The University of Alabama Division of Student Affairs 2012-2013 Annual Report
Contents Message from the Vice President By the Numbers Fostering Global Citizenship and Cultural Understanding Creating a Culture of Evidence Promoting Civic Engagement Developing Ethical Leaders Student Affairs Departments
3 4-5 6-7 8-9 10-11 12-13 14-23
Mission Statement
The Division of Student Affairs maximizes each UA student’s learning experience.
Vision Statement
To be regarded as a premier division of student affairs; known for our commitment to learning; recognized as collaborative, assessment driven, student-centered educators; responsible for shaping the next generation of engaged citizens.
Message from the Vice President
Student Affairs at The University of Alabama continued to make outstanding progress and experience great success in 2012-2013. This year, our focus remained on building programs and revising learning outcomes centered on global citizenship and cultural understanding, civic engagement, and ethical leadership. In addition, our staff members made it a priority to build assessment tools and gather data that emphasize a culture of evidence so we can make datadriven decisions and improve our services for students.
Our vision to shape the next generation of engaged citizens is possible because of our faculty, staff, alumni and donors who are dedicated to the student experience. The quality of these individual interactions with our students is an important factor in delivering intentional student learning experiences. As we enter another year, I am enthusiastic about our ability to adapt, innovate, and continue in our mission to maximize each student’s learning experience.
Thank you for your support and contributions as we In this Annual Report publication, you will find look toward an exciting future! updates on our progress related to each of these strategic priorities. In addition, you will see outstanding accomplishments made by our 20 departments within the Division of Student Affairs. The success of our Mark D. Nelson, Ph.D. departments and the individuals who make up Student Vice President for Student Affairs and Vice Provost 2 Affairs continue to foster a climate of excellence at The University of Alabama. 3
By the Numbers
$786,015.96 7,538
Overall fraternity and sorority membership hit an all-time high of 7,538 members in fall 2012. 4,390 participants attended career fairs in 2012-2013, a 15 percent increase. More than 450 employers attended as part of their recruiting efforts, an 11 percent increase.
15,332 1,636 4
The Division of Student Affairs received $786,015.96 in gifts and pledges this fiscal year.
4,390
A total of 388 Career Center programs were completed in 2012-2013 with 15,332 students attending.
The Office of Veteran and Military Affairs saw 1,636 visitors from February to May 2013.
1,312 The Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) allocates $200,000 annually to student organizations for various needs. 106 of the 500+ organizations were allocated funding.
The Division of Student Affairs employed 1,312 student workers during the 2012-2013 year.
$200,000
532
Graduate Student Services hosted 532 graduate students and guests at New Graduate Student Orientation. Women’s Resource Center staff conducted outreach to 9,059 students, faculty and staff related to the topic of gender justice.
9,059 25,469
More than 25,000 parents are currently registered for PENPALS (parent email notification), up from 21,873 in 2011-2012.
1,419 students committed to make UA a friendlier campus by signing the Hey Y’all campaign pledge card.
1,419
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Fostering Global Citizenship & Cultural Understanding Preparing students to be citizens of the world n Twenty-eight events sponsored by the Blackburn
Institute related to building social, cultural and global competence, and 128 students attended travel experience programs that allowed students to be exposed to rural areas, metro areas, and mid-size cities across the state.
n More than 83 percent of Freshman Forum
participants said that participating in the program helped them learn about people with different backgrounds and perspectives than their own.
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n In Housing and Residential Communities, 82.1
percent of students responding to the mid-year housing survey indicated they had interacted with someone of a different race.
n More than 250 people joined the campus-wide
network of UA Safe Zone Allies, a network that today includes 925 faculty, staff and students serving as a safe place for students and colleagues to seek LGBTQ campus resource information.
Enhancing Global Competence Through Career Education During the 2012-2013 academic year, the Career Center participated in 15 collaborative initiatives with different entities across campus. Partnerships included: n Collaborating with the Office of
Disability Services to have the Workforce Recruitment Program visit campus, which provides employment assistance to people with disabilities with all federal agencies.
n Working closely with Capstone Alliance
n UA Away scholarships were awarded to 17 students
during the 2012-2013 academic year, allowing them to work, serve or study away from Tuscaloosa.
n Almost 95 percent of Al’s Pals participants indicated
that taking part in the program made it easier for them to see things from other people’s perspectives.
n One hundred percent of Counseling Center outreach
participants said the program helped them learn about being a good world citizen. Participants took part in a variety of programs during the year, including stress management sessions and Stress Free Daze events.
