skills while experiencing particular needs and challenges. For the past two years, the Veteran Services Committee (VSC) developed a regular dialogue and action plan to help our veteran population transition to life on campus. The VSC is a dedicated group of individuals representing various departments who designed solutions and established support for our veteran community. Among them are committed Student Affairs staff members; Lisa Teel from the Health Service, Lance Watson from the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution, Tiffany Mehling from Counseling and Psychological Services, Brett Boettcher from Career Services, Mona Dugo from the Dean of Students office, and Jacquelyn Lopez and Natalie Furlett from the Center for Student Involvement. Other departments SPOTLIGHT on Northwestern University Veterans Association
also represented include the Kellogg School of Management, Financial Aid, the Registrar’s Office, the School of Professional Studies and numerous academic departments. The VSC’s primary goal is to create a more welcoming and supportive environment for our veteran students, staff, and faculty. With the help of Mary Desler, the committee launched a survey in the winter of 2013 to better understand the needs of our student vets. Some of the achievements include the creation of the Northwestern University Veterans Association (NUVA) along with a website which helps students navigate University services to maximize their benefits. Another important initiative includes the signing of the Valuing Veterans Pledge, a commitment from President Schapiro to support the educational success of service members and veterans. For more information contact: veterans@northwestern.edu
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Night at Northwestern
NIGHT AT NORTHWESTERN Through a new partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago, Northwestern University undergraduate students now receive free admission to the museum, made possible by a very generous donation from Shirley Welsh Ryan (Weinberg ‘61). Mrs. Ryan is a member of the Art Institute’s board of trustees and her husband is Chicago businessman and fellow NU alum, Patrick Ryan (Kellogg ‘59). This partnership was recognized with two “Northwestern Nights” at the Art Institute of Chicago. The premiere took place on January 23, and a second event was held on April 24, welcoming all Northwestern students, staff, and faculty members, along with their guests. Over 3,500 Northwestern students, staff, and faculty have participated in this cultural exchange which was facilitated by the Center for Student Involvement. Special recognition goes to CSI graduate assistant (now full-time employee) Lindsey Pfleger for the launch of this initiative. Lindsey brought together academic departments, the Block Museum, and the Center for Civic Engagement, which allowed the Northwestern community to take full advantage of this experience. • • •
3,099 attended since September 1, 2013 238 for the January 23, 2014, Northwestern Night 158 for the April 24, 2014 , Northwestern Night
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Women Residential College New Scholar
WOMEN’S RESIDENTIAL COLLEGENEW SCHOLAR Professor Michelle Wright was recently appointed to be the faculty master of Women’s Residential College beginning this summer. Professor Wright comes to the position with a distinguished scholarly record and a history of commitment to undergraduate education. She is currently director of undergraduate Studies in African American Studies and teaches popular courses, including Introduction to African American Studies.
Pictured: Professor Michelle Wright (in green) conversing with students.
ter, Senior Lecturer Jeanne Herrick and excited to welcome Professor Wright into the cohort of residential college masters. To learn more about Women’s Residential College, you can view this recent video feature produced by University Relations: www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/ stories/2014/06/a-fresh-start-for-womens-residential-college.html
Professor Wright follows Jeanne Herrick (Writing Program), who steps down as master after leading WRC since 2008. The students and fellows of WRC have benefited tremendously from her devotion and advocacy in that time. The Office of Residential Academic Initiatives is grateful for the service of outgoing mas-
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UNIVERSITY CAREER SERVICES
University Career Services Updates
NEW UCS STAFF MEMBERS
UCS RELOCATES FOR SUMMER 2014
AND PROMOTIONS
University Career Services is open all season at its temporary summer home on the 4th floor of 2020 Ridge in Evanston and will return to its regular home at 620 Lincoln in September. UCS welcomes students seeking career advising are welcome to make an appointment to meet with their counselor or advisor at: www.northwestern.edu/careers/students/schedule-appointment.html.
