University Athletics

One of my great pleasures over my career has been to attend university sporting events. It started in 1968 with my going to University of Waterloo football games (and an ill-fated road trip to Western and the “Ceeps”) and was followed by Waterloo basketball and hockey. The engineers had adopted the hockey team and we would fill the Waterloo arena and have a great time. My real love though was Waterloo basketball. What a great spectacle it was. Waterloo was good in those days but so was Western and especially the University of Windsor.

The University of Waterloo had just opened their state of the art Physical Activities Complex in 1968 and the place was often packed for basketball. Basketball fans remember the 70s as the halcyon days for their sport. My girl friend went to the University of Toronto and we would frequently attend football games at Varsity Stadium. It was common for the U of T to draw over 10,000 fans to home games and Varsity Stadium was also host to the Vanier Cup which would attract greater than 20,000 people.

I went to graduate school in Southern California and a professor of mine would frequently give me tickets to USC football games. I also had the good fortune of seeing Bill Walton play basketball at UCLA and saw the 1974 Rose Bowl game. Of course these games would have an order of magnitude more fans than I saw at games in Canada.

My first teaching job was at Michigan State University. I had season tickets to basketball, football and hockey games and really enjoyed having a real rooting interest in the Spartans. MSU won the NCAA basketball championship in 1979 (with Magic Johnson at point guard) and the entire school rejoiced. I’m sure that the university also benefited through its increased media exposure and increased donations. Beating the University of Michigan in any sport gives one bragging rights for the year and is taken very seriously! On the other hand, In five years at MSU I never taught a major athlete. Of course I was a professor of chemical engineering and few athletes were encouraged to even consider taking engineering.

I arrived at McMaster in January of 1982 and probably saw my first basketball game in that month. I have been a Marauder fan ever since and have attended a countless number of games. Unlike my experience at MSU though, I have taught several varsity athletes at McMaster. I have gotten to know all of our coaches and really consider them to be a part of our student affairs team here. Five years ago I was promoted to Associate Vice President (Student Affairs) and now have direct administrative responsibility for Athletics and Recreation. I try to support our athletic program in any way that I can for reasons which I’ll explain below.

The past week will shed some light on my commitment. A week ago Saturday I attended a home football game where I met with several recruits and their parents. The next day was our athletics Hall of Fame Brunch followed by hockey (my own game actually) and then back to a swim meet. Swim meets are great. Several races in a short time period with tremendous team support for the swimmers in the race. Last Friday was our first home men’s basketball game followed by a “Meet The Team” reception where I was introduced to the team and their parents. Saturday was an exciting road football game and then Saturday night I attended our Men’s Volleyball home opener. There is always a lot going on. A good summary is available at: http://www-athrec.mcmaster.ca/athletics/index.htm

Why this commitment to university athletics? It’s because in Canada, student athletes truly are student athletes. For the most part they attend class and succeed or fail like any other student but with the added burden of practicing and then representing the university – sometimes on the national stage. The majority of media references to McMaster come through our involvement in athletics. In addition, research shows that students who are more engaged with university will report greater success and are more likely to recommend their university to others. In other words – the university benefits all the way around. I know that when Wilfrid Laurier University won the Vanier cup for example, there was a palpable increase in school spirit. All students were very proud of their school and I’m sure that if they were asked Q# 14 on the NSSE Survey:

If you could start over again, would you go to the same institution you are now attending?

• Definitely yes
• Probably yes
• Probably no
• Definitely no

Students would undoubtedly respond Definitely Yes!

Of course it helps if your athletic programs are good. You don’t have to win national championships but fans expect your teams to be competitive. That is getting harder and harder to do in all sports. Ontario universities are now able to athletic financial awards (AFAs) to both entering and continuing student athletes. Although limited to a maximum of $3500 per year (maximum of tuition plus fees in the rest of the country) these awards can make a difference when recruiting student-athletes. In the past, when Ontario universities didn’t offer the awards, it was very common to lose athletes to universities in the west or east. Of course the truly elite athlete can still get a “full ride” to a Division I school in the U.S. which is very difficult to compete with. Nonetheless with many students heading south, not getting everything they thought they would and then returning to Canada, AFAs are providing a reasonable incentive.

