center for student leadership annual report 2011-12

UC BERKELEYCENTER FORSTUDENTLEADERSHIPANNUAL REPORT2011-2012

DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRSACCESS - SERVICE - ENGAGEMENT

CENTER FOR STUDENT LEADERSHIP

2011‐12 Annual Report | Page 1

OVERVIEW

Mission: The Center for Student Leadership cultivates student engagement, leadership development, and an inclusive campus community through advising, services, and programs to create positive social change. The Center for Student Leadership includes different programmatic areas:

Cal Debate is one of the most successful debate programs in the nation, serving to educate our students and enhance the academic reputation of the University.

Fraternity & Sorority Life provides advising and mentoring to 62 chapters and 3,000 members of Greek‐letter organizations at Berkeley, including traditionally African‐American fraternities and sororities and multicultural Greek organizations.

Leadership Development offers ~85 students transformational leadership experiences with the goal of helping them become ethical leaders who contribute to their communities and effect positive social change. These students, in turn, provide introductory leadership experiences to another ~ 1100 Cal students.

Student Involvement staff work primarily on behalf of the 1,300+ registered and sponsored student groups providing advising, event planning, group facilitation services, and workshops. This area also serves as the liaison to the ASUC and bridges.

PROGRAM AREAS AND RELATED PROGRAMS

CAL DEBATE Nationally Ranked Debate Program

FRATERNITY & SORORITY LIFE

Greek membership recruitment

Executive board advising Judicial Council advising

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Leadership Symposium

Blueprint Leaders for Social Justice & Blueprint Mentors

Leadership Development Workshops

Dean’s Team

STUDENT INVOLVEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONS

Student organization registration Event advising and outdoor facilities reservations Advising to Recruitment and Retention Centers

Activism support

Cal Facilitation Team & Teambuilding in the Trees

Organizational development advising



2011‐12 HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY METRICS

CSL registered a record number of student groups (1,314) Cal Debate began the year ranked 25th in the country and ended the year ranked #8. CalGreeks’ Greek Carnival brought together ~ 4000 students (1100 fraternity/sorority affiliated

students and 2900 non-affiliated students) for a late night alcohol-free carnival Cal Facilitation Team provided 35 workshops to student groups reaching ~ 1000 students. Blueprint Leaders for Social Justice successfully transitioned from staff-led to students-led workshops,

doubling the number of students served this year.

The Center for Leadership also worked with the Transition Planning Team to write a report and begin the implementation of a new center for advising and leadership. This new center is now called the LEAD

Center and CSL has joined together with the ASUC Office of Student Affairs and the Graduate Assembly Business Office to become this new office.



PROGRAM ASSESSMENT REPORT 2011‐2012 BLUEPRINT LEADERS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE & CSL LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS: BLUEPRINT LEADERS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Blueprint Leaders for Social Justice (Blueprint) is a semester‐long course for students committed to engaging for justice in their communities. Through a series of engaging workshops and small group interactions, the course emphasizes students learning about personal identity, clarifying their values, understanding effective strategies for teamwork, and maximizing the benefits of diversity. Students earn 2‐units Ed 98/198 credit.

This year, with the goal of providing high‐quality leadership programing to larger numbers of students, Blueprint underwent a major structural change. Previously, CSL professional staff taught Blueprint as a one‐year program with Blueprint graduates acting as student mentors. In this transition year, Blueprint was shortened to a one‐semester course and held twice. In fall, CSL staff taught the class with Blueprint graduates acting as mentors and learning the curricula. In spring, Blueprint mentors team‐taught the course themselves! This structural change will allow the program to exponentially grow in size, eventually serving as many as 25 student mentors and 120‐150 participants.

In 2011‐2012, Blueprint served a total of 41 student participants and 9 student mentors. (For comparison, in 2008‐2009, Blueprint served 18 participants and 5 mentors.)

The Indaba Multicultural Leadership Retreat brought about 55 student leaders together and was frequently referenced by students a highly influential program component.

Blueprinters developed their own leadership workshops to share in class and their registered student orgs.

Blueprint extended its impact beyond the classroom—Fall 2011 Blueprinters shared leadership theories with 60 other Cal students outside of class!

BLUEPRINT PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

Blueprint Leaders for Social Justice is based on the Social Change Model of Leadership and aims to support student development in three main areas.

1. Consciousness of Self: Students should develop their ability to accurately perceive personal values, beliefs, and attitudes and be able to identify and manage their emotions.

2. Collaboration: Students should grow in their ability to work with others towards a common goal—beginning by developing awareness of multiple perspectives and working styles and advancing towards creating a culture in which diverse viewpoints are respected and valued.

3. Controversy with Civility: Students should develop their ability to manage conflict constructively. This starts with recognizing that differences in viewpoint are inevitable and progresses towards understanding multiple conflict styles and utilizing strategies to respectfully address conflict and hold each other accountable.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES1

CONSCIOUSNESS OF SELF

Students’ self‐reports of their consciousness of self increased from beginning to end of Blueprint, with students’ SRLS scores for consciousness of self at 3.92 (on a scale of 1‐5) at the beginning of the program and

1 The following assessment results are based on pre‐and post‐assessment of the Fall 2011 Blueprint cohort. (The Blueprint Spring 2012 cohorts did not undergo formal assessment.)



3.99 at the end. Additionally, external assessment of students’ developmental‐level via qualitative data2 confirmed this small, but positive growth. As illustrated in the graph below, the majority (71%) of Blueprinters began the year in the emerging and emerging‐developed stages of consciousness of self.

