Are you ready for your “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” question of the day?
Here it is: What is an ecosystem?
Khan Academy defines an ecosystem as “a community of organisms together with their physical environment.” Brittanica says something similar: An ecosystem is the “complex of living organisms, their physical environment, and all their interrelationships in a particular unit of space.”
Did you beat the theoretical fifth grader who buzzed in 0.4 seconds after hearing the question?
While you’re most likely to find a description of an ecosystem in a grade school science textbook, I think it applies perfectly to our roles within the college or university sphere. What is an ecosystem if not a well-balanced, mutually beneficial environment in which creatures thrive off their relationships with one another? Did I just describe a rainforest or your university? I’m hoping it’s both!
When a student arrives at the institution, they enter our ecosystem. Do they experience a dysfunctional environment that contains pockets of knowledge, but no connectivity from one area to the next? Are they passed off from staff to staff when they attempt to get a solid answer about financial aid or transfer credits? Can they navigate the system easily or are they met with barriers and dead ends at every turn? I fear these scenarios are more common than we’d like to believe, especially at larger institutions where one-on-one student support can be difficult to scale.
We have to start modeling our institutions after thriving ecosystems where each organism plays its part in concert with all the others. When a student joins our ecosystem, we need to be ready to receive them in a close-knit, collaborative environment. It’s not sufficient to respond to a student’s question by simply sharing the contact information of the relevant office. Why not offer to walk them to the resource directly, coordinate a Zoom call where you can provide context for the student’s situation, or at the very least, connect them directly to a campus colleague? When a student shares a barrier they’ve faced, we must believe it’s our responsibility to investigate further. “That’s just the way it goes” isn’t an excuse that holds water.
So how do you—a single human in your residence life or student life unit—transform your institution into a thriving ecosystem? Institutional change takes more than one person’s effort, but there are principles you can apply and bite-sized actions to take no matter what your position level.
- Too often in higher ed we work largely within our own silos, reaching out to campus partners only when we need a favor or snippet of information. However, we have to start viewing mutual collaboration as imperative to the work of supporting students in their college journeys. We have to embrace a level of responsibility not only for the work of our own teams, but for that of our colleagues across campus. When we build genuine relationships across departments, we can more easily work together to problem-solve with students. Bite-sized action: Reach out to the academic advisor of a student you’re concerned about. Combine your knowledge with theirs to create a better picture of the student’s situation and brainstorm ways to help.
- Don’t wait for student concerns to reach a crisis point before intervening. We must be proactive when checking in on students, especially early in the semester. Those collaborative relationships mentioned above can come into play as you assemble a team—think RAs, advisors, faculty, campus resource staff—who can each provide a nuanced angle of support depending on the student’s needs. Applying that support early can prevent issues from spiraling out of control and sends the message that you truly care about the student’s well-being. Bite-sized action: Dig into any data available on student attendance at events, interactions with RAs, etc. Who’s *not* showing up? Those students are your new follow-up targets.
- Train yourself to be relentlessly curious. When a student doesn’t show up for their move-in date, do we just chalk it up to inevitable melt? Or do we call them up, ask them what’s going on, and try to connect them to the right resources so that they can start the semester strong? When a process is confusing to us as staff, imagine how a student might feel. Get curious and ask questions about why a system is set up the way it is. Often the barriers are surmountable and people are open to improving their systems (especially if the feedback comes from a trusted colleague!). Bite-sized action: Review your institution’s student-facing web pages on processes like applying for admission, housing sign-up, joining a learning community, or other processes. Catalogue suggestions for making language or step-by-step instructions friendlier to students and families.
In an ideal world, our institutions are thriving ecosystems that support each student by surrounding them with a network of resources operating as a cohesive team. Does this description characterize your institution? If not, I encourage you to reflect on how you can take little steps to contribute to a better environment.
This blog post was informed by the Promoting At-Promise Student Success project at the USC Pullias Center for Higher Education, which developed the “Ecological Validation” approach to creating a postsecondary environment that centers the needs and experiences of at-promise students through norms of holistic, proactive, collaborative, strengths-oriented, developmental, and reflexive practices.
