Students who are reinstated to an institution after being dismissed for poor academic performance need a program to assist them in overcoming the problems that contributed to their poor performance. One college at a mid-sized public university provides a holistic reinstatement program (Excel) that addresses the many needs of these students. The purpose of this article is to describe the Excel program, which is designed to contribute to the success of reinstated students and consequently improve the university’s retention rate

Dücker, Daniel L.

Wilson, Maureen E.

English

Bowling Green State University: ScholarWorks@BGSU

Bowling Green State University ScholarWorks@BGSU Higher Education and Student Affairs Faculty Publications Higher Education and Student Affairs 7-1994 Educating Staff on Ethics and Professionalism Maureen E. Wilson Bowling Green State University, mewilso@bgsu.edu Daniel L. Dücker Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/hied_pub  Part of the Education Commons Repository Citation Wilson, Maureen E. and Dücker, Daniel L., "Educating Staff on Ethics and Professionalism" (1994). Higher Education and Student Affairs Faculty Publications. 14. https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/hied_pub/14 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Higher Education and Student Affairs at ScholarWorks@BGSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Higher Education and Student Affairs Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@BGSU. toward the needs of student-athletes attempt to presentthe material in a way that is sensitive to their experi-ences. One way this occurs is in the content of the as-signed readings. For example, career development is-sues are salient for most students; however, they rarelymake for riveting classroom discussion. Whenever pos-sible, readings on career issues written from an athlete’sperspective are used in order to increase the students’attention spans. This approach is consonant with the in-tegrative philosophy of the program (Denson, 1992). Itis also quite useful for a number of the other topics cov-ered in the seminar. Using this approach takes advan-tage of the rich metaphors that sports provide, and en-gages student-athletes by speaking a language that theyunderstand well. Thought-provoking and relevant ma-terials have been found in magazines, newspapers, jour-nals, and books.CONCLUSIONIn the three years Freshman Seminar has been offered,it has received extremely favorable evaluations fromstudents and the model has been well-received by manyprofessionals involved in support services for student-athletes. Ultimately, however, the value of a course suchas Freshman Seminar lays in its ability to increase theretention and graduation rates, academic performance,and personal and social growth of student-athletes. Re-search examining its impact in several of these areas isneeded to provide empirical support to match the stronganecdotal evidence of its positive impact.REFERENCESDenson, E. L. (1992). Integrating support services for student-athletes:Possible pathways. Academic Athletic Journal, Fall, 16-22.Ferrante, A. P., Etzel, E., & Pinkney, J. (1991). A model for accessingstudent-athletes with student affairs resources. In E. F. Etzel, A. P.Ferrante, & J. W. Pinkney (Eds.), Counseling college student-athletes:Issues and interventions (pp. 19-30). Morgantown, WV: Fitness Infor-mation Technology.Gabbard, C., & Halischak, K. (1993). Consulting opportunities: Workingwith student-athletes at a university. The Counseling Psychologist, 21,386-398.Gould, D., & Finch, L. (1991). Understanding and intervening with thestudent-athlete-to-be. In E. F. Etzel, A. P. Ferrante, & J. W. Pinkney(Eds.), Counseling college student-athletes: Issues and interventions (pp.51-69). Morgantown, WV Fitness Information Technology.Jordan, J. M., & Denson, E. L. (1990). Student services for athletes: Amodel for enhancing the student-athlete experience. Journal of Coun-seling and Development, 69, 95-97.Lottes, C. (1991). A “whole-istic” model of counseling college student-athletes on academic, athletic and personal-social issues. In E. F. Etzel,A. P. Ferrante, & J. W. Pinkney (Eds.), Counseling college student-ath-letes: Issues and interventions (pp. 31-50). Morgantown, WV: FitnessInformation Technology.Scweitzer, A. M., McGovern, T. V., & Robbins, S. B. (1991). Adjustmentoutcomes of a freshman seminar: A utilization-focused approach. Jour-nal of College Student Development, 32, 484-489.Stier, W. F., Jr. (1992). The TRIAD assisting, advising, and assessmentmodel: One institution’s attempt to support the student-athlete. AcademicAthletic Journal, Spring, 34-42.Willoughby, L. M., Willoughby, D. S., & Moses, P. A. (1991). Mentors forbeginning college student-athletes: A possible aid for academic suc-cess. Academic Athletic Journal, Fall, 1-12.Educating Staff on Ethics andProfessionalismMaureen Wilson DückerResidence Life CoordinatorOhio State UniversityDaniel L. DückerResidence Life CoordinatorOhio State UniversityIn the past several years, society’s focus on ethics hasincreased and public officials in government and edu-cation are being held to higher standards of behavior.Professionals in student affairs can capitalize on thiseducational opportunity to engage students and col-leagues in meaningful discussion about ethics and pro-fessionalism. Supervisors and educators should teachand enable students to make good decisions. In order todo this effectively, people must engage in activities thatbuild trust. The more people trust each other, the betterdecisions they will be able to reach together.At the University of South Carolina, staff membersin Housing and Residential Services have developed atraining program which initiates exploration of ethicsand professionalism with staff and students. The pur-pose of this program is to increase staffs ability to makeethically and professionally sound decisions. To