College Life 101

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College Life 101

• Stimulating Family/Student
• Dialogue Around Adjustment Issues

Ann H. Wilson Director of Campus
Activities Drexel University Jon
Kapell Associate Director of Campus
Activities Drexel University
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Drexel University

• 11,500 undergraduate students
• Private - 4 or 5 year
• Urban setting of Philadelphia
• Technical/Engineering institution
• Co-op school

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Drexel UniversityOrientation

• Fall 2005 - 2500 Freshmen
• Vast majority traditional aged
• 8 freshmen 2-day orientation sessions
• Approximately 250 students and 250-300 family
  members per session
• 2 transfer 1-day orientation sessions

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Orientation History

• Pre-2005 - parents/family only session
• Vignettes were conversation starter for common
  and possible student issues
• Annually parents asked, Is my student seeing
  this?
• In 2005, family and students viewed the vignettes
  and had facilitated discussion, but in different
  ways to respond to different needs

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Theoretical Foundation

• Transition Any event, or non-event, that
  results in changed relationships, routines,
  assumptions, and rolesstress the role of
  perception in transitionstransition exists only
  if it is so defined by the individual
  experiencing it.
• (Schlossberg et al., 1995, as cited in
• Evans, Forney, and Gido-DiBrito, 1998, p. 111)

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Theoretical Foundation

• Transformative education instead places the
  students reflective processes at the core of the
  learning experience and asks the student to
  evaluate both new information and the frames of
  reference through which the information acquires
  meaning.
• (Learning Reconsidered, 2004, p. 9, Merizow and
  Associates, 2000, Learning as transformation)

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Theoretical Foundation

• Making meaning comprises students efforts to
  comprehend the essence and significance of
  events, relationships, and learning to gain a
  richer understanding of themselves in a larger
  context and to experience a sense of wholeness.
  Meaning making arises in a reflective connection
  between a person or individual and the wider
  world
• (Learning Reconsidered, 2004, p. 17)

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Vignette Development

• 2003 - all vignettes were reexamined
• Issues to address and approaches were discussed
• Scripts were developed to reflect desired
  discussion topics and areas of concern
• Student Life staff wrote and edited all scripts
• This phase of the project lasted approximately
  2-3 months

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College of Media Arts and Design Filming and
Editing Partnership

• Student Life approached COMAD to assist with
  filming and editing
• An Assistant Dean and a team of students reviewed
  and refined the script
• COMAD shot and edited the vignettes
• This phase of the project lasted approximately
  4-6 weeks

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Family Facilitation

• Beloit College Mindset List is shared to gain
  attention and in seats
• Energizer precedes this session which includes
  large group karaoke
• Dean of Students transitions with questions like
  
• For how many of you is this your first child
  going to school? ..second? ..most?
• How many are grandparents?
• Drexel gear is given to the family who has sent
  the most students to college

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Family Facilitation

• Dean of Students facilitates discussion to an
  audience of 250-300 parents/family members
• Student Life departments are represented by a
  panel of Deans and Directors
• Senior Associate Dean of Students
• Assistant Dean, Counseling and Health Services
• Director of Residential Living
• Assistant Dean of Multicultural Affairs
• University Judicial Officer
• Assistant Dean for Fraternity and Sorority Life

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Family Facilitation

• Families ask many (uncensored) questions
• What time is bed check?
• Is someone going to call me when my child gets
  sick?
• What do you mean both men and women boys and
  girls are on the same floor in the same dorm?
• Will my students grades get sent to me?

