student activities and leadership programs annual report mission

Student Activities and Leadership Programs

Annual Report Mission: Student Activities and Leadership Programs’ mission is to enrich and integrate students’ leadership and academic experiences in order to educate students to be ethical, socially just, and civically engaged leaders on campus and in their larger communities. * This is the revised mission statement resulting from Summer 2009 strategic planning. It is still awaiting review by the SALP Advisory Board. Vision: Student Activities and Leadership Programs aligns with the following Portland State Division of Student Affairs visions: • Engagement and support within the University learning community and

community-at-large: it is through learning community affiliations that students can experience a sense of belonging and receive support needed for their success. Affiliations can also provide identity anchors and serve as the impetus for practicing communication, critical thinking, leadership, and cultural competency skills.

• Develop leadership, citizenship, and diverse and global perspectives: as educated people, students have the responsibility to assume leadership roles when needed. Because of this responsibility, students must have opportunities to develop and refine their abilities to participate fully as leaders and citizens. Diverse relationships in the learning environment contribute to improvements in a student’s ability to engage in more complex thinking and act with an appreciation of difference and social justice issues.

Values: • Integrity- insuring that our actions reflect our words, especially when it comes to

being active listeners, honest, accountable, and respectful. • Student Centered- full awareness of the responsibility that SALP has to help

students actualize their full potential. • Education and Growth- supporting students by equipping them with the skills

and knowledge needed to meet the challenge of applying in-class principles to real-life situations.

• Community- intentionally creating an atmosphere that encourages students to discover and express all aspects of their identity, to make meaningful connections with others, and to have fun.

• Continuous Improvement- seeking and incorporating feedback and best practices.


Unit goals and achievements 2008-09 Objective Status: To improve our infrastructure in order to better serve students and to reduce administrative complexity.

Completed and Ongoing: We have updated and complete policies on our website with links to sources and forms. Our forms are updated and available on the website. We have bought and are transitioning to a web-management tool for student organizations.

To develop advising syllabus including learning outcomes, expectations, rights/responsibilities, and questions for discussion.

Complete and Ongoing: The syllabus was created collaboratively as a staff, but is still used intermittently across the department. Next steps are to review the usefulness and to determine assessment strategies.

To focus on academic success of student leaders by developing a plan to respond to students who are at risk for poor grades.

Ongoing: We have pulled average GPA’s for student leaders and discussed sending out resources to all students electronically as well as by mail to students whose grades fell below 2.5 the previous term. We have developed an Academic Excellence of Student Leaders Initiative that will be rolling out a plan for supporting, challenging, and celebrating student leaders academic success in the coming year.

To focus our staff energy on providing trainings which are focused on leadership development theory and practice.

Ongoing: We have determined learning outcomes for the Leadership Trainings and established which outcomes we will focus on each quarter.

To focus on Advisors’ professional development, specifically in the areas of cultural competency and student leadership development.

Completed. Advisors attended professional conferences throughout March and May and all went to sessions focused on these areas.

To focus on congruency in mission, programming, training, practice and planning.

Completed. We had multiple conversations with staff and students over the year to determine if each of our programs fits our mission, especially in regards to Midnight Breakfast. We fully


met this objective through our strategic planning process which re-examined our mission, values, and programs.

To improve communication with student leaders about resources, trainings, and programs.

Completed and ongoing. Although the communication has been especially challenging this year, more students have gotten involved in SALP. Many may not understand how the University works or SALP within it, but they are becoming more familiar with the resources available to them. We started a new online newsletter and recently purchased a new web management system.

