1/25/2013
The mission of the Division of Student Affairs is to promote student learning, life skills, and personal growth through a strong focus on holistic student development and collaborative partnerships that deliver superior service to, and care for, students in the spirit of Ut Prosim.
Introduction
This document outlines a plan for the Division of Student Affairs for 2012-2018, which aligns with the vision provided in “A Plan for a New Horizon: Envisioning Virginia Tech 2012-2018.” The division’s plan is focused on facilitating student learning, creating global citizen scholars, and promoting diversity and inclusivity for our campus and beyond. We will accomplish this with a spirit of collaboration among ourselves, the broader university community, and external partners. This plan includes strategies to identify and maximize administrative efficiencies so that the division can continue to be a good steward of university resources.
The vision of the Division of Student Affairs is to ensure that our students graduate from Virginia Tech with a degree that facilitates the pursuit of their professional careers and future aspirations, with a passion for engaging in service that benefits the greater good, and with a life-long curiosity for learning. This vision is fully articulated in our Aspirations for Student Learning. The aspirations are:
· Commit to unwavering CURIOSITY
Virginia Tech students will be inspired to lead lives of curiosity, embracing a life-long commitment to intellectual development.
· Pursue SELF-UNDERSTANDING and INTEGRITY
Virginia Tech students will form a set of affirmative values and develop the self-understanding to integrate these values into their decision-making.
· Practice CIVILITY
Virginia Tech students will understand and commit to civility as a way of life in their interactions with others.
· Prepare for a life of COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP
Virginia Tech students will be courageous leaders who serve as change-agents and make the world more humane and just.
· Embrace UT PROSIM as a way of life
Virginia Tech students will enrich their lives through service to others.
These aspirations will guide every program offered and service provided by the division. They will also frame formal and informal interactions with our students to inspire them to explore new things and to engage in critical reflection on who they are and what they value, so that they can lead and serve the greater good with others in a global community. In every interaction with our students, we will challenge them to connect knowledge to the possibilities for addressing chronic and emerging global issues, while creating a legacy now and in the future.
We will employ a variety of strategies to enhance student learning and prepare our students to be citizens in a global community. First and foremost, we will look to our division’s Guiding Principles for Service as our road map, focusing on learning, service, respect, and innovation.
Guiding Principles for Service
In our work with students, we will follow our division’s Guiding Principles for Service, fostering a community of excellence and opportunity through:
· Learning: We will advocate lifelong learning by challenging and supporting students, faculty, and staff to pursue intellectual, personal and professional development while embracing a variety of life experiences.
· Service: We will, in the spirit of Ut Prosim, provide a quality experience for students, colleagues, and customers that upholds or exceeds expectations.
· Respect: We will embrace the Principles of Community which value inclusiveness and diversity, understanding that every individual should be treated with dignity, courtesy and kindness.
· Innovation: We will continually examine our practices seeking creative and efficient ways to improve while balancing the needs of today and preserving the resources of tomorrow.
With these principles in mind, the Division of Student Affairs will employ a cycle of innovation that allows for the discernment and design of learning environments and opportunities that enhance student learning. We will challenge ourselves to venture into the unknown and then diligently assess the impact of our programs and services. This innovation, creativity, and assessment will allow us to maximize our efforts by focusing on activities that will have the greatest impact on student learning. In doing this, we will create a strong community of care, trust, and collaboration.
We want our students to “know and be known,” by us, other faculty members, staff, and their peers. To build this community, we aspire for the Division of Student Affairs to “know and be known” - across departments within the division and among our university-wide partners (See Appendix). Building this community will only strengthen our team of focused professionals. Together we will work to meet the needs of our students. The division’s physical, human, and fiscal resources are also part of the intended collective and will be pooled to maximize efficiency and enhance student learning. We will be known across campus as a division of caring and competent professionals who create meaningful and synergistic partnerships among ourselves and across the university that promote student learning. Together, we will emphasize quality programs and services over quantity to ensure that the experiences we provide for students are meaningful and create intentional developmental value.
