Division of Student Affairs Annual Report 2015-2016

We work to: gather a vibrant community for worship, prayer and reflection, cultivate faith-filled leaders who can have a positive impact. Animate the UMass Dartmouth community for compassionate service and advocacy for justice.

1. 
   Sr Rose House – food kitchen. We operate a monthly soup kitchen with
   

2. 
   My Brother’s Keeper – our students assist in this project.
   
3. 
   We distributed food collected on campus via the Student Affairs Food
   

4. 
   The Giving Tree Project was offered during the week preceding
   

5. 
   Operation Christmas Cards collected nearly 200 Christmas cards, which
   

1. 
   Pasta Night was held at our Newman House each Thursday at 6:00 pm.
   
2. 
   Retreat Programs – Our third Seekers’ Retreat was held at Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham on October, 2014. We also offered the Choosing to Be Catholic Retreat (CTBC) in March, 2015. We plan a number of other retreats during the next academic year.
   
3. 
   Regular programming on topics of interest to our students are offered weekly.
   
4. 
   We issue a monthly newsletter for CCM
   
5. 
   A Music Ministry was coordinated by a student. A student will also coordinate music for the next academic year. We also have student musicians playing trombone, flute, guitar, piano, saxophone who have joined the group.
   
6. 
   We offer information tables in the campus center during the semester.
   
7. 
   Lenten Program - We offered two Masses and two services on Ash Wednesday on campus. We also offered a Lenten program as well as a Busy Person’s Retreat during Lent. We also participated in Operation Rice Bowl during Lent.
   
8. 
   Soups and Stations – Stations of the Cross, was offered during Lent followed by a meal of soup and bread – along with faith sharing.
   
9. 
   Jeremiah’s Journey was offered during the second semester. The program offered presentations and information on some aspect of discernment of vocations. Jeremiah’s Journey sessions will be offered monthly in the next academic year.
   
10. 
    We have formed a chapter of the Dead Theologians Society on campus.
    
11. 
    We have begun to form a chapter of the Knights of Columbus on campus.
    
12. 
    We have formed a Peer Ministry Team on campus. Ten UMass D students have been trained in Peer Ministry for 2016/2017 and will work in the future to coordinate programming during the semester, as well as other programs they design during the year.
    

• 
  Develop, sponsor, and support activities that promote Jewish cultural awareness for both
  

• 
  Enrich the academic presence of Jewish cultural studies on campus.
  
• 
  Oversee and manage the resources of the Center for Jewish Culture to create opportunities for the understanding and appreciation of Jewish cultural events and activities.
  
• 
  Assist the UMass Dartmouth Hillel chapter to provide Hillel-oriented programming for UMass Dartmouth students.
  
• 
  Rabbi Satlow participated in convocation, graduation, orientation and other campus events.
  
• 
  Rabbi Satlow was a respondent at the Leduc Center Civic Engagement Summit.
  

• 
  Highlight the spirit of harmony of religions in the Chaplains’ Meetings.
  
• 
  Emphasize the need to cultivate spiritual awareness and presenting ways to do that.
  
• 
  Through writings and discussions, show how the religious life can be more meaningful in today’s university atmosphere.
  

• 
  Be easily available to Protestant students and groups, as needed for religious support and consultation.
  
• 
  Be a resource to needy students’ specific living needs (housing, auto, food).
  
• 
  Provided host location for UMassD Food Pantry start-up and will continue to do so; participated in Food Pantry planning meetings (Leduc Center for Civic Engagement)
  
• 
  Provided lectures on request for academic classes taught by Rabbi Satlow.
  
• 
  Support for and participation in Orientation (five 2-day sessions)
  
• 
  Participation in Student Affairs Division Advisor activities
  
• 
  Coordination, promotion and leadership for the National Day of Prayer (1^st Thursday in May)
  
• 
  Provided information about off-campus housing, transportation and food resources for needy students.
  
• 
  Provided information about employment possibilities to UMD grads and undergrads, as opportunities came up.
  
• 
  Made our church building available for various university activities, when requested.
  
• 
  Provided written support-literature (brochures) related to a number of relevant resources (area churches, etc.) for students and staff.
  
• 
  Support for special university-wide activities (i.e. Marathon bombing memorials)
  
• 
  Mentoring relationships with Matthew & Rebecca Litchfield, CRU and Intervarsity student leaders, etc.
  
• 
  Offered a weekly Sunday school class for UMassD students.
  
• 
  Invited to provide pastoral counseling, mentoring, coaching for UMassD individual students.
  
• 
  Provided positive though unofficial representation of UMassD in the wider community, as a supportive and enthusiastic advocate of university development.
  

