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2007 Cohort: Wartburg College
Visit
Welcome Back!
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UNISPA
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Service Learning:YLA
Conference
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Graduate College Update 2-3
Alumni Profile:
Jon Buse
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A Note from Dr.
Waggoner
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Faculty Profile:
Lex Smith
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A new cohort of students
in the Postsecondary
Education: Student Affairs program began their
year on August 20th,
2007. As in years past
the new cohort was able
to meet their second year
peers and faculty in the
5th floor lounge of the
Schindler Education Center before moving on to
their first evening of
classes. The reception
also provided a time for
Leah Rozeboom and Michael Gleason to receive
the Paul Kelso Award for
the year. Congratulations
goes out to them both for
their hard work and dedication to the field.
The 2007 cohort is made
up of fifteen students
who come to us from a
UNISPA is back once again
this year with an ambition to
provide our students with a
great learning experience and
a whole lot of fun as well.
There will be an effort to mix
it up with the first and second
year cohorts through various
social activities as well as
provide quality professional
variety of places. Those
students are:
Tisha Schofield, UNI
Erin Glidden, UNI
Gail Moehlis, UNI
Sarah Koch, UNI
Brock Holman, UNI
Alicia Mireles, Loras
Ashley Nunn, UNI
Jake Smith, UNI
Carmen Meeks, Univ. of
Dubuque
Angela Weekley,
Wartburg College
Melissa Payne, Truman
State University
A.J. Gevock, UNI
Jen Younie, UNI
Sayeeda Ahmad, UNI
The coming year should
prove to be very exciting
for everyone in the program as our students are
involved with a wide
range of activities at UNI
and other area institutions. The best of luck is
wished to everyone in the
program, from those just
starting and those who
will be graduating in May
and heading out into the
workforce.
For more information
about any of the students
currently in the program
or alumni please visit the
program website at:
http://www.uni.edu/coe/
elcpe/postsecondaryed/
people/people.shtml
Josh D’Amico, Mt Mercy
development programs.
This year sees three new coordinators take charge of the
organization, Leah Rozeboom, Megan Stull and Mike
Peterson will be planning
events. The coordinators
urge students and alumni to
visit the website under the
professional development link
on the PSE website at http://
wwww.uni.edu/coe/elcpe/
postsecondaryed/index.shtml
to see upcoming events and
photos from past events.
Anyone who wishes to be
involved or receive more
information can contact one
of the coordinators.
)
“If you don’t stand
for something,
you’ll fall for
anything.”
This past summer, six members of the second year PSE
cohort took a one credit
service learning course led
by Dr. Waggoner, with the
intention to plan a full scale
service learning project for
the following school year.
Those partaking in the
course were Paul Waterman,
Kara Trebil, Leah Rozeboom, Megan Stull, Sarah
Csukker and Mike Peterson.
The course provided a history and background about
service learning and what it
really entails.
After numerous weeks of
meeting it was time to decide what project the students wanted to be involved
with. Still with no real direction it was decided to
bring in someone who was
familiar with service learning and volunteer work.
Carol Luce of the Volunteer
Center of Cedar Valley
came to the group with various ideas and after many
discussions it was decided
that the group would help
out with the Young Leaders
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Sue Joseph was named Interim
Dean of the Graduate College
during the summer of 2007. Dr.
Joseph is a familiar face in the
Graduate College, most recently serving as Associate
Dean. Her ‘new’ job is to support and promote quality graduate education throughout the
University, and to establish and
foster a climate of excellence in
scholarship, research, and
graduate education.
Life, a comprehensive student
services program. Susie plays
an integral role in graduate
student orientation, career services, and professional development activities, as well as
Graduate College marketing,
recruitment, and retention.
Susie also works closely with
the Graduate Student Advisory
Board, the Graduate Student
Social Network, and Graduate
Student Ambassadors.
A valuable new position was
created and filled this past summer by Susie Schwieger. After
an 18-year career with Career
Services, Susie is now the Director of Graduate Student
The Graduate College is
thrilled to welcome Dr. Victoria DeFrancisco as the Interim
Associate Dean. Victoria is
professor in both the Department of Communication and
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in Action high school leadership conference. The conference presented a great
opportunity for students in
the PSE program to work
with high school students
who will be attending college in the next year or two.
