In 1999 I retired from Orange Coast College where I had served for 13 years as Dean of Counseling. Prior to that I had been both an instructor and counselor at that institution and, before that, a biology teacher in the secondary schools. Since leaving Orange Coast I have served four other community colleges in a variety of administrative and leadership positions. I have been a Dean of Counseling, Dean of Admissions and Records, Dean of a Gateway Division, Dean of Student Services and a Vice President of Student Services. My responsibilities have included counseling, admissions and records, financial aid, EOPS, DSPS, the Puente Project, international students, all matriculation components and functions, outreach, transfer and career services, articulation, student activities and student government, enrollment management, athletics, student discipline, the grievance process, health services and special programs. I have been a member of the President’s Cabinet, served on and/or chaired Student Services Councils, scholastic standards, enrollment management, student success, matriculation, program review, tenure review, hiring and other committees, and have conducted faculty and staff training. I cite these positions and responsibilities, not to try and impress anyone, but to let the reader know something of the experience base from which I come at the issues that are the subject of this article. My hope is that this knowledge will lend at least some credibility to what I am about to say. Please read what follows with that understanding.
Like it or not, Student services workers - particularly those with faculty rank - must understand that what they do is peripheral to the primary mission of higher education. Certainly “Student Services” support the primary mission of the college, but they are not, in and of themselves, primary. Student Services expose students to new possibilities, offer encouragement, respond to special needs, clarify and offer course and program guidance, increase self-knowledge and self-understanding, develop leadership qualities, help shore up academic and personal deficiencies, support more informed and wiser decision-making and assist students in a variety of other ways that are unique to each individual. They are not, however, essential to the learning process itself. Counselors in particular, and other student services workers in general, are in place to make the educational journey less bumpy, more meaningful and satisfying, and to increase the likelihood that the individual student, in each case, will achieve his or her goals. Those of us in student services would not be in the profession if we didn’t believe that we contribute to these outcomes in important ways. Herein, however, in this belief system, lies a dilemma.
Too many student services workers, particularly those who have faculty status - but some others as well - believe that the value of the service they deliver should be self evident. Why would anyone doubt, for example, that counseling has value? Don’t we all know that special programs are important to the success of certain populations? Isn’t it evident that without study skills enhancement, career guidance and/or financial aid, some students could or would not pursue higher education? No, my friend, there are those both inside and outside the system who do not hold to these beliefs – and in hard financial times they can often be persuaded that what we might consider an essential service is, in fact, nothing more than “fluff”. We cannot simply sit back and trust that our colleagues in education, or others, will without evidence, intuitively know the value of all of the services that we make available to students. Value must be demonstrated, both by commitment and by outcomes, if we are to earn and maintain our rightful place as essential components of the educational effort.
Student Services as a whole, and individual service components, seem to have acquired much greater respect and support on some campuses than on others. Almost always this has a relationship to the enthusiasm of staff – both professional and support personnel – and to the way services are marketed and delivered. Generally, where managers insist and workers comply, in either taking the service or knowledge of it to the student, faculty and administrative support is strong. When professionals and/or other workers visit classrooms, advertise and offer workshops, work registration areas, deliver imaginative orientations, are responsive to criticisms and complaints, exhibit good customer service skills, are welcoming in their manner, display caring and helpful attitudes, and otherwise seek out ways of either taking the service to students or bringing students to the service, respect by and support of both users and observers is high. Where little of this occurs, or where efforts are not uniform, support, and respect, rapidly wane. Student Services employees must work as a team. They must be proactive rather than reactive, and must be visible in positive ways. Counselors and others cannot expect students to come to them just because they’re there. Managers cannot allow professionals simply to make services available, but must instead work with them to find creative ways whereby those services can be marketed and delivered. Only the best students will find out about and utilize services that are not marketed. Others, and these others represent the majority of community college students, need to be told. They need to be invited, recruited, visited, reminded, encouraged, welcomed, and otherwise given an understanding, both of the service and how it might have value to them. They need to be “sold”, if you will. Student Services must make a “connection” with these students, in the deepest meaning of that word, and when that occurs, and when service utilization is high, respect and support will follow. When this occurs schools will no longer have to make the case for Student Services. The case will have been made by what is apparent to all parties. The value of Student Services will be obvious to user and observer alike.
If the shoe fits -----------!
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