University of Michigan-Dearborn: Redesigning On-Campus Student Employment to be a Vision for Student Success
Audience: Supervisors
Summary
Each of our inaugural Institute universities were paired together to interview, learn from and share valuable insights and work with one another. Each institution was then charged with writing a blog that summarized key takeaways and learning. In this series of blogs, we'll delve into the innovative approaches, best practices, and success stories from universities across the country. From career development initiatives to performance management strategies, we'll explore how universities are enhancing the student employee experience ensuring their roles are preparing them for the future workforce. Join us as we uncover the secrets to maximizing the potential of student employment programs and creating meaningful opportunities for students on campus.
This blog highlights the efforts of the University of Michigan-Dearborn and was written by Arizona State University.
University of Michigan-Dearborn: Redesigning On-Campus Student Employment to be a Vision for Student Success Interviewed and blog written by: Arizona State University
At the University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-Dearborn), they are embarking on a transformative journey in student employment, aiming to elevate it as a high-impact practice integral to their institutional mission. By viewing student employment as more than a paycheck, they are providing impactful learning experiences with on-campus student employment as the vehicle to accomplish this work. Over the last several years, UM-Dearborn has been institutionalizing and supporting the growth of high-impact practices such as research, study abroad and capstones through their Experience+ Initiative. They realized that student employment could be an additional experience that could diversify the portfolio of opportunities available to their students. This prompted the partnership with ASU and Work+.
A primary focus of the team has been to spread the word in order to drive adoption and engagement across campus. Luckily their Chancellor is a proponent of leveraging student employment as a career development experience and is particularly interested in identifying ways to drive more students to work on campus. In order to develop meaningful partnerships and support across campus, UM-Dearborn hosted a 2-day design sprint that socialized the concept of thinking of student employment as a high impact practice. One key outcome of this sprint was the development of a Student Employment Advisory Council, made up of committed student employment champions who were eager to support this work.
In addition to the advisory council, they have also presented to high-level leadership, including the council of deans and plan to showcase the work at the universities retention summit. Both formal and informal efforts are noteworthy as they continue to build awareness, excitement and support institution-wide.
In addition to awareness building and engagement of campus partners, UM-Dearborn identified key changes related to student employment such as: creating learning outcomes for student employment and starting a formal assessment process. In addition, they have taken a closer look at their data and have begun to track demographics, academic backgrounds, retention rates, and more to better understand the student employment experience at their campus. This data informs their decisions and helps them design effective initiatives that meet the needs of their students.
UM-Dearborn began piloting intentional efforts around student employment with their Student Affairs team in Spring 2024 with an overwhelmingly positive response. Pilot efforts include:
Standardized and consistent supervisor training and ongoing professional development.
On the clock professional development for working learners.
Implementation of visual storytelling as a means for working learners to track their accomplishments.
Standardized prompts provided to working learners to foster reflection on their experiences and skills developed.
UM-Dearborn has been so inspired by this work and the response from their student employment community, that they even plan to host a regional conference in Summer 2024 to showcase to other regional institutions what they have learned and how others can capitalize on this opportunity of thinking about student employment as a student success high-impact practice.
So what advice would UM-Dearborn give to others looking to redesign their student employment experience? Engage key stakeholders such as HR, Financial Aid, and the large campus employers at the beginning of this work and leverage them to co-design. Take the time to review existing handbooks, connect with external partners (locally and nationally), and leverage resources like The Work+Collective. Lastly, they stressed how vital it is to this work to have the buy-in and support from your senior leadership so they give you the time and space to focus on this important work.
UM-Dearborn’s vision for the future of on-campus student employment is about turning jobs into opportunities for growth, learning, and success. They have found their own unique way to implement this work into their campus environment and they are excited to continue to expand their pilot work into full institution-wide adoption.