"To live is to change, and to be perfect is to change often." - John Newman

(Note: This post is for Wednesday, July 20, 2008.)

This morning we were up bright and early and off to University College Dublin (UCD) (not DCU ... ohmigosh, all these schools are confusing!), where the great and wonderful Colleen was our host for the day. (Jenn ... she is great!). I had heard a lot about Colleen through several of my coworkers who have met her at various FYE and IFYE conferences over the years, and I had been using much of her work for my research paper for this class, so I was excited to meet her. Little did I know that we would have so much in common! Turns out that Collen is from Lafayette, IN (I went to undergrad in West Lafayette, IN), and went to undergrad at Butler where she had several sorority sisters from my hometown of Seymour (which many people from Indiana have never heard about unless, like Colleen said, they know of John Mellencamp).

While in appearance UCD is not my favorite campus, it is my favorite in terms of the people that work there, and how much I am able to relate to what they do there. UCD, I would say, of all the schools we've been to, is right up there with UCC in being the most closely aligned with what we do in the States in terms of student affairs. The morning started off with a talk from Marie Murray of Counseling, who seemed to be a phenomenal woman. She gave us an introduction into UCD students, and, I think, a lot of insight into the field of student affairs (despite that she, and the majority of her colleagues, do not have a background in student affairs). I particularly liked that she started off saying, "Students direct my work;" a point which she reiterated on several occassions. She quoted John Newman (founder of UCD, and author of Idea of a University) in saying, "To live is to change, and to be perfect is to change often;" sort of driving home that there's always room for improvement and change in the work that we do, and that students should guide both. Coming from a counseling standpoint, she really opened our eyes to the questions that we must consider when dealing with students' transitions into and through college. Though seemingly common sense, I was intrigued when she discussed that too often we forget to ask students the right questions, or to ask for their input or opinion; which is so true. Marie combats this by always ending her sessions by asking, "Are there questions that I should have asked you that I didn't ask, and are there questions I asked that I shouldn't have," which is a small trick that I think any student affairs professional could use when meeting with students. Marie, like the other counselors we have met with here, reiterated issues for UCD students surrounding alcohol use, mental health, and suicide, and discussed much that most of the students who come to see her come to discuss a variety of relationship issues. When discussing these issues Marie said, "Only those who can feel have the ability to love intensely and to be hurt intensely," as she discussed how mental health issues, including suicidal thought, can taint the "feel factor" of students, which I found interesting. I also found in interesting, and quite coincidental, that Marie discussed issues of parents of 1st generation students (though UCD, like other Irish institutions, typically don't pay any attention to parents), when she said that 1st generation parents struggle with balancing being happy for their students because they want the best for them and dealing with losing their students to something they could never have (and interesting point for those of us who are interested in working with parents and/or 1st generation students). Finally, when asked about her perceptions on faculty involvement in students' lives and their cooperation with student affairs, Marie echoed something that was often discussed in my classes this past year when we talked about bridging student affairs and academic affairs; she stated, "Academics [faculty] want students to succeed, but as the pressures on them increase [processes for tenure, publication, research, etc.], it's more difficult to help students with issues they don't understand [such as mental health issues, transitional issues, etc.]." She (and later Colleen as well), also commented on how academics don't always understand the impact they have on students, and that it's our duty, as student affairs professionals, to remind them of the great impact they can have on their students.

We then had a lecture by Fr. John McNerny of Chaplaincy on Newman's Vision of a University, which for being written in the 1800s is remarkably representative of what we as student affairs professionals hope for our campuses and our students today. (I look foward to hopefully finding the time to read his book). I was admittedly surprised as Fr. McNerny discussed Newman's foward thinking on integrating learning inside the classroom with learning outside the classroom, and empowering students to spread that learning to the greater society for the good of the whole community. Perhaps of U.S. student affairs professionals read his vision they would have a "new" spark from some "old" ideas on how to accomplish what we are trying to accomplish with our students.

Collen then utilized her presentation from IFYE this year on "What's Unique About the Irish First Year Experience," to discuss with us the transitional issued of first year Irish students. While I had already seen and utilized this presentation, I still found her talk interesting, and was particularly intrigued by a few key points she made. Firstly, she explained to us that unlike the United States, in Ireland it is much more prestigious to attend a "public" unversity [i.e. one funded by the "state (country)]. This is because students can attend these institutions free (while have access to greater services), whereas they would have to pay for a private institution. This was interesting, as in the U.S. the concept of "prestige" tends to equate to money ... the more money, the higher the prestige. It is still odd to me that, as Colleen said, "undeclared students to not exist." While I understand it now, it's still hard for me to fathom being admitted into higher education soley based on the the score of a test, and while the advantages and disadvantages of the system have been explained to us at each school here, I respected that Colleen put explained it in terms of retention (which we could all understand), saying that as demand for majors fall, LC points fall, which means bringing in weaker students into programs, which in turn brings on a major retention issue when students can't succeed in their coursework.

We then had a student services fair, during which I spent the time talking to Jenny, who oversees that New ERA program, an access program for students who are low-income, first-generation students who come from disadvantaged schools (and often communities) and whose parents are not of a professional class. Having worked with POA at Purdue and TRiO at USC, I was interested in hearing about the services that UCD provides for these students, and impressed with what they have to offer. I was particularly impressed that services are not only offered to students who enroll in UCD, but that the New ERA program also targets students in primary and secondary education in order to get them interested in and prepare them for college. (While some TRiO programs in the U.S. interact with high school students a bit, it is rare to see colleges taking an active stance to start working with students from elementary school foward to ensure their academic success.)

It was also interesting to learn of an interact with several Student Advisors at UCD, a position which doesn't exist at other institutions in Ireland. While these people are what we in the states might refer to as academic advisors, many of them also take on a variety of other student services jobs that may be a single position at institutions in the states, such as orientation, retention and tutoring, etc.

In the afternoon we were given a campus tour by a great student who I learned was from Nigeria, went to undergrad in Russia (where he had to do all his exams orally in Russian) and wa now attending graduate school in Ireland for mechanical engineering. Once our tour was over, several of us went to check out the bookstore where an employee gave Sabrena some scones that had fallen on the floor and told her she could feed them to the swans outside, so several of us headed out there. The swan that I was feeding sure liked me when I had the scone, but the second it was gone, the swan decided that I was a tasty treat too and attemped to eat my foot three times (apparently it was still hungry).

Tonight we went to dinner at the Oval Pub, which was the worst dining experience we've had in Ireland. The manager and the wait staff were rude, the food wasn't great, and we were charge 3.10 euro for a very small bottled water. As others headed out for the night, Lorraine and I headed back to the hotel. I had a great time hanging out in her room with her talking about school and work (she gave me some inspiration about pursuing a Ph.D. ... maybe I will do it someday). Tomorrow we're off to Trinity - our last institutional visit before we go home. It's a short one, so Sabrena and I are looking foward to doing some souveneir shopping afterward. :-)