NMDS Archive: Hindsight: What You Can Learn from My First Year, Part I (2015 edition)

Editor's Note: Later today, we'll hold the third event in this year's New Member Discussion Series program, titled “Taking Your Show on the Road: How to Participate in Scholarship while Teaching at a Two-Year School” (Mildred Green Room, Babylon Student Center, 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.). I hope to see many of you at this event: while continued professional development and scholarship is not only something many of us are interested in personally, it's also a requirement for promotion. This event aims to share some excellent advice on ways to engage in scholarship in a way that doesn't threaten or impede your regular duties at the college. (ALSO: Stay around the Mildred Green Room from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. for The Write Time -- another way to work some scholarship into your busy schedule, and there's coffee courtesy of the Faculty Association!)

Last semester, we began the New Member Discussion series with an event titled, "Hindsight: What You Can Learn from My First Year."  The following is Jared Dowd's paper on the topic.

See you soon! 

-- SKG

Hindsight: What You Can Learn from My First Year

by Jared Dowd, Counselor, Financial Aid

BRIDGING THE GAP

In starting any new job there is a tendency, as a new hire, to shy away from asking questions and acting as though you know it all. Do yourself a favor and utilize your relationships with your colleagues. Bridging a line of communication with those around you engenders trust and enables you to improve on your skills and shows you want to do your job to the best of your ability. Reach out beyond the larger community. Knowing all the avenues your students can take advantage of makes you a better advisor to your students. Plus, it also helps you whenever you are trying to get something done yourself. 

Although I have been with the college since 2010, prior to my current position as the Campus Coordinator for TRIO: Student Support Services, I have always found this to be helpful. In my first semester I took advantage of the veteran counselors around me at the Eastern Campus One Stop Shop. Through expanding my knowledge base on how the campus operated, I built relationships with each branch of student services. It allowed for my contemporaries to learn from me as well, knowing they could count on me for help and advice.‬ I am privileged to have such a supportive group of colleagues.

Jared Dowd presenting at the NMDS in September 2015

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WHAT SUFFOLK HAS TO OFFER

Each semester Suffolk Community College runs many workshops and professional development opportunities for you to learn and expand your knowledge base. I also found the Faculty Association's New Member emails, and the Office of Faculty and Professional Advancement's Monday Morning Mentor emails, started my weeks off on the right foot.

You can also get involved with advising a club on your campus or becoming part of a committee. At the end of my first semester I was approached to be a co-advisor for the Students Against Depression Club. Twice a month I would sit down with the club's president and discuss their plans for the semester. They do a lot of positive work on campus.

These occasions are also a great place to meet some of your peers, build relationships, and enrich your own education.

SURROUND YOURSELF WITH MENTORS

Prior to coming to the Eastern Campus, Lorianne Lueders-Yanotti, director of Student Support Services, was my professional guide and mentor in higher education. During my years working at Ammerman, she helped cultivate my understanding of higher education and always encouraged me to keep an open mind. I was always willing to take on new challenges. She taught me the proper way to handle myself at this level. Her guidance has helped me become the professional I am today.

In my first year at the Riverhead Campus, Matthew Okerblom was my Faculty Association mentor. He actually held my position in years prior, so knew the workload I had to deal with and helped my transition immensely. Throughout my first semester I feel as though I thanked him on a daily basis for clarity on an array of issues and for giving me advice on navigating my journey at Suffolk Community College.  He recently became the assistant dean of Curriculum, yet I know I can always go to him for advice.‬ (The free lunches didn’t hurt, either. I am now a fan of Turkish cuisine.)

Dr. Martinez, the Assistant Dean of Student Services, provided me with many one-on-ones throughout my first year. In our meetings I was able to bounce any issue off of him‬ and get his insight.  He was a big proponent of encouraging me to become more involved in campus and taking advantage of professional development when I could. I feel fortunate to have him advising me and his encouragement to make the most of my time with the college.

I was lucky enough to already know one of the mentors for the Faculty Association, Terri Morales. I knew her through my work with Student Support Services and EOP. She was my go-to for any questions regarding benefits, bereavement, vacation, and was an integral part of me becoming an adjunct professor in my first semester. She helped me figure out my syllabus and class lessons as I was appointed a COL 105 class 10 days before it began. I highly suggest contacting your Faculty Association Mentor on your campus at the start of the semester and getting to know them. They provide a wealth of knowledge. 

THE ART OF KINDLY SAYING NO

When beginning any new position you want to make an impact. Your intent is to show your colleagues that you have what it takes to be amongst them and excel. In some cases, people get themselves in trouble because they don’t know the power of the word "no." 

Obviously, being put in a situation to take on more work, or being asked to do something beyond your job description is hard as the new person on campus. In my first year, it was frequently acknowledged that I should get involved with a campus committee. I intend to sometime this year, but last year it was very important for me to be my 110% best at my current position as the Campus Coordinator of Student Support Services. When the issue of committees was brought up, my reply was simply, “At this point, I want to be the best counselor for the program I am serving. Perhaps later in the year, once I have everything in place, I will begin to seek out getting more involved in that way.” I think any colleague would respect this approach and still think highly of you, regardless.

