The Devil's in the Policies

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I am guilty of having an over-simplified view of right and wrong. I realize that this is who I am, so when a complicated issue arises that could lead to policy development or change, I know that my knee-jerk reaction should not be my final answer. I’ve come to this realization because policy decisions I’ve made in haste have come back to bite me in the…well, you know… 

After reading several posts this week on the NIRSA website that dealt with policy questions, I started thinking about the process that is involved with creating or changing policies. Here is what I try to do:

1. Explore your options.

Identify the problem, state the possible solutions, then list pros and cons for those solutions. Write it down! It’s important to try to see the issue from all viewpoints. Decisions shouldn’t be made on what is easiest for you, but what is best for all stakeholders. Look at your department’s mission and try to find solutions that would best fulfill that mission. 

2. Talk to the devil.

My boss drives me up the wall with his constant “well, what about this…” and “what about that…” But he is the perfect person to help uncover potential problems with a policy. Colleagues and student workers are great resources to help you view problems from different angles. It’s helpful to find someone who can play a good devil’s advocate by drilling you with the tough questions you may get from patrons who could be negatively impacted by the policy. If you can’t answer the tough questions satisfactorily, then you need to change the policy. 

3. Policy vs. Recommendation

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If you want to weigh in on an action or behavior that could potentially be detrimental, remember that policies must be enforceable. If you can’t consistently enforce a policy, then use “recommend” instead. For example, we received a call from a university health service doctor who said that he had treated two students within the period of a week who came in with eye injuries received while playing racquetball. We discussed creating a policy that would require eye protection to be worn at all times while playing racquetball. However, we knew that this policy would be impossible to enforce unless we posted an employee at the courts. Instead of making it a policy, we posted a sign on each racquetball court door stating “Protective eyewear strongly recommended and available at the front desk.” This communicated to our patrons that by playing racquetball, there could be a danger of eye injuries, and presented a solution to mitigate that danger. However, if we had a policy stating that eyewear was required, we could be held liable for injuries sustained if those injuries occurred because we were unable to enforce the policy. 

4. Re-evaluate on a regular basis.

Our facility is constantly changing. We add new equipment and take away old. We discover new technologies that allow us to do things we never could before. Industry standards are always evolving. Because change is the only constant thing, it is important to re-evaluate policies on a regular basis. For example, if a student forgot their school ID card, we used to require them to present a photo ID in order to access the facility. However, when we started using a new recreation software program to control access, we could type in their student number and their picture would come up on the computer screen. We had never had access to student photos before, so the policy that required students who forgot their ID to show a photo ID was unnecessary. We did away with the policy. However, it is important to be especially careful when considering making a policy more lenient. If you change a policy to allow patrons to do something that they haven’t been able to do in the past, and then find that the change was a mistake, the uproar that will occur when you again take away that privilege is far worse than if you’d never changed the policy at all. So be sure to talk to the devil before making the change!

What do you feel are important steps to take when creating policies?

More Than Tossing Out a Ball

As I struggle to become more comfortable with “public” writing, there is one aspect of my blog with which I am pleased: the title. Although “Campus Recreation Reconsidered” is not the catchiest title I’ve seen, still it represents the rekindling of excitement and interest in my chosen profession that began about four years ago. 

Since I started working in Campus Recreation over 25 years ago, I’ve gotten a sense that those outside the profession think that what I do is little more than throwing a basketball out on a court and letting kids play. And honestly, for many years my main goal was just to provide an outlet for college students to be able to pursue their recreational interests and have fun. 

Then the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) published “The Value of Recreational Sports in Higher Education,” which showed that “participation in recreational sports programs and activities is a key determinant of college satisfaction, success, recruitment, and retention.” That’s when the conversation really started to change. Terms like “intentional learning” and “assessment”—words that I had never heard associated with my profession—started popping up at conferences. And I started paying attention. 
Then two things happened that has set my course for the last four years. First, I attended a NIRSA educational session on Student Learning Outcomes, presented by Dr. George Brown from the University of Alabama. During his presentation he talked about the different areas within Campus Recreation where learning can take place, and the importance to identify these areas, establish expected learning outcomes, and assess those outcomes. During this session he also mentioned the book, “Learning Reconsidered 2.” Dr. Brown’s session intrigued me, so when I returned from the conference, I ordered and read “Learning Reconsidered 2.” (You can read the whole book at this link.) I was inspired. 
That’s when the second thing happened to set my course. Right after I finished reading the book, my boss sent an email to the Campus Recreation professional staff asking for volunteers to serve on a Student Affairs Assessment Committee. I jumped at the chance (my Campus Rec colleagues like to say I “dove on the grenade”). 

