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Running head: ESTABLISHING COMPETENCY GOALS

Establishing Competency Goals

Freddie Bourne

Montclair State University

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ESTABLISHING COMPETENCY GOALS
Establishing Competency Goals

According to U.S. News, Stevens Institute of Technology is known for being one of the

leading STEM-oriented institutions and top colleges in the nations (“Best Colleges”, 2017). I

started my journey at Stevens in the Fall of 2016 as a Resident Director, working with first-year

students before moving onto upperclassmen. However, I note that my interest and passion in

student affairs is not geared towards working as in the residence life, but rather becoming a vocal

advocate for promoting the importance of self-care and tackling sensitive subject areas such as

students going through vices such as discrimination, grief, and substance abuse. With this, I was

aware that I needed to expose myself to more diverse initiatives to become acquainted with some

of the topics in these departments.

The Office of Disability Services at Stevens is roughly two-years old and has become quite a

pivotal part of the student population. But, the department has struggled to become a mainstream

presence on campus by being overshadowed by other programming offerings such as diversity

initiatives from Residence Life and Student Life and Greek Life events. My mission is to help

this department be seen just as important as these other departments and programs that can help

contribute to the institution’s continued growth.

NASPA / ACPA has outlined ten professional competency areas that aids student affairs

professionals to be able to advance their careers. With this, I have found two competency goals

that I feel incredibly confident I have mastered throughout my five years in student affairs.

Technology, which is focused on “…use of digital tools, resources, and technologies for the

advancement of student learning, development, and success as well as the improved performance

of student affairs professionals” (ACPA / NASPA, p. 14), has been a strong suit since my time as

a Resident Assistant. When eventually becoming a Resident Director, I found that technology,
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especially working as a STEM school, was a necessity. Program proposal forms, creation of

public relations materials (posters, social media, additional advertisements), and navigating

many outline systems for mandating reporting is the backbone of what we tend to reference in

our everyday affairs and tasks. In my position in the Office of Disability Services, I will be

utilizing technology to create a campus map of ADA assessible entrances to academic buildings,

networking with additional disability service departments in tri-state institutions, and enhance

my research in programming efforts in conjunction with promoting the topic of Treacher Collins

syndrome, which my primary programming objective.

Advising and Supporting, which “[a]ddresses the knowledge, skills, and dispositions related

to providing advising and support to individuals and groups through direction, feedback, critique,

referral, and guidance” (ACPA / NASPA, p. 14), is considered my second strongest competency.

When beginning my career as a Resident Assistant in 2011, I always found myself to be an

approachable student leader by encouraging an open-door policy. While I did see that I had some

struggles maintaining that in a more professional role, I eventually found my way into

remembering how my position in student affairs to recall our objective to be student centric and

to be continued support for all students. I believe that my role working in the Office of Disability

Services has given me a more valuable opportunity to have more meaningful and stronger

conversations and connections with these students – especially when we talk about their

difficulties working with other students in group work projects and communicating with

professors that may not understand the severity of their disabilities and limitations. This has

helped with strengthening the active listening process, limiting interruptions, while also coming

to each conversation with a “blank slate” agenda.

Social Justice and Inclusion is still a work in progress. While I tend to be open-minded, I still
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tend to be challenged by my previous exposures and my personal upbringing. I have intended to

work on pushing myself out of these comfort zones by investing my time doing research on

topics of diversity of thought, concepts of white privilege, and becoming more cognizant with

issues in the global context of higher education. My objective in my Capstone project is to

highlight the importance of inclusion of this department on the Stevens campus, as it tends to not

be considered a paramount topic of discussion on campus, thus shunning this population and the

knowledge of this department and mission to the rest of the campus community.

Law, Policy, and Governance is a very important part of this department. Much of the

operations of disability services is dependent on a set list of rules and institutional, state, and

national policies – such as giving students more times to complete exams, access to certain

buildings for students to live in that are not able-bodied, and how to create programming that is

inclusive to all. This competency goal needs to be kept in mind during my physical planning for

my program when reserving the location and to also communicate with my direct supervisor to

ensure that the program meets university policies, requirements, and standards.

The two goals that I deem to be needed in my future role in higher education are Assessment,

Evaluation, and Research and Organizational and Human Resources. Both will be required in

order to help create both institutional growth of the place, or places, I will be working at in the

near future, while also advancing my personal growth in acknowledging areas for improvements

from previous efforts. Furthermore, these goals will also keep in mind that universities are still

considered business organizations; we must continue to please the customers (students and

parents) and provide excellence in all that we do to serve them better. In all, these competencies

will, above all, help my current and future knowledge in becoming a more well-rounded and

equipped professional in any sector of higher education.

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References

ACPA: College Student Educators International & NASPA − Student Affairs Administrators in

Higher Education. ACPA/NASPA professional competency areas for student affairs

practitioners. Washington, DC. https://www.naspa.org/images/uploads/main/ACPA_NASPA

_Professional_Competencies_FINAL.pdf

How Does Stevens Institute of Technology Rank Among America's Best Colleges? (n.d.).

Retrieved January 26, 2018, from https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/stevens-institute-of

technology-2639