On Purpose





by Sarah Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program

Welcome to the inaugural post of the FA’s blog for New Members! As you may remember from the little speech I gave at Orientation . . . way, way back on August 27 (doesn’t it seem so very long ago?) . . . this year I’m replacing an old tradition of sending out email blasts during the months of October and March with weekly posts to a blog hosted by the Faculty Association.

 

These posts will have much of the same information you would have received during the email blasts, but my hope is that they will be a little more timely and a little less overwhelming than an email-a-day during two isolated months of the year . . . and therefore a little more useful to you. The FA’s New Member Program, after all, stems from the FA’s intent to be useful to its members beyond the business of contract negotiations.

Hover Fly, Eastern Campus

This is one of the reasons I like, genuinely and without pretense, being a part of the New Member Program. I find it purposeful, and not just in a blanket-statement, yay-for-the-union, cheerleading kind of way. As I stress to all of my new students during our first class meetings: I loathe busy work. It’s beneath me to give out that kind of work, and it should be beneath them to accept that from their college professor. Likewise, I’m uninterested in performing service at the college simply because someone said, “Hey, you know what? This will be good for promotion.” Far too often, service in higher education is created and accepted reflexively, a knee-jerk reaction to a culture that assumes – surprisingly, oddly – that a legion of intelligent, self-motivated, highly learned and skilled employees will fall in line with a system that dangles title and salary like bait before them.

Of course, too often we find ourselves leaping for the bait.

That might sound like it’s coming from a kind of dark, jaded place deep down within my psyche, and perhaps at one point it did spring from such a place, and perhaps you’re thinking right now, “Wow, Gutowski. Isn’t that a little heavy for the first full week of school?” Mmmm, perhaps. But I would counter that perhaps there is no better time than now, as we begin this new academic year, in new jobs, among new colleagues, to remember that we can have it both ways. We can do what is required of us, contractually and as professional members of an institution of higher learning, (and because we do, after all, wish to get that promotion and pay raise) – but we can do so with intent, cautiously and intelligently.

For instance, eventually you’ll make your way to one of the Promotion Workshops held on your campus and you’ll hear Sean Tvelia, the FA’s new Vice President, tell you to focus on your teaching during your first year. He’ll tell you – as Kevin Peterman once told my own new member cohort – to save the committee work for your sophomore year, and the years that follow.

This is good advice. It’s going to prove difficult to follow, though, if you’re an engaged, enthusiastic, friendly sort of colleague (and I’m trusting you are, because our search committees look for just such kinds of people). The more you get to know your colleagues, and the more they get to know you, the more you’ll find yourself asked to participate in one activity here, which will lead to another commitment there, which will result in your joining one committee here, and yet another committee there. Eventually, if you’re not careful, by your second year you’ll find yourself on four departmental committees, three campus committees and two college-wide committees and absolutely no free common hours between Halloween and commencement.

Not that I would know anything about that. ** cough **

 

I’m not trying to persuade you to “do nothing.” Absolutely not! In fact, I think that apathy or ambivalence often can be more damaging and soul-sucking than over-commitment and burnout. Instead, I’m advocating – as someone who has tread this path before, as someone who is still walking this path toward promotion and the Fulfilling Career (caps necessary) – to walk this walk carefully, and at a pace with which you’re comfortable.

 

How does one do that? Remember to give yourself space to think about whether or not you want to invest your time and energy in any particular task. If someone asks you to be on a committee, or to participate in a long-term project, request a week’s grace period to consider.

But first, ask lots of questions. Make sure you know exactly what the committee or project would require of you in terms of meetings (including how long the meetings will be and where they will be located), workload, and expertise. Highlight the pros, and figure out if there are any cons to such a commitment: ask your mentor for his or her input, and talk to more senior colleagues and see what they know about the committee or the project in question, and take note of their perspectives.

Also, trust your instincts. If someone asks you to participate in a project, and you feel as if you have no business being there – you probably don’t.

This isn’t to discourage you from taking risks or from working outside of your comfort zone. By now, we all know that lots of people discover new loves and new talents when they push themselves to try something new, right? But there’s a difference between trying something new that excites and energizes you, and doing something that someone else decided would be good for you and for the college – especially if that something makes your stomach turn when you think about it. Prize your autonomy, and protect it. Don’t join a project because someone else said you should.

And try, if you can, to avoid joining a committee only because you need its particular kind of service. This college is constantly changing -- developing, evolving -- as all good institutions of higher learning should. The needs of the college are constantly going to be in flux and varied in number, but one thing that won’t change is the college’s need for its members to provide service.

For instance, maybe a year before you’re allowed to apply for promotion, you realize you lack any real campus-wide experience. Don’t go jumping into any old campus-wide commitment just because you need it and you fear you won’t have the opportunity again. You can always postpone applying for promotion – and move at your own pace. After all, there will always be work to do. There will always be another opportunity. And if you give yourself enough space and time to breathe, both literally and metaphorically, you may find that you’re the one who creates that opportunity.

I’m inspired and motivated when I see a colleague immerse him or herself in a project thoroughly, and with conviction and enthusiasm, because he or she has a clear idea of the project’s purpose. Over the past few years, I’ve tried to navigate my own career at the college with that kind of clarity and conviction. As you begin your own careers at SCCC, I wish for you that same drive, that same eagerness, that same palpable and irrepressible sense of purpose.

Have a happy and successful fall semester.

(Next week’s blog post will be more “nuts and bolts.” And shorter! Yay for shorter!)