Helping VPSL
This has been the biggest change for Jim since stepping into VPSL role.
What is physical move to office and building floor that has very little student presence.
Breaking this narrative
When Student Life staff members ask you to discuss what initiatives the Division is working on & how all of these departments are working together, you would use this as your guide.
What is the 'Student Life 2023-2024 Initiatives' shared document?
Percentage of time spent with College leadership (President, Provost, Trustees)
What is 15%
183
What is the average number of (SMC Only) emails Jim received on a daily basis, including weekends, over past 2 weeks?
These are the times when Jim gets most frustrated with our Division (2 options!).
What are when folx are asked to be prepared and are not?
OR
When opportunities aren't taken to share you or your team's talents
This is discussed as an issue in regards to org/club/team transitions, student creativity, and juniors/seniors successfully modelling.
What is the lack of student leadership programs and a step-ladder for student involvement?
What are the the Division's five priorities?
What is (in no particular order):
* Improve and increase weekend activities
* Improve lived experiences of all students
* Be intentional in how division supports student well-being
* Create coherent division student leadership strategy
* Align with Transformation 2028 in order to secure staffing, budget, housing retention to move forward
10% of VPSL's time is spent on this and Jim wishes it were more
What is direct student interaction?
7
What is the average amount of weekday meetings Jim attends.
Emergency prep, student well-being, & retention (to SMC & housing)
What are things that keeps Jim up at night?
Improving dining, the bookstore, post-office, and other auxiliaries along with increasing opportunities for grad students.
What is the lived student experience?
budget and staff
What are the two top things discussed with Jim in his divisional 1-on-1's.
The majority of Jim's time (40%) is spent on this.
Who are direct reports and day-to-day work?
Jim provides student-voice, campus climate, and systems thinking to this group.
Thought partners, respected, commitment, expertise in own area, & ambassadors of the College
What are Jim's thoughts of the strengths of student life leaders?
An area that includes fitness classes, DIY activities, services out of Health Center & CAPS, and others and also a noticeable reason for first year student dropouts.
What is supporting student well-being?
These are a few of the gap areas Jim sees in the Division.
What are:
* Positions that work across departments rather than within a department
* Health/wellness education
* Intentional design of programs/initiatives to support housing occupancy, which = retention to SMC
* assessment and data collection
* deficit thinking
The percentage of time the VPSL spends on Committees, Task Forces, Working Groups, etc.
What is 20%?
5th of 10 and 3rd of 10
What is the rank of the division's total budget in relation to other divisions?
and
What is the rank of the division's staff salary pool in relation to other divisions? (Only behind Acad Affairs & Athletics)
These are the areas of biggest concerns as the Division moves forward (think broadly, not specific).
What are:
* ability to sunset, consolidate, and end
* connecting to strategic plan and doing assessment that measures that connection
* moving away from crisis to crisis in order to intentionally improve
* division structure
Every Student Life department has been asked to contribute to the retention and increase in this.
What is housing occupancy?
These are three things that Jim is most proud of the Division accomplishing since May 2023.
1) Stabilizing staffing
2) Increasing large-scale events & implementing Enhancement Fee Initiatives
3a) Improving Student Life's reputation on campus
3b) Stepping up & into challenging conversations (i.e., Middle East)
15% of the VP's time is spent on these groups who are not students or SMC employees.
Who are parents, donors, rugby board, alumni, consultants, external auditors (i.e., WASC), vendors (i.e., Sodexo)?
159
WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED A TON!