accom-plish this purpose, the program concentrates on fourprimary goals: (a) to raise the staffs awareness of ethi-cal and professional issues, (b) to begin to communi-cate acceptable standards of behavior, (c) to build trustamong staff, and (d) to encourage individuals to com-mit to high standards of behavior.These goals are introduced during Fall training forresidence hall directors and graduate assistants at whichtime professional staff facilitates a discussion that high-lights the importance of ethics and professionalism,defines relevant terms (professionalism, ethics, and ethi-cal dilemma), and examines trust in the work place.Following that discussion, staff participates in a gamedesigned to foster meaningful discussion of these con-cepts.This game is based loosely on the Milton-Bradleygame Scruples. Participants are divided into groups withfour or five members. Each group receives a game set304 Journal of College Student Development / July 1994 / Vol. 35that includes rules, situation cards, and response cards.To play:1. Each player draws four situation cards and oneresponse (yes or no) card from the pile to begin the game.2. The object of the game is to discard all situationcards. Players do this by examining their situation cards,predicting which other player is likely to answer a situ-ation with the same answer as the player’s response card.For instance, a player holding a “no” card looks for asituation in his or her hand to which a particular playeris likely to answer “no” and solicits their response tothe scenario. If the player predicted correctly, that situ-ation card is discarded and a new response card is drawnfrom the pile. If the player predicted incorrectly, thesituation card is discarded and new situation and re-sponse cards are drawn.The real object of this game is, of course, not to winbut to discuss these situations in groups, challenge par-ticipants, and debate the issues involved. Players shouldanswer honestly and examine their commitment to theprinciples involved. Situations address a variety of pro-fessional and ethics issues. Examples include:1. You need 35 copies of a handout for your classpresentation tonight. You have no cash to go to the li-brary. No one will notice if you run them on the officecopier. Do you run the copies there?2. You have been given the wrong sticker by the park-ing office and it gives you better parking. Do you re-turn it for the sticker you should have?3. You become aware that a student in your area isHIV positive and is sleeping with another resident inthe area. The HIV positive student has refused to tellhis/her partner about this. Do you inform the other stu-dent about his/her HIV positive partner?4. Two residents on campus have posted magazinepictures of nude people in their window facing a heavilytravelled sidewalk. Do you require them to remove thepictures?This game can be easily adapted for all levels of staffin any area of student affairs. It has been used success-fully with resident advisors, residence hall directors,graduate assistants, professional staff in residence life,and is being adapted for a training program with stu-dent judicial board members. An open and supportiveenvironment is provided in which to discuss factors criti-cal to successful leadership.This training program has been effective in raisingstaff and student awareness of issues of ethics and pro-fessionalism. However, there is clearly a difference be-tween knowing the best decision and being willing tomake that decision even when it is difficult or inconve-nient to do so. The most critical step in this process isfor staff members to commit themselves to making thebest possible decisions.Enabling Students on Probation to SucceedLora MunsellAcademic CounselorOhio UniversityKristin CornwellGraduate AssistantOhio UniversityStudents who are reinstated to an institution after beingdismissed for poor academic performance need a pro-gram to assist them in overcoming the problems thatcontributed to their poor performance. One college at amid-sized public university provides a holistic reinstate-ment program (Excel) that addresses the many needs ofthese students. The purpose of this article is to describethe Excel program, which is designed to contribute tothe success of reinstated students and consequently im-prove the university’s retention rate.Colleges and universities across the country havedesigned programs to promote student retention. Evalu-ations of these programs have shown that the more sup-port students receive, the more successful they are inmeeting their goals. Programs requiring structured, regu-lar meetings with advisors or counselors have studentsuccess rates (removal from probation or continuationat the institution) as high as 64% (Garnett, 1990; Patrick,Furlow, & Donovan, 1988; Shelhamer & Walters, 1988;Taylor, Powers, Lindstrom, & Gibson, 1987). Studiesby Kriner and Shriberg (1992) and Schultz, Dickman,Campbell, and Snow (1992) show that less structuredprograms are less successful.The Excel program assists students by addressing thefactors that contribute to their poor academic perfor-mance. An indicator of these factors is the Learningand Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI), (Weinstein,Schulte, & Palmer, 1987), which assesses students’learning and study habits. Students in the Excel pro-gram complete the LASSI, and the majority of themscore below the 50th percentile in each of the 10 scalesthe LASSI measures. Based on information from theLASSI and review of other programs, Excel was devel-oped as a structured, weekly program which provideseach student with individual attention and support.Reinstated students are required to sign a contractwhich includes meeting 1 hour per week with a peeradvisor, spending 15 hours a week in the library, devel-Journal of College Student Development / July 1994 / Vol. 35 305

Educating Staff on Ethics and Professionalism

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