Unexpected Lessons Learned From Launching a Dean’s Student Advisory Council

Spoiler alert: The student leadership conference we anticipated never came to fruition. Sometimes, the best-laid plans can go awry but that’s often when we learn the most.

In a previous article, we shared ways to bridge the gap between academic and student affairs. More specifically, we wrote about many ways to bring these two areas together. One of the ways that we built this bridge at our own institution was to focus on our shared purpose of student success. After two years of leading our divisions of student affairs and academic affairs and many highly caffeinated conversations about how to better engage students, we realized we needed more insights directly from the students. While we were not really sure of the best way to do this, we felt that trying something was better than trying nothing. We landed on the idea of engaging second-year students in a Dean’s Advisory Council. In our minds, and at the core of this initiative, we hoped to:

Gather feedback about the student experience so that we could improve what was not meeting student expectations and build upon the experiences that students liked. Create leadership opportunities for our students and their peers.

One of the most important lessons we took away from this experience was that things did not always unfold exactly how we initially envisioned them. In all honesty, we envisioned the students hosting an inspiring end-of-the-year leadership conference, where we could invite students from local colleges to come together in collaboration and connection. It was going to be something special… We thought we were providing an opportunity for future leaders to soar (our mascot is the Hawks), but if you fast forward to the end of that first year, the students never hosted the leadership conference. As advisors, we started with what we believed to be solid plans, and the group experienced some wins that resulted in positive changes at the college. That said, there were a few bumps and surprises we would have handled differently if we were starting over.

Here, we share some lessons we learned from implementing this student leadership initiative: the good, the bad, and the pivots [insert Ross Geller yelling here]. Our hope is that this perspective will help you as you look to elevate the student voice on your own campus.

Initial Steps for Recruiting Students

We collaborated with our institutional research department to identify second-year students with a GPA of 3.25 or higher. The list was then sorted by academic program to ensure diverse perspectives. We shared the names with department chairs to gather their recommendations. As a smaller institution, our goal was to recruit 10 students to serve on the council. Invitations were emailed to selected students with an outline of the meeting schedule and council objectives.

What We Learned

We had 10 students accept a spot on the council (a win), but a few of those students dropped off over time. We recommend you add a few additional students, with the expectation that you will see a few students opt out along the way. We would encourage you to look to your faculty for qualitative input (as numbers do not always tell the full story) and to solicit students across all disciplines for feedback. Seeking this feedback from faculty and ensuring we had students with diverse academic backgrounds was a significant success factor for us in this process.

Meeting Our Students

We held monthly meetings and offered multiple modalities to accommodate our commuter and online students. We asked questions about what was going well, what could be improved, and what they hoped to see at the college moving forward. These discussions led to several positive student-driven changes. We offered certification training: Certified Student Leader: Communication for Changemakers so council members would gain leadership skills for the future and feel confident hosting the student leadership conference.

What We Learned

Students have great energy to participate in groups like this but may not have the capacity to really commit. We recommend talking to students prior to the first council meeting to discuss the estimated time commitment for meetings and review the work expectations outside of meetings. In hindsight, this is something we should have done and made clearer with our students. When students engage with you and discuss their ideas, we believe it is important to implement as many of these ideas as possible and in visible ways. For example,

Many education courses were only offered online, and students in this major expressed a desire for more peer interaction. In response, we collaborated with the department chair and made slight adjustments to the course schedule, creating more opportunities for in-person engagement and online meetings among these students. The council mentioned they wished they had heard from current students at the new student orientation. In response, we implemented a session that included a panel Q&A with the students on the council at the next new student orientation and even had them lead some of the icebreakers throughout the day. We received great feedback from new students on the opportunity to meet and hear from current students.

Whether it was changes to academic scheduling or increased student engagement options, our council felt heard and could see their input was helping shape the future of the college. Finally, in discussions, we found students enrolled in fully remote, hybrid, and on-campus formats had differing perspectives and experiences at the college. While this mix wasn’t something we initially considered during recruitment for the council, it proved valuable and is worth keeping in mind for future selection, in whatever way is relevant to your campus.

Final Lessons Learned

Sometimes your “genius” ideas are not going to take off, and that is okay. We have read the same articles as you may have, about all of the successes at every other school and wondered, what is wrong with me, my college, my system, my state, my life? However, we believe that behind all the success stories, there are quite a few failures too. We have to believe that, or we would never get out of bed.

Like the vacations that never made it out of the group chat, some of your best-laid plans may not come to fruition. Despite that, the feedback we received from our council allowed us to make changes that improved their own student experience (and that of future students). So, if you are thinking about a dean’s advisory group or council, here is what we suggest:

Be specific about the time commitment so students can make an informed decision. Assume that you’ll have some attrition. If you don’t, that is great — the more voices, the merrier! Provide opportunities for students to develop skills with your assistance, in whatever form that takes (formal training may not be the right fit for your group). Find out what students want to get out of this group in your vetting meeting so you can be clear about what this group is and is not. Define your non-negotiables, and let them know what they can expect from you.