Leadership

Overview
 

As my college career ends, I have been reflecting on my peers and their motivation to follow university rules. Whether in my roles as a resident mentor (RM), supplemental instruction (SI) peer leader, or member of the Carolina Judicial Council (CJC), I have noticed that first-year students are not as motivated in following university rules which negatively impacts their experience. I have observed that students who violate conduct and face sanctions tend to fall behind in their classes and have a higher chance of withdrawing from the university. COVID-19 has had an impact of their behavior and motivation; however I noticed this trend before 2020 and have seen it continue even as the restrictions have lifted. As a result of these trends, I have noticed the change in motivation is correlated in the increase of severity of conduct cases. Not only do incidents involving the Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity (OSCAI) affect the charged student(s) themselves, it also negatively impacts the university and community due to the disruptive and destructive nature.
 

Understanding why these trends have been happening has been a consistent topic of conversation among my coworkers and CJC members. Finding the root causes behind this large issue of decreased student motivation and severity of violations is challenging, breaking down the problem and summarizing various ideas is critical to identify root issues (as discussed in Key Insight 2). Below you will find a tool introduced in my second key insight that I used to show my process of identifying root issues through conversations with other RMs, Sis, and CJC council members.

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After collecting data from my peers in each role and identifying root problems, I reflected on my experiences and identified consistent findings. Below are my perspectives and examples from my roles as a resident mentor, SI peer leader, and council member of CJC:
 

• Working for University Housing as a community assistant and RM since 2018, there has been an increase in the severity of conduct violations that has plagued residence halls around campus. The recent trend in violations has been for destruction to property, parties, and disrespect towards authority figures and rules. In my residence hall area, two of the buildings installed cameras in the past two years due to the increase in damages/incidents. Also, the disregard for authority among many residents towards RMs, Residence Life Coordinators and custodial staff has created an environment that is disrespectful for those who work in the building.

• As a SI leader, I have seen a change in the way students want to learn when the class is online compared to in person. When my SI class was asynchronous online, I had less attendance at my sessions and when students did come, they wanted me to give them the answers to their homework problems. Compared to in person, there was higher attendance and students were more interested in understanding the concepts and materials from class.

• As a council member of CJC since 2020, I review and sit on hearings for conduct violations. I have seen a shift in the severity of violations and resulting sanctions. In addition, I have noticed that the violations are like issues I have seen in my other roles. Many conduct violations among first year students involve breaking various housing policies, such as destruction to the residence halls, pulling fire alarms and extinguishers, and throwing parties/making excessive noise.
   

Recommendation
 

My recommendation to solve this problem is for first-year students at the University of South Carolina to be required to be involved in a form of student engagement during their first year. This can take the form of being a member of a student organization/club, on-campus job, athletics, Greek life, volunteer and service-related work, or an idea they have (which would be discussed with advising staff and approved by them). I believe this requirement will positively impact the student, university, and community overall. Being involved on campus gives students a sense of belonging and responsibility to the community and their peer groups. It also helps students link their academics with practical experiences, allowing them to understand their talents and goals better. Students who are involved in campus activities and student organizations earn higher grades and have an overall better college experiences ("Student Life"). During college, the peer groups that students are a part of heavily influence their behavior and cognitive development (Tenhouse). Students would feel a sense of responsibility to their peer groups and the community to fit into the social standards expectations (rules, common curtesy) of the groups they are a part of. Another aspect to consider is first year students meeting and connecting with different people from all over the country and/or world. During my Principles of Management class (MGMT 371), we discussed the importance of working with and in groups of diverse people because it helps us gain insights into new perspectives and helps the individual be more confident in their choices when considering a broad perspective (Key Insight #2). During class, we talked about how working in group projects and getting involved in different things was important because it would help us develop new mindsets and skills through the collaboration and discussions. Working and engaging with diverse groups of people would allow students to appreciate differences and similarities amongst each other and gain more self-confidence and autonomy. At the university level, student retention would increase due to them having a strong social connection to campus and having a positive experience their first year. At the community level, students feeling a sense of responsibility will translate to them feeling like the community is theirs and a responsibility to follow the rules/guidelines put into place to ensure everyone feels welcomed and included.
 

In recommending this plan, I have experience in my roles that make me believe this requirement would help achieve the goal. Aan SI leader, I have noticed that students who come to sessions in a group are more engaged during the session and collaborate on material together better. Often, these groups are students who are involved in organizations, Greek life, sports, and work together. By coming with their friends, they feel comfortable participating and working together, they also inspire each other to go. Additionally, as a resident mentor, when residents violate housing policies or call us with an issue, we must go through the process of writing reports depending on the issue. When going through this process with residents, I asked them questions about themselves to get to know them and ease them through the process. One of the questions I always asked was about what they were involved in on-campus and what they liked to do. A pattern I noticed was that the residents who were not involved in anything on campus were more likely to get in trouble with conduct (violating Housing policies), that resulted in them being reported to the OSCAI. Also, RMs are required to have 1-1 conversations with our residents called a “Cocky Conversation”. When I had my Cocky Conversations with my residents, a trend I noticed was that when residents were involved on-campus, they expressed having better experiences and doing well in their classes.
 

Implementation
 

To make the requirement official, it needs to be approved by the Office of Student Life. The office of Student Life strives to advance student success through involvement in experiences, services, and facilities on-campus that enhance leadership development, DEI, community engagement and personal wellness (CITE – Student Life website). The student engagement requirement aligns with the work of this office as they oversee various student organizations and opportunities on campus that students can get involved in. Next, this new requirement needs to be sponsored by the advising center. This is a large addition; however, the advising center could hire upper classmen mentors to help with the advisement meetings for the requirement and be the point of contact for groups of first-year students. The advising center should oversee this because they already discuss grades, retention, and schedules with first-year students. If advising staff has first-year students who are not participating, the consequence will be that the student must continue coming to advising until they meet the one-year minimum (two semesters) of engagement. The student would not be able to graduate from the university if this requirement is not fulfilled on their UofSC Experience transcript.
 

To implement my recommendation after approval, there are several key stakeholders and materials to consider for this plan to work on-campus at the University of South Carolina. Undergraduate students coming to the university need to know about this new requirement and have resources/materials available to them to prepare and meet the requirement. The orientation staff will need to introduce the requirement and the leaders will need to be prepared to help students through the resources fair at orientation. Student organizations and other departments on campus that offer peer leadership positions need to understand the requirement and be prepared to work with first-year students in achieving this requirement and retaining their membership. Academic advisors need to have the resources to help students with this new requirement throughout the semester and assist them in understanding their UofSC Experience records and transcripts. For the students living on-campus, residence life staff will be responsible in reintroducing the requirement at their first floor meetings and answering questions. They will also be responsible in letting them know about the resource fair. Finally, the OSCAI office needs to be aware of the requirement and report the results of this new plan. To be successful, a collaborative approach is necessary from all stakeholders on-campus and an alignment of goals. As discussed in my first key insight, collaborative leadership has been crucial for me to gain the trust and respect from my peers. This translates to this plan as a collaborative and aligned approach from the involved stakeholders will ensure the success of this plan through gaining the buy-in and respect from students to meet the requirement and understand its importance. While there is no timeline for this project or deadline to meet, I believe to combat the trend in this issue and improve student motivation, it would be best to implement this requirement as soon as possible.
 

To implement this new process, I will lay out my plan in the DMAIC approach that was introduced in my second key insight.
 

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