Counseling, Rehabilitation and Student Development

Student Affairs Celebrates 50 Years

The Graduate Programs in Student Affairs are celebrating their 50th anniversary with a multi-event reunion June 4–5.

The reunion will include an informal get together Friday night, a professional development conference Saturday, and a formal banquet and celebration Saturday evening.

Associate Professor and Program Coordinator Debora Liddell said she hopes the professional development conference will be an opportunity for intergenerational discussions about the future of the profession.

The conference will include a keynote address by Professor Elizabeth Whitt, a response by a panel of alumni, and break-out sessions on various topics. UI President Sally Mason and College of Education Dean Sandra Damico will address the group.

The Saturday evening banquet will feature a presentation from three current master’s students on the history of the program. Stephanie Beecher, Kelly Giese, and Misty Brents are collecting oral histories from alumni and faculty and will present their project as a book for attendees to take home.

Professor Emeritus Al Hood said the program has seen a lot of changes and had a lot of highlights since he came in 1965 as the program’s first full-time faculty member. He remembers the program’s students being active on campus during the tumultuous late 1960s and early 1970s.

“Our students tended to be heavily involved as activists or interested observers,” he said.

Hood said he’s proud of the program’s reputation for training future campus leaders, thanks to a strong emphasis on research and scholarly publications among students.

Current program strengths include strong faculty research, the intentional building of learning communities, and a focus on providing students with graduate assistantships and real-world experiences.

“We’ve married our experiential and our classroom curricula and based all of it on what we know works,” Liddell said.

Although it has been known by a variety of names, the program’s biggest change in its 50th year is the merger with the Higher Education program to keep up with the changing field. The new program, Higher Education and Student Affairs, will be launched with the incoming class of fall 2010.

To learn more about the 50th anniversary reunion, please email Debora Liddell.

Reaching Out with Online Teaching

Rehabilitation Counseling Professor Dennis R. Maki noticed a decline in attendance at the Annual Summer School for Helping Professionals (ASSHP). Budget cuts were making it difficult for usual participants to travel for the professional development opportunity. So Maki is bringing the opportunity to them.

As before, Maki and others will host the 31st ASSHP this August 2–5. The on-campus conference offers focused workshops for state agencies and other constituencies who work with some of Iowa’s most vulnerable populations. Participants can earn continuing education credit and learn cutting-edge information on topics ranging from substance abuse counseling to grant writing.

Now Maki is endeavoring to offer similar workshops electronically throughout the year so that agencies and organizations can benefit without leaving home.

“We hope we can meet our mission electronically by taking advantage of technology,” Maki said, adding that the online offerings won’t replace the on-campus event, but will “enhance the essence” of the ASSHP.

The first workshop in this new program has been tailored for the Iowa Department of Vocational Rehabilitation Services, based in Des Moines. James R. Stachowiak, associate director of the Iowa Center for Assistive Technology Education and Research, will present an online program on using assistive technologies.

Maki said he hopes to offer a few more workshops on other topics before the ASSHP in August and then at least one blended workshop at that event. He also envisions bringing expert lecturers to the on-campus event electronically to expand the scope of potential speakers nationwide.

Maki is working with Chet Rzonca, associate provost and dean of Continuing Education, to conceptualize and coordinate these new electronic offerings.

Rzonca said those who attend the workshops online in real time will have full participation capabilities. Lectures and presentations can also be archived and rebroadcast. He said workshops like the ones Maki is creating are becoming increasingly popular and important. “I think they’re going to be critical in the future,” Rzonca said. “Budgets are growing less and less but technology is getting better and better.”