Longwood University

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The programs and services offered by Student Affairs intentionally contribute to Longwood's commitment to student learning. We help students to use their personal resources in taking full advantage of the learning opportunities at Longwood University.

Goal 1. Mastery of a broad body of knowledge in the liberal arts and sciences, so students can see things in perspective, appreciate and enjoy artistic expression, and critically, creatively, and logically respond to the complex world around them.

• Many Student Affairs professionals teach Longwood Seminar.
• The evidence presented for the other five goals demonstrates that we contribute to general knowledge in many areas. However, we have provided the examples under the other goals because the learning appears to be more specific to those goals.

Goal 2. Mastery of a specialized body of knowledge, so students will have the expertise to be competitive and successful in their chosen careers.

• Student affairs offers internship opportunities in departments such as the Student Health and Wellness Center (SHWC), the Counseling Center, and Campus Recreation to allow students to use the skills they are developing in their majors in a practical work setting.
• The Counseling Center intern indicated that she learned how to listen to what is happening inside clients and act on it, to give herself permission to ask for help, to leave work at work, and the key steps to help her get to know her clients.
• The faculty member supervising the internship of the Campus Recreation experience indicated that the student " ...was able to work the project in with her Marketing Research course. The result was an uncommonly well-integrated semester for her."
• The SHWC interns related their classroom learning to the internship experience.

• Disability Support Services (DSS) helps students learn and internalize a specialized body of knowledge (how to recognize, negotiate and use appropriate and reasonable accommodations to mitigate the impact of a disability) by providing reasonable and appropriate accommodations.
• Student with disabilities have a 94.4% retention and graduation rate.
• As students mature and have had the process modeled, they are more confident and aware of their specific issues and are better able to approach their academic advisor without the intervention of DSS.
• As students are able to work through this process independently, fewer upper-class students request this accommodation.
  
• Members of the SHWC staff teach and/or present in health-related classes.
• Students indicate through in-class discussion and evaluation that they understand the material presented and how it relates to their life and coursework.
• Students talk with their faculty about their learning.
• Students approached members of the SHWC staff for further information and aid in writing papers related to various health and wellness topics.

Goal 3. A sense of personal direction, so students can plan their future wisely and with honor, acquiring self-understanding, self-confidence, and a meaningful philosophy of life.

• The Counseling Center provided individual counseling and crisis intervention.
• Students gain self-knowledge, self-esteem, greater sense of purpose, and increased personal meaning.
• Three themes emerged from the assessment of case files: self-understanding, self-confidence, and the development of a meaningful philosophy of life.

• The Career Center assisted students in planning their career paths.

• Ninety-eight percent of the students in Longwood Seminar classes on career planning said they understood the career planning process.
• Individual appointments encouraged students to gain personal direction by learning the importance of talking with professors who teach in their major of interest, by identifying the skills, values and interest to help evaluate careers, and by discovering the resources on and off campus to assist in the career planning process.

• The student workers in Campus Recreation demonstrated that they acquired leadership and management skills they had not previously possessed in a survey.

• They learned customer service, responsibility, and punctuality.
• Students in supervisory positions learned employee management and facility operations.

Goal 4. A balanced and healthy lifestyle, which means making responsible choices related to values, friends, family, work, recreation, and life-long education.

• The Student Union and Student Activities worked with Greek presidents and members of student organizations on issues related to balance.
• Greek presidents got better at delegating tasks and overseeing programs over time, demonstrating more balance between academics and chapter involvement.
• Members of student organizations thought about their involvement and realized that they may be over-committed. One student said she would now reexamine her involvement to see if she was truly giving 100% to all organizations.

• Residential and Commuter Life (RCL) focused its 2003-04 programming efforts and activities on functioning effectively in the community.
• Resident Assistant (RA) programming assessments showed that participants increased their knowledge by 0.85 points/4 as a result of all the programs in this area.
• The hall councils and Residence Hall Association (RHA) showed a 1.41/4 point knowledge gain from attending the first annual RHA leadership and training retreat.
• RCL examined learning through focus groups. RAs talked about time management in 45% of their responses. They also mentioned learning to take time for themselves in 12% of their responses. Students identified learning about time management 16% of the time and taking time for themselves 8% of the time. Themes from the learning focus groups emerged around physical and mental wellness as well. Both students and RAs mentioned learning about wellness through programs in approximately 10% of their responses.

