It’s All About Students: Student Affairs creates positive learning environment

By Patricia Lomando White

Jack Daniel, interim vice provost and dean of students at the University of Pittsburgh, outlined the changes that have taken place under his watch in the Office of Student Affairs. Daniel, who assumed the post of interim dean in July 2001, discussed the initiatives being implemented with an eye toward creating an outstanding environment for all students at the Pittsburgh campus.

One major change involved transferring what was formerly called the Learning Skills Center to the Faculty and College of Arts and Sciences to develop a comprehensive support services unit. (See article, page 5.)

Second, Marcie Radakovich was named director of the Student Health Center, which had long been without permanent leadership.

“We’re going to be giving a heavy emphasis to customer service in the health center,” Daniel said, “and the emphasis on customer service is something that will be going on throughout Student Affairs in the coming year.”

According to Daniel, the reorganization of Student Life, encompassing the former Office of Student Activities and Residence Life, will give more coherence to the services and programs that Pitt provides for students, furthering the overall goals for improving undergraduate education, and helping students become better integrated into the campus community.

“We know from my enrollment management work that how well integrated students are into the campus community has a direct relationship with their satisfaction with the University, their academic performance, and their retention,” said Daniel.

One way to improve student satisfaction is to help students discover their career aspirations. This has been done through Pitt Pathways, an existing program that involves students when they enter the University and continues through their senior year.

Daniel explained that a better linkage between Student Affairs and Academic Affairs was needed to improve student satisfaction. During the past academic year, Marvin Roth, director of Career Services, has worked directly with the deans and the associate deans of the academic units to develop articulation agreements on how Career Services works directly with Academic Advising to better support the students in making their career decisions.

Although the outcomes from the past year’s efforts are just emerging, Daniel has plans for additional improvements.

“We need to make sure that we’re being appropriately responsive to the needs of women students,” said Daniel. “I plan to do a systematic examination of what academic and campus life is for women students, to make sure that we are being sufficiently responsive to their needs.

“Much more also needs to be done to enhance the African American student experience,” Daniel added.

Another of Daniel’s goals is to minimize any form of human intolerance on campus. To address this issue, Daniel has met with students from the gay and lesbian organizations, the Black Action Society, the Campus Women’s Organization, and the Jewish Community Center and the Muslim Association.

“I want us to play our part in Student Affairs, to make sure that all the various forms of human intolerance such as racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and intolerance based upon geographic orientation—like the profiling of Middle Eastern students—do not take place in our residence halls or elsewhere on campus,” Daniel said. “One of the ways we want to do this is through educational programming carried out under Student Affairs Associate Dean (Birney) Harrigan.”

Daniel believes that it is extremely important for administrators and students to work together.

“Towards that end, I’ve put together a student advisory board for Student Affairs, and I plan to meet with those student leaders on a regular basis to obtain from them in a proactive fashion their views regarding what we should do to make the campus experience better for students,” said Daniel.

In addition, because the new Petersen Events Center is a student-centered building, Daniel has appointed a new student advisory committee, which will provide input about student uses of the Petersen Center, such as the kinds of concerts or programs that should be held there and how they should be scheduled.

Another new committee will work with athletics to enhance student involvement in all the athletic programs.

“In general, what I am trying to do is to make Student Affairs have more interaction, more synergy with Academic Affairs and with other parts of the University; to use all of Student Affairs resources more effectively; and to continuously obtain the students’ input into matters of importance to them,” Daniel said.

“Our new student government president has adopted the theme ‘Partners for Progress,’ and I intend to help him make good on that,” said Daniel. “What we mean by that is that student government and the administration will work together, hand-in-hand, to make progress that is beneficial for the students and the rest of the University.”