Making the Case for Collaboration

There’s a phrase floating around in the higher education profession right now that none of us professionals like hearing. It brings shivers to our spines and sometimes tears to our eyes.

 

OK, maybe it’s not quite that bad… but none of us like hearing the phrase “budget cuts.”

 

However, these so-called budget “cuts” (or what I call “shortages”) are a reality for many of us today, and those of us working on smaller campuses feel the pain more than anything. How do we as advisors and directors help our students battle these shortages?

 

This professional thinks collaboration is the key when it comes to battling budget shortcomings. Collaboration is becoming more and more accepted at institutions across the country. It is no longer a rarity to see an Admissions department and Student Activities office working together. The campuses who have embraced this approach will surely reap great benefits.

 

Personally, I’ve come to appreciate the value of collaboration between departments and student organizations. In fact, nothing makes me happier than to see two student organizations pull off an activity or event in which both groups played a significant role in making it a success.

 

There are so many benefits to collaboration – including higher attendance and response to your programs, less financial commitment from your office or organization, and a higher quality program or event, to name a few. Theoretically, when you co-sponsor or collaborate on a program, you have twice the people involved but only half of the finances from your department or office.

 

As a supervisor of Resident Assistants (RAs), I am constantly encouraging my staff members to consider the benefits of collaboration – both with other RAs and with other organizations, such as the Student Activities Board (SAB). When one of my RAs plans a typical program for his residents, he might reach an audience of 10 to 20 students, which seems just fine considering he only has $25-$30 to spend on this program. However, when he calls up the president of the SAB and gets this group on board, he has instantly multiplied his audience threefold simply by having the program discussed at the next SAB meeting.

 

From a residence life perspective, it can be especially beneficial for a campus programming board to partner with a representative (such as an RA) within a residential life office. One might argue – and some previous research would suggest – that students who live on campus are more invested and participate in campus events at a higher rate than commuters. Therefore, one might suggest that having someone from the residential life office involved would be a sure-fire way of reaching this population.

 

As the advisors to these various student organizations, we should be encouraging our student leaders to think about collaborating more often. I think we will find that our students will become less selfish and more apt to consider the “big picture”.  In addition, they will learn to appreciate collaboration as a concept long after earning their bachelor’s or associate’s degree.

 

Just as important are our own efforts to collaborate with other departments. Before we can encourage our students to embrace this concept of collaboration, we must embrace it. And why shouldn’t we?

Comments

[Del Suggs]

I think collaboration is vital on campus for three reasons:

1. It connects student activities with the educational mission of the school.

2. It builds a sense of Campus Community.

3. It adds credibility to the field of Student Activities.

You're welcome to read my past column on Collaboration and Mission-based programming at: http://www.saltwatermusic.com/collab.htm

I hope you find some useful ideas there for promoting collaboration on your campus.

[Shawn M. Fouts]

Coming from a small private (500 students), now at a mid-size state university (7200 students) I could not agree more. One more added benefit to collaboration is a reduction in the duplication of similar events and activities. It seems the larger a college/university gets the more needless competition to get students to attend our events. Collaboration decreases this competitiveness because these competing areas are now working together.

Thanks for the encouraging reminder of the power of actually working together.

[Tom Krieglstein]

Good post Brian -

Collaboration is a nice idea, however many schools I've talked with said there is a tradition of student groups having a rivalry among themselves and the last thing they want to do is collaborate.

It seems totally counter productive on one hand, and at the same time it can "rally the troops" within each organization to have a competitor.

To counteract the internal rivalry, we should:

1) Have a pattern interrupt in the beginning of the year to break the established traditions. Maybe some activities that force different groups to work together for a higher cause... i.e. building homes for homeless.

2) Create an external rivalry in which the whole campus can rally around. Maybe another school, object...(however why not extend collaboration from school to school. That is sort of what block booking is doing)

What do you think about these ideas? Do any of your schools have this sort of internal fighting? What are the consequences or advantages?

[Jennifer Blackwell]

Tom, I love those ideas and would like to expand using what we do as examples.

Yes, there will be rivalry, both internally & externally and traditions are meant to be cherished. In Student Activities, we sometime discourage it fearing backlash and lack of involvement or discord between organizations; however, in the end, it's healthy! I try to help each organization to recognize why their traditions are important and how they fit in the mission of the College (acting in-balance with other orgs traditions).

Rivalry without this discussion could be detrimental to a program, though. I support having a "higher cause" activity to bring everyone together each year.

On my campus, SAO sponsors a retreat prior to the academic year begins for one officer from each student organization to not only participate in leadership training, learn campus policy, but to bond and share ideas -collaborative (making it cheaper for everyone) programs often result.

SGA & SAO also address the topic of internal rivalry by creating organizational status requirements that mandate an organization collaborate with one other student organization on an event annually to maintain recognition & receive funding for future programs (a unique twist, but works for our campus).

Externally, we utilize "unstructured" block booking with schools specifically in our state (outside of APCA conferences) to host local speakers & talent - sharing "before you're famous" secrets, facilities & resources.

So far, to quote you, our troops are rallied with rivalry! I'm interested to hear what other campuses are doing - including all the horror stories!

[Tom Krieglstein]

"Our Troops are Rallied with Rivalry" - Ohhh I like it!

[Brian R.]

Tom, unfortunately, you are exactly right. Many schools do have a tradition of student groups having a rivalry amongst themselves. A little rivalry is good, because it keeps everyone on their toes. I would argue that you see a more competitive atmosphere at larger schools. Rivalries can be quite dangerous at small institutions.

As I think about what is done on my campus of 1800 students, I'd like to point out two things, which I think help promote collaboration:

1. We have a two-branch Student Government, one branch of which is the "House of Reps.," basically one representative from each certified organization on campus. They meet twice a month. The original idea for such a branch of Student Gov't was collaboration.

2. A semesterly community service project that ultimately serves to recruit students' participation from all of the student organizations on campus. We call this "Into the Streets," which is literally an opportunity for all our active students to go out into the streets and do a community service project.