During the first year, everyone on the committee struggled through what for us was uncharted territory. Most on the committee had not conducted any kind of formal assessments in our areas. We confused “operational assessment” with “student learning outcomes.” We asked for advice from our university’s assessment office, and they seemed almost as lost as we were in trying to determine learning outcomes for non-academic departments. Over the next several years we muddled through the frustration of trying to cram our square peg of “academic support units” into the round hole of student learning outcomes. But we’ve slowly gained understanding, and we’ve continued to pursue intentional assessment within our departments. And even though I’m still not very good at it, I’ve found that I love it. 

I know that studies have shown that participation in recreational sports has value for college students. So now the question that I strive to answer every day is this: does my recreation department’s programs and services have value for our students? This question has led me to pursue different ways to assess my own area of facilities management to see if this is true. I have developed a Graduate Assistant Development Program, where I have established learning outcomes and hope to show that by working as a facilities graduate assistant, my students will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in a professional job. Assessing outcomes for experiential learning has been a challenge, so requiring my GAs to write reflective blogs is my latest attempt to use indirect measures to show that learning has taken place. And I’ve joined them in blogging, for my own professional development. 

So that “grenade” that I fell on has turned out to be my phoenix. My enthusiasm for my department and my profession is renewed daily. I understand, support, and contribute to the process of looking at our programs and services through the lens of how they help us to accomplish our mission. Campus Recreation, reconsidered. Indeed.

Technology and Mantras and Blogs...OH NO!

My Student Affairs Division recently took steps to create a Technology Committee, whose mission was to encourage and support technology use throughout the division. Interested individuals from each department got together for an organizational meeting where ideas were shared and enthusiasm seemed high. The next day a Google Doc was shared with the group that solicited ideas for the committee’s mission and goals, and called for a volunteer to be the committee chair. Out of the twelve people who had attended the meeting, only three submitted their ideas, and nobody volunteered to lead the group. 

I was disheartened. I have only recently started expanding my technology horizons, but I have become passionate about the value of using social media, online apps, and cloud computing to engage students and increase productivity. I wanted this committee—I believed our division needed this committee—but I felt that I was in no way qualified to lead it. Without a leader, I knew the committee would die, so I decided to just stop wishing and hoping for something to happen and pursue other things. 

Later that same day, I read a reflective blog from one of my Graduate Assistants where she related an incident that she had to manage as part of her GA duties. She had to have a disciplinary meeting with a student worker, and she was dreading it because confrontation made her uncomfortable. However, she pressed on, had the meeting, and was pleased with the results, as well as the way she handled the situation. She was gaining confidence because she had developed a “mantra” for the new year: “challenge yourself; do not stay comfortable.” 

My first thought was, “Good for you, Alicia!” 

My second thought was, “Oh, no.” 

I hate when I try things and fail. I get embarrassed, I feel ashamed, and my sense of worth plummets. I know this is silly, and what you do shouldn’t define who you are, blah, blah, blah, but the thought of failing makes me so uncomfortable, that I go out of my way to avoid situations where this might happen. I never took Physics in high school for fear that I wouldn’t make an “A”. I never enrolled in one of my community’s writing classes for fear that people wouldn’t like my stories. I’ve always disliked this characteristic about myself. Now, I could hear my GA’s mantra echoing in my head: “challenge yourself; do not stay comfortable. Step outside of your comfort zone and volunteer to lead the technology committee.” 

Lead a committee of my peers? In an area that was not my expertise? I could fail. Oh, no. 

