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October 2011 Issue April 2011 Issue February 2011 Issue December 2010 Issue October 2010 Issue February 2010 Issue November 2009 Issue September 2009 Issue

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Newsletter of the NASPA SAPAA Knowledge Community

December 2011

In This Issue:

Updates from the Chair   As we approach the holiday season, I hope all is well with you, your family, and your friends. We have nearly reached the end of the fall 2011 semester, and I, for one, am ready for a well needed rest. I would guess you are, too! As we close the fall semester, SAPAA has achieved much. I would like to highlight a few of our accomplishments.  Full Story... Next In Our Series... Partnerships in Enrollment Management Reaching Over the Fence:  Student affairs and Mathematics partner on developmental education At the University of Arizona, our campus faces many of the same challenges that exist at other private and public institutions across the country. At the heart of these challenges often lies the question of, “What are the best ways to increase the retention and graduation of our entering freshmen?” Each year we admit students from across the state and country only to find that approximately 20% do not return for their sophomore year. The reasons vary from financial challenges, distance from home, and for some students the difficulties stem from not having the necessary academic skills to be successful.  Full Story... Career Services Advising Students with Career Confusion: The Disconnect Between Major and Career One of the most common issues addressed by career services is the confusion that stems from a disconnect between majors and careers. In an effort to assist student affairs professionals when approaching this issue, this paper will clarify the relationship between major and career as well as address the active role advisors should play when supporting students. Additionally...   Full Story... Career Services: What Housing and Residence Life Programs Can Do to Support this Important Student Asset In today's economy, college students are more worried than ever about the kind of career options awaiting them after graduation. With bleak reports of job loss in nearly all labor sectors, the ailing economy continues to slash employment opportunities for college graduates. Given the current economic downturn, students are focusing more and more on finding a job and securing an income. According to Edwards (2010), nearly a tenth of college graduates under the age of 25 were unemployed throughout 2010.  Full Story... Updates from Regional Chairs Promising Practices:  The Promising Practices award recognizes promising practices in areas pertaining to Student Affairs and Academic Affairs collaboration. This award is proudly sponsored by the SAPAA Knowledge Community (KC) within NASPA. – Full Details Below... Introducing Tweets on a Theme Please join your colleagues in conversation on twitter. Follow our KC @SAPAA_KC. Tweets on a Theme is an initiative of the SAPAA Communications Committee to promote meaningful exchanges between interested colleagues. Full Details Below... R&S Notable Reads Improving Student’s Attitudes towards Career Decision-Making Improving the process of career decision making among undergraduate college students’ is one of the primary focuses of career centers today. The business school at the “new” university in U.K. administered just such an action research project to help students in their process of career decision making. The term “new” university is an informal way of describing different waves of universities in the U.K. such as, civic and polytechnic universities. Various workshops were introduced into the career planning process that utilized unfreezing techniques (Bazerman & Moore, 2009 as cited in Greenbank, 2011), multiple case studies (Whittaker & van Garderen, 2009), and lectures to empower students’ towards making judicious decisions about their majors and careers (Greenbank, 2011). The data was collected in the form of pre and post-test questionnaires, workshop observations, and student interviews. The survey and interview questions intended to measure students’ attitudes towards career planning and decision making. The authors deduced that majority of the students’ lacked long-term goal orientation, relied on intuitive decision making, and had no interest in being competitive for the job-market by becoming involved in the extra-curricular activities.   Full Story...

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Updates from the Chair:  Shannon Gary

Greetings SAPAA KC Members!

As we approach the holiday season, I hope all is well with you, your family, and your friends. We have nearly reached the end of the fall 2011 semester, and I, for one, am ready for a well needed rest. I would guess you are, too! As we close the fall semester, SAPAA has achieved much. I would like to highlight a few of our accomplishments.

First, our Academic Advising Working Group, led by Julie Nelson of North Carolina State University, launched its Academic Advising blog. Julie and her team have worked tirelessly to inform colleagues nationwide about the blog, and we are confident that it will become a major contributor to conversations regarding hot topics and best practices within the field of academic advising. If you are an academic advisor—or simply interested in learning more about what is occurring in the world of academic advising—I strongly encourage you to visit the blog (http://sapaaissues.wordpress.com) and participate in the conversations taking place.

