On Deck with Student Affairs Mid-November 2022 Edition

New Student Success Initiative

“Student Success is not just a buzz phrase. The work of student affairs is grounded in a belief in holistic, intersectional, collaborative practices to support and develop our students.” -- Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) website

ECU’s focus on student success can be found in our institutional commitments and it is ingrained, just like with NASPA, in all that Student Affairs does.

Over the past two years East Carolina University, like other institutions across the country, has participated in reflective exercises and assessment focused on developing a greater understanding of student success and access. Committees and departments continue to engage in dialogues with EAB, Georgia State, Elon, and others regarding best practices and the use of data to guide organizational operations to enhance student success and improve access to a college education.

This past year I created a group of Student Affairs educators who were charged with looking strategically at our student services delivery as well as the opportunities for much-needed collaboration and connection. This group, led by Lauren Thorn, includes perspectives from various departments and focuses specifically on the Division of Student Affairs and aligning our data, operational components, and services to support these university efforts. I want to express my gratitude to that team for their diligent work and look forward to the additional insight and innovation they will offer in the future.

During that same time many of us with the division have engaged in discussions with regional and national experts on student success best practices within student affairs. One of the key components we heard from almost all constituents is that there must be a single student affairs educator whose role is solely focused on identifying opportunities for growth and aligning data, operations, and services both across and outside of the division.

As a result, I am excited to announce the creation of the Center for Student Success which will be a new area within the Student Involvement and Leadership unit. This Center will allow us to identify and catalog the “intersectional and collaborative practices” within our division that support and develop our students; thus, creating a more intentional focus on how we collect and use data, as well as connect students to resources and services. Through coordination with institutional stakeholders, the Center will play an integral role in identifying, dismantling, and eliminating barriers to student success. Significant improvement in retention and graduation rates will require meaningful and coordinated efforts across the institution, and this Center will lead our divisional contribution.

Effective January 1, 2023, Lauren Thorn will become the Director of the Center for Student Success for the Division of Student Affairs and report to Dr. Erik Kneubuehl, Associate Vice Chancellor. Lauren will be leaving her role as Associate Dean in the Dean of Student Office where she has served for the past six years. The Center for Student Success will be housed in 282 Main Campus Student Center, and the Financial Wellness Hub will be under its purview. Additional related offices and services will be realigned under the Center to enhance strategic direction and synergy.

As always, thank you for your support of the new Center for Student Success. I am confident the Center will continue to keep the Division at the forefront of the national conversation around innovation, access, and student success.

SMART Goals Get an Upgrade: Be a SMARTIE in Your Office

Jeremy B. Tuchmayer, PhD, Student Affairs Assessment, Research, and Planning

SMART goals were first outlined in 1981 by George T. Doran in his article “There's a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives.” In his article, Doran described how goals should have a meaningful effect on an organization by being measurable, manageable and achievable.

SMART has been a best practice framework for goal-setting ever since. Yet, as focus begins to shift to equity-minded assessment, particularly in the field of education, are SMART goals sufficient? Organizational aims can be enhanced if we endeavor to make our objectives more inclusive and equitable for the students we serve.

A SMARTIE goal gives an all-encompassing, justice-oriented direction to what you want to achieve and defines the criteria by which you can evaluate the outcome. SMARTIE goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound, inclusive, and equitable. Being a SMARTIE with your goal-setting is an equity-minded way to build a blueprint for achieving a specific objective. The elements in this roadmap work together to create a goal that is inclusively, equitably, and thoughtfully organized; and is executable in an attainable, assessable, and practical manner.