For the rest of the day I did my best to suppress that idea, and I almost succeeded in ignoring the mantra. But then I read Joe Sabado’s blog entitled “MOOC ‘Meltdown’ or a Learning Experience?” In this article, Joe suggests viewing the outcome of the “Fundamentals of Online Education” MOOC as a “learning experience” rather than a “failure”, and acknowledges the value of “accepting challenges despite the risk of failure” in order to create growth. 

At this point I started hearing a tiny voice in my head that sounded like my GA’s mantra. 

As I read further, Joe also provided a link to another of his articles about the value of making mistakes. Which I also read. And which convinced me that I needed to heed that voice to challenge myself, to not stay comfortable, to volunteer to lead the technology committee. Oh, no. 

So now I am committed. I have volunteered to chair this committee and I will do my best to help it succeed. And if everything falls apart, I have promised myself to treat it as a learning experience rather than a failure. And who knows? Maybe while the mantra is strong I’ll sign up for that writing class after all…oh, no!

I Blame Twitter

As part of my job as a Campus Recreation Facilities Director, I supervise four graduate assistants who are responsible for night and weekend supervision of our student recreation center. They also share responsibility for staff training and development, hiring and scheduling, equipment inventory, and risk management. For the last several years I have required my graduate assistants to submit monthly summaries stating what they did well that month, what they would have done differently, etc. At the end of their 2-year assistantship I review all of their summaries and write my own evaluation of their professional growth during their time as a Facilities Graduate Assistant. Until this month, summaries were submitted as Word documents. That is about to change.

This past fall semester I attended a professional development session on my campus entitled “Social Media and Student Reflection”, taught by Christopher Rice. Among other ideas, he explained how he uses Twitter in the classroom to engage students, creating specific hashtags so that everyone can follow the discussion. Instead of asking students to put away their cell phones, he requires them to pull them out. As I listened to him explain how this worked, I could feel his passion. Here was a person who was willing to step outside of tradition to engage students in a way that they found familiar and exciting. He also spoke of other digital avenues that allowed students to organize class information in meaningful ways, collaborate with classmates, and actually be participants in their own learning by using websites such as Paper.li, Prezi, Google Docs, Google Hangouts, and Pinterest, to name only a few.

Not everyone in the room was buying into the ideas behind Chris’ presentation. Participants expressed privacy concerns associated with using social media. There was overall skepticism concerning the true value of using Twitter as an educational forum. At one point during a Q and A session, Chris was accused of being “glib”, a comment which reflects the opinion of the majority of faculty on this campus who refuse to change their teaching styles to reach students who define themselves, in large part, through their electronic devices. But for me, it was my first peek into what could be. At the time, I didn’t use Twitter, and I didn’t know how it could possibly work as a tool for student engagement in my job, but I knew I had to find out. As Dr. John Schuh, professor and chair of educational leadership and policy studies at Iowa State University, explained in a previous professional development session: It’s not important to understand everything before you begin; the important thing is to just take the first step.

After the “Social Media” session, I logged into Twitter for the first time in months. Using my new-found knowledge of how hashtags work, I searched #highered and found a world of Student Affairs professionals who routinely used Twitter to share helpful tips, discuss educational trends, and present new ideas on student engagement and learning. I created a Diigo in Education account and started receiving daily updates of websites that could help educators use technology to connect with students. I found a surprising world of helpful suggestions, creative ideas, and encouragement that I never knew existed. And it all started with—of all things—Twitter.

Which brings me back to the beginning of this post. Over the past few months, my exploration into the world of educational technology has included reading blogs from colleagues worldwide. I have bought into the idea of continuous reflection as a form of professional development. So beginning this month, my graduate students have been challenged (code word for “required”) to set up their own blogs using Google Blogger, and to subscribe to at least two blogs within their graduate program area of interest. They will be encouraged to not only complete monthly reflections, but also to use the blog as an opportunity to discuss other thoughts and ideas on a more regular basis. 

I am very excited about having extended this challenge. I am also nervous, because I have included myself in this challenge. In my efforts towards continuous growth, how can I not make the same requirement of myself as I do of young professionals? So this is for all those GAs who have gone before, to those who are currently here, and to those yet to come. You inspire me to find ways to challenge you, and it’s because of you that I continue to reach for more. This blog’s for you.