Working with Veteran Students

We hear about them all the time in the news. From the Navy SEALS defeating Osama Bin Laden to the constant battle over pulling troops out of foreign countries, discussion about the military is visible in our everyday lives … until we get to higher education. The discussion about the military seems to be hidden in the background; student veterans tend to be an invisible group on many campuses. In fact, only 60% of public institutions have programs catering to the needs of student veterans. You may be wondering that 60% doesn’t seem to be a low percentage but this number becomes much grimmer with the addition of non-profit private institutions; only 26% of non-profit private institutions have programs for student veterans. As the student veteran population continues to grow, more institutions and more programs have to be created to support student veterans in their transition back to civilian life.

Large numbers of veterans are continuing to return from deployment. With limited employment opportunities currently available in the United States, it is often an easy decision for veterans to return to school. With the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill consisting of benefits for tuition, housing, and books, there has already been a steep increase in the number of student veterans throughout the nation. While only about 460,000 veterans were starting or continuing their education in the fall of 2009, it is projected that this number will grow significantly, at about thirty percent every year, for years to come. This means that by the fall of 2013, 5% of all students in higher education will have military experience when entering college.

So what kind of resources do veterans need? The immediate image that comes to mind when thinking about veterans might be what the media displays: gunfire, death and chaos. As a result, first thoughts on support for veterans may be dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While it is true that some veterans have face PTSD, there are many who have not. Helping veterans face PTSD is important, but it may not apply to most veterans. Even for the veterans who do return with PTSD, many of them do not want to talk about it. Instead, a majority of veterans want support for transitioning back into civilian life and academic life.

Part of the reason is because few of their civilian peers know what it is like to be in the military. In fact, as student veterans transition from their military identity, the day-to-day dramas and crisis that civilians face may even seem ridiculous. This can prevent them from finding peer support and making friends. Furthermore, as they leave the very structured system of the military, student veterans can be at a loss about the sudden freedom they have with their lives. What courses should I be taking? What courses would best help me with my major? These are just some questions that they may be asking when returning to school.

Then what can we do to help? There are already wonderful programs in place that can be translated over to different institutions. Veterans Upward Bound is one such program which falls underneath the umbrella of TRIO programs. This is a program designed to motivate and assist veterans to develop academic and other skills required to succeed in higher education. Just as it is with other populations on campus, it is not only about accepting more of these students into the institutions; our goal as educators is to help more of these students achieve success and graduate.

Henry Shin is an Assistant Resident Director at Loyola University Chicago. 

For the Year Ahead

Crowded around tables at the back of a lodge, the group was armed with idea, opinions and Crayola markers. For the twenty minutes before this, they’d sat at tables yelling out their ideas and watching them be scrawled onto a flip chart. Now, those same papers splayed across tables, they thoughtfully considered the topics and how they may be merged.

It’s one of my favorite moments of working with the Professional Foundations committee. Rather than creating subcommittees responsible for projects, we create subcommittees responsible for competency areas. In this way, the committee members become experts on a topic through their research and projects. It also means there is never a lull in the action throughout the year for them. We can always find a fresh, new way to address a competency area based on time of year or current events.

While this was going on, I was to the side of the group smiling. There’s nothing greater as a leader of a group than watching them have their Aha Moment. When it clicked for them — as they identified how multiple ideas they’d thrown out in our large brainstorming session could be folded together into broader competencies — I pulled out my phone to snap a picture. Most of their backs are to me so what you see are color coded circles connecting individual thoughts into what became our plan for the upcoming year.

Throughout the year, this blog will be used as a vehicle to share resources and foster discussion. We hope you’ll join the GLACUHO Professional Foundations committee on this journey as we explore these competency areas and produce professional development resources related to them. If you have ideas or suggestions related to the competencies, please feel to share with us.

GLACUHO Professional Foundations 2012 Competency Areas

• Organizational Culture
• Staffing Management
• Strategic Planning
• Professional Development Planning
• Academic Initiatives

 

Stacy Oliver is the Associate Director of Residence Life at Lake Forest College and serves as the chair of the Professional Foundation Committee. You can contact her at profoundchair@glacuho.org.

