The Higher Education Blog

6 Tips for Getting the Most Out of NACA Events for Your Delegation

chrisn — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:30:00 GMT

Plan for your delegation and get the most out of NACA events! Consider implementing some of these quick tips.

1. Use the conference as a training opportunity for future leaders rather than a reward for long-time leaders. Utilize the College Student Leader Competency Guide to determine potential learning outcomes for each student attending.

2. Invite students who will be at your institution for at least one more full academic year.

3. Disperse members of the delegation to cover as many sessions as possible. Don't have two or more members of your delegation in the same session.

4. Balance the interests of the institution, student organization and the individual when determining which sessions each delegate should attend.

5. Have a group debriefing after attending a block of sessions or the conference as a whole so everyone receives the benefit of as many sessions as possible. This group could also include student and staff members at your institution who could not attend.

6. Follow up with each attendee to determine if they achieved their learning outcomes

If you have more ideas on how to better your delegation's experience at NACA events, share them in the comments!

Professors Create Fake Students to Spark Online Discussions

chrisn — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:19:00 GMT

The Chronicle of Higher Education posted a story today about three professors who created fake student accounts for their online classes and used those "students" in online discussions. Two of the professors said the students had no idea that they had created fake online students, while the third professor told his students at the beginning of the class that he'd be posting in the discussions as a fake student.

The professors said that getting group discussions going is extremely difficult for online classes, and that many students tend to drop out of online classes mid-way through. But is this what higher education really wants? Do we want professors who pose as students mingling online with students? Some of the profs even admitted that they were close to the edge of faculty ethics and students in the story were not happy with the professors' actions.

What do you think? Is this just a clever way to get an online class discussion going or did these professors step over the line on this one?

Government Will Start Lending Directly to Students

chrisn — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:53:00 GMT

Yesterday, an opinion piece was published in the Colorado Daily outlining some of the ways the government was going to start directly lending money to students in order to encourage young Americans to earn their degree and to help with the costs of tuition.

Some of the facts from the article:

1/2 of the fastest growing jobs in America require a bachelor's degree or advanced degree
Cost of the average tuition is increasing 10 times faster than a typical family's income
Eligible families could now receive a $2,500 tax credit to help with tuition costs
Certain student loans would be lent straight from the government to the student/family, instead of through banks

The direct lending from government to student is supposed to save the government billions of dollars over the next few decades, and helps promote President Obama's plan for America to have the highest college graduation rate in the world by 2020.

Swine Flu on College Campuses

chrisn — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:41:00 GMT

Several colleges and universities are testing students for possible cases of swine flu on their campuses. This morning, InsideHigherEd.com posted a story on their site about several schools testing for this type of flu and what the schools are doing in response to events, travel to Mexico, and study abroad programs.

Let us know what's happening at your school by leaving a comment below.

Difficulties in Job Searching

chrisn — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:59:00 GMT

In last month's issue of Campus Activities Programming magazine, Megan Stumph from www.Cbcampus.com wrote a great article about college graduates persevering through difficult situations while looking for jobs (read the pdf here). She highlighted several specific experiences of college grads and offered up some advice for those trekking through the job market.

Here are a few recommendations from the article:

1) Focus your resume and cover letter on the positives. If some of your college courses relate directly to the job you're applying for, mention them in the cover letter. If you balanced school and job to pay your way through, mention your drive and determination.

2) Be persistent in making contact with places you'd like to work for. Show them you know how to work hard for something.

3) Continue self-improvement. If you're working right now, consider how additional education could increase your pay or advance your career further down the road.

Read "When Your GPA Is Less than Stellar and Other Obstacles" and leave a comment below.

Educators or Police Officers?

chrisn — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:03:00 GMT

For years, campuses around the country have tried to stop, or at least prohibit, their students from illegally sharing files with other students and downloading copyrighted music on campus. Schools have had to not only designate manpower to fight this ongoing battle, but have had to use their own funds in order to stop it as well. And now the rest of us get a glimpse into what these institutions are having to pay...

