LVAIC Student Affairs Professional Development Series Strengthens LVAIC Community

June 27, 2018, @ 8:00 AM

A panel of student affairs and community relations professionals from Lehigh University address the LVAIC community regarding Town-Gown Relationships during the LVAIC Student Affairs Professional Development series.

Several LVAIC leadership groups meet to collaborate on different initiatives. Among this group is the Senior Student Affairs Officers who discussed the need for a few different areas of professional development among their teams. This led to the inaugural LVAIC Student Affairs Professional Development series in the 2017-2018 academic year.

The goals of the student affairs development series will be to:

• To explore topics and challenges impacting student affairs professionals,
• To generate best practice recommendations for the LVAIC community, and
• To foster collaborative relationships with student affairs staff from across LVAIC campuses.

This collaboration created four sessions regarding different topics among student affairs professionals in the LVAIC community. Beginning in October 2017, the first topic focused on Getting to Know Generation Z featuring keynote speaker Nicole Loyd, Vice President of Student Affairs & Dean of Students at Moravian College. This presentation explored the new era of college students entering the LVAIC community. The next presentation in November 2017 was offered by Frank Roth, General Counsel at Lehigh University. This presentation focused on First Amendment rights in higher education, particularly around student affairs activities. The third session in this series was offered by Mary Alice Ozechoski, Vice President of Student Affairs and Traditional Enrollment at Cedar Crest College, focusing on the Under-Resourced Student in February 2018. This offered examples and plans for adapting to the changing needs of the 21st century student. The final presentation in April 2018 was a panel discussion by staff members of Lehigh University regarding Town-Gown Relationships. Panelists included Adrienne Washington, Assistant Vice President of Communications and Public Relations at Lehigh University; Jason D. Schiffer, Esq., Chief of Police at Lehigh University; Katherine Lavinder, Dean of Students in Student Life at Lehigh University; and Carolina Hernandez, Assistant Dean and Director of Student Life at Lehigh University. This panel was moderated by Ric Hall, Vice Provost for Student Affairs at Lehigh University.

Overall, this series served 165 LVAIC student affairs professionals over the course of the academic year. This was the first year of these events, but the high success rate and numerous topics mean that this group will be planning for another series that will kick off in the fall semester. For more information, watch the LVAIC website for an announcement regarding registration or contact your campus’s student affairs officers.