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  The Protestant Chaplain also receives regular invitations to support the Department of Public Safety,
  
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  Serves on the Labyrinth committee
  
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  Facilitates the UMassD Students-helping-students Food Pantry which has been a success these past two years. While not officially part of the CRSL mission, the Protestant Chaplain seeks to assist the student community with this project which will transfer to Student Affairs oversight officially in 2016-17. It will still operationally function via the Protestant Chaplaincy. The Protestant Chaplain also assists with Orientation and the upcoming Week of Welcome. In addition he provides occasional pastoral counseling services for the student, faculty and staff community.
  
• 
  The Protestant Chaplain has also completed Human Resources courses in
  

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  Invited to participate in a Human Resources sponsored effort on Wellness on campus.
  
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  Participating in a national conference this summer on helping people be wary of and recovering from destructive religious groups, relevant to the Chaplaincy as an observer of public safety and campus integrity.
  

• 
  Implemented many programs this year to meet the identified needs of Catholic students with our limited staff but supported by our Student Peer Ministry Team.
  
• 
  Mass attendance has remained steady in the last year. We have a goal to quadruple Mass attendance on campus within five years.
  
• 
  Collaborated with Center staff and university personnel on all joint projects, and support all Center endeavors.
  
• 
  Support many student programs including Opening Day activities, The Corsair Olympics, Accepted Students Day, Orientation, Corsair Fair, and the Moonlight Breakfast and the Alternative Spring Break. Catholic Campus Ministry strives to participate in all aspects of community life.
  
• 
  Being available to students, staff and faculty on a full time basis.
  
• 
  Strongly advocated for an interfaith group now becoming a reality on campus.
  
• 
  Coordinating The Labyrinth Project.
  
• 
  Since Catholic Campus Ministry is on campus nearly full time, we are able to offer support to all even if of a different faith group…and make referrals as needed/requested.
  
• 
  We have worked with our counseling center when referrals have been made to us.
  
• 
  Advocating for UMass Dartmouth as a viable choice for students at our Catholic High Schools.
  
• 
  Redesigned the Center’s brochure.
  
• 
  Designed the Center’s banner
  
• 
  Provided invocations at various university functions when asked.
  
• 
  Work with the LeDuc Center to build opportunities for service.
  
• 
  Wrote articles for The Torch.
  
• 
  Developed a training program on the Center for RA’s.
  
• 
  Supervised Work Study students in the CRSL office as well as the Food Pantry work study student.
  

Submitted by Chris Laib, Director

It has been an exceptionally busy year in the SAIL Office as the number of student organizations continues to rise, as do the demands placed upon the professional student staff as a result of the active group and student leaders. While the number of department sponsored programs dropped slightly compared to last year, the attendance at events (particularly new events) increased. Attendance at the Spring Leadership Symposium was on par with last year and the new structure of the day alleviated a lot of complaints from previous years. Sufficient staffing continues to be an issue within the department. We continued to provide a strong mascot/spirit program for the University and will be working to unveil a new school fight song in the fall that was created by CVPA faculty. We continue to look for ways to increase campus pride and school spirit to create a better experience for all community members. WUMD has started to gain some traction with the addition of their first fundraiser phone-a-thon, and upgrades to their automation system.

1. 
   Office Operations
   
   • 
     We were able to provide a strong training program for our office coordinators at the beginning of the year…something that we only attempted to do in the past.
     
   • 
     To provide better customer service all professional staff have a portfolio of student organizations and assist those groups with financial guidance as well as travel and contracting logistics.
     
   • 
     We continued to provide printing services to all student organizations as well as large format printing to the campus.
     
   • 
     Our public computers in the office no longer require a staff member to log in to grant access which means that the information on our shared drives is now more secure.
     

2. 
   SAIL Office Programming
   
   • 
     Offered over 61 programs to the campus community
     
   • 
     Event participation reached ~18,024 over the course of the year
     
   • 
     We offered a total of 16 programs during our Welcome Week and Welcome Back Week events, totaling ~7,450 students who attended at least one of the 16 programs.
     
   • 
     Offered several off campus trips to Providence, Boston, Salem, New York City, and Bretton Woods Ski Resort
     
   • 
     Continued the SAIL Uncorked Program
     
     1. 
        During the fall semester we offered one Uncorked session every month
        
     2. 
        During the spring semester we offered our normal weekly classes with a three week rotation of wine, beer, and spirits to learn more about various types of alcohols within those categories
        
   • 
     Oozeball and Alohaball, two departmental signature events, were both very successful
     
     1. 
        Both events had a high attendance, with a total of ~1,000 students who attended the events
        
     2. 
        During Oozeball we had a DJ playing and assisting with various announcements
        
     3. 
        For Alohaball we expanded the event by adding a large climbing inflatable, a mechanical shark, and the Hippo Chow Down inflatable. We also had giant photo strips and custom drawstring bags, a DJ, several lawn games (spikeball, ladderball, and corn hole), hot dogs, and a beer garden
        
   • 
     We collaborated with several other offices this past year to put on events
     
     1. 
        We worked with the Center for Women, Gender, and Sexuality on Queer Comedy Night and the 4^th Annual Drag Show
        
     2. 
        We collaborated with Student Affairs to plan the Fall Family Festival and the Student Leadership Banquet
        
     3. 
        We partnered with the Ski & Snowboard club for our annual Ski Trip to Bretton Woods
        
     4. 
        This year we worked with Campus Services to create the Corsair Movie Series, so all the movies we brought in were shown for two consecutive days.
        
