So, my most recent frustration without naming names or sharing too much information...
You know I work at a college with students outside of the classroom. Many times I (and my staff) have advisory relationships with students and groups, but not supervisory relationships. There is a BIG difference. So, recently, with one of our leadership programs, a small group of students decided they want to put together a program about sexual assault for other students. They wanted to bring awareness of the issue because they perceive that we as an institution have been avoiding this topic. (We haven't been avoiding it, but have focused more time and attention on alcohol education which has a direct link to sexual assaults on our campus, but haven't really directly expressed this link.) So, a month ago they came up with a program that had some "shock value," which is what I think they wanted. We recommended they change their program (there was a really graphic short movie included in their plan that just would not have been appropriate for the public space they were using).
At this point, they went and talked with the psychologist on staff at our counseling center. He gave them some recommendations and a list of 15 items that the National Collegiate Health Association has regarding sexual assault programming. Most of those items were things like changing policy, etc. They weren't things that would be accomplished in a 2-hour program. So, the students went ahead with their own plan that was changed from what they originally had thought they'd want to do. Along the way, they changed their date once or twice and they changed ideas about what they wanted to do. All of these things are very normal when you deal with students. Plus, this group of students was about 4 freshmen and 1 sophomore. They really are fairly inexperienced program planners and leaders.
Well the psychologist kept responding to emails from one of the students, but at some point when it became obvious that the students weren't doing exactly what he recommended, he got pissed off. The emails from both him and the student started to get really snippy with each other and you could tell that they were both getting frustrated. It finally came to a head last week, when the psychologist demanded to know who in our department was responsible for this group of students and wanted to get this person to reign in these students. He clearly had an expectation that we should have been much more directive and dictate what would be an appropriate program. Part of the wisdom I've learned in the 15+ years I've been in this profession is that students know what other students want to attend. When I start getting too involved in dictating the content of a program, it is no longer interesting to 18-22 year olds. So, my staff member continued to advise the students, but was letting explore options that interested them. Finally, the psychologist and his boss called a meeting to get the professional staff in the room together. He identified a total of 8 professional staff members, including himself that he thought should attend.
My boss and I told my staff member that was working with the students not to come. She had a conflict with the meeting and we thought it was a little excessive to have 8 staff members have to figure this out. So, he and I went. The psychologist immediately wanted to know where the staff member was and why wasn't she there. He wanted her there because he thought he'd spent way more time dealing with these students than her and shouldn't she be the one spending the time not him. And, she needed to be there to answer his questions. While he went through this, his voice was raising. Suddenly, my supervisor jumps in and his voice is raised too. His face is turning red, eyes bugging out and totally yelling back. This is highly unusual in the kinds of meetings I generally am at. I said online earlier, colleges normally have kinder, gentler meetings. :) Basically, the psychologist wanted to call my staff member on the carpet and somehow make her be totally responsible. In my head, I kept hearing a phrase like "heads are gonna roll." He kept coming back to wanting to know exactly who was responsible and who would make the students stop planning the program. As a part of the conversation, he seriously called the students liars and said that he wouldn't trust them to put on ANY program no matter what they did. Plus, this man is former military which may mean he comes at this from a different expectation than we do. We deal with the meeting, try to talk through some different options that would work better for the student program and leave.
My point is that we're at the college to help students learn. How will they learn if we just tell them we don't trust them and they can't do a program...end of story. Students have to experience things to learn...not just read about it or be told about it. They need to learn how to plan events, etc. and sometimes a failure is a better learning experience than a success. So, we're still not inclined to tell them to stop everything.
We talked with the student group and told them their options and told them to think about what they want to do and tell us. (By the way, the scheduled date for this program is Nov. 18. So, it hasn't happened yet and there's still time to make adjustments.)
This morning, the students have let my staff member know that they want to keep their program on the same date and don't want to change a whole lot about what they'd planned. Then, we find out the psychologist is out there emailing faculty members that had been identified as working with the students in some way (by providing advice, giving extra credit to students who attend the program, etc.). It's like he's trying to continue to prove some case against some person. Maybe, the case is against my staff for not providing close enough supervision, but he's totally pissed off and not being very productive for anyone.
So, my question is...shouldn't a psychologist have a little better understanding of this developmental process? And, I know his concern is about victims/survivors of sexual assault attending the program and being retraumatized, but in this process it's like he's traumatizing these other students. It's become this big mess where he's trying to win and make the students lose, which is not helpful at all.
This didn't end up consuming my entire day like I thought it would when I first got to work this morning, but I really don't appreciate this man's attitude or what appears to be his philosophy in working with students. I honestly wonder how long he'll last in his position at the campus. I don't think he'll be let go, I think he's just going to get fed up and quit. This is certainly unlike his previous experiences in the military and in private practice.
Okay...I promised good stuff too. I've been getting interviews scheduled for my dissertation research. I've completed 5 interviews....35 more to go (I'm hoping to be done by Dec. 11 when students start final exams). I just met with a women tonight who I'm hiring to transcribe my interviews. It's going to get a little expensive, but I think it will be totally worth it. I also got doctoral students in my program that have been trained on my interview method to agree to be my second raters on every third interview as is required for this protocol. Things are looking up for getting things done.
My timeline currently is to complete interviews by Dec. 11, begin analyzing transcriptions Dec. 11 through Jan. 15 or so, begin to figure out my statistical comparisons starting Jan. 15, do those comparisons by the end of January and write, write, write through Feb. I want a rough draft to my advisor by March 1, make revisions and defend around April 1. I've gotta just power through it.
All right...I feel better. How about you?
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