Success Stories: Staffing: Domanic Thomas was hired as the new Assistant Director in July 2008 and Natalee Webb accepted an interim position in the Dean of Students Office as the Assistant Dean. Phyllis Hayes, who had been the Senior Accountant for SALP for over thirty years, retired in December. Also in December, SALP hired a new graduate intern, Kosti Efstathiou to work with Suzanne Flores through Spring term. Policy manual and forms: One of the goals set forth this year is to improve our infrastructure in order to better serve students and to reduce administrative complexity. With that in mind, nearly all of the forms are now online with instructions and the policy manual has been updated and is online with relevant links and sources. Communication with student organizations: SALP has improved communication with student leaders by publishing a new online newsletter that goes out to all student organizations and faculty advisors twice a term. The first edition went out October 20th and included the paperwork deadlines, a to-do list for student orgs, and an announcement about the Winter Leadership Conference. The SALP Director and Advisors worked together to create an advising syllabus for the year which includes learning outcomes for student leaders, expectations for advisors and expectations for student leaders. The SALP Staff participated in a number of professional development and organizational development opportunities. The Director and Advisors had an all day retreat on August 15th to review advising philosophy, the 2007-08 annual report,


goals for 2008-09, and advising philosophies. Nearly all of the advisors attended national professional conferences in Winter and Spring terms. During Spring term, all of the staff was invited to do an interactive, fun training reviewing policies and guidelines, review the assessment data for the year, and reflect on our goals. SALP plans to take this work into a larger strategic planning process starting the summer of 2009. The Smith Advisory Board Space Allocation Committee met all year to determine SALP department and student organization use and allocation. There final report has all of the SALP Advisors, Graduate Assistant, and student coordinators moving into the M113 suite of offices no later than the beginning of winter term 2009. Programming The largest event organized by SALP was Party in the Park on October 2nd and was a huge success. The attendance was wonderful as well as the organization and planning of the event. The entire staff and volunteers from across campus came together to host the 66 student organizations from SALP, 27 non-SALP student organizations (Pubs and CREC), 20 departments, and eight sponsors or vendors. 4,500-5,000 people attended the event. Midnight Breakfasts were held in Winter and Spring terms. The SALP staff and advisory board decided to not host the Fall Midnight Breakfast in order to use the money toward trainings. Both events were successful and had a large crowd. It was the second year that we had a casino theme and games at the Spring event, and it was incredibly popular again. Although 2008-09 had a good deal of tension and controversy between the department and student leaders, about one hundred students attended and had fun watching the staff perform a dance routine and students receive well-deserved awards. Fall Leadership Training took place October 10, 2008 and was mandatory for all SALP student organizations seeking recognition for 2008-09. The event had over 250 students in attendance and included SFC budget school and a Leader Connect Lunch hosted by the Dean of Students Office. Overall, the training ran smoothly and was successful. Evaluations (included in appendix) were filled out by 85 students and were overall positive. A couple of our take-aways were that there is no good day and we need more vegan food. The 7th Annual Student Leadership Conference took place Friday, January 23, 2009. SALP had a large role in planning the event, which included a specific track for students applying for student organization recognition for Winter term. Over two


hundred and eighty students from departments across campus attended the conference this year. SALP hosted the Spring Leadership Transition Training for the second time on April 17, 2009. The event was not mandatory for student leaders, but attendance was highly encouraged. One hundred and thirty people attended. The evaluations reflected the amount of organization and thought that went into the day. Registration was much smoother (and less complicated), the theme was cohesive and evaluations centered on learning outcome achievement.


Usage data: Number of Student Organizations by Advisor Advisor SFC SOC Total Tana Atchley 14 12 26 Rachel Borgman 5 7 12 Marie Schramke 7 17 24 Suzanne Flores 11 26 37 Shannon Timm 13 2 15 Domanic Thomas 3 7 10

Number of Attendees- Trainings and Events Fall Leadership Training October 10, 2008 250 Party in the Park Pre-Party Sept 24 and Oct 1, 2008 55 Party in the Park October 2, 2008 5000 Student Org Meet and Greet November 24, 2008 50 Party near the Park January 15, 2009 500 Winter Leadership Conference January 23, 2009 130 Faculty Luncheon February 13, 2009 40 Midnight Breakfast (winter) March 11, 2009 600 Spring Leadership Training April 17, 2009 130 SALPies June 3, 2009 7-9pm 100 Midnight Breakfast (spring) June 3, 2009 9-12am 800