Our Goals
The Aspirations for Student Learning and Guiding Principles for Service will shape our interactions with students. In this plan, we articulate a focus on enhancing learning environments and expanding students’ exposure to our global society, while increasing their intercultural competencies. We will increase our collaborative efforts among ourselves and with faculty and staff across campus. We will explore creative and innovative strategies to maximize efficiencies, integrate technology and digital fluency skill development into our programs and services, and utilize our physical, financial, and human resources wisely so we can best achieve our aspirations. These broad goals will guide our work for the next six years.
Goal 1: Impacting Learning Environments
Committed to the learning enterprise at Virginia Tech, the Division of Student Affairs views employees as educators who are responsible for fostering student learning. The potential for learning in all campus environments is great; thus, places and spaces are created to encourage growth. Programs, experiential-learning options, individual and group conversations, and reflections provide opportunities to engage our students, while exposing them to new information and experiences that promote personal and professional knowledge, skill, and character development. The division also values the overall health and wellbeing of our students and employees and how individual wellness contributes to life-long learning and a healthy work-life balance. Fostering collaborative learning and co-learning with our students within environments designed to promote growth will foster the development of students as unique individuals and further enhance our distinctive university culture.
We strive to impact the student learning environment through the following outcomes:
Learning Outcomes
1.1. Students will develop skills to analyze, interpret, and synthesize information; reason holistically; communicate effectively; work in teams; and appreciate global perspectives, in order to succeed in the global job market and be active citizens.
1.2. Students will understand the importance of overall wellness and will maintain a healthy balance academically, physically, emotionally, nutritionally, professionally, and socially.
1.3. Students will achieve the competencies articulated in our division’s Aspirations for Student Learning, which will provide a basis for life-long learning.
Administrative Outcomes
1.4. Develop a Division of Student Affairs curricular framework through which our departments will create and deliver programs, services, and experiential learning opportunities that support our goals, promote the Aspirations for Student Learning, and inspire life-long learning.
1.5. Identify and develop optimal spaces across campus that will foster student engagement with division staff, faculty, administrators, speakers, and others to promote increased learning.
1.6. Engage in First-Year Experience programs as collaborative partners to share in the learning process of first-year and transfer students.
1.7. Develop learning outcomes for all program areas to ensure intentional, value-added experiential learning for our students and develop supportive assessment tools to measure the levels of learning.
1.8. Develop broad and successful relationships with public, private, and non-profit organizations to increase student experiential learning opportunities (i.e. valuable internships, cooperative education, shadowship, summer jobs, externships, and volunteer experiences).
1.9 Create new spaces for academic advising in residential facilities to increase the number of advising hours provided and students advised.
Linkages to Virginia Tech Plan for a New Horizon: “At Virginia Tech students will analyze, interpret, and synthesize information from a variety of sources; practice holistic reasoning; improve verbal, visual, and written communications skills; organize and contribute to team efforts; gain global perspective; and enhance self-confidence and preparation for a career and/or post-baccalaureate education. These goals are consistent with our current First Year Experience Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) and with proposals to develop theme-based strategies for each academic year involving self-awareness, service, mentoring, and leadership. They also align well with the learning aspirations established by the Division of Student Affairs.”
“We will also explore and expand programs that promote and enhance health and well-being cultural awareness, and life-long learning. Given the competitiveness of the labor market, we will continue to prioritize the development of relationships with public, private, and nonprofit organizations that enable us to provide robust internship and externship opportunities for our students prior to graduation. These opportunities, coupled with exceptional career services, will ensure that Virginia Tech graduates are well-positioned to succeed in an increasingly competitive labor market and, as alumni, to continue to benefit from and contribute to the Virginia Tech community.”
