Come Together: The Student Affairs/Academic Affairs Partnership in Learning Communities International First Year Experience Conference Toronto, Canada July 2006
Who We Are • Scott L. Johnson – Assistant Dean for First-Year and Academic Support Programs • Heather D. Maldonado – Assistant to the Dean for Academic Standards and Intervention • Joseph J. Marren – Assistant Professor, Communication Department
Session Agenda • Hello Goodbye: Introductions • Help!: Overview of the Buffalo State Learning Community Program • Ticket to Ride: Where the Partnership Began • We Can Work It Out: How We Achieved Buy-In • From Me to You: Making It Work on Your Campus
Help! • What are you trying to accomplish programmatically? • What does “partnership” between academic affairs and student affairs look like? • What are the obstacles to partnerships between student affairs and academic affairs on your campus?
Learning Communities at Buffalo State Goals: – Student success and retention – Intellectual climate – Sense of community and connection
Learning Communities at Buffalo State • 2006-07 is the 6 th year of the program • 4 to 5 courses with up to 25 students per LC; students must take all courses in LC (can take additional courses as well) • Students are required to participate in both curricular and co- curricular events • Students have option of living on campus or off; there is an LC floor for residential students; off campus students have 24-hour access to the LC residence hall • 20 faculty; 5 student affairs liaisons; 3 librarians • Budget: $20,000 per academic year for the entire program • Some have added a part-time spring component to their community
Buffalo State Learning Community Model Jazz/Rock Foundations 3 credits History of American Life 3 credits Underground Introduction to Sociology 3 credits America F. I. G. College Writing I 3 credits Integrated Hour 1 credit
Themed Communities Example: Underground America: Its Heart and Soul Behind Elvis Presley's 1955 recording of “Mystery Train” beats an old, weird America filled with ghosts, beat up Ford trucks, contracts with the devil, small town hucksters with dreams of the big time, and the Mississippi River strung like a guitar string from New Orleans north into Chicago. It's the world that haunted Bob Dylan, Richard Wright, Bonnie and Clyde Barrow, Robert Johnson, and Tom Joad. This community will look at popular music, people's history, and the outlaws and heroes traveling the lost highways like Route 66 of American culture. Highlight: a trip to the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Examples of Themes • Wasn’t That A Time: Pop Culture, Music and Protest • Escape the Matrix: Free Your Mind • The Birth of the Vampire Slayers: Origins of Modern Thought • Others for 2006: – Be a Hero, Be a Teacher: Creating Change in Urban Schools – And Justice For All – Explore New Worlds: Discover Ideas – Buffalo’s Urban Environment
How Does It All Come Together? Courses: HIS 107 History of American Life II MUS 206 Jazz and Rock Foundations SOC 100 Introduction to Sociology ENG 101 College Writing I LIB 100 Introduction to Library Research INS 189 Integrated Hour Out-of-Classroom Activities: • Trip to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame • Attendance at the theater production STOMP • Viewing of Apocalypse Now
Examples of Other Co-Curricular Activities • Attending a Buffalo • Toronto City Hall/ Sabres Game Courthouse • A walking tour of • Trip to the Rock and Roll Toronto’s ethnic Hall of Fame neighborhoods • Viewing the re-released • Attending the musical version of Apocalypse 42nd Street Now • Underground Railroad • Bob Dylan concert Tour • Meals together • Tour of U.N.
Why Partnership Made Sense Where were the bridges that could be built? 1. Residence halls for learning community students 2. Co-curricular learning opportunities 3. Integration of student development theory into faculty development 4. Designated student affairs liaisons
Residence Hall Space Two residential floors were dedicated to support learning communities. The goals of this integration were: 1. Residence halls for learning community students 2. Students making deeper connections with faculty Faculty office 3. Commuter students see college campus as “home” Computer lab Kitchen Lounge
Student Development Theory • Psychosocial theories focus on the personal and interpersonal aspects of students’ lives as they accomplish various developmental tasks or resolve the inevitable crises that arise. (e.g. Chickering, Erikson, Cross, Heath, and Marcia) • Cognitive-Structural theories focus on the intellectual development of students-how they think, reason, and make meaning of their lives. It addresses a sequence of meaning-making structures through which students perceive, organize, and make sense of their experiences. The stages are hierarchical and each successive stage incorporates and builds on previous stages. (Moral: e.g. Piaget, Kitchener & King, Kohlberg, and Gilligan) (Intellectual: e.g. Perry, and Belenky et. al.) • Person-Environment theories address conceptualizations of the student, the educational environment and the degree of congruence that occurs when the student interacts with the educational environment. Behavior is looked at as a function of the interaction between the person and the environment. Many person-environment interactive theories are used in career planning. (e.g. Astin, Moos, and Strange & Kings) Student development theory synopses taken from the University of Calgary’s Student and Academic Services website: http://www.ucalgary.ca/sas/sas_site/student_dev.html
Outcomes of Student Development Theory (SDT) Integration • Informed practice • Better learning • Smoother transition • Less faculty frustration
Hard Day’s Night • In what ways do student affairs professionals work with faculty directly? (e.g. what is the role of student affairs, if any, in your learning communities?) • Would you consider your campus culture more instruction centered or learning centered? • Can you name some academic goals in the first year that student affairs could help achieve?
Achieving Faculty Buy-In • We demonstrated that it was about quality academic performance. • We showed how it made the job easier . • We demonstrated that this was legitimate research in a complementary discipline outside their own. • We presented the material as “tools for their tool kits” as opposed to “marching orders.”
From Me to You: Making It Work On Your Campus • Goals – What are you really trying to make happen? – What will “partnership” look like? • Partnerships – Who are the stakeholders needed to create change on your campus? – How will your partners benefit from the collaboration?
From Me to You: Making It Work On Your Campus Obstacles: – How will this initiative be perceived in your institutional culture and its subcultures? – How can you motivate colleagues to participate, then reward them for participating? – How will you demonstrate that the initiative and the partnership support the institutional mission and strategic plan?
Making It Work On Your Campus Strategies: – Test the water for receptivity – Learn what the needed ally values and speak to it – Reciprocity
Hello Goodbye • Any Questions? • Thank you for choosing our session! Good luck in your attempts to make partnerships on your campus. • Additional reading about the BSC Learning Community experience: Frazier, Nancy E. “In the Loop: One Librarian’s Experiences Teaching within First-Year Learning Communities,” College & Undergraduate Libraries , Vol. 13, no. 1, 2006. • Contact us: – Scott Johnson, Assistant Dean for First Year and Academic Support Programs, johnsosl@buffalostate.edu – Heather Maldonado, Assistant to the Dean for Academic Standards & Intervention, maldonhd@buffalostate.edu – Joe Marren, Assistant Professor of Communication, marrenjj@buffalostate.edu
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