The problem universities are now facing is how to pay for the awards. McMaster is typical in this regard. We have sport camps in the summer as well as golf tournaments and gala dinners. In fact the gala dinner to benefit the women’s and men’s basketball teams will be held on November 6^th. Some universities are diverting operating funds in this direction. I found this article in the Globe interesting, particularly the first sentence: “If you want to win in Canadian university football these days, Mount Allison University athletic director Jack Drover says, money talks. And, more and more, it’s saying something every weekend on the field”. Yes indeed, money talks but where will it come from because at the same time as financial awards are coming on-line so is the need for new facilities. McMaster University students have put there money where there mouth is in this area especially having contributed $20 million towards the university’s new David Braley Athletic Centre. The university is also investing more than $20 million in the new Ronald V. Joyce Stadium.

Even the President sings the Blues

One of the big problems with the increased investment in athletics and facilities is managing expectations. At McMaster we are making large investments in both but we are not alone. All of our major competitors are doing the same thing. Queen’s University, for example is planning on investing more than$200 million in building projects on its campus including the Queen’s Centre and Fields and Stadium project. The University of Windsor has a new stadium, Western has a relatively new stadium (with brand new artificial turf) and Wilfrid Laurier invested more than $4 million in a stadium renovation. The saddest story though must surely be the University of Toronto Blues whose storied football programme recently set the Canadian record for futility. Even the President sings the Blues but the problem at the U of T is probably with the administration itself. Years of neglect of the football programme cannot be overcome by simply building a new stadium. And it’s not simply a matter of the U of T having exceptionally high admission standards. I think that if the President takes an interest in the football programme and ensures that the team has the resources it will be successful. The James Mirtle article in the Globe cited earlier shows that increased resources can make a difference. There are a tremendous number of good athletes in the GTA and all of U of T’s competitors (in particular Laurier, Western and McMaster) are recruiting them to their winning programmes. A couple of years ago the U of T hired Mike Katz to be its basketball coach. The team made an almost instant turn around and now gives us all that we can handle. Even though a football team has a much greater number of players, it is possible to turn a team around. McMaster did it when we hired Greg Marshall in 1997 and the U of T with its tradition can surely do it as well.

Assessment

This week I’ll be talking about assessment in Student Affairs and for the first time I’ll have contributions from a guest blogger – Gina Robinson. Gina is the Director of Student Services at McMaster University and has a hugely important role in Student Affairs. Together with Danielle Stayzer, our First Year Experience Manager, she is leading our first attempt into proper assessment methodology.

As I write this I have the most recent results from the Globe and Mail’s “University Report Card” at hand. For the most part this survey is a satisfaction survey. That is, students are asked to rate their satisfaction with everything from their overall education to the food they eat. McMaster University also participated in the Canadian University Survey Consortium (CUSC) survey this past spring (also a satisfaction survey for the most part) and will be participating in NSSE this coming spring. NSSE is a “student engagement survey. Somewhat dated CUSC and NSSE survey results were summarized last Spring by Maclean’s magazine. Finally, Maclean’s will be publishing there own annual ratings in a couple of weeks. Maclean’s ratings are based on input data (for example, class size, entering grades) and reputation.

I will be blogging on these many surveys over the next few months but none of these ratings or surveys are assessments. What is assessment? To quote from StudentVoice: “Assessment is far more than administering surveys and holding staff accountable. Assessment is a regular activity that enables departments to learn the academic or social outcomes of their programs and effectively manage resources.” Student Affairs is getting into the serious business of assessment using what are known as “learning outcomes”.  This is a relatively new endeavor for universities and so we have contracted with the experts from “StudentVoice” (a company with lots of experience) to help us.

Assessment goes beyond simply evaluating our programs and doing satisfaction surveys – it will help us determine what really drives student success and leads to better retention.  Some examples of what I mean are:  what resources  are available to students and  how do they gain access to them?,  what are the key skills and competencies ( e.g. critical thinking and problem solving) and personal attributes  (independence and self-confidence)?  These are all things that we believe makes students successful.