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40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March April May June

Number of Student Organizations who met with an Advisor by Month

2007‐08


Satisfaction data: Themes from qualitative feedback in annual survey: Information is inconsistent or confusing Paperwork and resources are difficult to navigate I appreciate clear information SALP is trying/ Do not change the structure I love my advisor; they are my primary source of information and support

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

Summer 08 Fall 08 Winter 09 Spring 09

Front Desk Usage by Term

Phone Calls

85 77

020406080

100

2007-08 2008-09

Advising approval


Outcomes Data: Program objectives and outcomes: 1. To improve our infrastructure in order to better serve students and to reduce administrative

complexity. The 2008-2009 SALP Evaluation was sent to student leaders in May 2009. There were 69 respondents. SALP executed three initiatives in order to reduce administrative complexity for student organizations: updated policy manual on the website, updated forms with instructions, and posted deadlines. Only 16% of students reported that they go to the SALP website to get information on policies and procedures. This was reflected in that 23% of students said that they did not know the policy manual existed. However, of those that knew of the policy manual, 90% reported that it was extremely to somewhat helpful.

85 78

020406080

100

2007-08 2008-09

Front Desk Approval

0

5

10

15

20

25

Extremely Helpful

Mostly Helpful

Somewhat Helpful

Rarely Helpful

Not Helpful at all

Did not know it existed

This year SALP put policies that are most relevant to student organizations online with links and citations. Did you find the online

policy manual helpful?


More students were familiar with request forms being updated. Only 16% did not know they existed, leading us to believe that these students did not have responsibility for the administrative functions of their organization. Of the students who were familiar with the forms, 93% found them extremely to somewhat helpful.

The final way that we worked to reduce administrative complexity was to post deadlines for paperwork in order to clarify the processing time needed for each request. Deadlines had been met with hesitation by SALP staff and student leaders in the past; however, this simple clarification seemed to make a large difference in the organization and collaboration with our office. Especially in regards to large events hosted by student organizations. Furthermore, posted deadlines were mentioned multiple times in the qualitative section of the survey as being helpful. Many more student leaders seemed to be aware and pleased with this initiative.

0

5

10

15

20

25

Extremely Helpful

Mostly Helpful

Somewhat Helpful

Rarely Helpful

Not Helpful at all

Did not know it existed

This year SALP wrote instructions for all our forms. Did you find the form instructions helpful?


2. To focus on academic success of student leaders by developing a plan to respond to students who

are at risk for poor grades. This objective has been named the Student Leader Academic Excellence Initiative. It began with discussions with advisors who were observing a number of anecdotal situations. 1) Some student leaders’ academics seemed to be adversely effected by student leadership involvement; 2) there seemed to be a greater negative relationship between leadership and academics within certain clusters of student organizations, specifically the multicultural and student government leaders; and 3) the current standard of maintaining a cumulative 2.0 GPA doesn’t allow for Advisors to have a formal response to slipping academics until the student is on academic probation. In order to test our assumptions, the term GPA’s were pulled for student leaders and compared on average by cluster between Fall and Winter term (this data is for broad analysis and is not to be assumed scientifically valid at this point). Based on these data pulls, our basic assumptions seem to be supported that grades have actually fallen and certain clusters are affected more than others. More work will be done in the following year to create policies and practices to challenge, support, and celebrate student leaders’ academic excellence.

05

10152025303540

Always Mostly Rarely Never Did not know it existed

This year SALP posted deadlines for requests. Did you find the posted deadlines helpful?


3. To focus our staff energy on providing trainings which are focused on leadership development

theory and practice. When the Leadership Training learning outcomes were written, SALP had not developed overall learning outcomes for student leaders. Since the overall learning outcomes have been written, they will be used to evaluate the entire department, including trainings. The table below outlines the training objectives and corresponding results.