Book Club Blog Post: Audacity

“Love generates Energy, inspires Audacity, and requires Proof. LEAP, you see, is simply the Extreme Leader’s active, dynamic expression of love.” – Steve Farber via Edg

Monday morning, I woke up and started my day with my usual program: a simple breakfast followed by a quick shower and then head into the office. As I do most mornings, I made a pot of coffee, sat down at my desk, checked phone messages, and started rifling through the email from the weekend. It was just deluge of the usual incident reports, solicitations for entertainment funds, and the typical daily communication that occurs on a college campus. Everything done with the robotic efficiency that comes from years of routine.

Then I found an email from a coworker describing a fund raising project that she is spearheading for a local scholarship fund. Not too far out of the realm of regular email for a college campus, but I couldn’t help connecting her plea for help with the Audacity aspect of Steve Farber’s LEAP. She had asked herself “How can I change the world?” and found herself helping to change the life of a student..

It was definitely the wakeup call I needed on a sleepy Monday morning! I thought, “This woman Loves what she does and it is giving her the Energy to be Audacious.” Where was my Love? Where was my Energy?

According to “The Daily Handbook for Radical Leaders”, we surrounded and imprisoned by “normal constraints” of people who don’t think we can do it, people who don’t think it is worth the effort or risk, and people who, for some reason or other, want us not to be successful. If we Love what we do, then we will have the Energy to be Audacious; the energy to take risks and find a way to change the world!

I realized that I was placing constraints based on society’s perception of the working world: Monday morning is slow and grumpy. My Love and Energy were lost in the ridiculous constraints of an exaggerated stereotype of office life! I decided then and there to shrug that constraint, regardless of its source, and I spent the rest of my morning working with a renewed vigor.

Being an Extreme Leader means asking the question “What are the constraints holding you back?” For me, in this case, it was the constraint that Mondays are not allowed to be fun and exciting. In other cases, especially working with the ever diminishing resources of higher education, it is someone telling us that there is not enough money or that the return does not justify the cost. There are as many constraints as there are people to impose them.

Being an Extreme Leader means throwing those constraints aside. Being an Extreme Leader means inspiring others to do the same. Being an Extreme Leader means changing the world, even if it is just for one person in one situation.

How have you expressed your love? How have you changed the world?

Joseph Hawkins is the Assistant Director of Residential and Student Life at Lincoln College.

New Committee, New Initiatives Spotlight: Health and Wellness

Last year’s committee restructuring introduced new committees to the Great Lakes Association of College and University Housing Officers. New to the organization, the Health and Wellness Committee chaired by Ziena Miller of DePaul University has several exciting initiatives at this year’s annual conference.

Learning on the Go is a collaborative initiative with the Inclusion and Equity Committee. The dedicated space in Cahokian Room will be host to round table discussions on a variety of topics including relationships and wellness, stress and time management and tips for exercising away from the gym. Between programming sessions, there will be brief stretching sessions to keep blood circulating and brains active. Inclusion and Equity’s round table topics include gender neutrality, bullying and privilege. Both committees will have grab-and-go resources for those without much time to stay.

Health and Wellness Committee is also providing a Check Up Program, modeled after the existing Five Star program. Participants will have cards with tasks they can accomplish throughout the conference such as attending Health and Wellness sponsored programs, taking a wellness break, or completing a wellness assessment. Successful participants will be eligible for giveaway from a variety of institutions.

For more information about Health and Wellness Committee initiatives, stop by the committee’s information table at registration, check out the conference book or visit the committee’s website on the GLACUHO homepage.

Did you know you can tweet on twitter?

I have now joined the world of twitter and I am actively tweeting. This is a whole new world to me, one that I may have made fun of before I joined. I thought it was a place that people just went to talk about how they went here or bought this or took pictures of themselves in the bathroom at a club. My view of twitter was somewhat biased. In fact there is often a joke in my office that after something happens (good or bad) that someone is going to tweet about it. Probably not funny from the outside world, but funny in the context of our office.
So I decided to actively tweet. In tweeting, I have come to realize that there is a whole new world of professional development. I have the ability share articles and thoughts just by tweeting. By choosing to follow different businesses, I have received coupons and specials. Others have forwarded me positive messages that have helped me on not so good days. Essentially, twitter has added value to my social networking activities.
Yes, this is a small piece of technology, but one that can connect people to quickly think about their professional development and provoke thought among others. So change your mind about tweeting, it’s not all about what John Doe had for dinner or what my kids did today (even though they do make an appearance in my tweets).
Thanks for reading…
Lisa
P.S. my twitter is @lisamortiz