This month, a study was released called the Campus Computing Project that shows just how much schools are averaging for supporting the strict policies that Congress has set up for them to meet. This pas August, Congress tightened the enforcement requirements in the Higher Education Act, which the report says will further increase the amount of money institutions have pay for keeping their students out of online trouble. The report says the average public campus spends over $20,000 a year on licensing fees for software that curbs illegal file sharing and other peer-to-peer (P2P) services; while private institutions are averaging around $100,000 per year.

Some feel that the amount of time, energy and expense these schools pay to fight copyright infringements is a waste of educational resources and turn our institutions into law enforcers rather than educators. Others believe that schools have a real responsibility to keep their students from breaking copyright laws while they reside on the school's property.

What do you think?

The High Price of College Textbooks

chrisn — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:36:00 GMT

It's nothing new for college students to bring up the high cost of textbooks, but up until this week a website run by an anonymous student was giving students a break by providing pirated versions of their books.

The website, Textbook Torrent, was discovered by the publishers of the textbooks after a story was printed about the site in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Although the site's owner reluctantly shut down the site, he urged other to take his place against the publishers and start their own sites for illegal downloads.

What do you think about the high cost of textbooks?

Update: Univ. of Illinois May Enforce Political Measures on Students

chrisn — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:29:00 GMT

Last week I blogged about the University of Illinois deciding that faculty and staff may not wear political buttons, use bumper stickers or attend on-campus rallies that favor either presidential candidate; now the school may be extending its measures to its students.

What do you think about this?
Does the school have a right to implement these measures on its employees? On its students?

University of Illinois Tells Employees Not to Express Political Leanings on Campus

chrisn — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:36:00 GMT

InsideHigherEd.com recently posted a story about the University of Illinois sending out an official memo from the ethics office to its faculty, staff and all employees telling them not to attend on-campus political rallies, refrain from having political bumper stickers on their cars, or even wear a button showing support for a particular political campaign. This memo has caused controversy within the school resulting in some employees saying the school is imposing on their freedom of speech.

A spokesman from the school said that the university president, Joseph White, was aware that faculty members were concerned about the memo, but went on to say that the policy is still in affect. Although the memo is not currently being enforced, a number of faculty, including a Urbana-Champaign campus professor who is also the president of the American Association of University Professors, have begun circulating a draft that shows their deep concern for the school's apparent disregard of the employees' right to free speech. Once part of the draft states,"Although these rules are not at present being enforced, the AAUP deplores their chilling effect on speech, their interference with the educational process, and their implicit castigation of normal practice during political campaigns.”

During political campaigns, most colleges and universities are aware that they aren't supposed to show any political leanings towards candidates, given their non-profit status and use of public funds, but some believe the University of Illinois has overstepped the normal actions during a campaign season.

What do you think? Leave a comment below, or join in the discussion on the Education Forum...

Colleges & Universities Crack Down on Off-Campus Violations

chrisn — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:30:00 GMT

by Chris Neiger

A little while ago the AP ran a story about colleges and universities extending the enforcement of their conduct codes to students who who commit violations off campus.

It's way of making sure students are obeying the conduct codes they agreed to abide by while on campus (and in some cases off campus), but some people think the education institutions are over-stepping their bounds on how they keep tabs on their students. The story mentions that Duke University states in its student code of behavior that a student is required to notify the university if they see a fellow student violating the code of conduct. Whether on campus or not.

Seattle University has used Facebook to find and shut down parties while Boston College sends out a college official to find students at parties and other locations to try to catch them in illegal activities. The story didn't mention any specific cases of students bringing lawsuits against schools for this enforcement, but they did interview an attorney who formerly worked with the American Council on Education that said that he expects challenges to this kind of enforcement in the future...

We want to hear from you about this story. Post your comments below or discuss your thoughts in the Education forum.

