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Why We Need to Take Time and Listen to Students in College
…how fostering trust, personalization, and inclusion can all be achieved by taking more time to invest in learning how to best serve the needs of students on your campus.
By Rose Carlson and Dr. Benjamin M. Drury
American society is growing and shifting right before our very eyes. New and interesting forms of technology and cooking and social interaction are introduced to us daily. We are being conditioned to move at the speed and pace of information. What is getting lost in the delicate ecosystem of student services is the trust and rapport we build with our students when we take sufficient time to get to know them. Every student is unique, and yet business-minded administrative professionals will tell you that the goal is to treat every student the same to guarantee a similar outcome. Unfortunately for those bent on commodifying all that is educational, human beings are not always going to perform the same in similar situations. Student services professionals are being saddled with increasing numbers of students to serve and support with little support from their institution. Student services is being transformed into more of a customer service office. Our interactions with students are growing more transactional with every coming semester. Time, as it were, is being taken away from the interaction equation between…