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Training Para-Professional Facilitators

• Orientation Leaders (OLs) reviewed the
  vignettes, discussed responses, were informed
  about campus resources, and learned how to
  facilitate conversation
• Training conducted by Assistant Dean, Counseling
  and Health Services
• One 90-minute session
• OLs were provided the student resource guide and
  a facilitation guide

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Training Professional Facilitators

• Professional Staff reviewed the vignettes,
  discussed responses, were refreshed about campus
  resources, learned their role, discussed how to
  have student facilitate conversations
• Training conducted by the Director of Campus
  Activities and the Assistant Dean, Counseling and
  Health Services
• One 120-minute session
• Professionals were provided the student resource
  guide and a facilitation guide

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Student Small Group Facilitation

• Groups of 20-25 orientation students
• 2 Orientation Leaders were paired up with 1-2
  professional staff
• Vignettes were viewed one at a time with the OLs
  leading discussion with the staff person as
  support following each vignette
• OLs were prepped on how to initiate conversation
• Candy was used as an incentive to get people to
  contribute

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Resource Guides

• Students receive College Life 101A Student
  Resource Guide
• Families receive PartnershipsHere, Now and
  Beyond
• PDF copies of these resources can be found on
  www.drexel.edu/oca/professionalresources

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College 101 Vignettes

• A Call Home (5 min)
• Get Connected (6 min 5 sec)
• One Night, Two Stories (5 min 45 sec)
• The Condition of Being Different (3 min 38 sec)
• The order is intentional based on spurring
  conversation, delving into issues, and expanding
  comfort zones

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A Call Home

• Issues to consider
• Adjustment to campus life
• Moving from dependence to independence
• Academic support
• Academic demands
• Social pressure/peer influences
• Campus culture expectations
• Academic Honesty
• Roommate Conflict

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A Call Home

• Sample discussion questions
• How many of you are the first in your family to
  go to college? First child to attend?
• Did you sign the FERPA form or have any questions
  about the FERPA form?
• Can you see yourself or your parents in this
  video?
• Who would you reach out to if you failed
  something?
• How would you set some guidelines with your
  roommate?
• What are some other resources other than your
  parents?

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Getting Connected

• Issues to consider
• Getting involved while on campus
• Time management
• Leadership development
• Persistence and retention
• Higher level of student satisfaction
• Over 130 student organizations available to join

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Getting Connected

• Sample discussion points
• OLs share in what organizations they are
  involved and why.
• In what kinds of organizations were you involved
  in high school?
• Do you anticipate getting involved in student
  organizations?
• How do you see getting involved to be a benefit?
• How do you think you can balance your school/work
  and involvement on campus?
• What type of things do you like to do?

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One Night, Two Stories

• Issues to consider
• Acquaintance rape/date/sexual assault
• What is it and how does Drexel respond?
• Supporting the victim and the perpetrator males
  vs. females
• Alcohol and other drugs The Universitys
  response
• Drexel University/Internal adjudication and/or
  City of Philadelphia/external adjudication

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One Night, Two Stories

• Sample discussion questions
• How do you just feel about what just happened?
  Was it uncomfortable?
• What factors did you see play into the scenario?
  Could this have been avoided?
• What is rape? What is sexual assault?
• If this happened to a friend, how might you
  respond?
• What are the things to consider when thinking
  about your security?
• What are some safety precautions that you can
  take?

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The Condition of Being Different

• Issues to consider
• Drexel celebrates multiculturalism
• Student Life at Drexel encourages discussions and
  activities between students from different ethnic
  groups
• Philadelphia has a population of over 1.6 million
  people
• All undergraduate student organizations are open
  to all undergraduates regardless of race,
  religion, national origin, gender, sexual
  orientation, or ability

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The Condition of Being Different

• Sample discussion questions
• How many of you come from a small town? How does
  it feel to come to a city?
• How can one go about getting to know someone from
  a different culture or background?
• How might the diverse student body impact your
  experience at Drexel?
• How do you think you would contribute to
  diversity on campus?
• Do you foresee any challenges living on a diverse
  campus? If so, what? If not, why?