You know what really grinds my gears???

evans437 — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:34:00 GMT

Despite the Family Guy reference in the title, this next article is going to talk about the graduate assistantship process and how one would go about this process. First of all, I think that the NACA National Convention is a GREAT place to interview for graduate assistantships. With the evolution of this new joint partnership with NASPA (National Association for Student Personnel), ACUHO-I (The Association of College and University Housing Officers - International), NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) and ASJA (The Association for Student Judicial Affairs) combining to make "The Placement Exchange", it has become the ideal place for new job hunters to go and look for jobs after their graduate assistantship.

If you think I am going to talk about the job search process, you may want to stop reading here. Since I am going into my second year of graduate school, I have just one more year of being a student and then I must join the “real world” workforce. I don’t know about you all but if I hear anything about joining the “real world” when graduate school is done, I think I am going to explode. To be honest, what is it that we do then? Is everything that happens during my assistantship surreal? I will tell you this much the amount of hours that are put in my graduate assistants sure aren’t surreal, HA! But, on the flip side, it’s the experience that we are being paid with, not just the VERY small amount of money. That portion of the article is coming soon so stay tuned. As for what to expect when going into an interview for an assistantship, just be you! There is nothing more frustrating than interviewing a candidate that doesn’t end up coming off as well as their resume seemed to portray them. For those putting resumes together, don’t use words in your resume or cover letter that you wouldn’t normally use in real life. If you are trying to say something like, “I work well in a team setting regardless of the individual.” Try to stay away from saying something like, “My collaboration skills with other members of my cohort far exceed any expectation that you may have and are not contingent on the individual person that is a part of my committee.” This is just my opinion, but I would say that the simpler you are, the better it makes you look. If you start using words that you don’t use on a daily basis, most interviewers will be able to point that out during an interview. I will be writing an article for NACA Magazine in the coming months about what to expect during a GA interview, so get stoked for that!

Another things that grinds my gears is this next part of the blog. As per Minnesota State Statute, we are not able to unionize as graduate students. I am not sure what other states are like, but I just know we in Minnesota cannot do such a thing. I am not sure how many students would unionize if we could but going through all my classes gets me to realize the benefits of having a union, one of them being contract negotiation. Our graduate assistant salary is a whopping $10,000 and not negotiable after that. I was told however we got a $125 raise from the previous year which after you take that over a span of 9 months minus the taxes taken out it equates to them taking more money than they were before, HA! Does that sound right to you? We are required as per our assistantship to put in no less than 20 hours. But, what happens when you habitually exceed 20 hours? I just know that most, if not all, student activity programmers will put in over that much time in a week's span. Why can’t we be compensated as such? When getting into the student affairs field, it definitely is not for the money but the joy of working with students and having an impact in their collegiate experience. Can you imagine what life would be like if we all got paid hourly?? That would be somewhat intense! Just something to think about....almost like a Chicken Soup for the NACA Soul sort of thinking!

I just got back from Rochester, MN where I met with my fellow Northern Plains RLT and conference committee to plan for our upcoming conference in April. It is shaping to be quite the event so I am really excited. Talk to you soon!

One year down...one more to go!!!

evans437 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:22:00 GMT

Hello all,

Let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Evan Schaefer and I am currently a Program Adviser/Graduate Assistant for the University Program Board (UPB) at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, MN. I just completed my first year of graduate school and plan to graduate in May 2009 with a Masters in Higher Education Administration. My undergraduate was done at Simpson College, a small liberal arts college in Indianola, IA (about 20 miles south of Des Moines) where I received my Bachelor of Music Education degree. Believe it or not, I actually have a license to teach in the State of Iowa. But, I chose a different path after college. Simpson has a campus population of about 2,000 students which made my transition to the 16,000 St. Cloud State University that much more difficult. Overall, my experience has been phenomenal and I would not change anything about it.