• A team of student affairs professionals provides the alcohol and drug education for students found responsible for violating these policies.
• Students in First Round agree or strongly agree that the course helped them 1) gain a better understanding of themselves, 2) reflect on personal pros and cons of drinking choices, 3) learn to prevent or minimize the harm associated with decisions, and 4) learn to be responsible for my choices and subsequent consequences.
• First round students learned more effective decision-making, harm reduction, the effects of alcohol, and as a result of the course, are considering the need to change or decided to make a change.
• Students in Last Call agree or strongly agree that the course helped them 1) understand addiction, 2) understand the harmful effects of alcohol and marijuana on the body, 3) explore the pros and cons of high risk behavior, 4) understand the effects alcohol has on the college/university experience, and 5) become aware of treatment options.
• Last Call students learned effects-consequences and responsibility.

Goal 5. Interpersonal effectiveness and an appreciation of diversity and differences, so that students can establish genuine, trusting, and honorable relationships within the broad family of humanity.

• The students on the International Studies Hall (ISH) showed growth and learning.
• They held regular meetings, completed educational and social programs of their own each semester, implemented a trip to NYC for international students, actively interacted with international students in their meetings and programs, and were one of two special interest halls on campus to take initiative to paint part of their community area.
  
• The Office of Multicultural Affairs presented to Longwood Seminar classes on "The New Americans, Who are the New Immigrants?"
• More than half of students increased in their attitude, knowledge, and understanding.
• Some responses include:
• "America is supposed to be a place where dreams and opportunities fall into your hands. No matter where you are from, who you are, or how much you own. It breaks my heart to see people lose their faith in their dreams and these immigrants shown on the video certainly have lost their faith in America by her people, her broken promises, and her injustice."
• "People in our country need to be more exposed to the hardships immigrants in this country face."
• "In watching this movie, I feel that in ways the United States and the people in it are very unfair to new comers of different ethnicity and cultures. We do not accept people for who they are and what they can do. Instead, we look down on them and look at their features, their positions and wealth level in life. This to me is a very poor thing."
  
• The Counseling Center presented a program: "Reconciling the Past; Moving Forward."
• Students learned:
• From a variety of people from different backgrounds and cultures.
• About the racial history of Farmville.
• From discussing moral situations and what happened here with Brown vs. Board of Education.
• By hearing from two different people from two different backgrounds talk about similar things.
  
• Residential and Commuter Life's focus groups found that both RAs and students made strong mention of learning positive things about diversity.
• RAs mentioned diversity in 32% of responses in focus groups and students mentioned it in 40% of responses.
• RAs mentioned learning about other people in 8% of responses in focus groups and students mentioned it in 40% of their responses.
  
• The Counseling Center provides opportunities for individuals and groups to explore issues related to this goal.
• Students gain a more open-minded perspective and become more open to areas outside their natural comfort zone.
• Student's ability to develop satisfying, healthy relationships improved.
• Students also demonstrate an increase in assertiveness in relationships, understand and overcome fear of abandonment, learn how to love themselves before they love another person, become more accepting of self and others, and overcome fear of intimacy and commitment.

Goal 6. Responsible citizenship, so that students can do their best in ways uniquely their own and have the motivation to contribute to a better life for all through community participation and leadership.

• The 2004 Residential and Commuter Life survey showed:
• A direct negative correlation between judicial violations and cumulative GPA (as GPA goes up, they are less likely to have been documented for a judicial violation).
• A significant, direct positive correlation between students considering the implications of their actions and GPA (GPA goes up when students consider the consequences of their actions.
• Significant correlations with alcohol consumption and GPA (the more alcohol students consume, both frequency and amount per sitting, the lower the cumulative GPA).
  
• The Office of Honor and Judicial Programs sponsored "Honor and Integrity Week."
• Students who attended a panel on academic cheating rated the program as 4.58 on a 5 point scale.
• Comments indicated a greater understanding of possible consequences of academic cheating, the need for proper citations of material, and communication with the instructor.
  
• Residential and Commuter Life focuses on responsibility and accountability in training, behaviors, and programming.
• RAs mentioned learning about accountability in 11% of their responses in focus groups and students mentioned it in 33% of their responses.
• In focus groups, students indicate that the halls teach them about compromise (33%) and taking personal responsibility (33%).
• RAs learned about understanding people and how to deal with them when addressing accountability issues (11% of responses in focus groups).
  
• The Commuter Student Association (CSA) encourages commuter students to be responsible citizens and neighbors off campus.
• CSA sponsored an open forum each semester to address local laws, practices, and the proper way to handle guests, noise, and police interactions. Commuter student concerns declined with participation.
• CSA sponsored an educational program to teach students what they need to know when moving off campus. Prior to the educational program, students' knowledge of off campus living was 2.82 on a 4 point scale. After completing the program, student knowledge increased by 79%.
  
• Students at Longwood are active contributors to the university community and the community at large. Some examples of students in these roles are the health-related Peer Educators, Resident Assistants, Orientation Leaders, Lancer Productions members, Greek officers, Student Government Association members, Big Siblings, and Honor & Judicial Board members.