Program Overview l Colgate University Residential Education

Program Overview l Colgate University – Residential Education l History of Leadership Training @ Colgate l The Leadership Institute l Challenges & Next Steps l Questions & Discussion 2

Colgate l 2800 Students l l l 50. 4 % female, 49. 6% male Represent 49 States, 34 Countries 17% multi-cultural backgrounds Profile, Class of 2009 l l 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 3

Colgate, cont. l Academics l l l l Liberal Arts 51 majors Popular majors: biology, psychology, chemistry, English, art 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 4

Colgate, cont. l l l 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 5

Three Challenges For Civic Learning l Has to be a campus wide commitment l l l The Millennial Generation l l l Service-learning Community-Service From values to skills Over-programmed lives and umbrella parents A more robust definition of democracy l l From government to governance Public work across difference 6

Residential Education l l l A Guiding Philosophy For Campus Life l Capture the educational moment l Pedagogy for campus life Three Questions l What do students need to learn? l What are they choosing to do outside the classroom? l How can we tweak it? Critique of current student affairs model l From programming to entrepreneurship l From services to education l Civic learning in every nook and cranny of campus life l Intentionality, purpose and reflection 7

Implementation l Five New Cross-Divisional Programs l l l First Year Experience Sophomore Year Experience Broad Street Neighbor To Neighbor Wellness Examine and Refine Programs and Procedures In All Do. C Offices From Student Services to Residential Education Model 8

Strategies For Moving From Student Services To Residential Education l l l 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 9

History How we landed on the Leadership Institute 10

The Path to the Leadership Institute l Spring 03 l Dean of the College working group l l Student Training - overtraining Reduce/eliminate redundancies Reduce overall staff time Fall 03 l Joint Leadership Training l l Afternoon experience Followed other training sessions 11

The Path to the Leadership Institute l Fall 04 l l Conference style – students given choice Again followed other training sessions Focus on interactivity Fall 05 l Leadership Institute l l l Leadership Conference l l l Students selected for role 3 day event preceded other training Student organization officers & members First-year students Key Difference l Skills v Management § Primary focus on skills students need 12

General considerations l l l Campus environment in which these conversations can take place (institutional buy-in) l Support from top l Clear vision and purpose What is motivating the collaboration - not just starting with what currently exists but starting over together l Zero-base approach l Challenge all assumptions Realities of timeline, deadline Outcomes brainstorming Identified areas where offices were doing same things with different groups 13

General considerations, cont. l Most importantly l l l Identify and align leadership model with organizational and institutional philosophy Work to develop a sense of seamlessness across experiences Leadership Development Review l l l Cross-departmental group met throughout 04 -05 Social Change Model of Leadership Development Public Achievement 14

What we did - Process l Participants, Planners, and Facilitators l Schedule Overview 15

Students l Residential Life Staff l l l l l 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 * 16

Core Planning Team l Student participants drove the membership on the core planning team. l Core team identified additional voices that it invited to be involved in the planning process (Counseling Center, ALANA Cultural Center). l Core team also solicited involvement of staff co-facilitators and alumni. l Identified specific outcomes, which drove content; developed detailed facilitation guides for each session. 17

Day One: Who am I, and what does this mean to me? l l l Ordinary people doing extraordinary things Values continuum exercises Life histories of significant experiences and relationships 18

Day Two: How are we connected? l l Creative team-builders Field initiatives Case studies Dialogue exercises 19

Day Three: How do we construct community? l Alumni involvement l l 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 20

Day Three: How do we construct community? l Public Problems l l 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 21

What we learned Challenges along the way l Questions for exploration l 22

Challenges along the way l l l 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 23

Questions for exploration l l l 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? l l l 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? 24

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. ” 25

Thank you. 26