As I am now currently taking my last academic class to fulfill the course work for my program, I look back and realize I have only been here for one year. It is hard to believe that I officially started my second year at the turn of the fiscal year which, as most of you know, is July 1. There are many things about my graduate assistantship that have helped me become who I am today. Going from a small school to a large school was the biggest transition that I had to make. I was used to people on campus knowing who I was and being able to have a conversation with anyone that walked by me because I either sat through a class with them, met them at a CAB event or just knew them from another organization. From the aspect of taking classes, I was petrified about the first day of class. In my case, my classes were all on the weekend (Friday night and then all day Saturday - every other weekend throughout the first semester...sounds worse than it is, I will explain that later.) so I really wasn’t sure who all was going to be in my class. When I first walked in to the class I was amazed because I was definitely the youngest one in the room. There was only one other student in the room that was a graduate assistant from another department that also came directly from his undergraduate institution. All the other people in my class (soon to become my HIED (Higher Education) cohort) came from a variety of different disciplines. The different people in the room represented Financial Aid, Human Resources, Admissions, Foreign Language Faculty & Information Technology. As you can see there was a very diverse amount of people making up my HIED cohort. It made my classes so much interesting because I was able to bring the Student Affairs aspect to the table because this is one area most of them didn’t really understand.

As for my graduate assistantship, I would be lying to you if I said that I came in prepared and ready for ANYTHING!! I was rudely awakened very quickly. Come to find out, I don’t know everything like I thought I did, HA! It's weird how long it takes one to realize that. My first event was pretty intense. It was the Johnny Holm band concert here on the SCSU campus during the Fall Kickoff activities. Now, if you are from Minnesota reading this, you understand how intense these shows can get in terms of attendance. I was absolutely amazed by the amount of people that turned out for this event. I think the final number came out to be about 1500 students. I don’t know about you, but being my first event, and coming from a campus that had about 2000 students, that was like having an event where EVERYONE from Simpson was in attendance. It was intense but AWESOME all at the same time. My job was simple: front of house security. Yes, I was in charge of making sure no one charged the stage. If you are going to ask me what kind of barricade we used, save your breath because it was definitely just me, two of my students and the Public Safety officer coordinator. Yep, there were only four of us keeping 1500 students from running onto the stage. The hardest part was making sure that the students didn’t crowd surf. Due to such a confined space, there was really no other place for the students to go except down. So many times I had to go in and get students off of other students from mosh pitting and crowd surfing. If you have never met me, I am 6'4" 2XX lbs. (we just met and I never disclose that information right away, HA! just think BIG!) and very claustrophobic which made my life just that much better. But, it was my first event and I didn’t want to say anything so I just went with it. Before the night started I was given a name tag by my director and told to wear it at all the events that UPB puts on. I said okay and proceeded to put it on. To my dismay, I managed to somehow, in the midst of the crowd surfing and mosh pitting, get my name tag knocked off of my body and thrown into the crowd. Needless to say I was out a name tag on the first event day and not sure what to do. During the clean up one of the students found it pummeled into the ground with a lot of scratches and cracks making it look like it had fallen into a trash compacter. It was pretty awesome because we referred to the experience as my initiation into the department. I will have you know that he is coming back this year and we will be having barricade!

I think that is enough for today. Stay tuned because I am going to talk more about my course work and other events that have highlighted my first year!

The Evolution of a Student Leader

angell@usca.edu — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:56:00 GMT

So I struggled with what to write for this last blog. Having already talked about developing leaders in the classroom and then developing student leaders I wasn’t really sure what you all might find interesting. With the help of my supervisor I finally settled on the evolution of a student leader. I hope you all enjoy this last entry!

Motivating your new student leaders

We often find new student leaders need a push to get them started on their leadership path. When students take on a new leadership role they are often timid and don’t know where to start. This is where retreats are useful. Before your new (or returning) student leaders begin their assignment, spend a day or two with them going over what is expected of them in this new role. A good idea is to give them handouts, or a binder of handouts, going over everything they need to know and even some stuff they might not need to know. By giving them a folder or binder of information, even if they forget some of the things you tell them in the retreat, they can always refer back to that information as a refresher. During the retreat do some icebreakers and team builders with your students. You as the advisor should participate as well so that they get to know and be comfortable with you too. Once everyone’s comfortable with each other, run through scenarios with them, explain to them exactly how they should address each and every situation. Help to prepare them for the best and the worst of experiences. If your new student leader is prepared he or she will be much more comfortable in their new role. Also, remember to continue to challenge and support your student leaders, whether they be rookies or veterans, throughout their leadership experience. The more you challenge your students to be better leaders the more they’ll start to be comfortable in their new role and taking on more responsibility.

