Running Head: SMALL MERGE AFTER ALL 1

It’s a Small Merge After All: Leadership Programs and Volunteer Services

Western Illinois University

Kayla Beadles, Amy Bielicki, Nick Bonanno, and Kristal Gomez

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Executive Summary

The leadership in the Office of Student Activities (OSA) is considering many changes for

the upcoming year. ​In this assessment, the analysis focuses on two of the four units within the

OSA, specifically Leadership Programs and Volunteer Services.​ In the past, these two areas

were originally linked, but they were separated to encourage growth. Now, there is a very real

chance that the two areas will merge again, and the leadership wants to make sure they retain the

most vital aspects of each unit. Our report suggests priority programs and significant changes for

this sort of a merge.

Description of the Office of Student Activities

The OSA is a department at Western Illinois University (WIU) that has four units, each

of which focuses on a specific developmental area. The four units are Leadership Programs,

Volunteer Services, Fraternity and Sorority Life, and Programming. The office currently has a

director, Michelle Janisz, and an assistant director, Nick Katz. There are also ten graduate

assistants, who are divided amongst the units, and one office manager. The mission of the OSA

is, as follows:

The mission of the Office of Student Activities is to provide students with practical,

educational, and leadership opportunities that complement the academic experience and

foster a sense of belonging. This is accomplished by offering support, knowledge, and

resources to both individual students and student organizations in the planning,

implementation, and evaluation of cultural, social, educational and service programs.

(About - Office of Student Activities - Western Illinois University)

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This mission provides insight into potential future learning outcomes for each program and

initiative done by the office. In this assessment, the focus of the analysis is on two of the four

units, specifically Leadership Programs and Volunteer Services.

Description of Leadership Programs

Leadership Programs, one of the two offices in this assessment, is the primary unit that

provides programming and services to students to enhance their leadership abilities and prepare

them to become active members of the WIU community. Led by the Director and Assistant

Director of the OSA, two graduate assistants take responsibility for the efforts developed under

Leadership Programs, and the unit as a whole “offers classes, workshops, resources and activities

to WIU students” (Leadership - Office of Student Activities - Western Illinois University). More

specifically, their resources include Rocky Unleashed (RU), which is an eight-week leadership

course; Fall Leadership Conference (FLC), which is a day-long leadership professional

conference for WIU students; LEAD Series, which is a year-long series of short professional

presentations; and the OSA Leadership Awards, which is an end-of-the-year event highlighting

the success and leadership of individuals and student organizations across campus. (Leadership -

Office of Student Activities - Western Illinois University)

Description of Volunteer Services

Volunteer Services is the other unit of concern in this report. Volunteer Services strives

to provide opportunities for students to develop their sense of civic engagement, and it helps

connect students to the Macomb Community. Two graduate assistants, separate from those in

Leadership Programs, oversee the volunteer efforts, which include: National Volunteer Week, a

week-long program that focus on giving back to the community (including events such as Stuff
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the Bus and working in the Macomb Community Garden); Make A Difference Day (MADD), a

day-long event in which WIU students go into the Macomb Community to serve businesses and

groups by cleaning up or moving things; and Alternative Spring Break (ASB), which is a

week-long trip in which WIU students travel outside of Macomb to serve others. The graduate

students in Volunteer Services also advise the Western’s All Volunteer Effort (W.A.V.E.), which

is a student organization that assists in the planning and development of National Volunteer

Week, MADD, and other smaller volunteer initiatives (​Volunteer - Western Illinois University)​.

Purpose of the Assessment

The purpose of this assessment changed over the course of its development. Originally,

the primary goal was to examine details the current programs to develop insights on the benefits

and drawbacks of merging the two areas. However, as the semester progressed it became

increasingly evident that the merge would be inevitable. This required a small but significant

shift in direction.

