How Student Life Capital Projects Incorporates Steps to Leaps into Their Work

Within the Division of Student Life, there are expectations as part of employee evaluation tied to Steps to Leaps. While this may not be the case in other areas around campus, support of and connection to Steps to Leaps is generally a part of expectations in every area of the division. For some this is easy. They may be a part of a unit whose responsibility is to support student organizations and help them be better leaders. Your office may have the word “Well-Being” in its title! However, not every office or unit has day-to-day interactions with students. There are infrastructure and support units that help lay the foundation upon which these programs are built and thrive. They are integral to our students’ success but the staff in these organizations may wonder how they can support Steps to Leaps. This is an especially important question if it is part of your evaluation. 

This was the question that Chris Skiba, director of Capital Projects, asked himself when the expectation to support Steps to Leaps became part of Student Life. His staff members are integral to making sure the spaces within Student Life, especially University Residences, are conducive to student living and learning.  However, they don’t often have opportunities to directly provide resources or education to students. How could he support his staff in integrating Steps to Leaps and Diversity and Inclusion initiatives (another Student Life evaluated expectation) into their work? 

If you know anything about people who work in design and planning you know that they look to optimize cost and impact. Take the design of a room. When they are looking at it, they are calculating what types of functions the space can have to support the most students with the most efficient resources allocated. Skiba attacked the problem of Steps to Leaps in the same way. He decided to dedicate the first 15 minutes of his staff meeting to helping his staff learn about Steps to Leaps and Diversity and Inclusion. He assigned each staff meeting to a staff member to lead a professional development conversation. They were asked to spend 15-20 minutes that week reading a page on the Steps to Leaps website or an article they found that aligned with Steps to Leaps or Diversity and Inclusion. They were then asked to give a brief presentation at the beginning of the meeting followed by a discussion. 

Skiba was pleasantly surprised at the level of engagement from the rest of the staff members during these conversations. What he had anticipated being a 10-minute conversation often turned into a 30-minute dialogue with amazing insights. This was also my experience, as I was recently asked to present for one of those professional development conversations. My planned 10-minute discussion about the future of Steps to Leaps turned into a 30-minute conversation going down unanticipated, yet fruitful, paths and topics. 

Skiba had found a perfect solution to the question of how to support Steps to Leaps. It was a simple solution that will allow him to knowledgeably evaluate his staff within that domain. If you’re looking for an idea, this one might work for you. Other ways to connect to Steps to Leaps are attending a Discussion and Dialogue, intentionally changing words in your presentations (something like “community” to “networks”) to align with pillar language or putting the link to Steps to Leaps in your syllabus. We can all do small things to support Steps to Leaps and by doing this can help to amplify the Steps to Leaps brand for students so they can see the value in learning within the five pillar areas.   

Interested in a presentation? Email: stepstoleaps@purdue.edu.