The Living-Learning Community Working Group, led by Dan Stypa of the University of South Florida, hosted an extremely successful webinar on Wednesday, October 26, 2011. The webinar, titled “Living Learning Communities: From Design to Assessment,” was facilitated by Dr. Liz Kaplon. Dr. Kaplon is the Program Director for Academic Initiatives within the Department of Housing & Residential Education at the University of South Florida. The event was a tremendous success with representation by 87 colleges and universities from across the country.  If you were unable to participate, you can access the webinar using the following link: http://www.naspa.org/kc/sapaa/wg/living_learning_communities.cfm.

The Research and Scholarship Committee, led by Marguerite Bonous-Hammarth of the University of California Irvine and Leanna Fenneberg of St. Louis University, has done an extraordinary job administering the first research grant offered by the SAPAA KC. We had a large number of proposals submitted for consideration. The grant selection process, coordinated by Catherine Adams of the University of California Irvine, was flawless. The proposal selected for the SAPAA Research Grant will be announced in the near future.

Finally, plans are well underway for the 2012 Annual Conference in Phoenix, AZ. As usual, the KC will host a Business Meeting where we will have the opportunity to discuss KC accomplishments and goals.  We also will present the Promising Practice Awards, as well as recognize specific members of the KC for their service. In addition, each working group within the KC will schedule individual committee meetings for its members and those who may be interested in joining a particular working group. Please look out for more detailed information in our February issue. I look forward to all of you joining us this March!

In closing, I would like to thank all of the committees, working groups, and their respective committee members for all the hard work being done to make the SAPAA KC the best KC in NASPA (in my humble opinion). You are all doing a fantastic job, and I could not ask for a better team with which to work. I truly appreciate each and every one of you!

Best wishes,

Shannon Gary
National Chair

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Promising Practices

The Student Affairs Partnering with Academic Affairs (SAPAA) Knowledge Community (KC) recognizes that there are many great examples of promising practices that exist in academia.

The Promising Practices award recognizes promising practices in areas pertaining to Student Affairs and Academic Affairs collaboration. This award is proudly sponsored by the SAPAA Knowledge Community (KC) within NASPA.

We ask that you help us recognize programs and services that promote partnerships between student and academic affairs in a college or university setting. By nominating your colleagues we all benefit from learning about these successful collaborative educational endeavors.

In order to nominate a Promising Practice, please go to: http://www.naspa.org/kc/sapaa/promisingpractices.cfm for the nomination form and the complete details on the application process and timeline.

Nominations will be accepted beginning November 15 and due by December 15. Promising Practices award recipients will be included in the awards booklet at the NASPA Annual Conference and listed on the SAPAA website. If you have questions about the Promising Practice Award or the submission process, please contact Dan Stypa, the Chair of the Promising Practices Award Selection Committee at stypa@usf.edu or 813-974-1995.

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Introducing Tweets on a Theme

Please join your colleagues in conversation on twitter. Follow our KC @SAPAA_KC.

Tweets on a Theme is an initiative of the SAPAA Communications Committee to promote meaningful exchanges between interested colleagues. After you read this issue of Synergy, please tweet your thoughts, comments, and suggestions on the content featured in the newsletter. Be sure to reply to @SAPAA_KC with the hash tags #AcAdv and #Synergy.

Insightful, useful, and topical tweets will be recognized by their publication in the next edition of Synergy.

Questions regarding Tweets on a Theme? Please e-mail Communications Committee member Ross D. Iosefson at iross@usc.edu.

If you have interest in attending a webinar on how to create, manipulate, and maximize a twitter account for professional use, please send an e-mail to Communications Committee member Ross D. Iosefson at iross@usc.edu. Please include your name and institution in your message.

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Synergy Editors: Lianna Scull, Lim College and John Yaun, Marshall University SAPAA Committee Chairs: Nancy Singer, Salt Lake Community College and James Kohl, University of Massachusetts Lowell Web Design:  Linda Snyder, University of California, Irvine