Student Affairs and Student Life at UIS

One more quick test, can you hear me now?

Yes, did you just have that error message?

No, I was looking at a different screen. I had some speaking notes up. I just want to make sure I could look at those and talk at the same time.

Mindset just said said something about like media, something not supported. So it's like Oh no. But if you can still hear me, we should be good.

Yep, I got you.

Hello everybody, so we're going to wait at least one more minute. I know some of the sessions have been going a little bit overtime, so we're going to go ahead and wait about a minute or so just to let everybody who is going to join into the session have enough time to get here. And then after that we're going to go ahead and get started, OK?

Alright, so good afternoon everybody. Thank you all for joining us today. I hope that you've been learning a lot about the University of Illinois Springfield, so my name is Jonathan Martinez. I am one of the regional admissions counselors at the University of Illinois, Springfield and I am going to go ahead and pass it along to our presenters for today. We're going to talk a little bit more about student life here at UIS.

Hello everybody, hear me you guys hear me.

Yes, you are good.

Brian, Jonathan Brian Ashland. Come through alright sounds good. Alright. On behalf of the division of student affairs at at Uas, I'd like to welcome everybody to this. I really wish we could be doing this on campus today with the beautiful colors we have so many trees on campus. It's pretty right this time of year, but we're very glad that you're here on the call. We're really glad that you're taking some time to discover uas, and I really mean that I really appreciate it. I know that everything going on in our country and our state in education right now in life in general is difficult.

I know that perhaps another zoom call is not the most fun idea at the moment, but we really appreciate you working through those challenges and finding yourself here today, and I think that makes you the kind of student that will fit in at Uas an I really do hope that each of you is a future Prairie star here. We don't have a ton of time and I want to make sure we save some time for any specific questions or topics that user group would like to talk about. I'm going to give a brief introduction to our commitment to you, and then we have asked ashlyn.

To join us today to talk a little bit about the role of athletics on campus and then, Brian Kelly is going to provide an overview of the services and the support that we offer as student affairs. And then we'll have a little time for Q&A that will be using the chat feature for Q&A. So if you have questions, feel free to drop those in there as we go or at the end, and we'll either respond to them verbally or in the chat box, or both, and with that said, let me take just a few minutes to talk about the commitment that student affairs makes to you as a student.

First off, we care and I can tell you that each student affairs staff member cares about students, and I can tell you that we operate by the motto students first, but I think actions speak louder than words, and so we provided a few examples of the kinds of things that we've been doing to show that we care. We have. We have since well before kovid had a food pantry on on campus. We now have a micro pantry, so you can literally just pick things up. We've been doing things like implementing expanded book vouchers for people that are having difficulties.

With their books, we have emergency funds that exist, the diversity center and other groups on campus have been doing like check in sessions vibe sessions. They call them to see how people are doing when we have a big decision to make about how we're going to, let's say, for example, open campus. This past fall we do focus groups to make sure that we hear what students have to say. We talked to student government. We just recently had student government issue, a pledge that students have been signing about being safe on campus. We've been really involved with Instagram. We have our own.

Marie Watson is like our own little Instagram star now and we've done other things like Virtual 5K's group fitness things you may have seen if you've been following you IS that we had a beloved Administrator. Doctor Ford passed this this within the last six months and we had a day to commemorate her and we raised money for charities that she was involved with in care about. We've had mental health screenings because we know that people are feeling a little alone right now. We've done a lot of the actual work.

To show that we care.

Caring about students is absolutely foundational to what we do, but it's also important for you to know that that you ***** student fairly capable. When I mean that I'm talking about a lot of our staff members, have advanced degrees in their field, Masters degrees. We have some doctoral degrees in our staff, and everybody has a lot of experience. It's it's not. We don't have very many people that are green on the staff. We have a lot of people that have a lot of experience in a lot of interesting experience at different universities, as well as as here.

We're also like exceptional. Just recently I got a email from the director of career services. She reports to me and she was telling me about how their presentation that they just put together is going to be at a conference that our whole division has been kind of encouraged to attend. I didn't even know that they were doing that, so that's the kind of thing that's happening all the time.