00.51

1.52

2.53

3.54

Average GPA Comparisons

Fall 08

Winter 08

Arrow indicates average PSU GPA for undergraduates


Leadership Training Objectives Results SALP student leaders will be able to develop networking skills including but not limited to co-sponsorship of events and programming and peer-to-peer interaction(Networking)

Fifty four percent of students agreed that they had opportunities to network with other student leaders during Fall Training (85 responses)

SALP student leaders will be able to identify behaviors that promote ethical leadership including but not limited to being inclusive of diverse populations, organizational development, strategic planning, and meeting preparedness. (Ethical Leadership)

Thirty six percent of students agreed or strongly agreed that they were better able to identify behaviors that promote ethical leadership after listening to the keynote speaker at Fall Training.

SALP student leaders will generate solutions to problems based upon assessment of relevant issues, information and dialogue with constituents (Problem Solving/ Critical Thinking)

No measurement taken

SALP student leaders will be able to articulate where to go for clarification policy, the context and origins of policy, and how to comply with them.

Sixty-five percent of students reported that they got a good overview of SALP and what it offers at the Fall Leadership Training. Fifty-five percent of students reported that they have a better idea of where to go to answer questions about resources and policies.

SALP student leaders will be able to identify how SALP, the Student Fee Committee (SFC) and the Student Organization Council (SOC) support group and leadership development.

Eighty-four percent of the students who attended the break-out hosted by the SOC at Fall Leadership Training were satisfied and found it informative. Very few of the comment cards for the session hosted by the SFC were turned in. Most comments were that it was disorganized.


SALP student leaders will increase their professional competency while interacting with PSU administrators, staff, and faculty as well as the Portland community to plan, promote, and implement their organizational mission.

Not measured.

SALP student leaders will understand and be able to articulate how they function within SALP, the university, and the Portland community.

Forty-four percent of students reported that they feel better connected to PSU after participating in the Fall Leadership Training.

4. To improve communication with student leaders about resources, trainings, and programs.

In order to improve communication with student leaders in 2008-09, SALP completely updated the website and began sending out quarterly online newsletters with important updates. According to the annual survey, our ratings on communication went up, but was still poor. More people reported the website being useful and well organized and the online newsletter was better received than mass e-mails from advisors; however, there is still a good deal of growth. Much of the qualitative feedback referred to frustration with where to go for information and resources.

Overall, I feel SALP communicates with student leaders effectively

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly Disagree


Learning outcomes: During Fall term, the SALP staff finalized learning outcomes for student leaders participating in the opportunities provided through SALP. These learning outcomes are included in the Advising Syllabus. The learning outcomes were only sporatically introduced and referred to with student leaders during 2008-09. Future plans are to better incorporate the learning outcomes into our one-on-one work with student leaders by having them take a more front and center role in conversations and having them integrated in our trainings, courses, and conferences. Future assessment plans include creating a pre/post rubric to measure growth of student leaders engaged in our programs. In the Spring of 2009, Shannon Timm held small focus groups to determine if and how student leaders were able to demonstrate the learning outcomes. The outcomes assessed were: Below are observations/ results of each learning outcome: Demonstrate self-direction and self-motivation in the allocation of time and energy in student leadership and academics.

Students agreed that balance was the hardest thing to learn, but they disagreed on its importance. Some students did not understand the importance of making academic progress and were not able to articulate how academics connected to leadership. Nearly all students were able to identify time-management tools and techniques.

Develop a sense of social or civic responsibility to others. Participants representing organizations with direct SFC funding agreed that the difficulty with this year’s SFC helped them think more about the impact that individuals have on others. One respondent said it helped her to be mindful of justifying the decisions I’m making. One student stated that that their responsibility to others is “Extremely important, but really easy to forget,” and that it was one of the first things to go when things get in a rush. Three of the four smaller organization representatives talked about visibility. When you are a leader within a small community at PSU or in Portland, people know who you are before you know who they are. Therefore, wherever they are, they’re aware that they’re representatives of their group, and PSU.