Burn out

On many of our campuses we find that the same students are involved with everything. Last year’s student body president at USCA was also a member of the programming board, an executive member of the concert committee, an active member of her sorority, a volunteer with the community service programs, a student employee in the chancellor’s office, an orientation leader, and an active member of a number of other organizations. While this specific scenario may not always be the case, many times we find that there’s a small core of student leaders on our campuses who do everything. Unfortunately, this is often where we first look when recruiting volunteers as well. We as professionals know that we can count on these students to get the job done, and do it well, so we frequently call on them when we need something. The problem many of us are finding is these students are over involved. These are the same students who are constantly stressed because they have too much going on in their lives; they carry multiple planners to try to keep up with where they’re supposed to be when, and what they’re supposed to be doing for each organization and class. They are often the students in our offices crying because some small task or minor incident has them very upset. They are the students who are freaking out afraid they’re going to fail a test or course because instead of studying over the last several days they’ve been preparing for programs and events. These are the students we need to keep an eye on.

Recruit new students

While we know we can count on these students to get the job done well, we need to put ourselves out there more and try recruiting more of those students who aren’t yet over involved. This is where we need to be looking for that leadership potential in some of those first year students and recruiting them to take on the smaller, simpler tasks instead of relying on those who we already know can get the job done. This will also help to keep us from over taxing our current student leaders to their breaking point. If we make a more concerted effort to recruit new student leaders and prepare them for the smaller task at hand, in a few semesters we will have a larger pool of students to use for those major undertakings which require greater student leadership.

Evolution

As we all know our students quickly evolve from being a timid rookie in a new role to be that over involved student who cannot say no. While it is easier for us to continue using the same, seasoned, student leaders for everything, it is up to us as educators and professionals to keep an eye on our students and make sure they are remaining healthy and not wearing themselves down. In order to do this we’re going to have to stick our necks out there a little more and recruit and train some younger students with leadership potential (not yet skill) to do some of the easier tasks and only call on our pros for the most important stuff. While this may seem more time consuming at first, it will make our lives easier for us in the long run because we won’t have so many students getting burned out by the beginning of their senior year.

I hope you all enjoy this last blog. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing about leadership and sharing my thoughts with you all. I also have to thank some of my colleagues for letting me bounce ideas off of them and helping me proofread and edit the blogs so thank you to: Jared Tippets at the University of Kentucky, Wes Riddle at Kennesaw State University, Luke Massee at the University of South Carolina Aiken, and Ahmed Samaha at the University of South Carolina Aiken.

Angel

Developing Student Leaders

angell@usca.edu — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:35:00 GMT

Outside of getting them in a classroom and teaching them directly, how do we develop our students into effective leaders? One of the easiest ways to do this is to take the students on our campus who are already in leadership positions and develop their leadership potential. I find that this is where Sanford’s challenge and support theory comes in handy. Then the question becomes how much do we challenge our students and how much do we support them? When is it okay to let them fall flat on their faces and when do we need to step in and take over for them? What is the balance between these two polar opposites? I would like to spend this next blog exploring these questions and others.

How do we get them in leadership positions in the first place?

Often we as professionals see leadership potential in our students and struggle with how to tap into that potential and get them into those key leadership positions. Each student is different in how you should approach them about taking on leadership roles. Many students will take the initiative on their own to pursue leadership positions on campus. Others however, need a little push. I have found that with some students all it takes is simply mentioning some of the leadership opportunities available. These students will usually take this and run with it. Often these may be the students who did not know about the opportunities or just needed a small amount of support from an external force to push them to pursue leadership opportunities. Many students on the other hand need a lot more support than just a mere mention. I have found that some of my students need me to directly tell them that they should pursue a position because I think they would be successful at it. Then I have to stay on them repeatedly reminding them and reassuring them that they can successfully fill that position. The problem with this is that the student can mistakenly think that simply because I told them they should pursue a position they will automatically be placed in that position. This is where you have to find balance between supporting a particular student in his or her endeavors and making sure they understand that just because you encourage them to pursue a position or opportunity does not ensure they will be granted that opportunity. I try to make sure that when I encourage a student to pursue a leadership opportunity I remind them that my support does not ensure their placement in that opportunity.

