Challenging Ourselves to Achieve Accountability, Leadership, and Recognition

[Luncheon Keynote (October 5, 2001) by Frank L. Christ, Visiting Scholar, University Learning Center, University of Arizona.]

I thank the NCLCA Board for inviting me to be an NCLCA keynote speaker. It is a pleasure to be with an association whose mission is "...to support learning assistance professionals as they develop and maintain learning centers, programs, and services to enhance student learning at the post-secondary level."  If some of my comments sound critical, please note that I am addressing them to a serious problem that we, as learning support center professionals, are experiencing. My remarks are fueled by a passion for the following three words that make up the core of my keynote remarks: "Leadership,"  "Accountability," and "Recognition" -- three words that we all must consider seriously as we make learning support centers, their programs and services, the focus of our professional careers.

My passion is simply stated but difficult to articulate without my appearing hypercritical, directive, condescending, and uncollegial. I assure you that this is not my intent. My keynote echoes a phrase that I used in a previous keynote at a California conference of professionals like us. I have slightly modified a line from T.S. Elliot’s poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," from "Do I dare disturb the universe" so as to throw out a challenge to you by asking if I dare to disturb your universe -- your campus learning support center    I do dare and now I will begin the disturbance.

This challenge for Learning Support Centers and their administrators and staff to achieve leadership, accountability, and recognition is not new. It has always existed and we have not always met this challenge.  Our learning center programs and services, however, must be revitalized to meet this challenge. To that end, campus learning support centers, along with their administrators and staff, must increase their leadership, their visibility, and their academic respectability so that they may increase their capability to serve their students and at the same time, increase the value of their centers in the eyes of faculty and administration. Let me now suggest ten activities that we, as learning support administrators and staff, must consider and implement to achieve leadership, visibility and academic respectability.

1.Publish. In comparison to the number of learning support center administrators and staff, the number of publications -- books, articles, theses and dissertations -- written to date is minimal.  Although most learning center staff do not "perish" if they do not publish, they risk being seen by faculty and administration as being less than academically respectable, a view that can be deleterious to their center and its programs and services. To counteract this view, write, get published, and make public your writing.  Write for association newsletters, and journals, especially the NCLA Newsletter and its journal. Contribute to other publications such as CRLA's Journal of College Reading & Learning, the Journal of Developmental Education, the online Learning Center Newsletter published by Engineerica, as well as other newsletters and journals that are related to learning center programs and services. Begin by writing book reviews, write up your experiences with learning support center programs and services, and in time conclude with books you have written that others review. Above all, focus on learning support centers and the relationship of other academic support programs and services to learning support centers.

2. Present. Not only should you be presenting at NCLCA but also at state, regional, and national conferences of FYE, NACADA, Syllabus, TechEd, NTA, AECT.  If an association does not have conference proceedings, consider submitting your presentation to ERIC so that it becomes a publication and is retrievable by your colleagues.

3. Get Involved on Campus.  Assume a leadership role in retention, orientation, technology, and distance education committees on your campus.  Your center has much to offer as a partner to these campus initiatives. If you do not become a part of these committees and if you do not offer the resources of your center to further these initiatives, other campus groups will develop programs and services that are part of your campus mission.

4. Exploit Technology. If you wish to reach more students and achieve greater visibility with faculty and administration, set up computer stations in your center and partner with computer labs and the library to offer access to study skills and tutorial assistance. If your campus supports a Teaching/Learning/Technology Round Table, insist that your center be represented on it.

5. Get Involved in Distance Education. Take an online course to experience online learning as a student. Then become part of a campus team that develops online courses. You might even wish to develop an online study skills module or course. If your campus or state consortium has becoming involved in developing and offering online courses, get involved with faculty as they develop their courses to ensure that they add learning and study strategies to their courses and that they recommend students to your center for this support. Develop a virtual learning support center as an outreach of your physical center for all online courses that your campus offers.

6. Have an Award Winning Web Presence. If you do not have a center web site, develop one and enter it in the annual web site excellence awards program co-sponsored by LSCHE, your award winning web portal that focuses on learning support center resources, Beginning this year, NCLCA is co-sponsoring this program.  Winning one of its six awards that you display on your center's home page will dramatically increase campus recognition of your programs and services not only by your students but also by faculty and administration.

7. Do Action Research. You are already collecting data, both statistical and anecdotal, to demonstrate the value of your center to campus retention, to student satisfaction, and to student academic success. Write and publish these findings in your annual report and in occasional papers that you publish and send to faculty and administration as well as to ERIC.

8. Work with Local High Schools. Offer to present workshops to high school teachers and administration that show the difference between high school and college academic work. Share your expertness in learning and study skills with them. You achieve visibility not only for your center but also for your institution. Offer also to partner with recruitment services as they visit high schools so you can discuss the programs and services that your center will provide to high school students when they enroll at your institution.

9. Work with Business and Industry. Your talent as a learning and study skills professional is very useful to local businesses and industries. Their employees are really not much different than some of your campus students. Employees need to increase their skills and competencies in reading, time management, listening, note taking -- the same skills and competencies that are emphasized in learning center programs and services. You might work through your campus Speakers Bureau or Cooperative Extension programs to develop programs and services.

10. Continue to grow professionally. Our graduate degrees, even doctorates, are no guarantee that we are current and on the cutting edge of our profession. As administrators, what do we know about and are using such current concepts as knowledge management, force field analysis, learning communities, applied cognitive psychology, supplemental instruction, and constructivism? To stay current in educational theory and practice, we must budget our time to surf the Internet, especially learning center related web sites like LSCHE; by reading books, dissertations, articles, and ERIC abstracts; by attending conferences and institutes; and by networking through LRNASST and other related listservs. Budgeting time means putting time to do these professional activities on our calendars or in our Daytimers or PDA Date Books.

In conclusion, let us constantly remind ourselves that we are learning support administrators and staff who are largely ignored and unrecognized by higher education, both nationally and on our campuses, and that we are ignored because we have not been sufficiently proactive, aggressive, and visible through our publications, presentations, involvement in technology and distance education, program research, and our interaction with local high schools, community colleges, businesses and industries. We can change this perception of our colleagues and administrators by beginning now our movement toward leadership, accountability, and recognition.