UCS welcomed three new staff members to its office this spring: Katie Farrington comes to us from the University of Connecticut, where she recently received her master’s in higher education. As an internship specialist, she will focus on building stronger connections with alumni and creating more career development opportunities for students. Tory Key joins us from the Office of Corporate 10
Relations at McCormick to serve as our employer recruiting strategist; where she will work with our major corporate partners and continue to grow our Corporate Sponsorship Program.
and details of our major career fairs and key events as well as help develop brands for specific industries. UCS awards record numbers of grants to students participating in unpaid internships, This year, UCS worked to fund a record number of 70 students for its Summer Internship Grant Program (SIGP) after receiving 287 applications — more applications than ever before. Interested in learning more about SIGP? Please visit: www.northwestern.edu/sigp.
Dr. Mearah Quinn-Brauner joins the career advising team as an assistant director of student career advising and liaison to the Graduate School. Previously, she served as assistant director for graduate student preparation in the Office of Career Advancement at the University of Chicago and as an instructor in the Critical Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania. We are also thrilled to announce the promotion of our event coordinator Flannery Donahue as our new employer development strategist. Flannery will continue to oversee the strategy
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The Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD), part of the Dean of Students Office, serves over 700 undergraduate, graduate, professional school, and School of Professional Studies students between the Evanston and Chicago campuses. Northwestern, similar to most colleges and universities, does not have special admission criteria for students with disabilities; therefore, students with disabilities have met the same rigorous admissions standards that all Northwestern students have. The majority of students registered with the office (over 90%) have invisible disabilities such as learning disabilities, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, chronic health impairments, or psychological disabilities.
GROWTH, CHANGE, AND OUTREACHSERVICES FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
This office experienced some dramatic staffing changes and growth over the past academic year. In September 2013, Margie Roe retired after serving as director for more than 11 years. Around the same time, SSD was excited to welcome Cari Pinckney as its department assistant. In November (2013), Dr. Alison May was appointed as the new assistant dean of students/ director of SSD after serving six years as assistant director. Next, in January (2014), Clay Littrell was hired as the assistant director & assistive technology specialist for SSD (a new position). Finally, Lauren Blanchard Pourian will join SSD from Loyola University this August.
Growth, Change, and OutreachServices for Students with Disabilities
In July, SSD was relocated to an office at 2122 Sheridan Road that is being built to meet the needs of increasing numbers of students and staff. Anne Vanosdol and Cara Brosten successfully coordinated the redesign for this space. The new office will be more accessible and have lockers to secure students’ belongings while SSD proctors their exams (more than 1,500 exams were proctored in 2012-13). The office will contain two dedicated testing areas each including
Tim Montgomery, Candice Grant, Alison May,
Cari Pinckney, Clay Littrell (Lauren Pourian, who will join us August 11, is not pictured.)
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built-in height-adjustable tables and collapsible partitions between testing spaces. Moreover, all testing spaces (including two nearby conference rooms for overflow testing) will be equipped with enhanced surveillance capabilities, including cameras and one-way glass for staff to monitor students without distracting them. Huge thanks go to Julie Payne-Kirchmeier, Dan Weese, Robert Carlton, Todd Adams, and many others for their advocacy and efforts to create the perfect office space for SSD. SSD’s outreach has increased dramatically with Dr. May conducting more than 12 presentations on microaggressions regarding disabilities, universal design for learning, and complex accommodations to eight departments and groups on campus. Clay Littrell serves on the Web Developers Accessibility and Web Content Users Groups and gave a presentation at a Mobile MeetUp with Chris Walker and Hao Luo of Student Affairs IT in March of 2014. Clay has also worked closely this year with Bob Trautvetter, user support manager for the University Library to integrate accessible workspaces into the general computing labs.
Finally, be on the lookout for SSD to undergo a name change. The thought is that “services” is too transactional and “disabilities,” although politically correct, is often not preferred by students and considered inapplicable by members of the deaf community (who do not consider themselves disabled). A new name will be chosen very soon.
In April, Tim Montgomery and Candice Gant of the Chicago SSD Office organized and co hosted a national-level conference for disability service providers who work exclusively with health sciences/medical programs from around the country. In addition, Tim helped to set up three national-level listservs for disability service providers in which SSD actively participates: Health Sciences/Medical, Law School, and Big Ten Directors.
