2) Describe some challenges you've faced in your work. Are there experiences you've had as a supervisor (or with a supervisor – of course, only positive comments if you talk about me as a past supervisorJ!! Hee Hee) that presented particular difficulty (or joy)? Are there challenging interactions with faculty, colleagues, students, or parents that have made lasting contributions to your learning?

Some of the greatest challenges that I have experienced in my career are related to dealing with difficult colleagues…students/parents – they are a piece of cake compared to some of the “professionals” we work with.  When I became the Director of New Student  Programs I walked into a hostile environment.  The Coordinator of New Student Programs was a friend and colleague who I had worked with for a number of years.  She managed the office when the former Director left SMU and she was a finalist for the Director position.  I was completely open and honest with her through the application and interview process – she told me, in not so many words, that I did not have a chance of getting the position because my only professional experience was in Residence Life.  On my first day in the office as the new Director she told me “You will never be a mentor to me.  You don’t know anything about orientation.”  Additionally, the Coordinator had been working with the core group of student leaders in the office for a number of years and the students were convinced that she should have been named the Director.  Within a month or so the Coordinator announced she was leaving (which actually THRILLED me – huge relief!).  I needed to hire “my person” and did just that a few weeks later when I hired Emily Fallin Sandvall.  We became an inseparable team and started winning over the student leaders in our office. 

In addition to the hostile coordinator in my office, I shared a suite with a colleague who also reported to Dee.  She was a challenge, not just to me, but to most people in Student Affairs.  Love her dearly as a person (in fact, she was a lot of fun and planned a fantastic going away party for me when I left SMU) but she was constantly in my office’s business (and everyone else’s).  She had an opinion on everything and it was usually that I was wrong in what I was doing.  Our office suite was not huge but her voice was so I would often hear her on the phone with a parent criticizing other departments in Student Affairs – especially Residence Life.  She was a hard-core NPHC woman and history/legacy/tradition were of the utmost importance to her.  Despite the fact that recommendations were not required in the sorority recruitment at SMU she constantly worked with mothers to make sure their daughters had appropriate “recs”.  All of this drove me absolutely NUTS!  This colleague reminded me on the first day as the Director of my new office that she thought I was too “black and white” in interpretation of policy because I had been in Residence Life for so long.  (This was a comment she made to me when I reached out to her before my on-campus interview for the position.  I wanted to see what she thought the office needed in a Director – she pretty much told me that I wasn’t it.)  I was sure that I could build a positive working relationship with her because that’s what I do.  Not so much.  The two of us must have driven Dee absolutely crazy.  A year or so later Dee invited us to a mediation by HR.  I was mortified – I get along with everyone and it was so frustrating that I couldn’t make this work.  I think the mediation was beneficial for me and it reinforced what I knew about working with people.  It also made me realize that the Director of Parent Programs was not going to change and that I needed to find a way to take her with a grain of salt.