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Summary of Student Affairs’ Progress on the Six Student Development Goals
2006-07 Academic Year

The programs and services offered by the Division of Student Affairs (hereafter referred to as Student Affairs) intentionally contribute to Longwood University’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.

• Kinesiology students and Peer Mentors learned about psychosocial interventions and interviewing skills from the Counseling Center.
• The evidence presented for the other five goals demonstrates that Student Affairs contributes 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 and other experiential opportunities in departments such as the Career Center, Volunteer and Service Learning, Campus Recreation, the Counseling Center, Lancer Productions, Residential and Commuter Life, and the Office of New Student Programs to allow students to use the skills they are developing in their majors in a practical work setting.
• The Graduate Student Assistant in the Career Center learned skills such as event planning, organizational skills, professionalism, and marketing. She also learned about the functions of and how to provide content and service in a Career Center.
• The Undergraduate Marketing Interns in the Career Center learned organizational skills, the challenges of applying marketing techniques, and effective/ineffective ways of working in groups.

• Trip Leaders for Alternative Spring Break learned to function as a team.
• Students availing themselves of the services offered by the Office of Disability Services learn to negotiate the college environment in a way that makes Longwood’s learning environment equivalent to the learning environment for students without disabilities.

	Students registered with ODS	Students without disabilities
GPA	2.7	2.8*
Graduation rate: 4-yrs	42%	46%**
5-yrs	58%	60%**
6-yrs	63%	63%**
Fall-spring retention	93%	82%*

* 2005 data
** based on freshman student cohort in 1999

• Campus Recreation student employees learned leadership and communication skills, and most felt they were more assertive, better at conflict resolution, and more effective on a team.
• Counseling Center Undergraduate Interns used writing to demonstrate understanding of topics that students often present in counseling sessions, presented programs, and increased self-understanding.
• Orientation Leader/Peer Mentors learned how to facilitate small group exercise and discussion as well as how to design, develop and present a topical workshop.
• New students learned how to use the WIN system to register and manage their academic and financial records.
• Lancer Productions board members and Student Union student staff members learned how to plan a successful event.
• Student staff in Residential and Commuter Life learned about career planning, office management, organizational skills, teamwork, leadership skills, and meeting facilitation.

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.

• Many departments in Student Affairs showed evidence that their work with students increased the students’ confidence levels. For example, students gained confidence in:
• Searching for majors, careers, and jobs
• Exploring the many ways of being a leader
• Challenging oneself or others
• Recognizing and working with the strengths and weaknesses of other people and groups
• Embarking on the first year of college
• Making and being accountable for choices in many aspects of life (social issues, fulfilling job expectations, etc.)
• Understanding one’s personality type, personal strengths and weaknesses, and values and how they impact self and others.
• Students with disabilities gained a better sense of their disabilities and how to be an effective college learner, requesting appropriate accommodations and explaining accommodations to faculty. 
• The Counseling Center provided individual counseling and crisis intervention.
• Students gain self-knowledge, self-esteem, greater sense of purpose, increased personal meaning, and live more attentively. 
• The leadership part of the office of Leadership and New Student Programs offers many programs that encourage students to explore their own personal direction. Students articulate powerful statements about what they gain from these programs in many areas:
• Taking responsibility for one’s actions
• Realizing that decisions have consequences for the individual and others
• Risk taking
• Sharing and listening to opinions
• Managing change
• Capitalizing on the strengths and weaknesses of one’s own and others’ preferred personality type

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

• Lancer Productions board members, social Greeks, and Student Union student workserlearned to balance academic and student involvement through time management and making healthy lifestyle choices. Over half of the Student Union student workers earned an overall GPA of above a 3.0, and all but one earned above a 2.5 overall GPA.

• The Office of Leadership and New Student Programs encouraged students to explore issues of personal balance and wellness:
• Participants in Emerging Leaders (a leadership development program for first year students) gained an understanding of why balance is an important part of one’s personal leadership.
• Participants in The Shield (a leadership development program for sophomores, junior, and seniors) learned to develop and articulate strategies for managing stress.
• Participants in New Lancer Days (an orientation program that happens just before classes begin in August) learned about issues of managing money, sexual assault, and alcohol use. Students explored a realistic view of those issues on campus how to handle situations if faced with them.
• Student participants in campus recreation learned healthy lifestyle choices, exercise options, and specific workout routines.

• Personal counseling provided by the Counseling Center assisted students in maintaining a balanced and healthy lifestyle:
• Made more informed and responsible decisions
• Committed to live a more healthy and congruent lifestyle
• Overcame or eliminated self-defeating behaviors
• The Student Health and Wellness Center staff participated in the Great American Smokeout and Cold/Flu Clinics:
• Reported cigarette use by students on one or more days decreased 4% and daily cigarette use decreased 3.2%. Overall, occasional smoking has decreased 10% and daily smoking has decreased 3% (NCHA data).
• Students report learning self-care methods and teaching others how to care for themselves.

