The Department of Residential Life broke from its traditional spring training sessions and sponsored the 2003 Leadership Conference on Jan. 10 in an attempt to provide returning resident assistants with in-depth professional development sessions.
The conference, titled “A Smorgasbord of Leadership Opportunities,” was held in the Union for RAs, academic peer mentors, hall government officers and professional staff. About 250 students and staff were in attendance.
Scott Latiolais, coordinator for academic and staff development, said in past years the department held refresher training for the RAs who worked in the fall.
These were no longer necessary for returning students, however.
“We wanted to change the focus to more professional development,” said Rebecca Rogge, a Residential Life coordinator.
According to Sandra Betts, another Residential Life coordinator, this included breaking away from strictly RA training sessions to make a full leadership conference for all staff.
Professional development, Latiolais said, means “offering sessions that will help [RAs] grow as individuals and in their jobs.”
The conference featured a keynote address from Michael Poll, a popular speaker on college campuses around the country and lecturer for businesses such as AT&T, Bank One and Nextel.
Poll denoted five qualities of leadership in his speech, using a full plate of visual aids, including games, his elementary school safety badge, theme music and tinker toys shaped to illustrate leadership models.
“The model that looks like chaos is usually the most effective,” Poll said.
Also included in the conference were 35 “breakout sessions” dealing with topics as varied as stress management, residential feminism, leadership challenges and how to market leadership to potential employers.
“It basically involved brainstorming to decide what our student leaders wanted: information about leadership, motivation, re-energizing and time management,” Rogge said.
As an example, Latiolais noted the RAs go through diversity training in the fall. In the conference, however, they received two sessions of diversity training from Dennis Willson, founding member of the Safe Space campaign, and Patrick Hollis, campus Safe Space coordinator.
The Safe Space campaign is designed to educate individuals who will affirm all persons regardless of sexual orientation and provide information about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and non-identified issues.
“[RAs] have to be able to handle whatever comes through their door,” Latiolais said. “They’re trained in crisis management, but some things they’re not as experienced with; that’s what we hope to provide.”
The students and staff also found the sessions on reducing stress and improving time management helpful.
Jimmy Sandridge, a junior and third-floor RA in Kirby-Smith, said he would leave the conference with a better understanding of the importance of making a schedule at the beginning of the week.
Since the majority of students living in Kirby-Smith are freshmen, he said another positive about the conference was the encouragement to make time to get to know the first-year students.
Wellyna Banks, a senior RA in Acadian Hall, said she was glad everyone was involved this semester.
“You know common sense things to do, but here they actually apply it to you,” she said. “It’s not just the professional staff but the student leaders also.”
Latiolais plans to do the leadership conference again next year and hopes its initial popularity will reap dividends throughout the semester.
“I hope the [RAs] will use it every day in their jobs,” Latiolais said. “This is more in-depth knowledge so that they’re better equipped.”