GLACUHO Conference Opportunities

Dear Conference Participants,
We are very excited that you have chosen to attend the 2010 Annual GLACUHO Conference. We are writing you today to share two of the many opportunities that you can take part in which will take your conference experience to the next level.
Opportunity # 1 – Multicultural Competencies Institute (MCI)

GLACUHO’s MCI is pleased to offer a limited number of conference delegates the opportunity to engage in discussion and reflection with other professionals with a lens on topics of multiculturalism and its impact on our work as housing professionals. This year, GLACUHO is pleased to collaborate with Dr. Dafina Lazarus Stewart, who currently serves as an Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs at Bowling Green State University. Dr. Stewart’s contribution to MCI will focus on “Identity Development & Intersectionality of Identities”.
MCI will take place on November 6, 2010; one day prior to the opening of the annual conference, and the $45.00 registration fee covers all institute materials and dinner with MCI faculty. Space is limited to 25 participants, so register today at www.glacuho.org.
Opportunity # 2 – 5th ANNUAL GLACUHO GIVES BACK PROJECT
Conference Delegates have the opportunity to participate with a community service project in the local area while at the annual conference. This year we will be working with the Collinsville Area Recreation District (CARD). Specifically, delegates will be providing service at the Willoughby Farm, one of the many properties maintained by CARD. Willoughby Farm has been a community fixture in the Collinsville area since the early 1900s. Recognizing the significance of interactive education and the importance of preserving open space for the community, CARD continues to work toward restoring Willoughby Farm to an authentic working family farm and conservation reserve. This falls right in line with our conference theme to “Engage, Educate, and Achieve.” Volunteers will be working on trails, barn restoration among other areas within the site. We ask that appropriate attire and shoes for outdoor work will be required. For more information about the site location please go to http://www.collinsvillerec.com/Farm.html.
Space is limited so please sign-up today. To sign up please email Inclusion & Equity Chair Quiana Stone at qmstone@eiu.edu or call 217-581-7689.

Blackberry Possible Addiction

So, I joined twitter a few weeks ago. I am not an expert on Twitter, but I have discovered that it is a quick and easy way to get information out to those that are following you. The marketing possibilities are endless and allow us to reach people who are slightly obsessed with their twitter accounts/smart phones/facebook status.

This leads me to my current problem. I truly think that I am addicted to my blackberry. It is always on my hip and makes a cool noise when I open and close the case. It is my lifeline to my work, my family’s calendar (yes, I do have a work and family calendar), and finding out when I am duty. It makes my organizational style more efficient.

The struggle comes in when I look at what I am role modeling to those around me. I am quick to respond to emails, but do I really need to do that when I am playing a game with my family. My daughter decided a few nights ago that she also needed a blackberry so asked me to get my old blackberry “charged up” so she can take it to school. Yeah, Mommy said no to that one.

Yet, it leads me to reflect about my personal/professional balance. The blackberry is a helpful tool in responding to emails, updating twitter/facebook, and being able to find the nearest coffee shop when I am desperate. The blackberry is a hindrance to having some balance at home.

So, the past few nights, I have been leaving the blackberry in my room with the phone calls only function on. No alerts to email, facebook, or texts. I won’t even lie, the first night it was a little scary! But as I learned many a year ago, life goes on when I am away from work. I have trained the members of the staff well, they can handle any situation, and if it was truly an emergency, they would track me down anyway.