Ann, I think it was very much on display when when we switched from ground learning to remote learning in the spring when things started to get a little wild and wooly student affairs was on top of it. We were really doing everything we could to prevent to provide a lot of services. Alot of the ones that Brians gonna talk about later in blended formats and unlike formats immediately we're not talking about waiting till the summer to regroup and do it again for the fall. We're talking about having those things available right away so we're very capable and very ready for whatever kind of gets thrown at us.

In addition to being capable.

We're very committed as I, as I mentioned, students first is our motto.

Me, we don't carry out policies without first thinking about how will this affect students. Actually, that's usually where we start. What is it that we were trying to accomplish to support our students? And then let's create a policy around that rather than thinking about what do we need to do to make this work and well, students are kind of 2nd. That's not how we do it here. It drives what we do. Safety is very much a priority. We've been doing everything within our power to ensure a safe experience for the students that are here this fall. Right now, that involves testing social distancing, but beyond that.

Providing a large amount of support for the people that are here. If somebody tests positive, we have a meal delivery for them while they're in Quarantine. We have textbook delivery. We have mental health services. We've even gone so far as to put one of our current staff in the position of a caseworker to make sure that all those services that are there. For those students that they're getting them and that nothing slips through the cracks. So we're doing everything we can to ensure safety. But beyond that, while being safe to make sure that people have positive experience.

A lot of this is possible because we have a plan and this is a plan that existed before COVID-19. We have a plan for you. As a student we want to help you because we want to help you become a leader that in cult that cultivates inclusive communities and to do that all the different projects that we have, the programs that we have around four goals, self awareness, connection, diversity, inclusion and leadership and those are woven into the things we do. So if you take a kayak trip with campus rec.

You're going to have intentional opportunities to connect with other students. If you take a student work job in one of our departments, you're going to have intentional professional development around leadership. If you come to a service project by the Volunteer Center, we're going to show you how that project relates to the notion of inclusion and diversity, and so on and so on. And we've been successful because we made this commitment as an entire division.

And the last thing I want to mention before turnover to Ashland is is that were devoted to diversity inclusion as something that's part of what we do not, not just a heritage month or something like that. Yes, we celebrate Black History Month. Actually. The first meeting for that, I think, is next week. I'm going to be at that. Yes, we recognize national coming out day over the weekend. Yes, we're active with Hispanic Latin X Heritage Month, but we work to make diversity inclusion apart of what we do all year round. And actually that.

Provides a nice segue for me to introduce Ashlyn because you may not know this. She was recently involved with organizing an event called protest on the Prairie here at uas. We in response to national issues around justice she works in athletics. It's not directly tide to her job description, but it's an example of how people work across the division and care deeply how they're capable. Hosting a protest in the middle peacefully and safely in the middle of the pandemics. Not come about challenges and how someone like Ashland is committed.

So with that I'm going to turn it over, not to talk about, protest on the parade, will talk a little bit about athletics on campus. Thank you so much, mark.

Thank you so much Mark, I really appreciate that. Hi everyone on Isom virtually meet you, so my name is Ashlyn Beasley, I'm our assistant athletic director for gamer operations and fan engagement or marketing and digital content. However, you kind of want to choose that, so I'm going to kind of go through a couple different bullet points for you. Also. Right now in our athletic Department we have roughly 244 student athletes. 71 of those student athletes are new students here on this campus, so they might be transfers, or they might be first year freshman's that are here.

And 32 those student athletes are international student athletes. We make up just roughly 17 N CAA teams and then we also have cheeran. I'm actually our cheer coach this year, so I had to put a little plug in there as well too. We thrive ourselves off of academics, community involvement and championships as well too, with academics we, for I don't know, six straight semesters. As a Department have had a 3.30 collective GPA or higher.

