Staff Senate Panel Discussion*
Staff Senate Exploratory Committee Members
Location: Auditorium B
The Staff Senate Exploratory Committee seeks to fulfill the N2025 aim of creating and allowing access to a university-sponsored staff council for staff to provide input on relevant issues to university leadership.
This session will provide follow up from listening sessions held earlier in the spring semester, an overview of the nominations process, and timeline for elections of senators to be held in summer of 2022 with the inaugural senate commencing in Fall 2022. Members of the exploratory committee will be present to facilitate the presentation and dialogue. All three of the sessions will have the same content. Multiple opportunities have been included to aid in participation. Further information may be accessed at https://www.unl.edu/chancellor/staff-senate-exploratory-committee
Lessons Learned from Implementing Inclusive Hiring Practices
Amy Ort, Instructional Designer, Center for Transformative Technology
Beverly Russell, Associate Director, Center for Transformative Technology
Brian Wilson, Sen. Instructional Designer, Center for Transformative Technology
Jeff Kosse, Instructional Designer, Center for Transformative Technology
Location: Room 010
The university’s strategic plan asks units to increase recruitment and retention of underrepresented staff. In response to this, in spring of 2021, the Center for Transformative Teaching began a full review of all aspects of our hiring process to ensure we follow best practices for equity and inclusivity at all stages. Throughout, we worked closely with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which has recently released guidance in the form of this Bridge training document [https://diversity.unl.edu/bridge-breakthrough-recruitment-inclusive-diversity-growth-and-excellence].
In this session, we will explain the process that we went through and the lessons we learned to help other units that may be interested in making similar changes. Specifically, we will talk about actions taken such as revising our job description, examining historical data for hiring trends, recruitment and advertisement, interview questions and hiring process, and developing a new search charge document for the hiring committee. We will talk about the successes and challenges we had in instituting the new procedures for the searches that have been conducted since we started working on this project as well as how we plan to continue reviewing the procedures over time.
In addition to hearing about our experience, we will make some of our materials available to participants. This will include the checklist of steps we developed, our original vs updated job description, and new search charge. We will also ensure there is ample time for Q&A at the end of the session.
Shift from Directing to Connecting with Your Staff
Vicky D. Highstreet, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Special Project Manager, Office of Student Affairs
Location: Room 018
Becoming a leader of a team is different than managing a team. If you have to convince a person into being helped, is that a good use of your time, or theirs?! Learning how to connect with people by finding common ground will bring us closer to overcoming the daily challenges. This session will provide an opportunity to discuss (John Maxwell’s) seven things that will be most important to a leader who wants to connect with others, include questions to ask before you take on the role of mentoring someone.
Building the Framework: Integrating a Curricular Model into Learning Communities
Abby Groth, Assistant Director of Residence Life for Learning Communities & Academics, Learning Communities
Location: Room 032
Learning Communities are a partnership between Academic Affairs and University Housing, providing first-year students the opportunity to “Live, Learn and Connect” with each other in cohorts focused on academic majors, identities, or interests. Over the past two years, Learning Communities have benefited from turning toward a curricular model to guide its activities and initiatives. Much like an academic curriculum guides how course material is best organized and scaffolded to achieve learning outcomes, a curricular model in Student Affairs guides how teams approach their responsibilities in order to achieve goals. A curricular model helps teams take an inventory of what they do and consider how those tasks promote student or staff learning. Additionally, a curricular model can spotlight which activities are truly in line with mission and vision and identify possible gaps in a team’s efforts. While Learning Communities implemented a curricular model with a student staff of Peer Mentors, this model could be used for any team of professional or student staff. This presentation will share more about the development and first two years of execution of the LC curriculum, along with actionable ideas for how to apply a curricular model in other team settings.
First But Not Alone: Understanding and Supporting First Generation Students
Morgan Green, Student Conduct Officer, Conduct and Community Standards
Mollie Rappl, Career Coach, College of Education & Human Sciences
Location: Room 040
Objectives: Assisting Students as they navigate through college presents a new challenge everyday but how do we best support First Generation students? Members from the First Generation Advisory Board share some tips, tricks and resources on how to best support First Generation students. First Generation Staff members and First Generation Allies are encouraged to attend!
Objectives:
- Participants will be able to define and recognize first generation students.
- Participants will understand resources that UNL offers for First Generation Students.
- Participants will recognize how their own First Gen identity as a staff member can build connections with students.
Highly Effective Teams Need Psychological Safety: 5 Key Strategies*
Cindy Copich, HR Specialist, IANR Finance & Personnel Office
Sara Skretta, Senior Director, Accreditation, Placement & Licensing, College of Education & Human Sciences
Location: Room 211
Does your work environment seem “stuck? We hear you! It seems we are all struggling to build strong, positive and cohesive teams where diverse ideas can be respectfully shared and also challenged. Between dealing with a long pandemic and a divisive political climate, it can make it difficult to know what you can do to build a greater sense of community, collaboration, and connectedness with coworkers. In this session we will share 5 key strategies and action steps to promote psychological safety within your team that you can start implementing right away.
Learning Objectives:
- Developing as a Person: Learn why establishing psychological safety in the workplace is worthwhile and what strategies we can take to build an environment that promotes innovation by establishing ground rules, identifying values, and exploring conflict styles.
- Developing as a Professional: Discover how strengths-based performance contributes to psychological safety and higher team function by acknowledging individual traits and leveraging those within an effective team.
- Developing in Community: Explore how to have difficult conversations at work that help build trust, promote curiosity, and establish common ground.
- Collaborating: Discuss communication strategies that help all people speak freely and respectfully; simultaneously challenging ideas and valuing others.
*Hybrid presentation