Transforming the Student Experience
Create a positive and equitable experience for students during their time on campus to ensure the Berkeley we promote reflects their lived experience.
Year 3-5 Initiatives:
- Draft recommendations for the Residential First-Year Student Experience to inform a three to five-year strategic plan to enhance the student experience for first-year residents living on campus, including transfers and graduate students, and align budgets and resources accordingly.
- Review and make recommendations for Student Affairs Communications to be more integrated, streamlined, and student-focused (i.e., websites, newsletters, social media, email). Review and make recommendations for Student Affairs Communications to be more integrated, streamlined, and student-focused (i.e., websites, newsletters, social media, email). Review the current names/brands of departments and make recommendations for a refresh/update as needed (to be more reflective of the purpose of the dept. to support navigation).
- Assess the balance of proactive/preventative services and programs with intervention/response actions and recommend providing more upstream measures to reduce the escalation and harm of cases and situations.
- Collect, explore, and identify business hours for offices and services to better meet the diverse needs of students in expansive modalities (i.e., weekend/evening hours, hybrid delivery).
- Review the ambiance and aesthetic design of physical spaces and make recommendations to be more welcoming and student-friendly, focusing on high-impact student spaces, including Sproul Hall and Student Union.
Culture of Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
Recognize diversity in staff needs and prioritize equitable practices to ensure all staff and community members feel they belong, are valued for their contributions, and can show up as their authentic selves.
Year 3-5 Initiatives:
- Establish a comprehensive equity-oriented hiring process. Include a review of the interim position process.
- Develop DEIBJ competencies and behavioral anchors, and develop educational modules/training, including trauma-informed framework and practices for student leaders and student employees, all Student Affairs staff, and direct student development staff.
- Launch a divisional staff experience survey that complements My Experience and Pulse survey responses that can inform program and services for staff.
- Bring together divisional DEIBJ champions to inventory DEIB work, share best practices, and collaborate.
Financial Stability
Promote an equitable division-wide culture that aligns our fiscal priorities with our values of fiscal accountability, transparency, and stability.
Year 3-5 Initiatives:
- Develop a funding strategy in support of appropriate staffing levels to meet student needs and population growth.
- Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to maximize sales revenue related to catering/retail, expansion of health care services, including dental, and more.
- Streamline and codify financial support/cost recovery for services provided by Student Affairs to other campus units.
- Coordinate expansion of fundraising and sponsorship opportunities, including establishing all units as donor-ready with infrastructure to support fundraising and implementation (including support towards establishing a debt-free UC).
- Identify funding sources; set fundraising goals; seek sponsorship opportunities; develop and package narratives for fundraising (sponsor a student for their time at Berkeley, themed housing, etc.).
- Develop a capital investment plan that includes identifying and addressing deferred maintenance and identifying a financial support plan.
Health Justice & Holistic Well-Being
Create a campus experience that supports individual fulfillment, inspires community engagement, and requires a collective commitment to advancing health justice and holistic well-being.
Year 3-5 Initiatives:
- Collaborate with partners and provide subject matter expertise in developing and refining the pandemic, disaster, and other health-related emergencies as part of a larger campus/ divisional Emergency Response Plan.
- Assist the Campus Mobile Crisis Response program that includes a team of mental health professionals and peer workers to serve as first responders in wellness checks and mental health emergencies, providing rapid response and in-the-field assessment, crisis management, transport, and referral, using culturally informed practices and interventions at all levels.
- Design a full continuum of high-quality wraparound medical, mental health, and wellness services for students offered by professionals and a peer workforce specifically trained in neurodivergent care competencies.
- As a Health Promoting University (Okanagan Charter), assist the campus and the division in significantly expanding the integration of health and well-being into everyday operations, business practices, and academic mandates.
- Implement a campus Total Worker Health program that integrates protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promoting injury and illness-prevention efforts to advance worker well-being.
Organizational Behavior & Development
Provide an inclusive culture that fosters trust, transparent decision making, recognizes value, and builds innovative processes and systems.
Year 3-5 Initiatives:
- Establish intentional first-year experiences to ensure staff achieves belonging, professional development/network, and division-wide success.
- Streamline divisional (centralized) services for better service delivery, coordination across divisional resources, reduced duplication, and responsiveness to current and future divisional needs.
- Strategize and implement Student Affairs space reconfiguration to be responsive to the student-centered delivery model and improve staff experience.
- Create an organizational learning plan outlining how we use internal and external data/insights to inform decision-making and priority setting.
- Establish Student Affairs’ mission and values and be intentional about reinforcing the culture that will support achieving them.