Goal 2: Fostering Globalization and Inclusive Excellence
The Division of Student Affairs supports the Virginia Tech Long Range and Diversity Strategic Plans by reaffirming the university’s institutional commitment to growing and sustaining a diverse and inclusive learning, living, and working environment. The value of promoting and enhancing cultural awareness for the Virginia Tech community is clearly recognized. The division seeks to prepare all members of our community to effectively respond to opportunities presented in dynamic and diverse, domestic and global environments. Through our work and interactions with our students and each other, we will nurture a diverse and inclusive community that supports mutual respect and builds intercultural competencies.
Diversity and inclusion are integral to the division’s contribution to the success of Hokie stakeholders. We recognize that leadership in today’s networked world requires that we co-create with the academic faculty an inclusive and diverse learning culture. By developing the best and brightest minds, our graduates will gain varied perspectives, skills, and experiences that will enable them to work together to meet global demands. The collaboration of cultures, ideas, and different perspectives is an organizational asset that brings forth greater creativity, innovation, and learning. We will ensure that diversity and inclusive best practices are deeply embedded throughout our division.
We strive to foster globalization and intercultural appreciation through the following outcomes:
Learning Outcomes
2.1. Students and division employees will expand their appreciation, understanding, and respect for others who are different than themselves.
2.2. Division employees will develop multicultural competencies to address relevant issues and to offer meaningful services to a diverse student, faculty, and staff population.
Administrative Outcomes
2.3. Develop strategies to promote meaningful interaction between our international and domestic students and find ways to engage international faculty and staff with domestic faculty and staff.
2.4. Establish methods for students to record and reflect upon their experiences that foster multicultural competencies.
2.5. Promote the value of engaging in diverse intercultural courses, activities, and experiences to prepare for employment and community-building in our diverse society.
2.6. Recruit and retain a diverse, multicultural workforce in the division.
Linkage to Virginia Tech Plan for a New Horizon: “As citizens in a global community, our students can only benefit from access to and immersion in rich, cultural experiences; therefore, we will seek to ensure that opportunities for international engagement such as study abroad are viable for as many students as possible. We will continue to pursue the local-global connections that join our resident international students with domestic students and create a diverse intercultural campus environment. Virginia Tech will also strive to develop a learning community built on the principles of inclusive excellence that shape our overall diversity-related activities.”
Goal 3: Creating a Culture of Collaboration and Organizational Efficiency
The Division of Student Affairs will continue to be good stewards of the human, fiscal, and physical resources available to our departments to ensure that they are used to optimize student learning and support the institutional mission and long range plan. In the current environment of cost-consciousness, the division must be creative in implementing efficiencies in the administration of programs and services in order to minimize any potentially negative impact on student learning. We will continue to provide world-class opportunities that align with our aspirations for student learning. We recognize that no single department within our division or the larger university can meet all of the developmental and educational needs of our students. Therefore, we will expand existing efforts and build new collaborations that are based on meaningful relationships and shared learning outcomes so that we can offer more rich and dynamic experiences that enable our students to grow and learn.
A commitment to sharing resources, people, knowledge, and ideas will create partnerships that enhance opportunities for students. Willing and enthusiastic partners always find ways to improve and make a difference in the lives of students. These relationships will be based on an understanding of our partners, their limitations, potential contributions, strengths, and challenges. We will not let assumptions inhibit effective collaboration.
These dynamic partnerships will create an environment that allows faculty, staff, and students to interact in novel and creative ways that reward innovation, particularly those that result in improved services and cost savings. To that end, the division will sponsor opportunities for faculty and staff at all levels, in every department, to learn more about one another and to collaborate together. The goal is that the resulting environment will allow faculty, staff, and students to know one another, understand each other’s work and work together to identify creative, impactful, and cost-saving programs and services that promote and enhance student learning. Strategically identifying opportunities to eliminate redundancies can create additional resources to further expand opportunities to meet our learning aspirations.