Student Affairs offices showcase data at poster fair
The annual Assessment and Evaluation Poster Fair provides an opportunity for Student Affairs staff to collect data on their areas of responsibility and to share their findings with colleagues in their divisions and across campus.
Student Services manager Terry Adams, right, asks Lance Choy of the Career Development Center about the findings from the study that measured the quality of the Stanford alumni mentoring experience.
BY KATHLEEN J. SULLIVAN
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The ecumenical Sunday service at Stanford Memorial Church attracts a diverse group - committed believers, seekers and skeptics - drawn by the beauty of the church, the theology and the quality of the preaching and the music.
Those were only three of the insights that could be gleaned by walking amid the field of posters produced by members of the Student Affairs staff for the 2011 Assessment and Evaluation Poster Fair, held last week in the Henry & Monique Brandon Family Community Room at the Black Community Services Center.
There were so many posters - 46 - that the fair extended outside the community room to the center's wide wooden deck, where a dozen of the posters were displayed on tables covered with red tablecloths.
A staff member - and sometimes two - stood in front of each of the posters, ready to explain the research findings and to answer questions from visitors. The room buzzed with lively conversation.
"The poster fair is one of the highlights of the year for our division," said Greg Boardman, vice provost for student affairs. "It provides an opportunity for staff to showcase their research/assessment efforts with colleagues throughout the Student Affairs division and with our colleagues across campus. It's an engaging way to connect and learn from one another."
The goal of the annual poster fair is to help build a "culture of assessment" within Student Affairs by encouraging its staff to conduct research studies that evaluate the performance of its programs and policies, said Ken Hsu, director of the Graduate Life Office and a member of the division's Assessment Coordination Committee.
Among the questions staff members tackled in the third annual poster fair:
- What's it like living on the Row?
- How comfortable do lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning students feel seeking care at Vaden Health Center?
- How well do students and faculty understand the Honor Code?
- How effective is the Career Counseling Center in assisting students with career planning, resume support and interviewing skills?
- Are web designers and online content creators producing material that is accessible to the greatest possible audience?
"We want to know - are our programs effective?" Hsu said, as he stood surveying the dozens of posters arrayed on tables around him. "Are they efficient? Are we providing what the students want? Are we providing what academic departments and other units want? We're here to support the academic mission, so we want to know - are we doing that?"
Hsu shares leadership responsibilities for the initiative with University Registrar Tom Black. The committee received invaluable guidance from Jenny Bergeron, manager of assessment and program evaluation in Stanford's Institutional Research & Decision Support Department.