My Career Path - Dave Roberts pt. 2

2) Describe some challenges you've faced in your work. Are there experiences you've had as a supervisor (or with a supervisor) that presented particular difficulty (or joy)? Are there challenging interactions with faculty, colleagues, students, or parents that have made lasting contributions to your learning?

We all have a life/career changing experience that we can point to as a defining moment in our career. Towards the end of my first year as an Asst. Director we had a student death on campus. The student who died was a freshman. He died in a friend’s room from asphyxiation from his own vomit after drinking too much alcohol. He died in a hall in my area but was actually a resident in another hall in my area. I was one of the first staff on the scene and almost instantly Dee Siscoe (our Dean of Students) and the Director for Housing were both there with us as the incident unfolded. I vividly remember sitting in the room across the hall from the hall director’s office after the ambulance had just driven the body away when my boss came over and told me that Dee was calling the parents. I have never been so happy to not be someone as I was to not be Dee that day. I then had to go to the residence hall and call an all hall meeting for a few hours later that evening to tell all of his friends and hall mates that this student had died. He was incredibly popular and everyone loved this guy, it was such a tragedy. I was also there when his parents came to collect his belongings as they stood outside the door and told us what they wanted out of his room, it was too hard for them to come into the room. The staff at SMU did a great job, and Dee’s leadership was impeccable, but I knew I wasn’t emotionally prepared enough to handle another incident like that at that point in my life.

One of the biggest challenges I have faced recently is the tension between some faculty and staff. I do not think it is this way everywhere, but at my current institution there are many faculty who really look at us in Student Affairs as party planners and do not respect us as colleagues. More than once I have had a faculty member refer to me as “young fella” or insinuate that they can’t believe I am as young as I am based on the email correspondences we have had.

I have had a few good supervisors, a few decent supervisors and some who were not so delightful. I will toot my own horn and say that I am a really good supervisor. I have had the good fortune to supervise some really amazing people. I have never fired anyone, though I have given several people the opportunity to resign. I stated before that at SMU the staff there were like family to me. There was one guy who I was on staff with, he was five years older than me and we instantly became best friends during my first year at SMU. I was honestly closer to him and his wife and son than I was to my own brothers. We would commiserate together when we were frustrated about our jobs, we would go out for a beer after work and we even spent holidays with him and his extended family since our families were so far away. However, when I was promoted to Assistant Director from Hall Director I became his direct supervisor and my office was literally located between his office and his apartment. As his supervisor I can tell you that he was late for everything, turned in sloppy work and did not take his job as serious as I would have expected. When I had to address him as a supervisor he was always full of excuses and I eventually had to write him up for his infractions. Our relationship changed completely. It was hard and I really struggled with my decisions but I had to be objective as his supervisor. His actions were causing me to get in trouble with my supervisor. You will find that in your career you find people who you really like as friends, but not co-workers. You can’t be friends with the people you supervise, you can be friendly, but there is a line.

The best advice I have ever heard about dealing with angry parents or students was to let them “climb mad mountain”. Sometimes people just want someone to yell at, there isn’t really a solution, or if there is, they need to get out their frustration first. As long as people are not threatening or making personal attacks, I have let them voice their frustrations and then I calmly ask them what I can do to help them resolve their issue. I use this all of the time in student conduct.

3) What keeps you going? What are the best parts of the work, particularly any surprises you've experienced, ways in which the work was better or more fun than you expected?
One of the greatest mentors I ever had was Valerie Averill, who worked in Residence Life at USF for a number of years said something that has always stuck with me. Right before graduation Valerie said "You have a child-like enthusiasm and devotion for the work you do in this field and I really appreciate that about you.” I would say that is a pretty good assessment. I love working in Student Affairs, I get excited about the work I do and while every day isn’t sunshine and roses, I still go home feeling fulfilled.

Something that surprises me is that I work with a lot of non-traditional students and active military members and veterans students, 90% of them I will only ever have contact with through phone or email. I have been surprised at how much I have enjoyed working with these non-traditional students and the quality/intentionality of the conversations we have over the phone or email. I have learned more about working in Higher Ed over the past few months working at Columbia College than I have since grad school. I am providing leadership for the Division of Student Affairs so I really have to look at things from a big picture perspective, weighing out our actions legally, ethically, and comparing ourselves to national standards. Columbia College recently sent me and 4 others to the island country of Malta in the Mediterranean because we are considering starting a campus there with an existing language arts school and wanted me to be on the exploratory team. This will be our first international campus. The process of creating a campus with an organization that already exists in a foreign country is fascinating. We will offer a full campus experience there so there are a lot of details to work out.

4) What advice would you share with entering professionals?
The next time you are in class look around, these people will be with you for the rest of your career. When I started at USF there were 28 in my cohort, we were the biggest cohort they had taken at that point. You are at such an advantage to have the opportunity to build these relationships with your classmates. I am still in contact with everyone from my class, several of them were in my wedding, we see each other at conferences, we talk on-line, and we call each other for advice or sometimes just to catch up. I have met alums from this program all over and worked with several who graduated at a different time than I did. I will speak for my class in saying that we have an affinity for this program, we want to see more and more professionals entering the field from USF and we are here to support you. Student Affairs is a small field, it may seem large but everyone knows each other or has some connection. This can work in your favor if you do good work, but it could work against you if you don’t pull your weight or don’t operate with ethics. I get calls occasionally from colleagues who are interviewing someone I know to get my opinion. Most times it is positive, but there are several times when I have not been able to provide a positive assessment based on my experience.

To sum all of this up into three statements:
1. Challenge yourself! Pursue opportunities that are outside of your comfort zone.
2. Build positive relationships with colleagues at your campus and at conferences.
3. Make your personal life a priority just like your professional life. It is possible to achieve some kind of balance.