Understand and appreciate difference.


Students were able to articulate ways they worked across difference. People’s definition of difference covered a wide spectrum. Two students talked about cross-cultural difference. There seems to be a need to provide more opportunities and reflection in this area. There was quite a bit of conversation on this outcome for how other groups within the institution deal with the concept of diversity. There was a lot of talk overall about this year’s SFC, and how their actions this year made participants think more about not only valuing diversity, but what constitutes it, and right and wrong ways to go about achieving diverse representation in groups. The discussion about grouping women studies, Chicano/ Latino studies and Black studies in one department also prompted a lot of discussion within groups.

Demonstrate a willingness to address problems within the group and to hold their colleagues accountable to the mission.

Overall, there was a wide spectrum of how comfortable students felt with using the mission to address conflict. Students who spoke with their advisor and followed that advice got results they could be satisfied with and learned more about this process. One person spoke to her advisor about it, got good advice, and decided that documenting and follow up took too much effort. She did come to understand the part her unwillingness to address it played in the longevity of the problem, but states that she didn’t know how she’d handle it if it came up again.

Develop skills to interrupt behavior and to work collaboratively and creatively to manage conflict within and between groups.

Students seemed to have developed skills in managing conflict as a result of the student organization experience. Across the board, groups talked about accessing help through SALP advisors. One group also mentioned community partners (leaders of mosques). They had different methods of addressing it from explaining why a decision had been made, and working to find a compromise within the group to having a designated person in the group who facilitated understanding between group members. They talked about incorporating voices, advisors, and their guiding documents. They also talked about how you can’t take disagreements personally.

Enhance skills in compromise, collaboration, and understanding.

Again, the groups talked about utilizing community and SALP resources. All students talked about compromise and collaboration within their groups, and their involvement with it varied from purely internal- like choosing films and events to external (mediating conflict between students and faculty members, collaborating with other, similar groups and ones who have historically been in


opposition). One student indicated that she felt that these highly charged meetings were some of the best and most memorable of the year- everyone shows up to the meeting, everyone gets heard, and everyone feels more invested and part of the group.


Organizational learning and development SALP organizes a number of professional learning and development opportunities for professional staff. In 2008-09 this included staff retreats to share information and best practices and staff led inservices in the summer of 2009. Below are the individual opportunities that SALP staff took to meet their professional development goals. Speaking Engagements Tana Atchley

• Native Americans in Higher Education, NAS 201 Guest Speaker • OIEA Conference: facilitated discussion on NA Resiliency in Higher

Education, March 28, 2009 • NAS 201 Guest Lecturer: Native Americans in Higher Education, April 23,

2009 Rachel Borgman

• Faculty Advisors Breakout Session, Navigating the River: Fall Leadership Training. October 10, 2008. 5 attended.

• How Emotional Intelligence (or lack thereof) Impacts Your Leadership, Student Leadership Conference. January 23, 2009. 35 attended.

Marie Schramke

• Charting the Course: Strategic Planning, Fall Leadership Training breakout session, October 10, 2008. 46 attended.

• Show Me The Money! fundraising workshop, February 26, 2009, Smith 229. 5 attended.

• Running Effective Meetings. Presented as part of City Repair’s Community Organizing workshop series. March 26, 6-8pm, 5 people attended.

Aimee Shattuck

• Exploring Careers Through Student Organization Involvement at Major Exploration Day at Portland State, May 5, 2009.

• Highlights from 2008-09 initiative of sustainability groups at Sustainability End of Year Celebration at Portland State, May 29, 2009.

• Leadership Opportunities at New Student Leader Lunch at Portland State, June 5th.

