SA Matters
SA Matters is a free weekly eNewsletter for student activity professionals
Most RAs sign on because they want to help other students. What they sometimes find, however, is that they end up being the administration’s rule enforcers, says Ted Wachtel, president of the International Institute for Restorative Practices.
“RA’s feel whipsawed,” he says. “While many residential life departments say their mission is to build community on campus, when it actually becomes time to confront problem behaviors, they resort to punitive measures. This stigmatizes and excludes community members rather than bringing them together with their peers to find community solutions to what are ultimately community problems.”
At first, the generation was predicted to change the world; later came less flattering portrayals, Shupp says.
“When I was in graduate school getting my degree in student affairs, Millennials Rising had come out, and it painted a picture of a generation that was going to take the world by storm and have this newfound energy and change the world,” he says. “But 10 years later, a lot of portrayals started coming out, mostly in the popular press, about how this generation was apathetic and lazy.
“What a change 10 years makes.”
This is an opportunity to involve colleagues and students to find out what they want and need. You’ll likely find a range of desires, including those that meet very specific needs regarding helping students acquire skills in organization, communication, and cooperation.
You might also find great interest in the academic study of leadership and how that leadership can improve the world around us. Find out what courses are already offered on your campus about the study of leadership.
For Carmen Rivera, director of College Access at Colorado State University and becky martinez, Ed.D., organizational development consultant and trainer, the process begins with understanding the concept of social justice. This concept is defined in Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice: A Sourcebook as “a vision of society that is equitable and [in which] all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure.”
As student demographics change, so must our programming for students of color, says Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington, president of a Maryland-based a multicultural organizational development firm.
