An Unlikely Pairing

A few days ago a revered member of our university staff, Vickie, retired after 40 years at Elon University.  I was asked to give a brief farewell commendation for her, an honor bestowed only on your most valued colleagues. What was unusual was that Vickie is not a student life colleague but Director of Auxiliary Services. Although we reported to different vice presidents we had shared and worked closely on many projects, issues and yes, catastrophes.  

Ours was an unlikely pairing. A few years back I came upon the Vice Presidents of Student Life and Business, Finance and Technology very early one morning as they were measuring a storage closet (may I add that it was next to the men’s rest room and the constant sound of “swoosh” from the urinals could be heard). Curious (and yes a little possessive of that space) I inquired about their task and they indicated that there was to be some re-organization. They explained our current Director of Purchasing (Vickie) would be promoted and would oversee dining services and mail services. They were searching to find an office for her close to those services that were located in our student center building. Aghast at the prospect of anyone having to be in that space as an office (and a little possessive of that storage space) I suggested that perhaps we could move some walls in one of the suites down the hall and create a small office for her there- (thinking all along that residence life had too much room and could share). My own reporting areas needed more space and resources. My suggestion was accepted and I was lauded at the senior staff level as an excellent problem solver and dubbed the ultimate University team player. The situation took a turn as I learned the renovation would be in my suite (Student Development) and that I would share my own trusted assistant. While feeling unsettled and thinking of all the problems and challenges we would face, I kept smiling and attempted to be gracious when my colleagues and others asked how I was going to make it work. I smiled and gave the “right’ answer- that I welcomed the partnership, and that of course this move was by design to enhance operations at the University. I must confess after these 14 years that initially I was hesitant and concerned as to how this unlikely pairing was going to be a success and my calm, cheery and helpful demeanor was somewhat of a façade. I had great trepidation as to how was I to make “The Office of Student Development and Auxiliary Services” be a success.

Fast-forward 14 years and as I reflect on this situation, it has been the best dose of professional development I could have ever received. I learned many lessons along the way (too many to write about in one blog post) but here are a few I would like to highlight:

Work space is only space- you do not own it, are not confined by it nor does it define you or your work. The key to the successful integration of our two offices was first recognizing that our office cultures were very different. We had to compromise on décor, function and boundaries. Student Development prided us on a “student friendly” office equipped with a couch so that students could rest comfortably as they basked in our counsel and good will. What- get rid of the couch? It does not fit a professional business model? Where else would our students feel “comfortable” and like a member of the family.” I learned that adopting a business professional model and advising SGA senators that they could no longer lounge on the couch during work daytime office hours created a space that they found more professional and inviting. Somehow the students’ perceptions of me as a professional and mentor was not negatively impacted by moving to comfy chairs and dumping the couch.  (Note: SGA senators still lounged on the floor over pizza after we decompressed following SGA meetings and at times Vickie opted to join them).  Vickie learned that the assistant stayed on the phone a lot and “took a lot of time” with each call.  She soon learned that the assistant’s role was not to pass the student or parent off to the first office but to listen and get a feel for the real issue and then pass the call off to the “best” place. That skill takes time and patience and many hours on the phone. Projects that we assigned may not be finished in a timely manner because it was our assistant’s primary role to help distraught students and parents first and that completion of administrative projects would follow.

There are many fine professionals that exist outside your piece of the institutional landscape and if you do not get to know them, you are missing out on a rich and valuable opportunity. As student development professionals we tout the importance of informal interactions, mostly with our students and faculty colleagues. But how often do we take the time to interact with our mail services and print services colleagues? Often the direct services nature of their work does not lend to interactions with other professionals in other departments. It is difficult to articulate the value of these interactions in our office complex and how they made life easier when the tough times came. The value of these interactions was most apparent when we had a potential anthrax exposure in mail services and again when we had suspected cases of food poisoning. Big, fancy titles and doctorates only go so far when interacting in a crisis; having built those relationships not only at the top but with the staff members “with boots on the ground’ made my role as emergency operations coordinator much smoother.    

Communication is key - and different.  Many facets of a university have their own language and Student affairs/life/development professionals are no exception. I learned quickly that if I were to co-exist with business services folks, I had to reduce my use of catchy phrases and student-life jargon. We often experienced that in the midst of disagreement about an issue or approach, we were actually on the same page but could not get beyond the semantics of our own languages. We became mutual interpreters and began to seek each other’s feedback on communication that would go to an audience outside our areas and a new day of understanding emerged.

Appreciate that many staff members work long, hard, sometimes difficult hours, and that badge of honor is not reserved solely for student affairs. As student affairs professionals we often pride ourselves on our work ethic and that we generally do not work a traditional nine-to-five day. I learned we are not alone. I remember many evenings when after having advised the weekly SGA meeting on Thursday nights or returning for the Greek Week Dance, I found Vickie in her office pouring over hundreds of pages of equipment specs for a new dining hall under construction or reviewing trademark requests. I always thought those “business services people” locked up at 5:00 and left their work at the office door. You see, Vickie’s day was also filled with meetings (including meetings with students), mentoring and supervising staff, and handling the occasional disruptive crisis (having the dishwasher go out in a main dining facility, for example). Her reporting vice president called her at night when there was an issue that needed to be addressed immediately, just like mine. We found we were more alike than different and both spent far too many hours on the job (Iike you, I imagine).

Through our office integration we modeled collaboration but the true collaboration was often beneath the surface and not readily apparent to others. In every job description at our institution there is the “other duties as assigned” clause. This clause means we are members of a greater whole and that we must step out of those job specific roles to perform duties that transcend our reporting departments.  This clause came to life in our office on many occasions. Vickie greeted many distraught students in the office if I happened to be out and got them gently to another resource; and I, in turn, learned to answer at least basic questions about trademarking and contractual obligations to dining services. I taught her about student life and student organizations. She taught me about the trademarking process and why it was important that we protect the university’s brand and image. We became external champions for each other’s reporting areas and that collaboration was highlighted in a 2011 article in a national business services journal. In the spring of 2013 as the University made a decision to outsource our health services staff to the local hospital; Vickie was my mentor in the process. No, she does not have a doctorate but she has years of professional experience in successfully transitioning areas to outside vendors and then managing multi-million dollar contracts.  She mentored and guided me through some challenging processes- from contract negotiations to advising my beloved health services staff members that their jobs were moving to an external organization. She instilled confidence that I possessed the skills and competence to handle this transition and cautioned me when she thought I was going to make a huge, costly mistake.  

While the opportunity to cross physical office boundaries may not present themselves (if they do say YES!), my challenge to you is to find your own “Vickie” in your organization. Our within- division collegial relationships are important, and we are quick to tout the importance of mentoring others in student life and student life/faculty integration, but an equally professionally rewarding challenge may be to step further outside those boxes and invest in areas of collaboration and relationships that are not readily apparent in our day-to-day work. 

In the spirit of transparency I feel the need to disclose that in addition to building one of the most profound professional relationships of my 30+-year student affairs career, Vickie and I developed a strong and deep personal friendship through our work and interaction. In summer 2013 my office was relocated to another space on campus and upon Vickie’s retirement her reporting areas will move into newly created space. But our grand experiment worked and can serve as a model when we let our professional guards down. I suspect that our two vice presidents (known for their own strong collaborations) may have had a grand scheme in mind all along. Well-played. Well-played.

Submitted by: Jana Lynn Fields Patterson, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Student Health and Wellness, Elon University.