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Year-Long Collaboration

• Determine how these vignettes can be used
  year-round
• Resident Assistant/Commuter Assistant staff
  programming
• UNIV 101 course and speakers
• Student Life programming initiatives
• Dont Cancel That Class (DCTC)

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Assessment

• NSO student survey
• NSO family survey
• OL Facilitator Survey
• Professional Staff Facilitator Survey
• results not returned from Institutional Research

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Facilitator Survey

• 1. How did this year go?
• 2. Were any common questions asked or did any
  themes emerge over the various sessions?
• 3. How did the vignettes go over with the
  students? Any recommendations?
• 4. Any comments about your specific
  co-facilitators Student Life and/or OL's?
• 5. How were logistics (e.g. information shared
  with you, location, set-up, amount of time,
  students, etc.) handled? Any future
  recommendations?
• 6. What worked well this year?
• 7. What would you improve for next year?
• 8. What recommendations do you have for training
  for next year?
• 9. What recommendations do you have for joint
  facilitation with Student Life professionals and
  the OL's?
• 10. Any general comments?

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OL Facilitator Feedback

• They let us OL's take over the discussion but
  came to our rescue if we got in a jam and didn't
  know what to say. Also they used their
  experience with their departments (RLO and OCA)
  to help elaborate on topics which was very
  helpful.
• OL's received a sheet of talking points to go
  over so that we could stay on focus. This made
  it a lot easier for me to be mentally organized
  as well as transitioning topics. Also, working
  with mainly the same people all the time helped
  because you got into a rhythm which made me feel
  less nervous.

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OL Facilitator Feedback

• For training, it would be great to have us
  practice facilitating, or maybe to go over public
  speaking skills. Get people used to talking in
  front of a group of students, because I was
  nervous at the first session.
• College 101 was a great experience for me to be
  able to facilitate conversations with the new
  students and to hear what they had to say. Even
  though the students may not have seen the point
  of the films right away, at least they have that
  seed planted in their heads if they need the
  information presented in the future.

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Professional Staff Facilitator Feedback

• Pairings for the most part worked well. Also
  liked working with the same OLs when possible.
• Facilitators that struggled a bit more spent
  much more of their time teaching rather than
  facilitating a discussion.
• Students seemed very hesitant to engage with the
  topics or acknowledge that they would find
  themselves in the scenarios.
• OLs name had a lot to say, and sometimes
  didn't wait for the students to respond.

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Professional Staff Facilitator Feedback

• It would be great if we could have some time to
  develop a rapport with our student facilitators
  and create a joint game plan for how we want to
  facilitate the sessions.
• Better facilitation training for the OL's.
• Add a transfer issues vignette for transfer
  students. Train OLs and Student Staff TOGETHER to
  avoid inconsistencies in conveying information.
• The fact that we did this at all and the
  straight up information that OLs gave about some
  key issues was great.

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Strategies for Implementing at Orientation

• Have more professional staff than the number of
  break-out sessions (conference, vacation, and
  other conflicts arise)
• Have 2 OLs lead each session so they can bounce
  off each other
• Match OLs based on strengths and
  cross-represented demographics
• Match same OLs and professional staff each
  session so that they build facilitation rapport

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Strategies continued

• Have After Action Review meetings with all
  facilitators after the first few sessions to
  address issues, tweak questions, and maintain
  consistency between groups
• Have one coordinator of all the details (OLs,
  facilitators, TV/DVD, books, candy, etc.) to
  check on all sessions in progress, coordinate
  e-mail communication, and manage the schedule.
  This person should not be a facilitator
• Coordinate a joint training of OLs and
  professional staff so they can get to know each
  other and learn the same information together

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Action Plan

• Take 5 minutes and write down some initial
  thoughts
• Feel free to discuss with others in the room from
  your institution or from other institutions

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Presenter Contact Information

• Ann H. Wilson
• Director of Campus Activities
• ahw22_at_drexel.edu
• 215-895-1328
• Jon Kapell
• Associate Director of Campus Activities
• jdk38_at_drexel.edu
• 215-895-1328
• www.drexel.edu/oca/professionalresources.html