Accountability in Higher Education- The Role of Student Affairs Practitioners

Accountability has, indeed, become a salient issue nowadays. The author of chapter 6 outlined a number of reasons, which are all correct, but I think parents spend colossal sums of money on education and deserve better. Barham and Scott (2006) were right about the four responsibilities that student affairs practitioners need to ensure. That is, provision of high quality services delivered in an efficient manner; facilitation of students’ development; and contribution to students learning. If these three main responsibilities are well executed, stakeholders in higher education will surely be satisfied and those who provide funds will always pledge their unflinching support.

I also supported the idea that students need to be assessed based on competencies. In most of the universities in Europe, offices have been created and charge with the responsibilities of ensuring participatory learning. This makes students translate what they learn into real life situation. I think it’s about time student affairs professionals stopped being arm-chair officers and see to address the real developmental needs of students. If possible, student’s progress should be tracked at the time they are enrolled until graduation and even after graduation. Data collected in this regard can be evaluated to improve upon the learning situation.

Religious diversity mprovement interview from Sylvester Boadi on Vimeo.

Religious diversity improvement on AU campus

Religious diversity is a topical issue and on the lips of student affairs professionals. In the public universities, it is not a big issue becasue students have the option to worship accordig to their faith. But in Christian universities including AU, there are some levels of limitation. This is because such universities would not like to compromise thier religious mission for any reason. The above video is an interview section during which the author wanted to know from a prominent student affairs professional how AU will improve religious diversity on campus so that the few non-adventists on campus will complete thier course of study and return home without feeling intimidated.

Fiscal Pressure on Higher Education-The Family Factor

The fiscal challenges facing higher educational institution are enormous and require some prudent measures to deal with. The family factor to this problem should be given a due attention. Obviously, the federal government support is no longer reliable due to budgetary constraints. Most institutions, therefore, resort to program cut backs and increase in tuition fees.

The information in chapter five of this week reading prompted me that even though tuition increase is the surest way to raise revenue for the university, a lot of students really feel the heat in paying. If US has the largest percentage of divorce cases and also has more single parents in the system, then it sounds reasonable to infer that majority of students live below the poverty line. These students need support to enable them go through their academic work. This is where I think as student affairs professionals we have a role to play.

Apart from the difficulties that such students face in paying their tuition, psychologically, they are disadvantaged. Student affairs practitioners must be proactive in support in their support agenda. This can be done by a close collaboration with the admission and counseling services to truck all students with single parents. They should be identified first and thereafter, put pragmatic measures in place to support them in order to solve their psychological and emotional problems.

Orientation for Whites

This is an interesting but debatable issue and calls for student affairs practitioners to air out their views if confronted with a similar development. This perspective about how people can debate mainly motivated me to choose the article.
It’s all about orientation, which is organized for different groups of people in a college. The substantive issue is that Mount Holyoke College, which has for many years had a voluntary program for minority students in advance of the general orientation, now decides to organize a similar orientation for the White students. Different schools of thought feel that it creates segregation and discrimination. The object for the separate organization was to talk extensively about racial issues, but is it correct? Will a time come when male students will also request for a separate orientation? What are your views about this innovation? Please. Follow the link below, read the entire article and let me know your stand on this issue http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/04/13/holyoke

Staff and Professional Development

After reviewing chapter seventeen, I was so impressed about the ideas expressed by the authors concerning traditional avenues for professional development. The creation of guiding philosophy for professional development, for instance, is a laudable idea. It is crucial and should be created especially to benefit the young employees. It gives a sense of direction and prepares individuals for future development.

In addition, recognition of the mutuality of individual and organization needs is equally important. This avenue is what the Ghana Education Service uses to enhance the professional competencies of both faculty and staff in higher educational institutions. Most often than not, opportunities are given to young faculty, for example, to pursue some courses while working. This reading reminds me of what my District Director of Education said before I set off to Andrews University. He said, “Sylvester, there are so much frustrations in our profession and the only way to overcome such frustrations is to pursue additional courses. Therefore, I encourage you to go and study”. The new ideas and skills being acquired here will help me to contribute effectively when I go back.

All that I want to express is that staff and professional development is important and it helps both the individual and the organization to improve.

Personal Conscience

Out of the five domains of ethical responsibility we read this week (i.e., students welfare, the institution, the profession, the community and personal conscience), personal conscience is my favorite one and would like to share a few thoughts about it.

Sometimes the environment in which we work, the circumstances under which we present our situation and other factors make it extremely difficult to obey our conscience when it comes to ethical responsibilities. More often than not we ignore our conscience and take decisions with the view to protecting the image of our institution, or secure our profession and more so to satisfy the members of the community in which we serve. There is nothing wrong with that but I think our conscience must supersede. I always maintain that conscience is the secrete word from God. God speaks to us in diverse ways. At any point in time we face dilemma or acute problem, what comes to our mind is direct voice from God especially if we are to choose between good and bad. Our life experience may come into play but God has an absolute control of our mind if we rely on Him. Let’s therefore pray to GOD for His intervention in such circumstances. We cannot do it all by ourselves but we have an assurance that if we belong to Christ, God has given us His Spirit and through Him we have an understanding of what is right and wrong.

One Russian writer, Alexander Soizhenitsyn said, “Even the most rational approach to ethics is defenseless if there isn't the will to do what is right”. He explained further that, “The battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man”. What I personally learned from Alexander is that we may have institution’s name to protect, we may have our profession to secure and be loyal to the community we serve, but the students welfare should be paramount if we have the will to do so. Let’s therefore use our conscience in the perspective of Christianity to handle the four other domains.