Instead of focusing on particular circumstances that would be relevant if the department

decided not to merge the two units, we instead honed in on the specific programs and duties that

could be cut or modified as a result of a merge. Therefore, we decided to focus on identifying

the key learning outcomes, the impact on student experience, and the resource effectiveness for

each program sponsored by Volunteer Services and Leadership Programs. By assessing the

current effectiveness and timeliness of the graduate student responsibilities on each program,

combined with the overall impact on students, we can recommend which programs are worth

keeping or refining and which programs may no longer be necessary.

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Discussing Learning Outcomes

Despite our goal of identifying the learning outcomes of each program, we learned that

written learning outcomes for most programs did not exist. RU, under Leadership Programs, was

the only program we could identify that had some form of learning outcomes. When asked about

learning outcomes, our interviewees explained: “I think there was some set like a really long

time ago, but we haven't revised them at all” (Participant 4, Personal Interaction, April 5, 2019)

and “​If we do have them [learning outcomes], I don't know what they are. And I would not know

where to find them​” (Participant 1, Personal Interaction, February 25, 2019). They go on to

explain that, instead of focusing on learning outcomes, the staff in the OSA tend to focus on

repeating or improving upon the programs done the year

before. As a result of this lack of learning outcomes, we

shifted our focus to identifying what students believed they

learned as a result of their participation in specific events.

Since RU is the only program that has a form of

learning outcomes, we asked the Leadership Programs graduate assistants about them. One

graduate assistant stated: “I don't even know if ‘learning outcomes’ is the right word. RU is the

only leadership program that I can say that we did a pre-assessment and a post-assessment”

(Participant 3, Personal Communication, March 1, 2019). The graduate assistant went on to

explain that the pre- and post-assessment included questions, such as: “I know how the Social

Change Model can impact my college experience” , and continued to demonstrate how these

questions are “passive learning outcomes,” or rather, learning outcomes that are not explicit but

have structure enough to identify where student learning occurred (Participant 3, Personal
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Communication, March 1, 2019). With this in mind, we could create some basic learning

outcomes using the wording of these pre- and post-assessments.

After considering this lack of formal learning outcomes, we needed to develop another

method of assessing the learning done in each program. As we will discuss in the following

Methods section, we decided to do a summative survey of the students involved in Leadership

Programs and Volunteer Services. This survey provides some insights into the student

experience which will help in the discussion about the viability of the current roster of programs.

Methods Used for Assessment and Why They Were Selected

To gather data for this assessment we were looking to answer the following questions:

1. Which programs within Leadership Programs and Volunteer Services are essential to

student growth and development by supporting the OSA mission of complementing

academic experience and fostering a sense of belonging based on the opinions of those

involved?

2. Which Leadership Programs and Volunteer Services programs are not essential, meaning

that they have not performed well on past survey results or do not align with the mission

of the units, and could be cut in the favor of other programs?

3. In what areas could Leadership Programs and Volunteer Services consider investing

more time and resources to grow the interests and experiences of the involved

stakeholders (students and staff)?

To answer these questions, we first needed to identify the primary stakeholders in Leadership

Programs and Volunteer Services. We first identified Michelle Janisz, director of the OSA. To

gain insight into the office and programs, we met with Michelle Janisz to discuss the history of
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the OSA and to get a better idea of where to start our analysis. Next, we identified the four

graduate assistants who work in Leadership Programs and Volunteer Services:: Myranda

Anderson, Grace Davis, Cecilia Langill, and Katelyn Shields. These graduate assistants work

directly with the students impacted by the programs and initiatives, so their opinions are very

helpful in the overall discussion. We interviewed the graduate assistants to learn more about

small and large scale aspects of their position. As a side note, in order to preserve the anonymity

of these graduate students later in this report, we do not directly reference their names in

connection with their interview data.

In each of these graduate student interviews, we assigned two interviewers to each

interviewee. Pairing up ensured that one person could take notes and monitor the recording

software while the other person engaged the interviewee and asked questions. Our interviews

followed a structured format with five primary questions (presented in Table 1).