I have found that many of my students don’t pursue an opportunity simply because they have a fear of rejection. When students tell me this, I use these opportunities as teachable moments. We all know that our students are going to have to face rejection at some point or another in the future. Whether it be when they start applying for jobs after college or in their personal life, at some point they are going to be told no. It is part of our job as educators in the field of higher education to prepare our students for this rejection. This is when we can step in and challenge them to stick their necks out there a little. I find myself often telling these students that the worst thing that can happen is they’ll be told no. Then they’re no worse off than they were before they pursued the leadership opportunity. I try to be honest with my students about the fact that they are guaranteed nothing in life and life will be a lot easier if they learn to handle rejection sooner than later.

Once they’re in place what do we do with them?

Once we’ve gotten our students with leadership potential into those leadership roles that we knew they could learn and grow from what do we do to develop that leadership potential? I have learned from experience that you can challenge a student too much and cause a huge blow-up at an inopportune moment. I had a student a few years ago who I knew had great leadership potential and was going to be a great leader. I often pushed her to think outside of herself and her social circle. I was constantly challenging her and asking her questions with the simple intention of trying to help her see the bigger picture. Unfortunately, I did this a little too much and in the middle of an event she broke down and tried to start a yelling match between the two of us in front of her committee. I quickly realized that I had been pushing her way too hard. While I knew that she had amazing leadership potential and was going to be a great leader, I was trying to get that leader out of her way to quickly and before she was ready. Two years later she graduated one of the finest leaders at our university and ended up being one of the best students I ever worked with. Had I not realized (with the help of my supervisor) that I was pushing her too hard to quickly she could have shut down completely and things could have turned out very differently.

On the other hand, we cannot provide too much support for our students causing them to get lazy and too comfortable either. My first year as a new professional I learned this lesson the hard way. I had a committee chair who often did things the easy way. Because I was new to the field and the university I was afraid to push her too much because I wasn’t yet sure of the campus culture and I didn’t want to upset the pot my first semester at work. This committee quickly went downhill however. The events weren’t well attended and the committee became non-existent. By the time I realized that simply supporting this student’s ideas and endeavors wasn’t enough, it was too late to save the committee for that year. I have spent the last couple of years working with the new committee coordinator trying to rebuild the committee and its programs. Due to my lack of challenging one student coordinator for a semester the committee suffered a huge hit and has taken twice as long to recover.

Finding Balance

How do we find the balance between challenging and supporting our students? We don’t want to push our students so hard that they simply shut down but we don’t want to support them so much that they don’t try to do better either. I have found that posing simple questions that plant seeds into their minds helps a lot. One, you are not telling the student directly that what they’re doing is right or wrong. Two, once they ponder the question for a little while they’ll most likely come up with an answer similar to what you would have suggested but because they’ve come up with it on their own and it’s their idea they’ll be more accepting of it. The key is to pose the question so that you have a slight push in the right direction. Questions like: Do you think you should check with the rest of your committee about this first? Have you considered A, B, and C? What if you did such and such instead? These questions are non-threatening but challenging. Each student is going to respond differently, and the key is to learn what works with your students and tailor your style to them.

It is often hard to find out what does and doesn’t work with our students. Some students need and like more challenge than others. Some students need a lot more support in the beginning until they get comfortable with their leadership role. It is up to us as professionals to get to know our students and learn what’s going to work best for them. Each student is going to be different; it’s simply a matter of us adjusting our advising/supervising style to be most beneficial for our students.

Angel

Student Leadership Classes, where and when to start...

angell@usca.edu — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:49:00 GMT

So this is the first blog I’ve ever done so just bear with me as I learn what works and what doesn’t. If any of you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. So my topic this week is on fostering student leadership. With this being a wide open topic that most of us in the field are interested in I wasn’t really sure where to start. I finally settled on a topic for today so here goes… I hope you enjoy!