n UA accepted 21 students for the 2013-2014 academic
year as part of the National Student Exchange program. Eight UA students were placed at other universities for the 2013-2014 academic year through the program.
and LGBTQ in sponsored events such as the Race and Gender Forum. The Career Center also held a résumé and professional development workshop at the annual LGBTQ Southeastern Conference for students.
n Continuing the Start Smart Pay
Negotiation Workshop, an on-going collaborative program between the Career Center and Women’s Resource Center in order to teach women about the gender wage gap and inform students from marginalized groups on salary negotiation. During this workshop, the women are provided valuable information on how to negotiate their hiring salaries in an interactive workshop. 7
Promoting Civic Engagement Encouraging community involvement and service
n Ninety-four percent of students volunteering with Al’s Pals in spring 2013 said that
participating in the program made them realize their own role in providing solutions to various issues and challenges impacting their community.
n More than 96 percent of students who participated in Believe UA said that their involvement in
the program has shown them how they can take on a larger role in helping communities face challenges.
n Students meet monthly through the SGA Sunday Service initiative in order to give back. More
than 6,000 student volunteers logged 24,000 community service hours through the project.
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n The Community Service Center celebrated UA’s
15th national title by hosting Building Champions Through Service in Miami and Tuscaloosa. The event in Miami united 433 students, alumni and fans from UA and Notre Dame.
n The Community Service Center advocated for
hunger and homelessness awareness at their annual Hunger Banquet. Ninety-nine percent of students indicated they learned more about poverty and hunger issues through their experience at the Hunger Banquet.
n In March, 650 fraternity men and sorority women
participated in a Habitat for Humanity build in the Alberta City area. Greeks helped build houses for individuals whose homes were destroyed by the April 27, 2011 tornadoes. These students logged more than 2,500 hours of service.
n Nearly 86 percent of Freshman Forum participants
said that participating in Freshman Forum has shown them they can take on a larger role in helping communities face challenges.
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Developing Ethical Leaders Training students to lead with integrity
n Twelve UA students participated in LeaderShape, a national institute with the mission of
developing young adults to have a healthy disregard for the impossible and to lead with integrity.
n More than 350 students attended Housing and Residential Communities’ new Capstone
Academy Leadership Training. This program was created in 2012 as a series of training modules designed to both evaluate and engage prospective student leaders for consideration of housing student staff positions. The Academy develops skills around topics related to time management, communication and working with others. More than 96 percent of participants agreed that the skills and concepts acquired during this training series “would be applied to their leadership positions in the future.�
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n The Office of Student Involvement & Leadership
partnered with Spectrum to host the sixth annual Southeastern LGBTQ+ Student Leadership Conference and more than 200 high school and college students from the region attended.
n After a year of involvement with Student Media,
94.4 percent of students said that their criticalthinking and problem-solving skills had improved.
n Twenty-three upperclassmen were trained on UA
history, tradition, leadership, adventure and service in order to facilitate the pilot year of Camp 1831 as members of the A-team.
n More than 90 percent of Parent Ambassadors
agreed or strongly agreed that “Parent Ambassador training helped me identify and understand my strengths and weaknesses as a student leader.�
n Leadership UA helped 31 students develop into
more effective leaders through meeting with top UA administrators and learning more about the complexities involved in decision making at a community level.
n Almost 90 percent of Ignite UA participants said
that as a result of the program, they have been able to identify their personal strengths.
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Creating a Culture of Evidence Assessing programs to maximize student learning
n Student Affairs Assessment and Planning assisted
with more than 276 assessment projects including curriculum development, consultations, assessment development, planning activities, data collection, data requests, retention studies and program review and training.
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n Web Development and Processes and the Career
Center introduced a new placement tracking system with real-time capabilities. The system affords instant reporting capabilities including: placement rates by major, salary information, student destinations and top employer rankings.
n In 2012-2013, Graduate Student
Services used feedback from the 2011-2012 needs assessment to target specific programs to meet the needs of students. The assessment plan includes measures that help staff understand the graduate student experience at UA including satisfaction with GSS programs, their co-curricular experience at UA and their engagement with academia.
n After attending 2012 Parent
Orientation sessions, 2,245 parents completed surveys providing feedback about their experiences on campus, enabling Parent Programs to improve programming and information to the families of incoming students.
n University Recreation conducted
a patron wellness survey which found that greater participation in University Recreation opportunities resulted in a greater perceived satisfaction with a student’s health.
