Adrienne L. Thunder, M.S. Senior Advisor, Cross-College Advising Service University of Wisconsin-Madison

1. The Next Generation: Considerations for Future Native Student Affairs/Student Services Professionals2008 National Institute for Native Leadership in Higher EducationSanta Ana Pueblo, New Mexico Adrienne L. Thunder, M.S. Senior Advisor, Cross-College Advising Service University of Wisconsin-Madison

2. Introduction • Welcome • Presentation shift

3. Wait! We’re at an Institute! • What are the primary roles or responsibilities of a student affairs/student services professional in working with Native students? • What knowledge and/or experiences guide your work with Native students? • What are your goals or outcomes (for yourself in this work and for your students)?

4. Context UW-Madison Student Population (Fall 2007) • 42,000 Total • Undergraduates: 29,000 • American Indian students: 287 (0.7%)

5. Role of Advising Developmental Advising: “… both stimulates and supports students in their quest for an enriched quality of life; it is a systematic process based on a close advisor-student relationship intended to aid students in achieving educational and personal goals through the utilization of the full range of institutional and community resources.” (emphasis mine) Ender, S.C., Winston, R.B. and Miller T.K. (1982)

6. Role of Advising “Developmental advising relationships are life goal and personal growth oriented and intentionally reflect the mission of total student development by facilitating the essential processes of challenge and response or differentiation and integration…” Ender, S.C., Winston, R.B. and Miller T.K. (1982)

7. Developmental Advising • Calls for cooperation between Academic and Student Affairs • Assumes student is seeking optimum performance and use of opportunities and resources available • Assumes student has capability to attain and access them • Vital aspect of student success is motivation

8. Student Development Theory • Focus on the interpersonal and intrapersonal changes that occur while a student is in college and the factors that contribute to these changes. • Came to be used in student affairs as a way to help practitioners learn how an institution of higher education could best serve the needs of its diverse clientele. Hamrick, F., Evans, N., and Schuh, J. (2002)

9. Student Development Psychosocial Cognitive Moral Career

10. Chickering’s Seven Vectors of DevelopmentEducation and Identity (1969) • Developing competence • Managing emotions • Moving through autonomy toward interdependence • Developing mature interpersonal relationships • Establishing identity • Developing purpose • Developing integrity

11. Seven Environmental Factors Influencing Student DevelopmentChickering and Reisser (1993) • Institutional objectives • Institutional size • Faculty-student interaction • Curriculum • Teaching practices • Diverse student communities • Student affairs programs and services

12. Factors in NA Student Persistence • Support from family • Support of faculty and staff • Institutional commitment • Personal commitment • Connections to homeland • Academic integration • Social integration Larimore, J. and McClellan,G. (2005)

13. Cognitive Development Educational context different for NA students Level of maturation, availability of capital affects this stage Too many sources to cite, most at K-12 level but more produced at PSE level, too, particularly PSE history. Deyhle, D. and Swisher, K.(1995) Research in American Indian and Alaska Native education: From assimilation to self-determination. Review of Research in Education, 22, 113-194.

14. Native Cognitive Development • New Era of Native Scholarship • Honors Native ways of knowing • Creating Knowledge that is useful and applicable in Indian Country • Students can see themselves as Native and as scholars • We need to invent new ways of talking about who we are, what we do and are about Hanitchak, 2008 Elder Epistemology – Dr. Rosemary Ackley Christensen and Dr. Linda Oxendine

15. Moral DevelopmentKohlberg’s Theory • Preconventional: individual’s reasoning process is concrete and self-focused; societal rules and expectations not yet understood • Conventional: rules of society and opinions of others, especially authorities, are paramount • Postconventional or Principled: self-determined principles and values; individuals are able to step away from rules and expectations established by others Six Stages of Moral Judgment, grouped in three levels

16. NA Student Moral Development • Another area that is different for NA students • Area needing more study in some respects • Mentions made in connection with cultural incongruity, usually as detrimental • Clash of values, beliefs • Little on Native spirituality/spiritual practices as a source of strength

17. Career Development • At first, went along with the consumer approach to education • Recognition that careers would change more quickly over time • Approach has gone from training for particular career paths to knowledge for changing career paths • LEAP (AAC&U 2007) Liberal education for “economic creativity”

18. The reality for contemporary Native American student is that they live in a global society and must develop skills and abilities that will prepare them for life in two worlds, Native American and non-Native. -- Mary Jo Tippeconic Fox (Comanche) Tippeconic Fox (2005) Voices from Within: Native American Faculty and Staff on Campus. New Directions for Student Services.

19. Career Development Graphic adapted from Carney, C. (1999)

20. Further Considerations • Orientation programs • look for ways to make the university more immediately relevant to NA students • helping NA students think beyond registering for classes • approach as training for using the university • Welcome reception • mindfully creating community • meaningful activities to facilitate connections/relationships

21. Further Considerations • First Year Experience courses/programs • helping NA students think about contexts for their education • contemporary issues facing Indian Country • using resources and opportunities available; approach as training for using the university

22. Further Considerations • Encourage full use of and participation in the resources and opportunities available to students • learning support services • study abroad • career services • ADVISING • academic and professional organizations • community involvement as professional development

23. Further Considerations • Programming that teaches for change • Taking advantage of teachable moments • e.g. Columbus Day now Indigenous Peoples Day • “Making History in the Courtroom”

24. Further Considerations • Programming that reinforces accomplishments & relationships • Maintains community

25. At the end of the Institute… So what? • What are the roles you play and what are the responsibilities you have towards Native students? • What knowledge or experiences guide you? • What are the outcomes we’re trying to achieve?

26. Adrienne Thunder Senior Advisor Cross-College Advising Service University of Wisconsin-Madison athunder@wisc.edu