Domanic Thomas

• Elections and Healthy Organizations, Winter Leadership Conference, January 23, 2009


• FRINQ Classroom Presentation • How to Run for Student Government and Why, University Success workshop

February 27, 2009 • Spoke to the Orientation team class about SALP, April 24, 2009 • Presented to a FRNQ class about involvement opportunities, April 4, 2009

Shannon Timm

• Teambuilding Exercise, Fall Leadership Training, October 2, 2008 • SALP 101, Winter Leadership Conference, January 23, 2009 • Hiring and Supervision Workshop, SALP, 6 attended

Workshops/ Conferences Tana Atchley

• National Indian Education Association Conference, Seattle, WA. October 23-26, 2008

• American Indian Science & Engineering Society Conference, Anaheim, CA October 30-November 2, 2008

• LEAD Fellowship Meeting, NAYA. Portland, OR. December 4, 2008 • OUS Diversity Summit, January 8, 2009 • NAS 399 Guest Speaker: Dr. Tom Ball re: Native Americans in Education,

February 11, 2009 • LEAD Training (Human Resources & Management of Non-Profits),

Portland State University, Portland, OR, February 26, 2009 • Veteran’s Summit Meeting, March 19, 2009 • LEAD Training: Program Evaluation, March 25, 2009 • OIEA Conference, March 27-29, 2009 • LEAD Conference, Albuquerque, NM, April 7-9, 2009 • LEAD Fellowship Cohort Meeting, Portland, OR. May 21, 2009. • National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education,

San Diego, CA. May 24-31, 2009.

Rachel Borgman • Oregon Women in Higher Education, January 30, 2009.Portland, Oregon • NASPA, Seattle, WA. March 6-11, 2009.

Suzanne Flores

• ASPSU Diversity Summit, Portland State University, Portland, OR. January 14, 2009


Marie Schramke

• NASPA, Seattle, WA, March 6-11, 2009. Shannon Timm

• OUS Diversity Summit, January 8, 2009 • NASPA conference, Seattle WA, March 6-11, 2009.

Domanic Thomas

• AFA Conference in Denver, Colorado. December 2-5, 2008 Future goals Our future goals still need be determined through the Strategic Plan with SALP staff and advisory board; however, the goals below are tentative based on the work already done. Goals:

1. To ground the advising of student leaders and organizations in theory, best practice, and student learning. Tasks: use the advising syllabus, continuously refer to learning outcomes and developmental theory in work with student leaders by creating a learning outcome poster, to assess departmental success based on learning outcomes. Key performance indicators: learning outcome assessment (pre-post rubric)

2. To provide the knowledge and skills that people need in order to more easily navigate and function as a student leader at Portland State in a format that is accessible and effective. Tasks: online course for student leaders using Blackboard, video tutorials, consultation workshops provided to student organizations on request, providing budget reports monthly to student organizations. Key performance indicators: quiz scores from online course, anonymous assessment of online tutorials, departmental satisfaction scores, advisors’ reports on success rates of student leaders’ ability to be administrators for their organization, fewer student organizations that spend over budget, fewer unauthorized expenses.

3. To use tools available in a way that effectively utilizes staff time, streamlines administrative functions, and meets the needs of student organizations thereby increasing students’ satisfaction with SALP overall. Tasks: launching the use of SALPsync online system, streamline the


functions of the accounting team using basic office software for form letters, worksheets, and spreadsheets. Key performance indicators: overall satisfaction with the department, advisors’ reports on use of their time, accountants’ reports on the use of their time and processing time.

4. To meet the needs of groups of students that do not fit neatly into the

current student organization definition. Tasks: To use the newly defined Affiliation status to support Greek organizations and others, to use the newly defined Student Service organization to support services such as Food for Thought and Film Committee. Key performance indicators: satisfaction ratings of Greek and Service organizations.