We then transcribed each interview and

identified key themes based on the graduate

student responses. Also, because the graduate

students directly oversee the organizations and

programs which fall under Leadership Programs

and Volunteer Services, we made sure to ask

them for a list of students involved in each

program that we could contact for a follow

survey. (Henning & Roberts, 2016)

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As mentioned earlier, RU is the only program sponsored by the OSA that performed a

pre-assessment and post-assessment with its participants. We obtained the results of these

assessments from the Graduate Assistant who oversaw the RU Leadership Course included the

documents in our data pool. In this data set, there were ten pre-assessments and six

post-assessments which all used a likert scale to determine the participants learning and

engagement before and after he course.

Based on all of the information provided by these other methods, we were able to

compile a list of 15 student leaders who would be able to complete a survey based on their

experiences with the OSA. This group consisted of the Blue Key Honor Society and W.A.V.E.

executive boards as well as students involved in planning committees for FLC and ASB. The

student survey focused on identifying which programs the students were involved in, what they

learned from their participation, and what they thought the goals of the program were. Four of

the 15 students took the survey within a two week period, during which two reminders were sent

to the students encouraging their participation.

Results of the Assessment

From our interviews with each of the graduate assistants, we identified themes and tasks

that took the highest priority. We defined priority as a task that was highly calculated and that

had historical significance to the office. The programs we identified as high priority were: FLC,

ASB, and the W.A.V.E. sponsored programs MADD and National Volunteer Week. Further,

PurplePost, as an ongoing entity, was a high priority and high cost to the office. We would

consider these programs to be a general summary of the most important tasks that fall under

Leadership Programs and Volunteer Services. Beyond priorities, each graduate assistant also
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shared ideas on ways the office, their position, and their time could be more effectively utilized

including: the Student Government Association taking over New Organization Registration;

W.A.V.E. operating independently as an organization separately from the OSA; and the LEAD

Series being integrated into a new Leadership Certificate initiative.

One theme that we identified through our interviews was the idea of workload balance

amongst the four graduate assistants. In three of our interviews, it was stated that there was not

enough work to do. One graduate assistant stated, “there's some days where I'm at work, and I

just don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.” (Participant 3, Personal Communication, March

1, 2019) This idea further confirms what we have learned

throughout this assessment, that a merger of the two units will

be beneficial to productivity and resource effectiveness.

Of the 15 students who were identified to participate in

the survey, four students actually took the survey,

approximately a 27% response rate. Of the four students that responded, three were involved

closely with FLC, and one was involved with MADD.

Program (Most Involved In) Responses

RU 0

ASB 0

MADD 1

FLC 3

LEAD Series 0

National Volunteer Week 0

Other 0
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Based on the data from this survey, we concluded that FLC was effective at

developing the skills of those who were on the planning committee. The results showed that

involvement with FLC encouraged further development of communication skills, leadership

skills, programming, and the ability to work with others. Our survey results also showed that

the students inferred goals of the program included: enhancing leadership skills, assist

organizations in creating goals, and individual growth. It is clear, based on our collected data,

that FLC is an effective event for the campus community and formative leadership experience

for the planning committee members, making it a worthwhile priority for the office.

MADD encouraged the development of communication skills, according to the survey

results. Yet, when asked about the goal of the program, the response indicated that the goal of

MADD was centered around working with the community. This disparity in the inferred goals

and learning is only the experience of one student. It is still important to note, however, there

was not enough results to determine whether MADD was effective and left the intended positive

impact on the students involved.

It is worth noting that our survey data is lacking both in quantity of responses and

diversity of respondents. At the start, the graduate students provided a list of 15 students.

Fifteen students is both too many to interview in a focus group format (given our time

constraints) and too little to ensure a robust pool of data through surveys. One way of

interpreting this lack of data is to say that there are a small group of students impacted by the

programming done in Leadership Programming and Volunteer Services. However, this is not the

only conclusion that can be made. The list of names we received from the graduate students
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were the students they most directly interact with: most, if not all, of the respondents were a part

of leadership boards for their respective areas and the list of names overlapped between the

different groups. The graduates students do not keep an exhaustive list of the participants who

attend their programs, and so there are many student perspectives that went unseen and did not

have the opportunity to participate in the survey.