SMARTIE goals should be:

• SPECIFIC: Goals must clearly and concisely describe an observable action, behavior, or result. Generally, the more unambiguous and precise a goal is, the more obvious the steps to achieving it will become. The more concisely you are able to answer the who, what, when, where, and why of a goal, the better it will be evaluate.
• MEASURABLE: Goals must describe an appropriate and precise system, method, and procedure which determines the extent to which the objective has been achieved. Such a process ensures there will be evidence that can be tracked to monitor progress. It is advisable to have a benchmark in mind and to determine a baseline measurement when initially formulating your goals.
• ACHIEVABLE: Goals must be attainable and manageable within a specified time frame. Goals that are too complex to measure or accomplish become unwieldy and may stymie the process; yet if they are overly simplistic they risk not being meaningful enough to you or your organization. Goals should be ambitious yet within reach of what is possible. Individuals and organizations must also have the capacity, resources, and authority to make progress on their goals.
• RELEVANT: Goals must be significant and non-trivial priorities and align with the values, beliefs, and strategic objectives of the individuals and organizations who set them. They must also be realistic and feasible. The objective must be challenging and beneficial to the organization and the individuals involved.
• TIME-BOUND: Goals must be bounded by an unambiguous starting time and a specific end date. Time-bound refers to the amount of time allocated to achieve the goal. Time periods too short may not provide sufficient time to properly evaluate one’s objectives, and tight deadlines might also have distressing effects on those involved. On the other hand, open-ended or excessively long periods of time often have demotivating or demoralizing effects due to the length of time it may take to complete the evaluation, and risk becoming moot or irrelevant to an organization’s strategic priorities.
• INCLUSIVE: Goals must represent and embrace all relevant persons, ideas, concepts, or behaviors associated with the objectives to be measured. Goals too myopic in scope risk marginalizing other voices or experiences, limit the relevance of the results, and reduce the effectiveness or impact it may have on the wider community. Goals too broad risk over-simplifying the issue and may fail to account for disparate effects across different populations.
• EQUITABLE: Goals must be just, impartial, unbiased, egalitarian, and fair. Equity-focused goals use multiple sources of evidence appropriate for the communities being assessed, include multiple perspectives, and are transparent in their methods. Goals must limit the number of assumptions being made, and must remain open to nonconformist, creative, or novel ways to investigate and assess situations.

Being a SMARTIE with your goals enhances organizational effectiveness, ensures you are representative of the communities you serve, reduces unconscious bias in your measures, and treats all involved in a fair and equitable manner. Please contact your liaison in Student Affairs Assessment, Research, and Planning to help elevate your SMART goals and be the SMARTIE-pants among your colleagues!

The Peel LGBTQ Center's PRIDE Dinner and Celebration returns on January 7, 2023!

The Dr. Jesse R. Peel LGBTQ Center’s PRIDE Dinner and Celebration returns in grand style on Saturday, January 7, 2023 at 5 pm in the Main Campus Student Center Ballroom. The 2023 ceremony will feature keynote speaker Brian Perrin, Senior Director for Marketing and Advertising at Little, Brown and Company in New York City.

The Dr. Jesse R. Peel LGBTQ Advocacy Award will be presented to Dr. Steve Ballard and Dr. Marilyn Sheerer. Dr. Ballard was ECU’s sixth chancellor (2004-2016) and is now a professor in the Honors College. Dr. Sheerer is the former Provost at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and served in the same role for eight years at East Carolina University (2007-2014). She is now a professor in the Higher Education Leadership program at UNC Wilmington. Together, Dr. Sheerer and Dr. Ballard supported the creation of ECU’s LGBT Resource Office in 2011. The evening includes drinks and hors d’oeuvres beginning at 5 pm with the dinner and program beginning at 7 pm.

The event was established in 2019 to mark the grand opening of the Center. The Peel LGBTQ Advocacy Award was first presented to Dr. Virginia Hardy in 2020 and, in commemoration of the Center’s 10th Anniversary, the Department of Sociology at ECU was honored with the award in recognition of the role they played in helping to found the Center.

Tickets for the event are $65 per person or $500 for a table of eight. Tickets go on sale on tomorrow (November 1) and can be purchased online or by calling (252) 328-4788.