• A team of student affairs professionals provides the alcohol and drug education for students found responsible violating these policies:
• Students in First Round (an alcohol education program for students found responsible for a first alcohol offense) agree or strongly agree that the course helped them 1) reflect on personal pros and cons of drinking choices and 2) learn to be responsible for my choices and subsequent consequences.
• First Round students learned about the importance of thinking of the consequences, taking responsibility for my own actions, that it is possible to have fun with out drinking excessively, and that drinking heavily is harmful to health, grades, and future career.
• Students in Last Call (an alcohol and drug education program for students found responsible for either a drug offense, a second alcohol offense, or a very severe first alcohol offense) 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 the effects, consequences and responsibility as they relate to alcohol as well as that “less people drink than I thought”.
• The Counseling Center sponsored a series of programs, some of which addressed wellness issues.
• Students learned the impact that drinking, driving, drugs, and other things can have on job placement.
• Students learned about stress relief and developing inner strength.
• Students and paraprofessional staff members involved with Residential and Commuter Life explored issues relating to wellness and a healthy lifestyle. Through programs, training, and bulletin boards, students learned about:
• Fire and other safety issues
• Handling emotional situations
• Stress management
• Alcohol, illegal drug, and prescription medication use
• Sexual misconduct
• Easting disorders
• Self-injury
• HIV/AIDS
  

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.

• Lancer Productions board members learned to collaborate with other student organizations and campus partners to effectively provide programming for the entire student body.
• Student Union student staff members learned the importance of communication to accomplish priorities.
• The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life has trained officers in National Pan-Hellenic Council, Interfraternity Council, and College Panhellenic Council in effective team work and conflict management. Students learned organizational and communication skills. In addition, they learned how to work with people with different personalities and world views than their own.
• The Office of Leadership and New Student Programs encouraged students to explore issues of interpersonal effectiveness and appreciation of diversity:

• The Citizen Leader Series participants explored issues of communication and cooperation.
• Emerging Leaders participants experienced a cross-cultural simulation that put them in the place of a “minority” in a fictional culture and they learned not to judge by the first instinct and that differences cause stereotypes.
• Participants in The Shield learned about their own and others’ biases and assumptions, stages of group development, and conflict resolution.

• The Office of Multicultural Affairs collaborated with many offices to host many programs dealing with diversity:

• For the Globalism and Pluralism  Series (co-sponsored with the Director of the Counseling Center and the Chair of Communication Studies and Theatre):
• 80.4% of the respondents either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they “learned some new information at the program”
•  71.8% of the respondents either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they were “provided with a different way of thinking about the subject”
•  67.0% of the respondents either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they were “more aware of and sensitive to the issues and concerns of the program”
•  98% of the respondents either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that “it is important for Americans to be informed about the politics and economics of other countries.”
• Assessment from many programs sponsored by this office demonstrate that students were provided new information and a different way of thinking about the topic.
• Students participating in the Office of Multicultural Affairs’ International Buddy Program gained knowledge and awareness of each other’s cultures.
• International students learned a lot about America and the American system of higher education.

• The Office of Leadership and New Student Programs offered sessions and campus-wide programs about issues of interpersonal effectiveness.

• The office co-sponsored a program based on HIV/AIDS and the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Students learned about the bias and prejudice associated with the genesis of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in this country as well as the cultural differences that have both impeded and advanced HIV/AIDS education in Uganda.
• Emerging Leaders participants learned how to use the minority experience they felt in a cross cultural simulation to better inform their actions as citizen leaders.
• SHIELD participants developed team building skills and explored how one’s own bias affects one’s actions.

• Students serving as Alternative Spring Break leaders learned to effectively communicate with other members of the group and the people they served.
• Students with disabilities learned how to appropriately decide when and how to self-disclose as having a disability, and to communicate as an effective self-advocate.
• Campus Recreation student employees and sport club officers developed interpersonal communication skills.
• Residential and Commuter Life (RCL) trained student staff on diversity and interpersonal effectiveness/team work issues:

• During the Fall Training and Leadership Workshop, Resident Assistants learned about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered issues at Longwood, ways to help students feel safe and comfortable, and ways to create an inclusive environment.
• During the Fall Training a Leadership Workshop, Resident Assistants and Desk Aides learned about diverse student issues at Longwood, ways to help students feel comfortable and respected, campus resources, programming and bulletin board ideas, and ways to create an inclusive environment.
• New Resident Assistants learned about issues of diversity related to self, campus, different races and cultures, people with disabilities, international students, and GLBT students.
• Through work experience, Resident Assistants and Desk Aides learned how to serve/communicate with diverse students, recognize student needs, and how to lead diverse students.

• Personal counseling provided by the Counseling Center assisted students in developing the skills needed to form effective interpersonal relationships:

• Improved students’ ability to develop satisfying, healthy relationships
• Gain a more open-minded perspective and become more open to areas outside of their natural comfort zone
• Recognize and address internal and external prejudices, stereotypes, etc.

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.

• Students with disabilities learned their rights and responsibilities as individuals with disabilities, including institutional procedures for requesting and using accommodations and services.
• Students found responsible for honor and judicial violations reflected on the impact that their behavior has on the community and to give back to the community through service hours. Approximately 77% of the written assignments appeared to contain significant or moderate personal insights.
• The Office of Leadership and New Student Programs challenged students to explore the idea of citizenship in the Citizen Leader Institute (“Quilting a Revolution”) and the Emerging Leaders Program. New students discussed taking responsibility for their actions and lives in an Orientation program “Your Responsibilities.”
• Participants in Quilting a Revolution came to understand how individuals without positional leadership roles can initiate and lead a grass-roots movement.
• Emerging Leaders explored the concept of citizen leadership and the qualities of citizen leaders.
• The student leaders of Alternative Spring Break began to understand the need for service and their responsibility as citizen leaders.

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, Relay for Life Committee members, and Honor & Judicial Board members.

For more detailed information, see each department’s 2006-07 Learning Plan on its web page.