Transcript Leadership Institute

Program Overview
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Colgate University – Residential Education
 History of Leadership Training @ Colgate
 The Leadership Institute
 Challenges & Next Steps
 Questions & Discussion
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Colgate
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2800 Students
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50.4 % female,
49.6% male
Represent 49 States, 34 Countries
17% multi-cultural backgrounds
Profile, Class of 2009
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93% in top 20 of high school class, 80% in top 10 of class
(admitted students)
Average combined SAT 1389
Average ACT 31
Average GPA 3.69
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Colgate, cont.
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Academics
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Liberal Arts
51 majors
Popular majors: biology, psychology, chemistry, English,
art, art history, history, economics, political science,
international relations, anthropology, sociology
Student:Faculty Ratio 10:1
Average class size = 19
86% graduate in 4 years
Nearly 70% study abroad or in domestic sites
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Colgate, cont.
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Division I, 25 Athletic Teams
Patriot League
92% Live on Campus
250 Seniors Receive Permission to Live Off
Campus
Located in Hamilton, NY. Village of 3,800
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Three Challenges For Civic
Learning
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Has to be a campus wide commitment
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The Millennial Generation
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Service-learning
Community-Service
From values to skills
Over-programmed lives and umbrella parents
A more robust definition of democracy
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From government to governance
Public work across difference
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Residential Education
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A Guiding Philosophy For Campus Life
 Capture the educational moment
 Pedagogy for campus life
Three Questions
 What do students need to learn?
 What are they choosing to do outside the classroom?
 How can we tweak it?
Critique of current student affairs model
 From programming to entrepreneurship
 From services to education
 Civic learning in every nook and cranny of campus life
 Intentionality, purpose and reflection
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Implementation
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Five New Cross-Divisional Programs
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First Year Experience
Sophomore Year Experience
Broad Street
Neighbor To Neighbor
Wellness
Examine and Refine Programs and
Procedures In All DoC Offices From Student
Services to Residential Education Model
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Strategies For Moving From
Student Services To Residential Education
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Clearly articulate a set of skills and values for campus life
Continually seek to capture the lost educational moments
Create flexible rules while raising expectations
Shift campus conversations from entitlements to responsibilities
Move from programming to mentorship model
Embrace experiential models over passive learning
Add more social options that encourage engagement and diversity
Focused on self-governance, leadership and personal responsibility
Recognize the challenges of this generation
Weave components together to create an integrated student affairs
program
Get key concepts and theories right
Teachable point of views within an environment of teachers and
learners
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History
How we landed on the
Leadership Institute
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The Path to the Leadership Institute
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Spring 03
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Dean of the College working group
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Student Training - overtraining
Reduce/eliminate redundancies
Reduce overall staff time
Fall 03
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Joint Leadership Training
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Afternoon experience
Followed other training sessions
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The Path to the Leadership Institute
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Fall 04
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Conference style – students given choice
Again followed other training sessions
Focus on interactivity
Fall 05
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Leadership Institute
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Leadership Conference
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Students selected for role
3 day event preceded other training
Student organization officers & members
First-year students
Key Difference
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Skills v Management
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Primary focus on skills students need
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General considerations
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Campus environment in which these conversations can take
place (institutional buy-in)
 Support from top
 Clear vision and purpose
What is motivating the collaboration - not just starting with what
currently exists but starting over together
 Zero-base approach
 Challenge all assumptions
Realities of timeline, deadline
Outcomes brainstorming
Identified areas where offices were doing same things with
different groups
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General considerations, cont.
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Most importantly
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Identify and align leadership model with organizational and
institutional philosophy
Work to develop a sense of seamlessness across experiences
Leadership Development Review
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Cross-departmental group met throughout 04-05
Social Change Model of Leadership Development
Public Achievement
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What we did - Process
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Participants, Planners, and
Facilitators
 Schedule Overview
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Students
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Residential Life Staff
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Resident Assistants
Community Coordinators
Apartment Managers
Link Orientation Leaders
Colgate Activities Board Executive Committee
Student Government Association Executive Board
Center for Outreach, Volunteerism, and Education
Student Interns
Career Services Student Interns
ALANA Cultural Center Student Assistants *
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Core Planning Team
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Student participants drove the membership on the core planning
team.
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Core team identified additional voices that it invited to be
involved in the planning process (Counseling Center, ALANA
Cultural Center).
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Core team also solicited involvement of staff co-facilitators and
alumni.
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Identified specific outcomes, which drove content; developed
detailed facilitation guides for each session.
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Day One: Who am I, and what
does this mean to me?
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Ordinary people doing extraordinary things
Values continuum exercises
Life histories of significant experiences and
relationships
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Day Two: How are we
connected?
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Creative team-builders
Field initiatives
Case studies
Dialogue exercises
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Day Three: How do we
construct community?
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Alumni involvement
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Part of the history of development of LI
Resources with whom students could identify
Young alumni who had shaped and changed
campus culture when they were students
Not experts – asked to help create the process
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Day Three: How do we
construct community?
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Public Problems
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Identified four “public problems” that students
would address in teams
Opportunity to practice skills of power-mapping;
analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats; identifying root issues and causes;
and action planning
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What we learned
Challenges along the way
 Questions for exploration
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Challenges along the way
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Self v. group – Which comes first?
Involvement of staff and alumni as cofacilitators
“Overtraining” v. “undertraining”
What we gave up in respective trainings
Comfort with discomfort
Planning timelines
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Questions for exploration
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What training is necessary for facilitators/alumni?
How do we extend learning activities to position responsibilities?
How do we make connections explicit without reinforcing separate
roles?
How do we follow-up on the public problems?
How do we move to year two – are we wed to this structure?
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How to engage returning students appropriately and
productively
What is the best LI Group make-up (balance class year, returning v
new, roles, gender, race, etc.)?
How can we best assess the program?
How do we assess the impact of this training versus former models?
What are our budget considerations?
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Questions &
Discussion
“Being introduced to a very large network of the Colgate Campus
and learning about the roles that various students had on different
aspects of life here.”
“Working in small groups on our different projects really accentuated
many parts necessary for being a leader…”
“Getting to know leaders of other groups who I will need to work with
later in the year”
“It helped both groups to cooperate together and come to solutions
that probably would have been insufficient in making because we
would only be working as "RAs" or "Links". Plus, many of us were
able to bond well with each other, and that made the experience
even worthwhile and appreciated.”
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Thank you.
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