Blueprint Participants’ Consciousness of Self Pre/Post Assessment Results

Students in the emerging stage of consciousness of self are in the process of learning to reflect on how their personal background, values, strengths, and limitations influence their leadership style. Students in the developed stage are able to identify personal tendencies across situations based on their personal background, values, beliefs, and attitudes, and also able to manage their emotions. By the end of the year, several students progressed levels, with 38% of students finishing the program in the developed or developed‐advanced stages of consciousness of self.

COLLABORATION

Students’ self‐reports of their collaboration abilities increased from the beginning to end of Blueprint, with students’ mean SRLS scores for collaboration at 4.23 at the beginning of the program and 4.34 at the end.

Once again, qualitative data confirmed this small, but positive increase in students’ collaboration developmental stages. As illustrated in the graph, the majority (~81%) of Blueprinters started the year in the emerging or emerging‐developed stages of collaboration. In the emerging stage of collaboration students are learning to reflect on how to include multiple perspectives and leadership styles when working together. By the end of the year,

almost half (~47%) of students were at the developed stage of this learning outcome—able to utilize their awareness of multiple perspectives to collaboratively create standards for responsibility and accountability.

2 Qualitative data comes from open‐ended survey questions on the pre‐ and post‐assessment (two questions to measure consciousness of self, three to measure collaboration, and three to measure conflict with civility.) Survey responses were coded by program staff to assess students’ developmental‐level.

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“My ability to collaborate with others on a team is definitely one of my strong points. I am able to connect with almost everyone from different

walks of life… I address the different strengths of each person and capitalize on them for the efficiency and effectiveness of the group.”

“I know that I have a specific combination of abilities and

opportunities that allow me to serve in various ways. My goal is equity, and I believe people should

be able to make their goals reality.”



Blueprint Participants’ Collaboration Pre/Post Assessment Results

CONTROVERSY WITH CIVILITY

Students self‐assessed leadership development in the third learning outcome—engaging in controversy with civility—showed almost no difference. Students’ mean SRLS scores for controversy with civility were 3.98 at the beginning of the program and 3.96 at the end. However, assessment of qualitative data illustrated small, but positive growth on this outcome3. As illustrated in the graph, more than half (~56%) of Blueprinters started the year in the emerging or emerging‐developed stages of controversy with civility. Students in the emerging stage of controversy with civility are beginning to recognize that differences in viewpoint are inevitable and are starting to explore their personal conflict style when giving and receiving feedback. By the end of the year, students made modest growth, with only 44% still in the beginning stages (emerging or emerging‐developed) and ~56% in the developed or developed‐advanced stages of controversy with civility. In the developed stage, students recognize that different viewpoints are inevitable, are able to articulate the benefits of openly airing differences, and are able to express the strengths and limitations of their personal conflict style.

Blueprint Participants’ Controversy with Civility Pre/Post Assessment Results

3 The inconsistency between self‐ratings and external ratings may be attributed to students over‐rating their developmental level before the start of the program and then learning—through feedback from peers and program staff—how to more accurately assess their own characteristics and tendencies.

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"I am very flexible and remain calm under a conflict situation. I realize that different strengths work well together, rather than just working with someone exactly like me. … I feel diversity improves the results of decision making.”



STORIES OF SUCCESS FROM ADDITIONAL CSL LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS

Blueprint Mentors Blueprint Leaders for Social Justice would not exist without the dedicated and skilled work of the Blueprint Mentors. Collectively, the 2011‐2012 Blueprint Mentors volunteered over 1,200 hours to the program. In their words:

“When I came to Cal as a freshman I found community as a Blueprint participant, something that is hard for many students at this large and often intimidating university. I never knew it would grow into what it means for me today. Being part of Blueprint as a mentor gives me the opportunity to be my best self, in a group of like‐minded students who are committed to leadership, social justice, and just being good people.”

“I liked that I was able to learn as a person, as I was accompanying others on their journey as well. I also feel that the relationships that I have established in the class will be lasting ones.”

“I love being a mentor for many reasons, the opportunity to inspire and teach others, the privilege of hearing the students’ stories and learning from them, the work I get to do with outstanding CSL professional staff, but mostly I love being a Blueprint mentor because I get to spend time with wonderful people who affirm my dedication to leadership each and every day.”

The Cal Facilitation Team The Cal Facilitation Team (CFT) is a student‐led team of facilitators dedicated to learning and practicing facilitation to serve the Cal community. Members of CFT serve the campus community by providing workshops and teambuilding experiences to improve team dynamics for Cal registered student organizations. This year, fifteen CFT participants provided 35 workshops to the Cal campus community, reaching over 1000 students.

The Dean’s Team The Dean's Team is an introductory leadership program designed to equip students with cutting‐edge theory on group dynamics and community‐building. Students engage in highly interactive training modules which culminate in participation in the Cal Adventures Ropes Course. This year, 35 Cal students participated in two sessions of the Dean's Team. Additionally, CFT Interns generously volunteered more than 100 hours to develop a Dean's Team curriculum handbook for the student Dean's Team facilitators. This handbook will undoubtedly be an invaluable resource for future Dean's Team facilitators.

PROGRAM RECOMMENDATIONS

Blueprint Leaders for Social Justice should continue to build the new program structure in which student mentors team‐teach Blueprint as a spring course.

The Cal Facilitation Team began to develop workshop curricula to support members in consistently delivering high‐quality workshops to the campus community. CFT should continue to develop structured curricula to expand their leadership workshop offerings.

Blueprint Mentors and Cal Facilitation Team participants require similar facilitation skills to be successful. Next year, facilitation trainings for Blueprint mentors and CFT should take place together.

The qualitative assessment of participants in the Blueprint Leaders for Social Justice is a time‐intensive process. Next year, the coordinator should consider how to develop an appropriate assessment process for the increasing number of participants in the program.

center for student leadership annual report 2011-12

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