     5. 
        We were part of the planning committee and provided sponsorship for The Unity Fest: Umoja, planned in conjunction with the Frederick Douglass Unity House
        
     6. 
        We also worked with the LiveWell Office to produce Stress Less Week, a week of events before finals in the spring semester to help students alleviate their stress.
        
     7. 
        We worked with the Frederick Douglass Unity House to continue to the “Reflections” series from last year that brings men of color together with staff and faculty men of color to discuss a variety of issues related to their experiences on campus as well as in the greater community.
        

3. 
   Student Organization Registration and Support
   

• 
  The roles of the SAIL Coordinators changed significantly and their job descriptions changed. They were given broader job descriptions and more responsibility for managing each of their assigned organizations, and providing leadership in all areas of development.
  

1. 
   We established a walk-in service for organizations needing assistance. This meant that even if their assigned coordinator was not present in the office that the remaining coordinator staff would be able to help them with their issues.
   
2. 
   This year coordinators attending meetings of their assigned organizations. While this had been a goal in previous years, we were able to make this a reality this year and built it into the overall expectations of the position. This allowed the coordinators to witness firsthand the workings of their groups, and provide feedback to student leaders as needed.
   

• 
  The group management tools that our coordinator staff give to the Elected Board members of these organization is vital in maintaining student groups/organizations and student membership. This kind of mentoring of student group e-boards, allows them to properly run their student group and maintain regular contact with the SAIL Office.
  
• 
  Spring Leadership Symposium was a success! For the 2^nd year in a row the SLS program has been a very successful afternoon of information sharing and training for our student organization leaders. We took the feedback from last year’s symposium and changed the format so that student leaders were stuck in one room, but were able to move around in a carousel of smaller groups to get the necessary information from SAIL Staff. The end of the symposium saw student organizations signing up for the annual budget hearings from SGA. SGA was a partner in this endeavor and the SGA Treasurer was on hand to speak to all groups about the process. Over 90 organizations were represented in this afternoon training.
  
• 
  We held two functions for advisors this year as well as training sessions. The beginning of the year was the Student Organization Advisor Social that also included the Presidents. While attendance was low, it was slightly higher than last year and will continue.
  
• 
  Presidents’ Assembly continued to gain ground with monthly meetings of the Organization Presidents to network with their colleagues as well as voice issues/concerns that impact their leadership within their organizations.
  

4. 
   Greek Affairs
   
   • 
     New organizations were introduced to the campus, bringing the number of Greek-letter organizations to thirteen (13).
     
   • 
     Greek Council got up and running this year, but as you will see in the challenges section was not as effective in their role as we had hoped they would be.
     
   • 
     Greek Week was planned and executed by the members of the Greek Community and included not only activities for the organizations but also a recognition of Greek Leaders on campus. These awards were also presented/announced at the annual Spring Leadership Banquet.
     

5. 
   WUMD
   
   • 
     The first “Give & Groove Phone-a-thon” fundraiser was held in conjunction with UMassD’s annual Homecoming Weekend. The weekend-long event raised ~$4000 for the station.
     
   • 
     The Radio Station Website was updated/redesigned
     
   • 
     The Automation System was updated and streamlined to provide a better on air experience for DJs and better listener experience
     
   • 
     We continued to collaborate with on campus departments
     
     1. 
        Worked with UMassD Athletics to lay the groundwork for a sports radio show that is scheduled to start in September 2016.
        
     2. 
        Continue to work with the College of Engineering and FIRST Robotics to create a STEM radio show.
        

6. 
   Mascot Program
   
   • 
     Arnie continues to grow in popularity with students and community members when attending events.
     
   • 
     This year’s Arnie staff were able to expand the Halloween and Valentine’s Day events.
     
   • 
     Two new suits were purchased (one at the end of last year and one this year), to replace the original worn out suits.
     
   • 
     Arnie continues to attend mascot camp for training with NCAA Division I mascot/spirit programs.
     
   • 
     We are currently conducting an assessment of the program comparing our program to others around the country in the hopes of attracting and retaining a larger number of staff.
     
   • 
     Arnie’s social media presence has increased dramatically this year with the addition of Instagram and Snapchat accounts, and the continued use of his Facebook page.