To all LSSU students,

Welcome and welcome back. By now you should be into your academic year routine which, I hope, includes taking advantage of the many events and activities scheduled by our activities office, the programming board and other campus groups. If you haven’t yet done so, check out MYLSSU for our calendar of events (which is updated regularly) to see what’s on the horizon.

I’ve only been on campus since January 2007, so I haven’t had much of a chance to meet or communicate with many students. To that end I’d like to share what my philosophy is regarding Student Affairs and Student Life. Specifically, I see our mission as follows:

Student Affairs partners with Academics to serve and educate our students. Our efforts to educate our students are split into direct and indirect efforts.

Our indirect efforts are those that offer support for academic mission of the college. These efforts apply to the overall environment of the campus, the living and dining areas, the formal and informal gathering places. We seek to support our students’ academic efforts by offering services and areas that allow them to maximize their academic potential.

Our direct efforts have their historic roots in a document developed in 1937 entitled “The Student Personnel Point of View”. A major theme of that document was that our profession had a responsibility to educate the “whole person”. From this perspective evolved the efforts to afford students more responsibility and authority in the university community and develop ways in which we would augment what students learn in the classroom. In our roles as advisors and mentors we need to ensure that students have significant and meaningful experiences.

As the Vice President for Student Affairs I wear three distinct “hats”.

1. As a member of the president’s staff I must take the high altitude view of our total (university) operation and offer my best advice to the president regarding overarching issues.
2. As the senior staff member for the student affairs division, I work to ensure that we can be successful in all of our endeavors. I am a cheerleader, a willing ear, an advocate, an honest evaluator, and, occasionally, a taskmaster.
3. As the Chief Student Affairs Officer I also wear a student hat and do all that I can to ensure that the student point of view is present and heard in discussions at all levels. That can occur at Board meetings, in President’s staff, and occasionally at student organization meetings.

I think that it is important that I’m accessible and visible on campus, and when I arrived on campus, I asked to have my office relocated from the Administration building to the Cisler Center. Please stop by to say hi or introduce yourself. If you can’t make it to my office please look for me on campus as I’ll be setting up shop throughout the weeks to come in a variety of areas (at present students I’ve met with have suggested the Galley, Peacock Cove, Cappuccino Corner and Café ala Carte). I’m interested in meeting and hearing from you and working with you to make you successful, and to feel at home here at Lake State.

Study hard, get involved on campus and have a wonderful year.

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