First Year Students a Priority

Our first assessment project is targeted at helping our first year students. We have branded the exercise: making student success “EASY” and of course we all know that it is not always easy to be successful. As the Dean of Students though, I am very committed to ensuring the success of first year students and this project initiative.  We are all very excited and our first year experience office will be in the McMaster University Student Centre (MUSC) on the October 23^rd celebrating the launching of our project and inviting first year students to participate in our assessment exercise.  An attractive ad appeared in the Silhouette (the student newspaper) this week .We will also be sending out e-vites to students to participate on-line in the survey  if they do not make it to the MUSC.  Everyone who participates will be entered into a draw for Titles bookstore gift certificates.

I think what is really important here is the chance for our students to make a difference in shaping our programs for their benefit. The project has three distinct goals

1. identify success factors for a first year students
2. direct programming and resources
3. identify the specific needs for our special populations of students with disabilities, first generation students and international students.

As part of this study we will be asking students if they are willing to stay tuned with us and participate in a further study later in January.  We will also be holding focus groups and conducting a post-survey that will target certain areas at that time. The first year for our students is most critical and we want them to be successful and make the best of it.  We will be releasing the findings from the survey to all first year as well as using the results to modify our programs to help students be more successful.

Oh yeah, the acronym “EASY” identifies with important success factors:

E – engagement
A – academic achievement
S – satisfying and productive life-style
Y – your total overall success

As I mentioned above, student success and assessment for that matter are anything but easy. Hopefully our assessment exercise will be able to identify some of the key attributes and services that will lead to greater student success. Stay tuned!

Leadership

My motivation for this week’s post comes from the theme of John Tory’s election campaign to become the next leader of our Province – “Leadership Matters”. In his campaign he has been railing against the lack of leadership that he claims the incumbent (Dalton McGuinty) has shown in his four years as Premier. In particular he is focusing on the many campaign promises that McGuinty has (admittedly) broken and uses them to illustrate his point that Mr. McGuinty is therefore a poor leader.My point here is not to talk about the leadership qualities of any of the candidates in today’s Provincial election but to ask the question – what are the characteristics of leadership and how does one demonstrate them? I also have an ulterior motive. In a couple of weeks I will be making a speech about leadership to student leaders of McMaster University and so I’ll be able to get another use from the research that I’ve done.

In my opinion leadership is not necessarily about breaking election promises. Mr. McGuinty made over a hundred and everyone in the Province knew that he couldn’t possibly deliver on all of them. (My concern for him at the time was; why make so many promises that he didn’t have to to win the election – what kind of leadership is that?)A true leader will realize that he has made a mistake, listen to other people and then change course. In fact this is how John Tory claims that he was showing leadership when he changed his position on faith-based school funding. This great contradiction seems lost on him and will probably cost him the election.

So what makes a good leader? The literature abounds with books on leadership and a Google search on “leadership characteristics” generates more than 2.6 million hits (so don’t get started). One of the aphorisms I like is attributed to Jamie Williams, formerly a tight end with the San Francisco Forty-niners: “Leadership is like gravity. You know it’s there, you know it exists, but how do you define it? A working definition of leadership that works for me is “leadership is the ability to influence team members to work hard towards and be committed to team goals”. As I mentioned, there is all manner or articles about the characteristics of leaders. Typical is one aimed at leadership in the non-profit/ public interest sector put out by Zimmerman-Lehman called the Eight Characteristics of Leadership:

1. VISION – being able to articulate the future in clear simple language
2. You must understand what MOTIVATES people.
3. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
4. You must be able to EMPOWER others
5. You must be TRUSTWORTHY
6. Leaders must be willing to take RISKS
7. A leader should be able to FOCUS & FOLLOW THROUGH
8. have a sense of HUMOUR

Similar characteristics have been published for other sectors. One common theme is VISION. Leaders must have a clearly articulated vision of where the team is going. A second common theme is INTEGRITY or TRUSTWORTHYNESS. This is clearly the trait that John Tory was attacking in Dalton McGuinty. That is, he didn’t do what he said he was going to do. As I mentioned above though there is a difference to me between a lack of integrity and simply making a change to do what you think is the right thing for the benefit of the team. Another common trait is COMMUNICATION skills. A good leader must be able to communicate his or her vision.