A number of us have leadership courses for students on our campuses and those of us who don’t are probably looking to start some. The question is, where do we start?

What do we include in these courses?

When teaching a leadership course you have to decide what approach to take. Do you want to do a more theory-based course and use a book by Maxwell or Kouzes and Posner as your text or do you want to do a more experiential course and include activities such as a ropes course and guest presenters? You can always try to incorporate the two into your course as well. Kouzes and Posner wrote a great leadership book titled The Leadership Challenge which walks the reader through “five practices of exemplary leadership”: modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. This book is great for freshmen and sophomore level students who have leadership potential that you wish to foster. Another great book to use is John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Maxwell takes the reader through the 21 qualities a leader should develop to be successful and effective. Both of these books also have supplemental materials such as the Leadership Practices Inventory by Kouzes and Posner and the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Workbook by John Maxwell. There are a number of other great leadership books out there that can be used as a text. I would recommend that the person teaching the course read some of these books and determine what would work best for their audience and their institution.

Guest speakers are a great way to vary the content of your course. One idea is to bring in presenters who are or were student leaders during their collegiate career. This gives the students a feel for what they can become if they capitalize on their leadership experience while in college. Various speakers will also likely keep the students engaged because each presenter is going to have a different style that may appeal to various students in the class. If you plan to incorporate guest speakers and a text in your course I would also recommend sending them a copy of the text, or at least the chapter you are studying at that moment, and ask them to make sure they incorporate the book in their presentation.

What year should we start teaching leadership courses?

We all know leadership courses can serve as a bridge to those leadership positions we all have on our campus, and can help those students who are already leaders improve their leadership skills. So do we start with first-year students and use the course as a pool from which to recruit new student leaders? Do we teach to upperclassmen to help them refine their leadership skills? Or, do we open it up for anyone and let first-year students and upperclassmen, who are most likely at two very different leadership stages, take the course together. The answer to these questions can vary depending on what it is you want your students to learn.

Many institutions offer emerging leadership courses to their students. The University of Kentucky has an Emerging Leaders Institute offered only to students in their first two years of college. The students who wish to take this course must apply for admission and get accepted; although students do not receive any university credit for this course. Once accepted, students are taught leadership theories and how to put those theories into practice. Often these students are used as a pool from which to recruit student leaders. Many of UK’s student government officers, programming board members, and Greek life leaders complete the Emerging Leaders Institute prior to their role as a leader on campus. This is just one example of how one institution handles the concern of when to start teaching students leadership courses.

The University of South Carolina Aiken does it very differently however. USCA allows any student to take their Emerging Leaders course. There are four sections taught in the fall semester and two in the spring and any student can register for the course. Students receive two credits upon completion of the course. Throughout the semester guest speakers visit and present to each class. These speakers are campus faculty and staff who discuss with the students different areas and topics of leadership such as service, communication, ethics and power, empathy training, and a number of other leadership related topics.

No matter how your institution selects students for a first-year student leadership experience, the focus should be on developing a well rounded and effective leader.

Expansion

An introductory leadership course is just the beginning of teaching leadership to students. The University of South Carolina Aiken offers a second leadership course focused on service titled Citizen Leadership. This course is for students at or above the sophomore level and is a follow up to Emerging Leaders (although Emerging Leaders is not a prerequisite for this course). Many campuses have leadership minors where students can take a program of leadership courses and receive a minor in leadership. Some institutions have a leadership program or fellowship that students can participate in. These students have to partake in a number of leadership initiatives such as workshops, courses and events to complete the leadership programs. The options are wide open in regards to where you go to help continue with leadership development on campus. There are a number of different institutions across the nation that have various leadership programs incorporated to suit their campus. The key is to figure out what it is you want your students to learn and what will work for your campus.

I hope some of you who read this and have various leadership courses on your campus will share with us your ideas and successes. I look forward to hearing back about what you all think about my first blog!

Angel