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Sometimes we all get so busy that it’s hard to keep track of where we’ve been over a space of time, whether it’s in our personal lives or our work in Student Affairs.  Events keep us running, deadlines are constant, we’re all like jugglers keeping half a dozen plates in the air.

One way to look back and enjoy some of our highlights is by tracking our recent Student Affairs all-staff events.  Our summer event last June 21 marked the end of a challenging year.  As Vice Chancellor Montero told us, “We had another incredible year, at times very difficult, but a very successful year. We have a lot to celebrate, and I have a lot to be grateful for as I look back at the year and do even a quick overview.”

The Vice Chancellor cited special accomplishments in many areas, including UARS (holistic review),  EAOP and CPO/SIAC (contributions in the community), Financial Aid, Student Loans, the Registrar’s Office (updating the Student Records System), Student Development, ORL, the Ashe Center, SPS, ASUCLA, the launch of the Performance Management Program, the new Master’s in Student Affairs program, and more. 

She concluded, “Work has been extraordinary locally, and it then takes even more meaning and import as we look at the cumulative impact on the quality of the services and support for our students and the overall quality of the university. The contributions are quite spectacular.”

 

 

Our Fall quarter “kick off” event swung us 180 degrees from a proud review of past activities to a look toward the future.  It featured information on “professional and career development opportunities” both within Student Affairs and all across campus.  Vice Chancellor Montero opened the program by telling us, “Providing opportunity to allow the development of our Student Affairs staff is of great importance to me and it is also an important goal that we strive for in our organization.”

One of the critical elements in our Student Affairs-based career development efforts is the new Performance Management Program. “The main focus of the PMP,” said the Vice Chancellor, “is to encourage and provide opportunities for staff development throughout Student Affairs, by fostering a culture of high achievement, rewarding and recognizing excellence, and recruiting and retaining the best and the brightest among staff.” 

She also noted, “We are committed to making staff development a basic tenet in the goals of the Student Affairs Organization,” and continued, “In this light, the PMP was developed as a program that allows us to incorporate the concepts of staff development into our everyday job functions and duties.”

The event included a presentation by Marsha Coutin and Linda Newcomb of CHS that covered opportunities through Campus Human Resources – the Staff Enrichment Program and the Professional Development Program to highlight only two of many – as well as programs all across the campus and even beyond.  Additional informational materials covered the Student Affairs Management Leadership Group Program (MLGP), University Extension programs, the Graduate School of Education, and the Anderson School (including the Fully Employed MBA program).

One of the important opportunities offered by the event, as the Vice Chancellor told us, was to listen to the speakers, take advantage of the information tables, and “think critically about whether there are others job functions or duties that are of interest to you, even if they fall outside of your current job duties.”  She observed that, while our current responsibilities are the top priority, Student Affairs is also committed to working with staff to try to provide meaningful opportunities for growth.  (NOTE: anyone interested in receiving copies of the materials about the programs listed above or in pursuing other information sources can contact Dennis Lyday at dlyday@saonet.ucla.edu.)

Finally, our December all-staff gave us the chance to as an organization what we try to do in our own lives around the holidays – slow down a bit, think about the future, and take a little extra time to think about how much the people in our lives mean to us.  It was a day for good friendship, good food, and a perfect opportunity to wind down and get ready for the new year. 

 

 

 

And suddenly we ’re checking off days in February 2008, with a great Fall quarter behind us and more to come in Winter and Spring.  Go Bruins!