Incorporating crisis planning and management into orientation programs

On April 16, 2007, at 6:47 a.m., Seung-Hui Cho stood outside West Ambler Johnston residence hall. Approximately 30 minutes later Cho shot and killed Emily Hischler and a resident assistant, Ryan Christopher Clark. By 7:30 a.m., a “person of interest” had been identified, and the University’s Policy Group called a meeting. Within an hour of the incident, the chief of police provided information to the Policy Group; requested the Virginia Tech Police Department Emergency Response Team arrive at the scene; and the Policy Group discussed how to notify the community of the homicides. Meanwhile, Cho chained three doors inside Norris Hall and began shooting at 9:40 a.m., entering classrooms and firing on students and instructors. The police attempted to enter the building but were stopped by the chains holding the doors shut. At 9:50 a.m., e-mails and messages over loud speakers warned students to remain inside their buildings because a gunman was loose on campus. At 9:51 a.m., Cho shot himself in the head. In all, 174 rounds were fired. Cho killed 30 people in Norris Hall and wounded 17 more (Virginia Tech Review Panel, 2007). In the aftermath of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, many asked how the killings could have been prevented. Others began to examine how university officials responded to the crisis and its aftermath. As a result, many campuses examined and revised or instituted crisis management plans. This chapter offers an overview of crisis management planning paying particular attention to orientation programs. The chapter opens by defining the kinds of crises educators might expect to encounter on campus and outlines strategies for developing, implementing, and assessing crisis management plans. The chapter concludes with case studies of crisis responses in the orientation setting

Shifting Narratives in Doctoral Admissions: Faculty of Color Understandings of Diversity, Equity, and Justice in a Neoliberal Context

Little is known about how faculty make decisions in the doctoral admissions process or how they conceptualize diversity, equity, and justice in those same processes. As the United States continues to diversify, understanding how students are selected into graduate programs and how faculty understand diversity, equity, and justice is increasingly important to supporting diverse leadership bodies and shaping an inclusive campus cultural context. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and critical discourse analysis to explore how faculty of color understand diversity, equity, and justice norms, values, and behaviors in the doctoral admissions process in Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) doctoral programs in Predominantly White Institutions (PWI) and how professors of color navigate those norms, values, and behaviors with their multiple intersecting identities. Data reveals that faculty of color resist the utilization of standardized measures of success, are attracted to students of color and students aiming to do conduct equity work, and consider diversity at all times in the admissions process. Faculty also feel constrained in their ability to fully engage in the admissions process due to marginalization of their identities and their tenure status. Faculty also understand the values of their university through (in)actions taken when critical community incidences occur resulting in shifting recruitment tactics for diverse students and find tensions in conflating international students of color with domestic students of color particularly as it pertains to supporting international students on campus and remedying historical disparities in college access for domestic people of color although they support the admission of both types of students

Critical Cultural Student Affairs Praxis and Participatory Action Research

This paper explores how student affairs practitioners may engage in critical cultural praxis through participatory action research (PAR). As authors, both researchers and practitioners, we partnered with one another to conduct a needs assessment of Asian American students through PAR methods at a university in the northeast United States. Unfortunately, the PAR project as initially designed did not come to fruition. We used autoethnography to understand the many barriers that prevented the completion of the project, such as lengthy and unclear IRB processes, lack of organizational stability, and limited institutional support. Finally, we offer insight into how scholar-practitioners and institutions can better prepare for and support PAR initiatives as a way to engage in critical cultural praxis on their campuses

First-Generation College Students: Understanding and Improving the Experience from Recruitment to Commencement

This book review examines First Generation College Students a new book published by Jossey-Bass publishers. An offering of a reframing of the book's main arguments through Critical Race Theory and Community Cultural Wealth frameworks provides for a holistic and anti-deficit framing of this population.</p

Critical Cultural Student Affairs Praxis and Participatory Action Research

This paper explores how student affairs practitioners may engage in critical cultural praxis through participatory action research (PAR). As authors, both researchers and practitioners, we partnered with one another to conduct a needs assessment of Asian American students through PAR methods at a university in the northeast United States. Unfortunately, the PAR project as initially designed did not come to fruition. We used autoethnography to understand the many barriers that prevented the completion of the project, such as lengthy and unclear IRB processes, lack of organizational stability, and limited institutional support. Finally, we offer insight into how scholar-practitioners and institutions can better prepare for and support PAR initiatives as a way to engage in critical cultural praxis on their campuses.This is an article from Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs. 2016, 3(1); 22-39. </p

Developing Racial Justice Allies in an Online Graduate Workshop Centering Latinx Students

This study presents data from an online course on Latinx Students in Higher Education taught at a Predominantly White Institution in the Midwest. This case study examines how students engage with content on Latinx issues across the P-20 educational pipeline to better understand and ultimately serve this population in their professional context using perspectives on allyship development and racial justice allyship. Students in the course demonstrated a commitment to social justice, but their journey to build allyship was not a straightforward process.This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at DOI: 10.1007/s10755-020-09525-7. Copyright 2020 Springer Nature B.V. Posted with permission

Centering Love as the Foundation of a Racially Just and Decolonizing Student Affairs

In writings on humanizing pedagogy, the concept of love is often presented as the core principle grounding all action. However, love, as it is currently conceptualized, leaves much room for interpretation (hooks, 2000; Levinas, 1998; Matias &amp; Allen, 2013). Therefore, it is critical as educators and Student Affairs professionals we challenge the idea of how we commonly think about love as an abstract notion (“fight hate with love”) and, rather, reimagine what love means within a movement that challenges oppressive structures within Student Affairs. By not recognizing or taking actions to correct higher education’s past acts of indifference (noting the gross injustices against Indigenous populations and the exploited labor and enslavement of Africans rooted within the history of college campuses), we are perpetuating the protection of a historical lie and continuing the legacy of settler colonialism and dehumanization within the profession. In this manuscript, we provide an overview of settler colonialism and its impact in Student Affairs, review how love is academically and culturally defined across fields, and present an alternative framework for building love as an actionable "skill set" that allows educators to move the field toward racial justice and humanization