We had a really interesting end of semester meeting at my institution today, and I think it’s illustrative to bigger issues going on within student affairs and higher ed in general. During the meeting our VP read a report from the campus planning commission that expressed support for student affairs as critical to the educational mission to the university (that’s good right?) and that they would continue to support any program that directly connected with the mission of the university to build a strong student life program (uh oh). Did you catch it? I did and I don’t think I was the only one.
The kicker was directly connect. We need to show that our programs directly connect to the mission and foster student life at the college. But what does this mean exactly? Well, here’s what that means at TCNJ. Go ahead and read that and I’ll continue. Back? Good.
I want to focus on the phrase “student-centered and learning-focused”. Folks, gone are the days of “this event was for fun” or “stress relief”. It’s bullshit, we all know it, and it’s going like a poof of smoke in the wind.
Coming are the days of justifying pennies, defending why this program existed and directly connecting it to learning. If you can’t do that or if you’re NOT PREPARED to do that, prepare to be excised or marginalized.
I love the fact that the big wigs on campus are expressing support, but I think what people missed is that it also comes with a cost of needing to justify that support. I hope we’re ready.
MSU got a similar letter at the beginning the year, which was online, but doesn’t seem to be anymore. Basically, the same message: How are you going to connect “things outside the classroom” to the university mission? I have mixed reactions about the response…but what is great about it is that it forces everyone to be creative, and really think hard about why what they do matters.
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