This last semester was a 3.5 GPA and so that speaks directly to how much that we pride ourselves on our academics and getting things done in the classroom or virtually at home. And so one of those things that we have going to kind of shift around with the student athlete experience is that we do have an academic advisor who is strictly with athletics, which works tremendously and speaks volumes based on the GPA that we have every semester collectively as a unit and then going back student involvement in athletics so.

Right now with covid going on, fans are not permitted at our events and so we actually had some of our sports moved backwards. So volleyball and soccer would normally be occurring right now, but they actually got shifted to the spring and it was just announced last Thursday that basketball season is ago. So we're starting at the end of November. But the way the conference has it set up is that for right now, fans are not permitted with the hope of that changing, you know at the start of the second semester, and so for us, one of the things that we really pride ourselves is the engagement with social media. And so we've done a lot to keep students.

Weather there on campus are at home engaged through social media, so any giveaways that we're having, whether you're here or you're at home, you're still able to be a part of that. And so if you're not here and can't pick up your item, we can Mail it out to you just as easily and so looking to do those same exact things with our games whenever the students can actually be in the stands cheering on the Prairie stars. And one thing that's awesome is that all of our home games for basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball, and softball are all free through the Jelson, which is our conference.

And so everyone is able to watch those for free on campus. What's really cool is we have the campus channel where you're able to literally just go to your TV and turn on the game whenever they're playing, and so you don't even have to stream it off of your computers or your phones. And so we're finding ways that we can continue our already high engagement through social media doing the same thing with our games as well too, and keeping everyone as involved as possible as we can.

Outside of that.

But with the student athlete experience, so the biggest thing for us is that we have an open door policy and Mark touched on that as well too. Is that with student affairs with athletics, we're here for the students, and so I can speak personally to myself, my door, my phone, my Twitter DMS. They are always open to anyone and everyone. I try to be as flexible and approachable as I possibly can. I know that's something that I really thrived off of whenever I was in college, and I hope to do the same for students and student athletes on our campus and so.

My door is always open. I'm on social media 24/7 so people will reach out to me there as well to whatever is more comfortable for the student. I'm there. I'm there to help however, and that's how all everyone is in our Department or athletic director has been here. Just shy of a year about couple months away. He is extremely outgoing, very personable and very transparent as well too. And and considering covid going on right now, I think that's something that's very important. Is transparency in leadership and so it's been great having him.

At the head of our Department, other things with our student athlete experience. So I touched on the academics. How we do have our academic advisor that is strictly for athletics. We also have a strength and conditioning coach in assistant strength and conditioning coach that works specifically with our team, so they're setting up team workouts in getting all of that work done so that student athletes or coaches aren't trying to figure out those things on their own before you can get on the court or the field to win, you have to take care of yourself on the front end and take care of your body so that you're able to compete and they do an excellent job.

Also with taking care of yourself would be the mental health aspect as well as with athletic training. We have a full Athletic Training Department with four athletic trainers on site and have a direct relationship with Springfield clinic here in Springfield which works great and then we have a mental health and Wellness Committee in our athletic Department that specific for student athletes and addressing those needs outside of those areas. We also have sack which is our student athlete advisory committee, so each of our teams have two reps that are with.

That hold positions in that committee, and so those student athletes going to talk about some of those things that might not be verbalised at a greater, greater stance, but instead having a people having those set 17 to 25 people in a room together to go over conversations to ask the questions that might not be asked within a team setting. Rise up. That is actually new as of this spring, and so this is one of our female student athlete initiative groups that we have, and so we get together once a month.

And do different opportunities from we had yoga. We've had opportunities back in the spring where we would have teams go and be a part of a different teams is practice to get that perspective of a different student athlete. We also have panel calls where we bring on different people, different female leaders, whether they be on campus alums or in the Springfield community to talk directly to our female student athletes and just an opportunity to engage with someone who's not on your team in a different way. And then Mark mentioned the vibe checks that the diversity center does and that was something that was super impactful and.