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Blackburn Institute n After receiving a record number of new
student applications, the Blackburn Institute welcomed its largest new student class of 30.
n The Gloria and John L. Blackburn
Academic Symposium Lecture given by Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward drew 500 students, faculty, staff and community members.
n The Fellows Involvement Network
relaunched and is designed to encourage continued involvement of alumni as they live out the Institute’s mission in their professional and personal lives.
Career Center n Student participation in both individual appointments and
career education saw increases, with 6,131 total appointments (a 16 percent increase) and 4,237 individual clients (a 20 percent increase).
n More than 30 Fortune 500 companies visited campus during
the year to conduct interviews. A total of 193 employers engaged with UA.
n Of employer survey respondents, 100 percent agreed that “UA students at the Career Fair were well-prepared and presented themselves in a professional manner.� n Two major career fairs were created including the
Communication Career Fair and the Health and Social 13 Services Career Fair, bringing record numbers of employers 14
and students to the events.
Community Service Center n The Community Service Center partnered with more than
50 community organizations to bring students handson learning opportunities while serving the Tuscaloosa community.
n The annual Beat Auburn Beat Hunger food drive collected
266,737 pounds of food for the West Alabama Food Bank, bringing the 18-year total to 1,954,609 pounds of food collected by UA students.
n More than 340 students participated in Sleep Out on the
Quad and in guided conversations on issues related to homelessness in America.
Counseling Center n The Counseling Center is one of two accredited college
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counseling centers in Alabama, and one of 15 in all neighboring states combined.
n The Counseling Center delivered 253 prevention-oriented
outreach programs covering a wide range of topics, such as interpersonal interaction, substance abuse, suicide awareness, eating disorder awareness and stress management. More than 13,000 students participated in these programs.
n More than half of students who engaged with the Counseling
Center indicated that the center helped them improve their academic performance.
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Dean of Students n In 2012-2013, more than 320 people participated in a
Safe Zone resource information session, an increase of 11 percent from the previous year. The Safe Zone Ally network now includes faculty and staff from more than 30 campus offices and departments.
n More than 700 meals were provided to 48 students
through Got Meals, the student meal donation program formally known as Student2Student.
n Twenty staff members received 18 hours of training
to serve as on-call deans. Training covered a variety of topics, including mental health, diversity, women’s issues, autism, international students and gender issues.
Graduate Student Services n Graduate Student Services awarded $30,000 in
research and travel grants to 118 graduate students for participation in experiences ranging from presenting at international conferences to developing research instruments.
n Graduate Student Services hosted two weekend
dissertation boot camps and four 1-day sessions. Seventy-six percent of participants met or contributed toward their overall goal, and more than 1,200 pages were written during the sessions.
n Fridays at Five, a monthly social gathering, hosted
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1,120 graduate students in 2012-2013.
External Affairs n A student intern program was created in 2012 to provide undergraduate students with
experience in writing, editing and design elements within Student Affairs communication.
n The Division’s reach on social media doubled, with more than 1,100 Facebook fans and
more than 1,800 Twitter followers.
n The Crimson Promenade fund more than doubled in annual gifts received. n The UA Away endowment reached a total of $367,038.60 toward its goal of $1 million. n The second annual Student Affairs Expo took place in January 2013, giving more than 400
students a chance to connect with Student Affairs’ various departments.
n Two editions of Capstone magazine reached more than 16,500 people to tell the story of
Student Affairs. More than 13,500 copies were mailed to donors, alumni and friends.
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Ferguson Center n University Programs was recognized
nationally by the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities (ACPA) as the national “Programming Board of the Year� in addition to being recognized regionally for graphics design, earning second place for graphics from the ACPA.
n Nearly 11,000 people attended
University Programs’ events during the 2012-2013 academic year.
First Year Experience and Parent Programs n The Parent Ambassador (PA) recruitment process was
streamlined with the Avanti team using an online system and increasing PA applications by 62 percent.
n Staff members welcomed 6,456 parent and family members
in 2012 for Parent Orientation, up from 5,937 in 2011.
n Camp 1831 was developed this year to provide students
with the opportunity to assimilate to UA before they begin fall courses.
n Piloted with various first-year student groups during the
2011-2012 academic year, the Out-2-Lunch program launched in Fall 2012 to all freshmen and transfer students.
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Greek Affairs n Staff in the Ferguson
Center assisted faculty, staff, students and community members with more than 23,000 hours of event work.
n The Ferguson Center was
utilized for 33,000 hours of programming and events during the course of the year.
n In fall of 2012, for the first time in history, the UA Greek
community surpassed 7,500 members to become the largest Greek community in the nation.
n Greek students raised $95,000 in fraternity and sorority chapter
donations, which was awarded to 30 non-profit organizations in and around Tuscaloosa.
n Sigma Tau Gamma became the 28th Interfraternity Council chapter
at UA in February 2013, and has initated 72 diverse men since being established.
n The National Pan-Hellenic Council has eight active chapters with
more than 150 members on campus. The NPHC GPA is currently the highest since 2005.
