Elizabeth Rugel - Week 5 - MUW Dean of Students Office

Elizabeth Rugel – Week 5 – Mississippi University for Women Dean of Students Office

Activities:

1)      Created an outline of Dean of Students websites

2)      Researched Behavioral Intervention Teams (BIT)

3)      Sat in on a Campus Sustainability meeting

4)      Critiqued a Title IX online training

Reflection on Practice

This week I learned a lot about the functions of the Dean of Students in regards to Crisis Management planning and prevention.

            First, I researched the functions and best practices for Behavioral Intervention Teams (BIT). A BIT team is a group of faculty, staff, and administrators who investigate reports of at risk students. For example, a faculty member may notice a student’s change in behavior in class and report this change to the university’s BIT team. The BIT team members will use their resources and experience to investigate the report, form a threat assessment, and determine the best ways to support the student.

            BIT teams have become increasingly popular over the years due to the frequency of school shootings. These teams are created in an effort to prevent crisis and ensure student support and success. If you want to find out more about BIT teams you can check out NaBITA’s website (https://nabita.org/behavioral-intervention-teams/). I gathered a lot of information from here. You’ll notice that they provide links to institution’s BIT team websites including the W. The W’s link is down…. That’s why I’m doing this research.

This first bullet isn’t so much a lesson I learned, but rather an important function of the Dean of Students that I did not know about. I think that this knowledge is just as important as a lesson though, because as university personnel we are responsible for reporting students at risk.

Second, I spent almost two hours completing and critiquing a Title IX/ Sexual Misconduct training course for Sirena. Title IX requires that all “responsible employees” of a university be trained on Title IX. This includes student workers. As such, Sirena is trying to decide which company to purchase the training from. The training consisted of informative readings but also acted simulations and comic-book like depictions of scenarios. The training covered not only sexual misconduct, drugs, and alcohol, but also gender identity and men as allies.

At the end of the training there was a certificate page that suggested printing your certificate in order to put the training on your resume. This page made me realize how all of the little tasks we do at our practicums and jobs truly supply us with a unique expertise. Not only did I complete an expensive training that not all students have the chance to take, I also had the opportunity of critiquing it and learning how to assess the quality of such a training. This experience is awesome! No, I don’t plan on becoming a Dean of Students, but an online training such as this one is just as needed for study abroad students or international students.

I remember hearing housing supervisors say “working in housing prepares you for anything!” But I think that our diverse experiences do the same. No one else has all of the specific skills that we will each have after completing our internships, jobs, and degrees.

Application of Course Reading

Doing BIT team research and Title IX training reminded me of Amey and Reesor’s (2009) chapter on crisis management. The original first step in the crisis management cycle was planning (Amey & Reesor, 2009, p.174). Planning consists of auditing what your institution already has in place. This is what Sirena has been doing since she was hired as the Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator. She has a list of areas that are in need of improvement already, including the website and Title IX online training.

            By requiring student workers to take this training, the W will be decreasing the likelihood of sexual misconduct related crisis and also increasing student worker awareness of how to handle such situations.

            The new phase one of the crisis management cycle is prevention and mitigation. This consists of “planning in order to avoid a crisis all together or to reduce the impact of a crisis should it occur” (Amey & Reesor, 2009, p. 174). The BIT team is designed specifically for this purpose. By intervening in student behavioral issues early, major crisis can often be avoided. Also, BIT team members are training to respond to crisis as well, effectively reducing the impact, as the book stated.

Reflection and Application of Theory

Last post I talked about freshman students being in Perry’s (1999) Basic Duality position and how we as practitioners have a responsibility to help them transition through to the multiplicity prelegitimate position. While doing the Title IX student worker training I realized that this training is a great way to help encourage such growth. The modules had information that most college students already know of course, about drinking and drugs and all the things authority tells you not to do. But instead of lecturing the trainee, the module began by explaining that the purpose of the training is to give the student information so that they can make his or her own informed decisions. This was the start of a very forward thinking training that I think could really help students grow.

In addition to sagely advice, the training encouraged students to be courageous and to stand up for those in need of an ally. This may mean standing up to a bully harassing a minority student, or standing up to a friend who is pressuring someone to drink. The training also explained vocabulary related to gender identity and explained the responsibility of men as allies.

These concepts are something we often talk about within the field of student affairs, but I was surprised to see them on the training session. Living in the South, I start to assume that administrators will not actually provide the whole truth when it comes to diversity, but rather water it down to appease a conservative and religious society. By making a thorough training such as this mandatory to all students, I believe that the W will be helping students transition from basic duality into multiplicity prelegitimate position leaps and bounds faster than otherwise.

References

Amey, M. J., & Reesor, L. M. (2009). Beginning your journey: A guide for new professional in student affairs. Washington, D.C.: NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education

Perry, W. (1999). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years. New York:  Holt, Rhinehart and Winston