|
|
|
|
Student Life provost committed to excellence
|
by Cindy Abole
Public Relations
It’s been more than a year since Darlene Shaw, Ph.D., took the helm as
associate provost for Education and Student Life (ESL) within the
Office of Academic Affairs. Within that time, she has managed to
achieve many of her goals while building on a renewed sense of energy,
enthusiasm and confidence in her division’s 168 employees.
 “I truly love my
job and the opportunity to work with MUSC leadership, especially
President [Ray] Greenberg and Provost [John] Raymond, who themselves
are so dedicated to the institution’s mission and students' success.”
—Dr. Darlene Shaw
A psychologist with the division’s Counseling and Psychological
Services and former associate dean for student life, Shaw provides
leadership for a variety of campus services, programs, and initiatives,
which includes Enrollment Management, Academic Support Services, the
Wellness Center, Counseling and Psychological Services, Center for
Academic Excellence, the Writing Center, Student Programs and
Educational Technology Services. She works closely with Amy Blue,
Ph.D., in the Creating Collaborative Care (C3) initiative to
promote interprofessional education and programming.
Shaw assumed the division’s leadership in March 2009 after the
retirement of MUSC administrator Valerie West, Ed.D., who served in the
position for seven years. Rather than invoke dramatic changes after the
transition, Shaw chose to build on her predecessor’s successes by
refining university support services and establishing new initiatives
and programs to support a positive learning environment.
“Dr. West did an incredible job bringing organization and cohesion to
the division during her tenure,” said Shaw, reflecting on how she has
tried to build on West’s strategy. “I hope I've been a strong advocate
for students and excellence in education.”
Among Shaw’s first priorities was to change the division’s name to
Education and Student Life, a name that she believes is more reflective
of the spirit and proactive approach that her employees have embraced
as part of their daily values and overall mission in achieving high
standards for service excellence. In her eyes, all people in ESL are
teachers inside and outside of the classroom and are active
participants in each student’s experience at MUSC.
“In addition to students’ professional learning in their colleges,
we’re also educating them about life, professionalism and
interprofessional teamwork. It’s important that we adopt a more
proactive and innovative approach to supporting and meeting our student
needs,” Shaw said, about the growing bond that’s been established
between divisional staff and students these past 15 months.
Creating a
supportive learning environment
ESL’s goal is to create a supportive learning environment where
students can grow academically, professionally and personally while
learning other life skills such as learning from role models, managing
diversity issues and collaborating through teamwork, according to Shaw.
To accomplish this, ESL embraced the institution’s MUSC Excellence
initiative, a model for the institution that sets high standards for
success, recognizes and develops employees and provides quality service
and operations. To measure the success, ESL relies on feedback from its
annual employee and student satisfaction surveys and other metrics.
Last spring, overall student satisfaction increased to 94 percent from
93 percent in 2008. She is proud of the skills and dedication of the
ESL faculty and staff. To communicate progress, Shaw meets quarterly
with the division’s employees to review goals, recognize employees and
celebrate achievements.
Willette Burnham, executive director of Student Programs and Office of
Student Diversity director said that Shaw has played a
significant role and made an impact in the lives of students, faculty
and staff. “She’s expanded the scope of Student Programs and Student
Diversity through emphasizing how we and the ESL division are connected
to all areas of the university, the students’ interprofessional
experiences and specific goals aligned within the academic mission.
She’s genuinely compassionate and excited about our students and what
we do to help them.”
Responding to
students, employees
Other improvements continue to make an impact on the campus’ 2,500
students. New Student Government Association (SGA) President Tyler
Pierce worked with former President Sheldon Bates and Shaw to address
student issues and concerns.
“In some institutions, there’s a substantial divide between central
administration and students. However, MUSC leadership works closely
with students to constantly improve every facet of the institution. The
name change further emphasized a commitment between MUSC’s
administration and the student body. Changing the name was a step
forward in helping students realize that someone cares,” said Pierce.
One issue that both students and ESL tackled was a topic of growing
concern on college campuses—alcohol use and binge drinking. To assess
alcohol use among students, an alcohol advisory group was established
and a survey was given to students. Next, a letter was sent to each of
the six university deans reporting on student outcomes and comparing
results with the national average. In response, a new alcohol education
program was developed allowing each college and participating
organizations to take turns presenting materials and leading
educational sessions for students.
Shaw and SGA leadership are collaborating on other projects—evaluating
the university honor code, revamping universitywide student orientation
and developing guidelines about the use of social networking tools
among students.
In the area of growth, the MUSC Wellness Center continues to meet
and exceed its membership and revenue goals through the offering of new
programs, expanded staff expertise and new equipment as a way to
attract new membership.
Bobby Shaw, MUSC Wellness Center director, said Shaw has been extremely
supportive of the Wellness Center. “She has played a major role in our
growth. Under her leadership, the center added more than 700 new
members and is still growing. She helped us secure funding to upgrade
our equipment, as well as complete some much-needed renovations.”
Other areas of success include:
- improved communications through ESL’s totally
revamped Web page,
- made enhancements in businesses processes and
services using information technology,
- expanded interprofessional learning and
activities through the C3
Initiative, MUSC Gives Back student volunteer program and related
efforts,
- supported diversity training and cultural
competence education featuring the National Coalition Building
Institute model,
- and maintained the division’s financial health
by implementing various cost saving initiatives and other strategies.
For the next five
years, Shaw wants to see her division moving forward toward specific
goals— exploring entrepreneurial opportunities to support ESL funding;
more faculty and staff involved in scholarship writing and
grant-seeking work; more programs gaining national prominence, such as
C3 scholarly activities; and more educational programming that promotes
students and faculty efforts in global health and medical volunteering.
An Ohio native, Shaw began her career at MUSC as a clinical psychology
intern in 1975. She received her doctorate from Ohio University in
Athens and was hired as an instructor in the Department of Psychiatry
and Behavioral Sciences in 1976. Since then, she has served in various
leadership capacities on campus and was associate dean for student life
from 1993 to 2003. She also was executive director for Student Health
and Wellness from 2005 to 2009 before assuming her current role.
Friday, June 11, 2010
|
|
|