Thanks for reading….. Lisa

Supervision Lessons

I heard somewhere that we learn in two ways: mistakes and mentors… I’m not sure exactly where I heard that, but it has stuck with me. I believe it especially rings true when it comes to developing as a supervisor. The best ways I have learned about how to be a good supervisor, has been from taking the best (and worst) from those who have supervised me… and making my own mistakes.
I can think back to summer job supervisors back in the day who I loved because they were just plain fun. Ever since, I think I’ve always expected supervisors to be able to have fun and expected that of myself as a supervisor.
I can remember supervisors in college that had high expectations of me- some who used those high expectations to push me to achieve greater results and others who used them to destroy my imperfect, undergraduate efforts. Many of my supervisees would tell you that I set very high expectations, but they all know that I’m just as interested in helping them learn and develop… And I’m not interested in perfection- its not very interesting.
As a professional, I have had supervisors that did not take the time to get to know me or understand my motivation, supervisors who have acknowledged when our strengths and weaknesses compliment each other (which requires admitting to weakness!), and supervisors who have empowered me to always be innovative and creative.
I have learned some more practical lessons from past supervisors- like the supervisor who emptied her inbox everyday (once dealt with, an email doesn’t need to be there anymore!) and taught me how to utilize student desk staff to do big projects in small pieces. Supervisors that have shown me that the best team utilizes all of its parts.
The lessons I have learned from mistakes are harder to describe without the stories behind them. I have learned the importance of approaching expectations early in a supervision relationship and of documenting unsatisfactory behavior/performance. I have learned the value and importance of being able to delegate effectively. I have learned how effective reminders can be for students I supervise. And I have learned that supervisees will not necessarily come up with ideas similar to my own.  I’ve learned all of these lessons the hard way- through trial and error, mistake and misstep.
Supervision is an adventure that can change for each supervisee, for each new role and for each new year. What have you learned, through mentors or mistakes, about being the supervisor you are? Or the one you want to be?

Happy Reading! ~ Julia

GLACUHO Book Club #2

**Feel free to reply to this or to begin your own comments**

the curious incident of the dog in the night-time meant more to me than I ever thought it could.  I was excited when the Student Learning and Professional Foundations Committees paired up to select this book.  The prospect of reading a novel involving a main character with Asperger’s was intriguing personally and professionally.  Over the past few years, I have had the privilege to work with a handful of students with different Autism spectrum disorders, mostly described as Asperger’s.  The bonds and relationships I have had with those students helped me to feel that I was making a different in student’s lives.  Training RA staff and student leaders to work with students with Asperger’s proved to be enriching for everyone involved.

This novel specifically allowed me to begin to understand the thinking and rationalization of people with Asperger’s.  To make the decision to disobey his father, talk with strangers, and run away was enthralling to read.  I always assumed that students with Asperger’s would follow the rules and would never be a discipline problem.  Clearly, that was an able-ist idea the novel squashed.  Even though I have never directly dealt with a discipline case from one of my student with Asperger’s, this text helps me to focus my reflective questioning to continue to educate the student and allow them to describe their thought process to me.

The other large topic that I will take away from this novel is the beginning of an awareness of what the families go through.  Clearly, Christopher’s father raising him for the past few years on his own was a unique situation; however, the frustrations and anxieties are something that could easily be transferrable.  The dad was not sure if he was doing anything right; he clearly loved Christopher but was not able to gauge any reaction.  The fact that he just wanted a hug from his son to verify that things would be ok was not possible.  As I read these chapters on a plane trip to California, I wept.  The pain and self-directed anger of Christopher’s father was palpable. I have worked closely with parents of student’s with Asperger’s, so I understand their care and optimism.  To know that this concern can lead to frustration will help me to provide services that are more comprehensive to students and families.

Overall, this book was amazing to me.  As I have said to folks before, I do not typically read books for pleasure.  However, this book enlivens me to change that ridiculous temperament.  I have grown professionally and I have grown personally.  Just as GLACUHO helps us to learn, lead, and serve, this novel allows us to do that on a tangible level with our students, their families, and our own lives.

~Tim O’Malley

Three Inch Heel Type of Day

                Often times in the morning, I check my blackberry to see what type of day that I am having at work. Sometimes the day calls for jeans and a sweatshirt (usually involving walking through a residence hall) and some days are three inch heel type of days. These are the days when I know I have a big meeting or will be having a difficult conversation with a student, a colleague, or someone that I supervisor. Three inch heels type of days are the ones that call for an extra boost of confidence to walk into the meeting or as I speak to a room full of people.  It is my piece of armor to ensure that I have my best foot forward.

                For many years, I thought that I was the only person who had a piece of armor to boost my confidence on hard days. Yet, I slowly began the conversation with other student affairs professionals to see if they also had armor that they utilized.  I was surprised to see people reflect and realize that they also utilized pieces of clothing or other rituals that boosted them on long days. For some it was wearing mascara, a certain business bag, or wearing their hair a certain way that allowed them to be extra confident when walking into a big meeting. For others it was a business suit, a sport coat, or a special tie. The armor was as individual as the person wearing them.

                Three inch heel days are fun, exhausting, and exciting all in one. So as you prepare for your own days, think about your own personal armor and find excitement in knowing that we all have our “three inch heel/mascara/special tie” type of days.

Thanks for reading…. Lisa