RU, the eight-week leadership course, was described by one GA as, “something, that, as

far as my knowledge, is that we're eliminating for next year.” (Participant 3, Personal

Communication, March 1, 2019) However, the pre-assessment and post-assessment data that was

collected at the conclusion of the course shows that the students who participated in the course

found value in it. The assessment indicated that students learned about their personal values, the

social change model, and how their identities show up in the world around them. The graduate

assistant said that numbers are low in the RU course, which is presumably the reason why the

decision was made to eliminate the course, however, the graduate assistant also states that the

students who participated in RU, “they made connections with each other” (Participant 3,

Personal Communication, March 1, 2019).

Implications

Based on the data, the need for four graduate assistants to oversee Leadership programs

and Volunteer Services is unnecessary. The varying cycle of work throughout the school year

creates “busy” and “idle” times that could be rebalanced. Though collaboration may be necessary

during some of these “busy” times of the year, the overall workload ascribed to Volunteer

Services and Leadership Programs is not enough for four individual graduate assistants. Our

findings indicate that the expected merger between Leadership Programs and Volunteer Services
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will benefit the office. Saving time and money and creating collaborations between Leadership

Programs and Volunteer Services may help the two units thrive. Essentially, we can confirm our

assumptions about consolidation that were the foundation for this report.

We were unable to gather enough data to outright support or condemn any of the

programs under Leadership Programs and Volunteer Services. However, we can provide a few

insights on specific programs, especially those identified as priorities by the graduate assistants

and the students who responded to the survey. The data presented indicates that the OSA is

intending to eliminate RU from its programming next year. However, when asked where RU

falls on the OSA prioritization list, one graduate assistant stated it was at the bottom with LEAD

Series (Participant 4, Personal Communication, March 1, 2019). However, it is our

recommendation that regardless of the size of the RU cohort, to keep the course active. It is clear

that the participants gain valuable skills, experiences, and a WIU student community from the

experience. Our data shows that this program is well worth the resources allocated to it.

Beyond these recommendations, we would also advocate for the creation of learning

outcomes for each of the individual programs hosted by Leadership Programs and Volunteer

Services. Establishing formal objectives is one way that OSA can assess program quality and

effectiveness in the long term. By creating these learning outcomes and establishing assessments

for each program, the leadership and graduate assistants in the OSA will be able to thoughtfully

allocate its resources - both tangible and intangible - to the programs from which students are

gaining valuable insight (i.e. FLC and MADD according to our data). This will also make it

easier for the OSA to make decisions in the future should further cuts to the programming be

necessary.
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We have identified a couple ways for the OSA to develop learning outcomes for their

programs. The first way is by examining the OSA mission statement are drawing specific goals

from it. The second way is to look at data from program assessments and formulate learning

outcomes based on what previous students have indicated as goals of the program. For example,

in our survey data, one student describes a goal of FLC being to help students “gain skills that

can help them in the future.” The OSA can take this information and create a learning outcome

based on what skills they would like students to learn.

To conclude our assessment we have three suggestions for the OSA. These suggestions

are: 1) to create and implement learning outcomes for each program, 2) continue to put resources

into RU, FLC, and MADD, and 3) to merge the two units LP and VS. We believe the OSA has a

bright future and will continue developing leaders within the WIU community.
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References

About - Office of Student Activities - Western Illinois University. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14,

2019, from http://www.wiu.edu/student_services/student_activities/about/

Henning, G., & Roberts, D. (2016). Student Affairs Assessment: Theory to Practice.Sterling,

VA: Stylus

Leadership - Office of Student Activities - Western Illinois University. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14,

2019, from http://www.wiu.edu/student_services/student_activities/leadership/index.php

Participant 1. (2019, February 25). Personal Interview.

Participant 2. (2019, February 26). Personal Interview.

Participant 3. (2019, March 1). Personal Interview.

Participant 4. (2019, April 5). Personal Interview.

Volunteer - Western Illinois University. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2019, from

http://www.wiu.edu/student_services/student_activities/volunteer/index.php#