You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Administration’ category.
United Students Against Sweatshops has extended its remarkable string of victories against clothing-maker Russell Athletic.
This week Boston College and the entire University of California system announced their intention to terminate contracts with RA, bringing to fifty-seven the number of colleges and universities that have disaffiliated so far this year.
The campaign against Russell Athletic stems from the company’s history of anti-labor activity in Honduras, specifically its closing of the Jerzees de Honduras factory in the wake of its unionization.
Tomorrow (Thursday) night at 8 pm SAFER Campus is hosting the New York premiere of University Silence, a documentary on campus sexual assault which SAFER describes as follows:
University Silence is a short documentary film created by Sarah Richardson. It’s a candid narrative by a survivor of a campus assault, describing her struggles with her college administration, and shows how a lack of effective policy and honesty can further compound trauma. If you have any questions about why policy reform is so crucial, this is necessary viewing.
The screening will be held at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center at 208 West 13th Street, with a Q & A to follow. You can find out more info on the screening and RSVP at its Facebook Event page.
“No one likes to be a rat,” University of Minnesota vice provost for student affairs Jerry Rinehart said today. But he’s hoping at least a few students will do it anyway.
The U of M plans to put up a website featuring recognizeable photographs and video of participants in last weekend’s off-campus riot, and will encourage students to anonymously identify those pictured. The information gathered in this way will be turned over to the police. (see update below)
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the Daily, the U of M student newspaper, does not intend to grant the university access to the more than one thousand photos its staff photographers took at the riot.
April 29 update: University officials are giving varying statements about whether website IDs would be turned over to the cops. The Minnesota Daily says Rinehart told them that such students “would most likely face University code of conduct punishment, not criminal charges,” but says that the campus police intend to “forward any information they receive from the website that involves criminal activity to [the Minneapolis Police Department].”
The Student Affairs Collaborative Blog, a group blog of student affairs administrators, has a post up on student leader self-assessment. It lists a dozen questions to help students evaluate their “experience as a student leader.”
Here’s the list:
- What did I learn as a student leader?
- What will I need to remember from my student leadership year?
- Which interactions with others taught me the most about how to work with people?
- What do I know now that I didn’t know a year ago?
- What am I better at as a result of this student leadership experience?
- How would I describe my student leadership experience in 100 words?
- How am I better prepared for the next chapter in my story?
- What would I have done differently as a student leader?
- If I had one hour with a group of newly elected student leaders, what would I want to talk to them about?
- What mistakes did I make this year and what did I learn from them?
- What do I hope to be remembered for as a student leader?
- How could I have done better as a student leader?
I’ve gotta say that the conception of self-assessment presented here strikes me as really, really narrow.
“What did I learn,” it asks. “What am I better at? What mistakes did I make?” These aren’t bad questions. But what about “What did I accomplish?” or “Who did I help?” or “What did I change?”
There’s nothing here to encourage reflection on how the student’s involvement has changed their group or their campus or their community.
And that’s a particularly weird thing for a “student leader” self-assessment to leave out, because if leadership is about anything at all, it’s about change.
What it means to call someone a “student leader,” and whether that term is a useful one, are questions for another post. But if you’re a leader of any kind, you’re by definition leading folks, and you’re presumably trying to get them to a place better than where they are.
And those concepts are pretty much absent in these questions.
To a point, this reflects the nature of the student affairs administrator’s role. Universities are, by and large, not set up to support students’ efforts to make real change, and student affairs personnel are employed by universities, not students.
But I’ve known student affairs people who did actually believe in student empowerment, ones who encouraged students to ask themselves questions that were a lot more searching than these.
And so I turn it over to y’all. If you were preparing a self-assessment questionnaire for student activists, or student government types, or student organization leaders, what questions would you put on it?
What questions should we all be asking ourselves as this school year comes to an end?
The Arizona Students’ Association and the Associated Students of the University of Arizona have put up a powerful slideshow on the University of Arizona’s proposed tuition increase:
The idea behind the slideshow is simple: Let students speak directly to the increase would change their lives. Real students, real impact.
The statements speak to a wide variety of effects — “a third job,” “my little brother’s ability to come here,” “a plane ticket to visit my dad.” Each tells a personal story, and each gives that story a human face.
It’s a great, powerful statement. Go look.
And if you’re running an anti-tuition campaign of your own, maybe you should bring a camera and a whiteboard (or a pad and sharpie) to your next rally.
studentactivism.net 
Recent Comments