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Housing and Residential Communities n The first phase of the Presidential Village
residence halls, Presidential Village I, opened and provides living space for nearly 1,000 freshmen.
n An off-campus housing website was developed
to assist students in locating housing off campus. Since its launch, the site has been viewed 36,424 times, with the average visit lasting 8 minutes.
n Fall 2012 saw a record number of on-campus
residents with 7,696 students living on campus, a 4 percent increase from Fall 2011.
Student Conduct n Student Conduct, in collaboration with the SGA
Judicial Board, hosted the second annual Coaching Character event. The goal is to inspire students to pursue character and personal development. Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden and UA gymnastics coach Sarah Patterson spoke.
n Working with the SGA Judicial Board and University
Relations, Student Conduct created Capstone Character EDU, an online interactive civility module targeted to freshman students.
n Student Conduct staff members gave presentations
to nearly 2,300 students and presented 28 alcohol education workshops to more than 600 students.
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Student Involvement and Leadership n Seventy-six student organization advisors participated
in the first-ever fall advisor’s luncheon and training aimed at engaging with members of UA’s legal and risk management offices and UAPD.
n More than 200 student organizations participated
in the new Transition 101 Process during the spring of 2013. Guest speaker Mayor Walt Maddox spoke to 164 student representatives at the first annual executive transition dinner.
n More than 450 student organizations were registered
with The Source, which provides resources, support and recognition for student groups. Each of those 450 groups provided leadership opportunities for students.
n “Do More in 4”, a co-curricular transcript
program that helps students articulate the impact of their involvement at UA, was created.
Student Media n The Crimson White was named the Best College Newspaper in
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the Southeast by SPJ and the Best College News Website by the Southeastern Journalism Conference.
n WVUA expanded its campus community-related
programming including Brain Matters, a program aired in cooperation with the Counseling Center, and Creative Campus Radio in cooperation with Creative Campus.
n The Corolla began producing a digital version of the yearbook
that includes video coverage of the year’s events.
n The Office of Student Media moved into a new building. The
new facility has twice the square footage and has 83 computer terminals, 20 more than OSM’s former building. 21
University Recreation n Personal training clients increased to
more than 550, which is nearly an 8 percent increase from 2012.
n Outdoor Recreation realized a 65
percent increase in equipment rental and trip revenue for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.
n University Recreation led the
development of a comprehensive bicycle operations center to include an array of bike programs and initiatives, including bike shop services, educational bike safety programs and other administrative needs.
Veteran and Military Affairs n Student veterans and service members accepted to
The University of Alabama in 2013 hit an all-time high of 383 students, up from 113 the previous year.
n Veteran and Military Affairs hosted the second
annual Campus Veterans Association banquet, with more than 200 faculty, staff, students and community partners in attendance.
n UA was named a Pat Tillman Foundation partner
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school and a student veteran received a $10,000 scholarship from the foundation for the next academic year.
Web Development and Processes n Student Affairs websites were visited more than 1,375,000 times this year. n Staff members in Web Development and Processes produced a total of 15 new online processes.
Many of these processes increased collaboration and efficiency university-wide.
n Approximately 9,885 student applications were collected and reviewed online. n An iPad rental program was created, with 8 iPads available for departments. This year, they were
utilized by Freshman Forum, Phi Eta Sigma, and the Student Affairs Hall of Fame.
n An online rubric, optimized for handheld devices, was created and used to aid in interview
processes. In its first year of widespread usage, many UA programs utilized this tool, including the Career Center, Freshman Forum, Housing and Residential Communities, Parent Ambassadors and Avantis.
Women’s Resource Center n The Women’s Resource Center was re-awarded a continuation
of a Victims of Crime Act grant of $116,533.07 to provide revenue for services, marking 14 years of external funding.
n In collaboration with Parent Programs, the WRC hosted the
second annual Chocolate Festival, an awareness event and fundraiser, selling three times as many tickets as the inaugural year.
n Fifty-one peer educators were trained during the fall and
spring semesters through the Safe Sisters and Unscripted Theatre Troupe. Through performances and events, these peer educators reached approximately 1,500 students.
n The WRC trained 118 faculty, staff and graduate students
through 10 Harbor workshops, which develop participants’ knowledge of resources available to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking.
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