No abstract

Parents of traditional-age students confront many developmental challenges of their own when their children begin college. Yet, few parent orientation programs address these challenges during the orientation process. The current study was designed to determine how well two sessions that addressed the parents' developmental changes were evaluated compared to more traditional orientation activities. The two sessions were highly evaluated as parents cited these programs as two of the three most beneficial and named the speakers as the most helpful in orientation.

Koppelman explores values and possible motivations behind those values. Generously splashed with witticisms and quotations, the book is an interesting combination of stories, logic, and opinion. Professor Koppelman is a master storyteller when illustrating a point and a skillful weaver in inviting the reader to participate in self-exploration and healthy dialogue.

In the last seven months I have assumed a new position, sold a house, bought a house, moved 1,000 miles, graduated a daughter from high school, graduated a son from college, helped with his rather large wedding, moved a son in junior high to a new school, logged 40,000 frequent flyer miles in extended job interviews (four at UNT alone), learned to swim, learned to work with hundreds of new people, given over onehundred speeches and, unfortunately, lost my mother to an untimely death.With the exception of losing my mom, all of the changes have been happy events. Unlike some of our new students, I've not received a D on a paper after making all A's in high school. I have not had to learn to live with someone with whom I may have little in common. I haven't had to question what I want to do with my life, and my values are firmly in place. Granted, being a new student is an exhilarating, exciting experience filled with hopes, butterflies, and adventure. Yet, even the most secure of students question themselves and their values, which is actually a positive developmental growth process. However, self doubt, disapproval from a peer or faculty member and learning to accept responsibility for poor decision-making is quite painful. Transition can be traumatic, and the inability of students to adjust to the transition negatively affects all our retention rates.The lesson for me these last months has been to remember the transitions our new students face each semester. The short-term changes in my life have been insignificant compared to the single parent returning to school or to the eighteen-year-old leaving home for the first time. It is easy for us as "professionals" to overlook the basic tenets of transition strategies in planning glitzy orientation programs, award-winning first year courses, noteworthy learning communities, and cutting-edge programming ideas. The glitz, awards, noteworthiness, and cutting-edge ideas are terrific; we must have them to survive. However, the basics of human kindness and time to listen can make a difference in whether a student continues in school.Perhaps it would be wise for us to heed the words of wisdom in the Senior Year Experience Series by Hartel, Schwartz, Blume, and Gardner (1994):Today . . . technological, demographic, and social changes occur with dizzying speed. Whereas once the only things that were certain were death and taxes, now we have to add "change" to the list. Therefore, in the workplace as in the rest of our lives, flexibility has become a virtue to be cultivated. (p. 77)Whether we are faculty or staff, orientation directors or first year experience educators, students are our "workplace" and flexibility is our goal. The first year experience is

Some of us in student-services-related positions may have difficulty believing that our positions categorize us, in the eyes of some, as Big Shots worthy of great respect. Yet, we make decisions each and every day which affect numerous students and colleagues. "Big Shot" is simply a term to indicate that we have power over other people, and I would say we qualify.Much of our professional dialogue centers around the urgent need for student affairs and academic affairs to work as allies, rather than as adversaries, to create better environments for students, more cooperation between staffs, and increased student retention and satisfaction. Now that we have established that we are Big Shots, it seems that we now have an opportunity to do just that.The publications in this edition of the journal highlight the level of opportunity that we have to initiate collaborative efforts. Included are Jeske and Rode's article on "Current Practices in Undergraduate Student Mentoring," an obvious collaborative effort between the divisions; Fried's article on "Steps to Creative Campus Collaboration," which goes to the heart of this discussion; and Marling and Bradford's article on "Instituting a Summer Supplemental Instruction Program," another discussion of a clearly collaborative effort.In addition, Benz provides information on urban collaboration in his article, "Incorporating the City Into an Urban Campus's Orientation Program," and Geelhoed discusses community service issues in "Capitalizing on Student Interests: Community Service and Orientation," both pointedly indicating the need to expand collaborative efforts even beyond the campus. Miller, Randall, and Nadler's "Reviving an SGA: A Case Study," of a student government during its rebirth walks us through a deliberative process involving students, faculty, and student affairs staff. Even the book review on Achieving Personal and Academic Success underscores the need for collaboration.Each of the contributions to this issue of the journal describes collaboration through small steps. Whether it is mentoring or supplemental instruction, community service or urban orientation, the collaborative effort typically involves one targeted area of student-focused services and is a joint development between two or more areas of the college or university. Interestingly, none of these articles indicate that the initiative resulted from a mandate "from the top," but, then again, we are all Big Shots able to take small steps to increase collaboration on campus.As you read the journal, and I hope you read it carefully, read it as a Big Shot, one