November 11, 2015 Minutes

Dean of Students and Associate Vice President for Campus Life Adam Goldstein presented on the recent reorganization of both his department as well as the entire Campus Life Division.  His presentation included alarming statistics of alcohol use in our current student body.

View the presentation here.

Personal Background:

  • Started working at WFU July 1, 2014; while he may be new to WFU; WFU is not new to him
  • Diana (his wife) graduated from WFU (BA, 1990) and worked for Residence Life as an RA – a “Fun Fact” is that she was one of the first women to be given a male floor
  • WFU has been his picture of what an ideal collegiate environment looks like; he is fully invested and in fact, has had over 100 students in his home to personally welcome them and to deliver the message that they are never alone
  • He received degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (BA); University of Georgia (M.Ed.), and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia
  • He has worked at both private, public, urban, and rural colleges including Drexel University, Florida State University and Georgia Southwestern and University of Georgia.
  • Position here is a consolidation of the various parts of his previous jobs that he enjoyed

Leadership Team

Dr. Adam Goldstein, Associate Vice President and Dean of Students

Donna McGalliard, Dean

Andrea Bohn, Assistant Vice President

Campus Life Division and Leads (Penny’s Direct Reports)

Campus Recreation – Max Floyd

Chaplain’s Office – Tim Auman

Dean of Students – Adam Goldstein

Learning Assistance Center – Michael Shuman

Pro Humanitate Institute – Mary Gerardy

Residence Life and Housing – Donna McGalliard

University Counseling Center – James Raper

University Police – Regina Lawson

Well Being/Thrive – Malika Roman-Isler

Student Health Services – Cecil Price

Campus Life Mission – To prepare students to lead lives of meaning and purpose.

Strategic Direction:

  • Lead a comprehensive approach to community wellbeing
  • Cultivate an inclusive community
  • Prepare students to lead in a diverse environment
  • Foster peer engagement leadership and accountability
  • Integrate local and global civic engagement and responsibility

*All of our offices touch all of these areas; students will get a consistent message

Office of the Dean of the Students Structure

  • DOS Leadership and Operations
  • Intercultural Affairs
  • Student Engagement – Greek Life, Student Union, different programming vehicles that support life of a student; very important to our students
  • Student Conduct (lead by Valerie Holmes); moving from moving from parental/ hiearchial approach to partnering with students in the learning experience; we don’t want a formula – outcomes were fines/services and not at all related as to the behavior nor were they effective; reevaluating our causes reflection connect outcomes to the experience; fines have caused  ahit to our budget
  • Campus Programs and Services (lead by Steve Hirst); brings student employees outside of traditional roles to shape them to look more into the environments they are in; student staff helping student organizations manage their resources; allows University Police to focus on safety; manage risk with them as opposed for them
  • CARE Team and Case Management (Adam co-chairs)
    • Recently hired a full-time Case Manager (Sarah Tooley); this has enabled us to be able to increase the personal care we can provide. There is a single point of contact for families coming to campus; also tracks students in crisis

Select Priorities

  • Increased sense of belonging and engagement in community – train our students to lead within their social context; develop curriculum; measure success; if we have less students going to hospital then we have been successful
  • Increased support for student organizations, the events they plan and the risks they manage
  • Focus leadership development training on harm reduction
  • Shift from parenting to partnering – instead of telling them; showing them what that leadership looks like
  • Increased connection between sanction and reason for hearing
  • Increased student/staff presence on campus after work hours to support student programs
  • Increased early intervention contacts that reduces likelihood of high-risk incidents

Are we inclusive? – national, local and personal conversation (biased incidents/community in progress

Where do students need our help? – Dealing with harmful alcohol consumption and environmental prevention

Support for Student Organizations:

  • Leadership Training that focuses on harms within the social context
  • Event Resource Managers – providing support for daytime and evening events
  • Event Planning Meetings – providing personal advising and better coordination of services during the event planning process
  • Eventbrite (on-line ticketing)
  • Emphasis on Advising

Leadership Team:

  • Amy Ciaccia
  • Adam Goldstein
  • Steve Hirst
  • Valerie Holmes
  • Sarah Tooley
  • Tim Wilkinson
  • TBA – Assistant Dean of Intercultural Affairs

*14 staff members in the Office of the Dean of the Students have been in their positions less than 1.5 years

Bias Incident Response System

  • Introduced in Fall of 2014; while not perfect it has enabled us to capture a wider net of experiences within the social environment to offer more immediate support and coordinated response (http://reportbias.wfu.edu)

2014-15 Response Team (92 bias reports referring to 50 unique incidents were submitted):

  • Adam Goldstein
  • Angela Mazeris
  • Tanya Jachimiak
  • Jose Villalba
  • Donna McGalliard

Bias within Social Context:  Threatening and offensive language written on University property, verbally communicated, or published via Yik Yak, Facebook, and other forms of social media

Reports described perpetrators targeting students, faculty and staff with racial slurs, religious slurs and slurs based upon gender, national origin, and sexual orientation.

