Come Together:
The Student Affairs/Academic
Affairs Partnership in Learning
Communities
International First Year Experience Conference
Toronto, Canada
July 2006
Who We Are
• Scott L. Johnson
– Assistant Dean for First-Year and Academic
Support Programs
• Heather D. Maldonado
– Assistant to the Dean for Academic Standards and
Intervention
• Joseph J. Marren
– Assistant Professor, Communication Department
Session Agenda
• Hello Goodbye: Introductions
• Help!: Overview of the Buffalo State Learning
Community Program
• Ticket to Ride: Where the Partnership Began
• We Can Work It Out: How We Achieved Buy-In
• From Me to You: Making It Work on Your Campus
Help!
• What are you trying to accomplish
programmatically?
• What does “partnership” between academic
affairs and student affairs look like?
• What are the obstacles to partnerships between
student affairs and academic affairs on your
campus?
Learning Communities
at Buffalo State
Goals:
– Student success
and retention
– Intellectual climate
– Sense of
community and
connection
Learning Communities
at Buffalo State
• 2006-07 is the 6th year of the program
• 4 to 5 courses with up to 25 students per LC; students must take all
courses in LC (can take additional courses as well)
• Students are required to participate in both curricular and cocurricular events
• Students have option of living on campus or off; there is an LC
floor for residential students; off campus students have 24-hour
access to the LC residence hall
• 20 faculty; 5 student affairs liaisons; 3 librarians
• Budget: $20,000 per academic year for the entire program
• Some have added a part-time spring component to their community
Buffalo State
Learning Community Model
Jazz/Rock Foundations
History of American Life
3 credits
3 credits
Introduction to Sociology
3 credits
College Writing I
3 credits
Integrated Hour
1 credit
Underground
America
F. I. G.
Themed Communities
Example: Underground America: Its Heart and Soul
Behind Elvis Presley's 1955 recording of “Mystery Train” beats
an old, weird America filled with ghosts, beat up Ford trucks,
contracts with the devil, small town hucksters with dreams of
the big time, and the Mississippi River strung like a guitar
string from New Orleans north into Chicago. It's the world that
haunted Bob Dylan, Richard Wright, Bonnie and Clyde
Barrow, Robert Johnson, and Tom Joad. This community will
look at popular music, people's history, and the outlaws and
heroes traveling the lost highways like Route 66 of American
culture. Highlight: a trip to the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame in
Cleveland.
Examples of Themes
• Wasn’t That A Time: Pop Culture, Music and Protest
• Escape the Matrix: Free Your Mind
• The Birth of the Vampire Slayers: Origins of Modern
Thought
• Others for 2006:
–
–
–
–
Be a Hero, Be a Teacher: Creating Change in Urban Schools
And Justice For All
Explore New Worlds: Discover Ideas
Buffalo’s Urban Environment
How Does It All Come Together?
Courses:
HIS 107 History of American Life II
MUS 206 Jazz and Rock Foundations
SOC 100 Introduction to Sociology
ENG 101 College Writing I
LIB 100 Introduction to Library
Research
INS 189 Integrated Hour
Out-of-Classroom Activities:
• Trip to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• Attendance at the theater
production STOMP
• Viewing of Apocalypse Now
Examples of
Other Co-Curricular Activities
• Toronto City Hall/
Courthouse
• Trip to the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame
• Viewing the re-released
version of Apocalypse
Now
• Bob Dylan concert
• Tour of U.N.
• Attending a Buffalo
Sabres Game
• A walking tour of
Toronto’s ethnic
neighborhoods
• Attending the musical
42nd Street
• Underground Railroad
Tour
• Meals together
Why Partnership Made Sense
Where were the bridges that could be built?
1. Residence halls for learning community
students
2. Co-curricular learning opportunities
3. Integration of student development theory
into faculty development
4. Designated student affairs liaisons
Residence Hall Space
Two residential floors were dedicated to support
learning communities. The goals of this
integration were:
1. Residence halls for learning community students
2. Students making deeper connections with faculty
 Faculty office
3. Commuter students see college campus as “home”
 Computer lab
 Kitchen
 Lounge
Student Development Theory
• Psychosocial theories focus on the personal and interpersonal aspects of
students’ lives as they accomplish various developmental tasks or resolve the
inevitable crises that arise. (e.g. Chickering, Erikson, Cross, Heath, and Marcia)
• Cognitive-Structural theories focus on the intellectual development of
students-how they think, reason, and make meaning of their lives. It addresses a
sequence of meaning-making structures through which students perceive, organize,
and make sense of their experiences. The stages are hierarchical and each successive
stage incorporates and builds on previous stages. (Moral: e.g. Piaget, Kitchener & King,
Kohlberg, and Gilligan) (Intellectual: e.g. Perry, and Belenky et. al.)
• Person-Environment theories address conceptualizations of the student, the
educational environment and the degree of congruence that occurs when the student
interacts with the educational environment. Behavior is looked at as a function of the
interaction between the person and the environment. Many person-environment
interactive theories are used in career planning. (e.g. Astin, Moos, and Strange & Kings)
Student development theory synopses taken from the University of Calgary’s Student and Academic Services website:
http://www.ucalgary.ca/sas/sas_site/student_dev.html
Outcomes of Student Development
Theory (SDT) Integration
•
•
•
•
Informed practice
Better learning
Smoother transition
Less faculty
frustration
Hard Day’s Night
• In what ways do student affairs professionals
work with faculty directly? (e.g. what is the role
of student affairs, if any, in your learning
communities?)
• Would you consider your campus culture more
instruction centered or learning centered?
• Can you name some academic goals in the first
year that student affairs could help achieve?
Achieving Faculty Buy-In
• We demonstrated that it was about quality
academic performance.
• We showed how it made the job easier.
• We demonstrated that this was legitimate
research in a complementary discipline outside
their own.
• We presented the material as “tools for their
tool kits” as opposed to “marching orders.”
From Me to You:
Making It Work On Your Campus
• Goals
– What are you really trying to make happen?
– What will “partnership” look like?
• Partnerships
– Who are the stakeholders needed to create
change on your campus?
– How will your partners benefit from the
collaboration?
From Me to You:
Making It Work On Your Campus
Obstacles:
– How will this initiative be perceived in your
institutional culture and its subcultures?
– How can you motivate colleagues to
participate, then reward them for
participating?
– How will you demonstrate that the initiative
and the partnership support the institutional
mission and strategic plan?
Making It Work
On Your Campus
Strategies:
– Test the water for receptivity
– Learn what the needed ally values and
speak to it
– Reciprocity
Hello Goodbye
• Any Questions?
• Thank you for choosing our session! Good luck in your attempts to
make partnerships on your campus.
• Additional reading about the BSC Learning Community
experience: Frazier, Nancy E. “In the Loop: One Librarian’s Experiences
Teaching within First-Year Learning Communities,” College &
Undergraduate Libraries, Vol. 13, no. 1, 2006.
• Contact us:
– Scott Johnson, Assistant Dean for First Year and Academic Support
Programs, [email protected]
– Heather Maldonado, Assistant to the Dean for Academic Standards &
Intervention, [email protected]
– Joe Marren, Assistant Professor of Communication,
[email protected]