Super important to me this summer and gave me an opportunity to have some of those uncomfortable or vulnerable conversations with and that was something I felt was extremely needed in athletics as well too. So this semester we started our student athlete vibe checks that we have on Tuesday evening. So lots of opportunities for student athletes to get involved even though the campus community is a little bit different this semester. Finding these opportunities online to find how we can be more than just an athlete or just more than a student and how we can get to those people.

As a person as well too, if you go to UIS Prairie stars. Com, you'll be able to find information on all of our teams that we have. Our coaches are staffed. You'll also be able to find all of our social media handles. Again, we are extremely engaged on social media, so I encourage you to give us a follow and if anyone has any questions, please feel free to drop those in the chat.

Thanks ashlyn, so again my name is Brian Kelly, Services Director, Residence life here at US and I'm just going to cover all the departments are part of our division of Student Affairs and 1st, you know Ashley was able to speak about student Prairie Star Athletics, which is one of the departments within our division. We also have campus recreation so that is where we have students are able to workout, exercise and have a lot of outdoor and other experiences through programmatic efforts they put together for students both on campus and off campus.

We work Redevelopment Center, which helps students be successful in finding student employment on campus, but also helping students and alumni find jobs after or during their career. Here at Uas, we also have a counseling center on campus and that is for students to go and speak with individuals about their mental well being as well as they put on a lot of programmatic efforts and group sessions for students who would like to engage. We have our Cox Children Center which is.

A daycare center on campus where we have a number of students who utilize that service as well as community members. We have our Dean of students office and the Dean of students helps to navigate both advocating for students on campus, but also if there are any kind of concerns or questions that students have. Helping them make sure that they are successful here during their time at uas and beyond.

We have our disability services office which works with students who need accommodations, whether that's in the classroom or in their living situation and supporting students who do need those and navigating the system we have at uas and beyond to make sure that students are successful. Here we have our diversity center that hosts a lot of programming, a lot of educational events, but also is here to support students of every identity to make sure that everyone is cared for in his finds. Their place here at Uas.

We had food service food service both manage is our meal plans an where students eat during their time living on campus but also our catering on campus and so they manage all of the food service for our campus overall.

We have our gender and sexuality student services which is located in the diversity center and that really works to help educate and advocate for all of our students on campus as well. We have health services which is primarily there for all of our students. They have medical professionals on campus to help students with their needs and finding medical assistance. They also have relationships with.

Local hospitals and clinics to refer students to those places. As such, they need, depending on their individual needs.

We have international student services and their work is really to help educate the campus community international student experience, but also to help our international students get to campus an navigating all of the paperwork that comes along with being an international student so they help with a lot of paper pieces and then helping from the transition from being abroad to being here domestically at US. We have my Department residence life where we house over 1100 students every year and so we really. Our goal is anyone?

In their first two years, we do expect to live on campus if they have less than 60 US credit hours and live farther than 40 miles from campus. That is an expectation, but we hope that every student who attends you asked chooses to live on campus for all four years. We have student life and there were, as Doc mentioned earlier. They really work to engage students in every effort they can. There's in person events they bring speakers to campus, they praying activities to campus. But they also, we've done a lot of remote work through social media.

Zoom in other platforms.

The Student Union is what a lot of individuals tend to refer to as our living room on campus, so it is a place where students go to eat to hang out, to get coffee. We have a Starbucks there and just to socialize as needed. Of course, this semester it is a little different with social distancing and masks being required inside all our buildings, but it is a place where students can go to study, relax and learn. We have our Veterans Affairs office and that is primarily here to again educate our campus commute veterans needs, but also advocate for our veterans students who are here on campus.

Where volunteer and civic engagement office, which really helps students understand what civic engagement looks like, and that's really important this year. Of course, with all of the elections as it is every year. But also they set up a volunteer activities for students, participate in on an ongoing basis and help to connect student groups to other volunteer opportunities. As such they request. And then we have the Women Center which is also part of the diversity center and that office is here to help again. All of our soon to be successful, but really to help advocate and educate on women's.

Needs and rights on our campus and Beyond and then the final piece. I would just mention we have our student affairs administrative office and that is where our.