5. To continue to expand our work in risk management to ensure that our student organization activities are done in accordance with best practice and students are safe and healthy. Tasks: To use the newly created risk matrix to support and approve activities, to review and make a determination on International Travel, to improve our safety protocols for student drivers. Key performance indicators: the number of acceptable risk plans turned into the Assistant Director.

6. To support student leaders’ academic excellence by encouraging the balance between leadership and academics, celebrating success, and providing resources in order to improve the overall GPA of student organization leaders. Tasks: To create a standard for hearing academic criteria appeals to hold student leadership positions, to create an academic support worksheet for student leaders, to host celebratory events for high-achieving student leaders. Key performance indicators: overall GPA of student leaders by term and cluster compared to the university average.

7. To be good stewards of Smith Memorial Student Union space by encouraging the responsible use of M113. Tasks: To pull together a committee of staff and students to determine the community standards for use of M113, encourage student organizations to use the space for organizational business, to host open houses in the space during Fall and Winter terms. Key performance indicators: usage of M113


8. To strengthen SALP’s Community Standards process by incorporating students into the process. Tasks: To work with the Advisory Board to strengthen the Community Standards process, to put together a committee of staff and students to make recommendations to the Assistant Director in Community Standards cases. Key performance indicators: evaluations of the Community Standards process by a committee of staff and students, number of cases that are reviewed by a committee.

9. To support the long-term sustainability and planning of the department through strategic planning and assessment. Tasks: Creation, review, and endorsement of a five year strategic plan by staff and students (SALP Advisory Board and SFC). Key performance indicators: 2010-11 budget created using strategic plan, long-term plan for Programming Board, long-term plan for support of Leadership Institute, long-term plan for the support of student service organizations.

10. To build upon the success of the Leadership Steering committee and related events of the past and to establish a long term goals that support cross-campus collaboration on student leadership. Tasks: Effective facilitation of the Leadership Steering Committee, organize the Leader Connect Lunch, Winter Leadership Conference, and New Student Leader Lunch. Key performance indicators: Evaluation of committee facilitation by Leadership Steering Committee members, evaluations of events by attendees


Challenges The Advisory Board met all year, but did not accomplish any planned tasks. The student chair, Emma Duncan, resigned in Fall term after feeling pressure from ASPSU. ASPSU President, Hannah Fisher took her place. There had been quite a bit of discussion on creating a feedback mechanism so that students could communicate with the advisory board anonymously or confidentially. The Advisory Board did not plan a mid-year open house or do the assessments they did last year. The Advisory Board did not review any policy revisions. Student leaders from the Multicultural Cluster attended the SALP Advisory Board meeting in December, asking for the Board’s blessing to be advised by the Multicultural Center. Many of the issues that students take issue with are not SALP Policies, but rather SFC Guidelines and deadlines for paperwork. The students felt that they were getting support and encouragement from the Multicultural Center to move. SALP staff had a meeting with the Multicultural Director and Assistant Director and the Dean of Students to clarify the issue. Throughout the 2008-09 academic year there had been a great deal of pressure from the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU) to make changes to the processes and professional roles of SALP. The 08-09 ASPSU President and much of the Student Fee Committee (SFC) of ASPSU had run on a slate to de-fund or change SALP based on complaints from years past. Although many of the issues were in the process of being addressed, the Student Fee Committee and Executive Committees of ASPSU worked hard to change SALP by putting funding for 2009-2010 academic year in designated reserve pending an investigation led by a taskforce developed by ASPSU and SFC. In February 2009, the ASPSU/SFC Taskforce created a “SALP Taskforce Report” highlighting the following findings: issues with SALP as listed above; suggesting that SALP completely change the staff model to a resource model with each professional staff having a specialty area rather than generalists working with clusters of organizations; do away with signatures on any requests for resources (such as space requests or expenditures); removal of SALP Assistant Director as SFC advisor due to conflict of interest involving SFC funding of SALP; and formation of a committee of staff and students charged with hiring and firing professional staff.

student activities and leadership programs annual report mission

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