*System resulted in the timely, personal and caring outreach to individuals who experienced bias related harm

Community in Progress website

Bias Incident Reporting System

ODI Led Survey – diverse learning environment

AWFUBA Parnership:  Graduation Gala and Celebration of Black Excellence

High Risk Drinking – 49% of WFU students reported consuming alcohol in the past 12 months

 

Changing these  will require systematic change and alignment throughout our community

  • Education – community wide alignment on training programs, services, resources policy design and policy implementation
  • Early Intervention – systems that intervene in problem behavior to prevent escalation and potential for (greater) harm
  • Response – systems that react post-incident/harm to assist harmed party, effectively sanction, and remediate source causes for harmful environment
  • Increase consistent and effective communication of expectation to students (1) who serve as social hosts for parties that provide alcohol and (2) who are approached by University staff with concern of their party management
  • Early Intervention – expand the Event Resource Manager program to increase staff presence in high risk areas. Intervene to deter high risk behaviors from resulting in harm
  • Increase consistent and effective policing of off-campus parties that are disruptive and/or high risk for harm and increase awareness of expectations
  • Increase presence and communication with community partners that intervene or provide care to students who are intoxicated and require assistance
  • Increase consistent and effective communication of concern about high-risk alcohol consumption on campus, off campus, and in the student tailgate areas with students, parents, and after an incident
  • Review and improve sanctioning for alcohol-related misconduct to align with the nature and severity of the violation
  • Develop a leadership training series that teaches skills and rewards actions that reduce alcohol-related harm in social environments

Experiencing transformation of Campus Life and relationship with students (under Dr. Penny Rue’s leadership)

New Questions/Dilemmas:

  • Learning-centered – from parenting to partnering with students
  • Use of Prevention framework to reduce harm
  • Student activism and the path to inclusion

The Children’s Home

Guest Speaker: Norman Jameson

Norman Jameson, Communications Officer for The Children’s Home spoke about the organization’s current and upcoming initiatives – including the hat and glove drive to keep children warm happening in November and December (flyers to be passed out). Highlights below:

  • Struck at the similarities between problems here and the population they serve; the big difference is resources
  • Available Resources:  Restart (drugs, etc.), Intensive In-Home Therapy, Emergency Care
    • First Option – Keep in home under supervision of parent who is abusing
    • Second Option – Relative placement (uncle/aunts)
    • Third Option – Foster care (constantly trying to recruit foster care parents)
    • Fourth Option – Children’s Home (want to be the first option); there is a school on Campus called Kingswood for students that have been suspended from Forsyth School System to help them keep up with curriculum; utilize Equine Therapy – use large animals as they have special abilities to perceive emotions.

Standing Committee Report Outs:

Communications:  

  • New SAC Newsletter format – would appreciate feedback/suggestions (57% open rate)
  • New link to calendar invite
  • All requests for newsletter submissions due to Jen and/or Sarah two weeks prior to regularly scheduled SAC meeting; will send out reminder as date nears
  • Newsletter will consistently be sent out a week before a SAC meeting

Work-life Balance:

  • No events right now; however, the Committee remains committed to communicating with our constituents to encourage participation.
  • Seeking information on where interest is

Events:

  • Date/location for 2016 picnic will be announced soon

Professional Development:

  • Focus is on Professional Development emphasis week (December 7th to 11th, 2015); will be theme days
  • Goal is to spotlight current offerings because we don’t have time to develop anything new
  • Could use help from Committee in marketing as the budget is zero (SAC & PDC Newsletters)
  • Increase social media for PDC; create a repository of resource groups on PDC website
  • Increase PDC exposure to those without computer access so they still receive news about PDC class offerings
  • Possible Buddy/Mentoring program for staff

Pro Humanitate:

  • Partnering with Events Committee on Accessory Drive for Children’s home

Membership Committee:  

  • No update

Fringe Benefits:

  • No update

Outside Committee Report Outs:

  • Faculty Senate – Jim Strodel from Captrust spoke about new retirement updates; had similar questions that staff had at the last SAC meeting
  • Parking/Transportation Committee – the electric car charger will be repaired next week; they have started shuttle service from Benson to the Innovation Quarter and from Innovation Quarter to Baptist Hospital
  • Tree Advisory Committee – No update
  • Chaplain’s Emergency Fund – No update
  • Finance Advisory Committee – No update
  • DIPC –
    • Shayla Herndon-Edmunds has been promoted to Director of Diversity Education
    • Members of the Council reviewed the results of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).  The IDI is a cross-cultural assessment of intercultural competence that is used to build intercultural competence to achieve international and domestic diversity and inclusion goals and outcomes.
    • The Office of Multicultural Affairs is now the Intercultural Center – the office has expanded the support services beyond African American student demographics.    
  • Capital Planning Committee (construction on campus continues):
    • Kitchin Residence Hall remodel continues (first phase completed)
    • Reynolds Gym remodel continues
    • HES will begin teaching in their new classroom beginning in Spring 2016
    • Freshmen Residence Hall will be finished in December of 2016; this will create 220 new beds for students; lost parking will also be regained by then
    • McCreary Field House will finish up in January
    • There will be a review of the campus master plan (Sharon Fortner inquired as to whether or not we can submit ideas – Craig to check)

General Announcements:

Employee of the Year:  Exempt – Ken Bennett / Non-Exempt – Darlene Starnes

35 eligible to vote; 29 participated (82% participation rate)

BCBS Wellness Credit:  WFU Faculty and Staff that complete the online health assessment between July 1 and December 31, 2015, will be eligible for a $50 health insurance credit in January 2016.  Please note that during this time, no credits are required and no credits will be given for participating in other activities.  More information is provided on the PDC website.

PTO Donation Program: One of the many benefits of working at Wake Forest University is our generous PTO package that we are afforded each year.  As we near the end of the calendar year, please take this opportunity to look at your PTO balance in NovaTime.  If you do not feel like you will be able to use all of your PTO, you may consider participating in the Voluntary Shared PTO program which allows you to donate some of your PTO to someone who may need it.  Wake Forest offers this as an option for colleagues who experience prolonged medical conditions that result in him/her being placed on a qualified medical leave.  This would be a wonderful alternative to losing PTO.  If you would like to donate PTO, please complete a PTO Donor Form and return it to Human Resources via campus mail, fax 758-6127, or scan it to askhr@wfu.edu.   

Upcoming Meetings:

December:  Suzanne Reynolds, Dean of School of Law

No January Meeting

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