Vice Chancellor Assistant Vice chancellors Dean of students and administrative support are, and that's actually one of our residence halls so that I know I went pretty quickly there. But that is all of our department's within the division of student affairs here to help each of our students be successful both on campus and off campus.

And so I'm gonna put up.

Our contact information. I did include our interim Vice Chancellor's contact information here as well doctor Vannevar Vergie. He is our interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs and so you'll see here his office number, email address, and then you will see our three social media streams that we try to keep updated each day, multiple times day. So do look at those and give us a follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

I think at this point we'll open it up for questions.

If there are any questions.

And you can you know type them right in the chat column.

Or anything else others would like to speak on that I might have missed.

Jane, we'd love to answer your question.

Feel free to drop it in the chat box.

And thank you, Lucas.

Awesome Lucas hope to see you in the folder or the next year.

Since we have a minute Brian, you want to talk just a little bit more about Starmeter.

Sure, yeah, so star map is.

A curricular approach are our actual work we do is division and it really centers our entire division.

On how we can make sure that we are helping students navigate there for years, but also helping in each student kind of gain skills and talents and kind of outside the classroom. Learning nice piece of we've added this year is actually called curricular transcript, which as you attend events and I saw that.

Mark, put in the US connection link there, but we've track all of our events and people attending events so we can make sure that as you come into uas and spend your two or four years or beyond with us that you can make sure that you leave with a document that says everything you've done. Cocurricular on campus. That's everything outside of the classroom. It is a new concept for us, but it does tie back very nicely to the learning outcomes we put forward and have worked to center division around for each of our students who both are here on campus students and working towards helping that with online students as we navigate moving forward.

Feel free to add anything else in there. Mark the you might want to.

No, I think that's a great overview.

Obviously we try and make the events that we have have an educational developmental.

Component to them, but also yeah, like Brian mentioned with the Co curricular transcript, we're tracking it all.

So that we can make sure it adds up to something, right? You take a series of math classes and then we say OK, after you do algebra and then this and that you have some type of understanding of math, right? This is the same kind of thing for your experiences outside the classroom. If you've done this, many leadership opportunities and this many.

You know self self awareness opportunities. We can show that and you can take that with you as you go to internship interview, job interviews, grad school interviews and talk meaningfully about your experience that you as not just that you went to a bunch of stuff. So it really helps organize those things in a meaningful way. I think that's really an advantage for years, a student.

Lucas

So we need a question about.

Local internships.

So there's a few ways that you can do that. We have a Department on campus through academic affairs called internships and prior learning, and they have approximately 200 internships that they do.

Every year, and many of those are in the political sphere because of our connection to the camp. To the capital is how close we are to capital.

In addition to that, there is a specific internship at the capital that's offered through the University as well, and then when you graduate as an undergraduate, we have a really unique program called GPS. I graduate service, public internships, and you can actually get paid to do an internship. Many of them are almost all of them are related with government, and it will also provide tuition remission for your Masters program. If you do that, you S as well.

So the the answer is yes, there are a lot of opportunities to do internships associated with government through IIS, hundreds of them every year. It does require a little bit of work on your part to make sure that you connect with those people and go through those application and interview processes to do that. But Yes, there are many opportunities to do that.

In the second part of the question is that and on your own thing you can do some of those on your own, but there was a lot of support, an formalized ways that those are done through campus.

Well, that's just about our time. I want to thank ashlyn and Brian and Jonathan for helping us out today. I want thank all of you for taking some time out to be on here. I hope we've moved up in your rankings. If you're if you're not already number one, I hope you are strongly considering becoming a Prairie star and feel free to reach out to any of us. Our email addresses or up there if you have any questions that you didn't get answered today, would be happy to answer them for you. Thank you.

Yes, thank you everybody for attending and like they said, if you do have any questions regarding UI S you know student life. Feel free to contact them if you still have any questions regarding you, know admissions, feel free to contact the admissions office and will be more than happy to assist you with any questions you may have, but I hope you all you know have learned a lot about you IS and I hope you can join us next fall.

Have a great afternoon everyone.