I have always tried to equate the traits of a good leader with the traits of a good teacher. According to Chickering and Gamson (1987) the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education are:

1. encourages contact between students and faculty,
2. develops reciprocity and cooperation among students,
3. encourages active learning,
4. gives prompt feedback,
5. emphasizes time on task,
6. communicates high expectations, and
7. respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

Like a good teacher, a good leader must create excitement about the task. The leader needs to motivate much like a teacher needs to motive her students. Key attributes of a good teacher that are also found in good leaders are #2 and #7. The leader must respect the other team members and trust them. At the same time though, a leader needs to have high standards and expectations (#6).

At McMaster University we feel as though we are educating the future leaders of our community, province and country. We think that leadership is a skill that can be learned and we are motivated by a quote from legendary coach Vince Lombardi: “Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” About five years ago McMaster Student Affairs started the Dr. Mary E. Keyes Leadership Program as a means of helping students to develop their leadership skills. The programme consists of workshops and volunteer components with a required reflective paper. After completing the requirements students receive a certificate and often list this accomplishment on their resumes. Details of the programme are given on their website.

Leadership programmes have grown in leaps and bounds on university campuses over the past few years and next month (November 15^th to 18^th) Wilfrid Laurier University will be hosting the Second Annual Conference on Student Leadership. The program looks really exciting. I am especially pleased and proud to see that one of the professional workshops will be led by Joel Hilchey. Joel was a student leader here at McMaster through his involvement in Housing and Engineers Without Borders.

Usually in my presentation to the student leaders I talk about specific examples of leaders that they can emulate. I guess that as an engineer, a working model or prototype is often the best teaching tool. This time I’m likely to talk about Tamara Baldwin, Coordinator of Residence Life at McMaster. At least that’s her day job. What sets Tamara apart from her peers and makes her an excellent leader is her strong social conscience. She is the most selfless person I know. Over the years that I have known her she has spent her own money and time in service to others – often in Africa. She has been honoured for this service by being named the recipient of a McMaster President’s Award (for staff) and one of two McMaster nominees for the Bay Area Leadership programme (a regional programme for rising professionals).

But what I really want to focus on here is Tamara’s second job, her unpaid job as coordinator of our Community Service Learning Initiative at: http://servicelearning.mcmaster.ca/ . Over the last few years she has boot-strapped this initiative up from its humble beginnings to the point where 75 McMaster students went on service learning opportunities to four cities in Canada and the U.S. during reading week in February. Another group of ten was in Africa earlier this summer. Tamara spent a month of her own time in Africa setting up this opportunity and clearing the path with local authorities.

Tamara’s initiative has lead to McMaster University (through the Student Services Committee which I Chair) to invest more than $100,000 in community service learning over the next two years. Tamara has a strong moral conviction towards global citizenship and helping other people. This conviction combined with her knowledge and devotion to student development lead her to create the service learning initiative. This initiative is strongly based in pedagogy with well defined learning outcomes at Tamara’s insistence. Service learning is as much about learning as it is about service.

Like Leadership opportunities, Service Learning is also a growth business in Student Affairs. At McMaster, our motto in Student Affairs is “Partners in Learning”. One area where this is clearly demonstrated is in service learning. A good definition of service learning is:

“Service-learning is a form of experiential education where learning occurs through a cycle of action and reflection as students work with others through a process of applying what they are learning to community problems and, at the same time, reflecting upon their experience as they seek to achieve real objectives for the community and deeper understanding and skills for themselves”.

Eyler & Giles, 1999. Where’s the Learning in Service-Learning?

A good place to learn more about service learning is on the website of the Canadian Alliance for Community Service-Learning which is located on the campus of the University of Guelph. I’ll talk more about this initiative in a future post.