We are excited about the growth SSD experienced during the past year, and will continue to experience in the years to come. We look forward to hosting you at an open house this fall!
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Recognition
RECOGNITION Hao Luo – Leads Innovation team at Hackathon
Julie Payne-Kirchmeier – Pecha Kucha – A Unique Presentation Method
The Hackathon was part of Chicago Techweek, a conference and expo held June 23-28 at the Merchandise Mart. Hackathon coordinators gave teams 24 hours to design and prototype a product. Hao’s team of five came up with a mobile phone application, Road Raven. This app can detect when drivers hit potholes and can send information about the location back to a central server. For its efforts, the team will receive support for turning the concept and prototype into a real product, including development resources and the opportunity to connect with Silicon Valley investors and media. Congratulations, Hao!
In April, Julie Payne-Kirchmeier gave a presentation about feminism for ACPA in the Pecha Kucha style. This approach involves using 20 slides, each automatically advancing every 20 seconds. The result is a presentation lasting a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Julie’s first Pecha Kucha is at: www.myacpa.org/acpa14-pecha-kucha-julie-payne-kirchmeier-dive
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DID YOU KNOW? DID YOU KNOW?
• In 2010, Northwestern undergraduates and graduate/professional students—regardless of their school/college—reported the highest ratings for statements about social anxiety and academic distress. The same was true in 2013. • In 2013, distress around academic issues was more acute for Asian American and Hispanic/Latino than white undergraduates. Similarly, compared with white and international graduate/professional students, Asian American students enrolled in graduate/professional programs reported experiencing more academic distress. • In 2013 undergraduate students from low income family backgrounds were more likely to endorse statements related to family distress than were students who did not come from low income backgrounds. • In 2013, undergraduate and graduate/ professional students who identified as LGBTQ had higher mean scores on nearly all of the subscores than did students identifying as heterosexual.
Following are some of the highlights from the 2013 Consortium Mental Health Survey (CMHS) sent to a random sample of undergraduate and graduate/professional students at Northwestern.
• In 2013 a third of the Northwestern undergraduate students (30%) and almost 40% of the graduate/professional students reported that they had attended counseling prior to, or after attending the university, or both. Although not statistically significant, these percentages are on the rise compared with 2010. • Nearly one in five (18%) of the undergraduates and 13% of the graduate/professional students who completed the 2013 Consortium Mental Health Survey reported having seriously considered attempting suicide at least once. These percentages are up significantly compared with 2010, when 12% of the undergraduates and 7% of the graduate professional students reported having considered suicide. • Also on the rise are the percentages of undergraduate and graduate/professional students who report they have “considered causing serious physical injury to another person” (2010: 6% undergraduates and 3% graduate/professional students; 2013: 11% undergraduates and 7% graduate/professional students). • Nearly one in five undergraduate (17%) and graduate/professional women (17%) reported having had sexual contact without their consent one or more times. This compares with 19% of the undergraduate and graduate/professional women who reported having had an unwanted sexual contact(s) or experience(s) in 2010.
What are the implications of this survey data? As a community, we must be ever vigilant and sensitive to the signs of distress among our students to insure they are knowledgeable about the resources available and have the resources necessary to support them in their academic journeys. The trends are clear: mental health issues are on the rise at Northwestern and every other college campus in the United States.
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NEW STAFF
Erin Boyce, Residence Director, Residential Services
Katherine Farrington, Internship Specialist, University Career Services
Erich Geiger, District Manager. NU Dining
Jasmine Gregory, Administrative Assistant, Health Service
Lesslie Gutierrez, Patient Representative, Health Service
Clay Littrel, Assistant Director, Services for Students with Disabilities
Joe O’Geen, Residence Director, Residential Services
Deborah Schmidt-Rogers, Director of Residential Life Residential Services
Tory Key, Employer Relations Specialist, University Career Services
Brent Turner, Executive Director, Center for Student Involvement
Mearah Quinn-Brauner, Assistant Director, Career Services
Holly Schnoll, Accounting Specialist, Residential Services
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