Running Head: INTERVIEW REACTION PAPER: ADAPTING TO CHANGE

Interview Reaction Paper: Adapting to Change

Mindy Venners
CAHA 562
Northern Illinois University

INTERVIEW REACTION PAPER: ADAPTING TO CHANGE

The higher education setting is one in which the dynamics are constantly changing,
regardless of which college or university is being focused on. And within this setting, the
Student Affairs division is extremely broad in its departments and administrators. I conducted an
interview with Donna Schoenfeld, the Director of Health Enhancement here on the NIU campus.
She has had years of valuable experience within Student Affairs that helped me get a larger sense
of what types of things occur when a person reaches that level of knowledge and expertise.
Dr. Schoenfeld has worked at a few different colleges, which has given her greater
knowledge of the differences that exist at other institutions, as well as the similarities that tend to
occur in any higher education environment. She has taught psychology courses on the academic
side, as well as served as the Coordinator of Health Promotion at Rutgers University. She
transferred to Marquette and then to NIU about ten years ago. In her experience, she says that
she happened to fall into Student Affairs by accident, which seems to be a common theme among
higher education professionals due to the varying departments and internal structure of the
institution. She also received her doctorate degree after completing her dissertation about the
obstacles of women reaching high level administrative positions in higher education.
There were a few areas of focus within our interview that allowed me to see things from
an enlightening perspective. I learned a lot while working within Student Involvement and
Leadership Development at NIU about the value of student interaction and the mentoring
relationships that are often formed when working so closely with the student population. One
thing that impacted me from my conversation with Donna was the apparent decline of day to day
interaction with students as you move higher up the administrative ladder. While she is able to
teach a couple classes in the CAHE program which allows her to stay connected with the

INTERVIEW REACTION PAPER: ADAPTING TO CHANGE

students, her director position sometimes prevents that type of involvement. She is extremely
dedicated to the programming needs of our student body, and with that responsibility, she
requires people to work for her that constantly deal with the hands on situations. This structure
unfortunately prevents her from having the essential daily contact with students. I find this to be
both very interesting and ironic because student affairs professionals strive to find their way to
better paying positions, when in reality these higher positions are moving farther away from the
most important thing, the connectedness to our students.
One of the main passions that we spoke about in regards to being a student affairs
administrator is the desire to help students attain their personal goals. Donna told a story about
one of her past students and the wrong path he was originally headed down. The student was a
pompous, disruptive individual who was hindering other students from learning to their
maximum potential due to his complete lack of interest. She eventually called the student in for
a meeting to assess the situation and learn where the student was coming from. Being a
dedicated problem solver, Donna brought the students poor attitude to his own attention and
stated that he should look into using his smart mouth in more productive ways by joining a
campus peer response group. The student was disinterested at first, but with a little further
encouragement, he joined the group, became highly involved, and ended up graduating with
good credentials. He later expressed his deep gratitude to Dr. Shoenfeld which ended up creating
a fulfilling and beneficial partnership for both of them. The mentoring and humanistic
viewpoints that Donna held eventually led to the unforeseen success of a potentially overlooked
student.
Another factor that we discussed was the importance of engaging prospective and

INTERVIEW REACTION PAPER: ADAPTING TO CHANGE

current students into the higher education environment. The pipeline to enrolling students is
diminishing due to fewer high school graduates and more non-traditional backgrounds. These
issues have led higher education institutions to enroll larger numbers of academically
underprepared students. According to Dr. Shoenfeld, in addition to these concerns, more
students are lacking the ability to form interpersonal relationships with faculty and staff and even
their own peers. There has been in increase in mental health needs for incoming students, which
naturally affects the campus as a whole when trying to keep students motivated and engaged in
learning. When gauging student success, we need to understand where our students are
currently, where they ideally need to be, and form the continuum to allow them to efficiently
achieve goals. As much progress as we have made in better understanding varying student
cultures, there is always room for improvement.
When considering other cultures, multicultural competency is imperative in student
affairs administrative positions. An important barrier that was brought up in our interview was
the possibly offensive behaviors that certain individuals can bring with them to their college
experience. If students have not been taught the correct information throughout their childhood,
or have experienced biases that resonate within them, this can create an uncomfortable or tense
environment for students and staff. There are programs that focus on multiculturalism and
diversity, yet if a student does not fully understand the definitions of these terms or what it takes
to reach these competencies, then there is much more to learn. Students can pride themselves on
saying they are multiculturally competent, but may not actually be prepared in that definition.
The helping skills and counseling theories that we discussed were fairly typical for
Student Affairs administrators. Some necessary skills that Donna has used on a regular basis are

INTERVIEW REACTION PAPER: ADAPTING TO CHANGE

active listening, accurate problem solving techniques, giving out good information and helpful
referrals, motivational interviewing for students to make their own decisions, and being able to
communicate without judgment. These skills fit into a combination of student development and
counseling theories when applying them to students in higher education. Student development
theories focus on the growth and development of students, and the factors that influence these
processes, while counseling theories focus on personality and human development and the goal
and techniques used to bring about symptom relief and positive mental health and well-being
(Reynolds, 2009, p. 82).
Cognitive-behavioral theories are relevant to Dr. Shoenfeldss practice in the way she tries
to cure unreason by reason for the students that she serves (2009). Similar to the earlier story
of the student on a troublesome path, through consideration of behavior and reinforcement
reasoning, the student was able to see the realities of his own actions and steer himself toward a
more productive path.
Another theory that came to mind throughout our interview was the concept of
humanistic theory. An important philosophy within humanistic theory is that human beings
have a natural desire to grow and the ability to reach their fullest potential (Reynolds, 2009, p.
88). If students are not able to utilize their energy to resolve conflicts and overcome obstacles,
their college career can suffer. Students are encouraged to accept and establish their own selfconcept in order to maximize their individual choices. A trusting relationship between the
student and the practitioner is a required component to be able to create changes in the most
beneficial way.
Lastly, multicultural theory plays a large role in higher education, especially as new

INTERVIEW REACTION PAPER: ADAPTING TO CHANGE

generations and cultures evolve. Practitioners must be comfortable serving various cultures and
learning cultural norms. It is important for all individuals to be aware of their own biases and
attitudes, and even more detrimental for administrators to realize their own perspectives and
increase their awareness to prevent a disconnection with their students. Multicultural theory
continues to have its challenges as students and staff work toward increasing awareness and
knowledge of the stigmas that are still present (2009).
One main take away that I had from my interview with Dr. Shoenfeld was the concern she
had about higher education now and in the future. She stated that she would like to go back in
time to research and observe why the mentality has changed for students, faculty, and staff, and
their history of having a passion to learn, teach, and help. She senses that there is a loss of
connection and lack of interest because of the increase in non-traditional backgrounds, and the
minimum involvement with the college experience that some students have. As student affairs
practitioners and administrators, we can only encourage students to succeed if we have the drive
and motivation to create a successful atmosphere. Since the student population is increasingly
diverse, we need to constantly reevaluate our programs and processes to establish lasting results
for goal-oriented achievement.

REFERENCES
Reynolds, A. L. (2009). Helping college students: Developing essential support skills for
student affairs practice. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.