Practicum Journal #3 – Social Justice

For the past two weeks, my role in the Center for Academic Excellence has been

overall hands-off, with a majority of my time shadowing and learning different styles of

advising. As an observational learner, I dissect the interactions in the lens of a helper.

This means that I assess the advisors capability of building rapport, understanding the

issues and creating goals with the student. I noted how every advisor was strong in

problem solving and creating goals component of the appointment meetings, but there

was very little rapport building. I am not sure if this is because we are already in the

second semester of the academic year, or if there is little emphasis on the first interaction

with the students.

My secondary supervisor made a point early on in my departmental transition that

due to the large influx of students using the center, the ambience is more customer

service oriented rather than developmental oriented. I definitely saw this characteristic in

the department by shadowing, but it became evident to me that the advisors are burnt-out

with the amount of meetings and issues the advisors have to handle per day. Their

exhaustion is thus an external factor that may be inhibiting the initial bond established

with students.

This week I was introduced to all of the members of the Center of Academic

Excellence, ranging from the administrative assistants and to the following programs

Trio, Academic Advising, and Step. As I met all the professionals the pattern I kept

following from them was that they had a lot on their plates, and not only that but the

severity of some cases took a lot of energy for them. The department is being overused

and underappreciated, which correlates to the demographic within the office being
predominately women of color. An example is the attempts CAE has done in reaching

out to other departments on campus, but ignored for no apparent reason. This

demonstrates the institutional oppression (Lechuga, Clerc, & Howell, 2009) present in

Salem State University.

During the time I was shadowing a probation contract meeting, the advisors left

the meeting to problem solve for the students’ registration and financial aid issue. I was

left in the room with the student and during that time, she felt comfortable sharing with

me a little deeper what her dilemma was. In those short 20 minutes we were alone I was

able to discuss her mental health and refer her to the counseling service on campus.

Moreover, it became clearly evident to me that the multiple layers of oppressed identities

this student held were affecting her ability to succeed in college.

The student was a female, Nigerian-American, had transferred to the four-year

institution from a community college, and she was a commuter that worked full-time.

Institutional oppression (Lechuga, Clerc, & Howell, 2009) was playing a key role in her

inability to receive high marks in her classes, communicate with advisors and seek help

when needed. Not only is higher education a flawed system catered for white, cis, and

heterosexual men, but the onboarding system for Salem State University is not beneficial

to transfer and commuter students. In the moment, my intentions were to comfort the

student and provide her with the best resources I could, but I could not help to wonder

what steps different functional areas at Salem State were emphasizing multicultural and

socially just competencies.

I believe that the inclusive excellence office on campus should be measuring the

multicultural competence of every functional area department at Salem State University.

This would guide better practices in the future and potential obligatory training in social

justice, inclusion and pluralism.