Organizational and Human Resources
"Includes knowledge, skills, and dispositions used in the management of institutional human capital, financial, and physical resources" (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p.13).
Level: Proficient
In many ways, higher education is a business operation. As such, it is key for student affairs professinals to posses a competency in organization and human resources. My internship with the Office of Campus Activities (OCA) has provided me with many opportunities to grow in this area. Particularly through the management of event approvals, travel registration and student organization space allocation processes. Each of these experiences have helped me develop managerial skills including those needed to manage “politics of organizational discourse… facilities management…[and] risk management” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 24).
As a graduate intern with the Office of Campus Activities at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), I have had a large role in overseeing the work of my graduate colleagues. For both the travel and event registration processes, I “develop and manage human resources…procedures, processes and materials” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 25). To do so, I created spreadsheets within OneDrive, a digital storage platform. This is where I log student organizations’ event and travel registration submissions and assign staff members to different cases for them to oversee. I initiated a color-coding process to alert my supervisor and me to the progress fellow staff members were making for event audits and travel registration. As a measure of additional support, I created a guide that includes step-by-step instructions with screenshots to help direct everyone as they work.
With regard to travel registration in particular, I recognized how vital it is to “develop appropriate alliances with others as a means to efficiently and effectively complete work assignments” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 25). There are often times that all of the graduate interns in my work have to rely on each other to process everything in a timely manner. One example of this is approving liability waivers for students participating on trips that are not one of our travel assignments.
Another vital part of organization and human resources is to “assess the usage of various spaces to guide space-planning processes” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 25). During the past two years, I have been the point of contact for student organization suite spaces. These are spaces on campus that are allocated each year to eligible student organizations. The spaces include offices, workstations and storage units. This year, I created an assessment protocol to gather information concerning how student organization members use their spaces and what they wish to change. These past two years, I have noticed that students seem to use the suite spaces for storage only, even though the office spaces are intended for meetings and workspace. Currently, the floor on which these spaces are located is being renovated, which makes this the optimal time to find ways to make positive change for students. Thus, with this survey information, I plan to create a proposal to my supervisor to inform upcoming renovations.
With regard to managing student organization space, I also had a role in the allocation process in which campus partners evaluate applications and assign the spaces. Through this, I “advocate for the needs of diverse populations through … space management” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 25). I advocate for organizations that serve marginalized students such as Black Student Union and Latino Student Union. I also try to support organizations’ space needs based on their mission and priorities. For example, I give organizations with a mission to provide service to others priority for space over others because of the importance of their work.
I still have much to learn about this competency area. I plan to supervise students directly in the future, which would allow me to grow further in my ability to navigate organization and human resources within higher education. This will be a key area to continue developing as I move towards working as a full time professional and eventually take on more and more administrative and managerial responsibilities.
ACPA: College Student Educators International & NASPA − Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (2015). Professional competency areas for student affairs educators. Washington, DC: Authors. ​​