The PSE students have been
actively involved with the
planning committee for the
YLA conference over the
summer and the beginning
of the semester. This way
the students will gain an
appreciation for their participation the day of the
event.
The conference was held on
October 30th at the Valley
Lutheran School in Cedar
Falls. Initially the conference was to be limited to
165 students, but because of
high interest in the program
the eventual number of student participants rose to
nearly 250.
The day started off with a
keynote address by Anne
Kerian, previously of
KWWL. Anne spoke of
standing up for what you
believe in and the challenges
of being a leader. Other
activities of the day included
a panel discussion by various community and student
leaders from the Cedar Valley area about their experiences with leadership and
two breakout sessions.
The breakout sessions were
facilitated by students from
our program along with
various community leaders.
The first session was titled
“What do you Stand For?”
and asked students to identify and discuss their personal values. The second
breakout was “To Stand or
Fall: How to Live” which
emphasized how to incorporate values into behaviors
and actions.
Overall the conference was
a great success. The time
after the conference will
allow PSE students to reflect
on the experience and decide what direction they
would like to see the service
learning program and course
take in the future.
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Women’s Studies at UNI. As
Interim Associate Dean, Victoria administers students’ academic program requests, recommendations for admission,
academic discipline, and student grievances. She provides
oversight for multiple graduate
student and faculty competitive
awards, including Professional
Development Assignments and
thesis and dissertation awards,
and coordinates the Graduate
Education Carver Institute for
faculty.
Katie Kuker returns to the
Graduate College assistantship
team as the Program Assistant
for the Graduate College. She
is involved in a number of different activities including planning social events for graduate
students, chairing the Graduate
Student Advisory Board,
Graduate Student Social Network, and Graduate Student
Ambassador program. Katie is
a second year I/O Psychology
graduate student at UNI and
will graduate in May of 2008.
New to the Graduate College is
grad assistant Sarah Kos. Sarah
is serving as editor of The Graffito and is a second year graduate student in the School Counseling program at UNI. Sarah
will complete her degree with
an internship in December of
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2008.
Megan Stull is also a new grad
assistant in the Graduate College and has a variety of responsibilities including professional
development workshops, graduate
student events and activities,
Graduate Student Ambassadors,
graduate student awards, and recruitment of graduate students.
Megan is in her second and final
year of the Postsecondary Education: Student Affairs (PSE) program and will graduate in May of
2008.
The Graffito is back for
2007-2008!
The year’s first issue of The
,-
Graffito is now available! This
newsletter is for our graduate
community at UNI and can be
found at
www.grad.uni.edu/graffito.
Students are welcome to submit articles and ideas to Sarah
Kos at larsen10@uni.edu.
Discussions – Decisions –
Delivery to Students
The Graduate Student Advisory
Board (GSAB) was created to
help in the formation of a cohesive graduate community and
give graduate students a voice in
decisions that affect them.
GSAB members work with
graduate students in all programs
in order to make recommenda-
tions on policies and contribute
ideas on how to build a graduate
student community. The board
meets monthly and September’s
was alive with thoughtprovoking conversations and
ideas.
job search strategies, thesis/dissertation tips, grant writing
tools, interviewing tips, networking, and making the most of a
professional conference. Look for
these to be advertised on our
website, www.grad.uni.edu.
Workshops – put them on
your calendar!
The Graduate College does its
best to plan the most informative
and useful workshops for our
graduate students. This year we
hope to offer workshops on topics such as: financial aid for
graduate students, writing at the
graduate level (APA workshop),
research with human participants, resume writing,
Contributed by: Megan Stull,
PSE-Student Affairs Masters
Student and Graduate College
Graduate Assistant
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Current Dean of Students at the University of Northern Iowa, Jon Buse, is
originally from Dubuque, but has a
long history with the university. Jon
graduated from UNI with his B.A. in
History and then continued his education here in the Postsecondary Education: Student Affairs program. After
completing his masters degree Jon
progressed through a few different
jobs such as, Admissions Counselor,
Assistant Director of Admissions and
Director of New Student Programs
before landing where he is now.
The path to the Dean of Students position for Jon started during his fresh-
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I am exciting to have the opportunity to contribute to the UNI Postsecondary Education program in
Student Affairs and to work with
the master’s students in the Introduction to Student Affairs and
Current Issues courses. During my
15 years as Vice President for
Student Life and Dean of Students
at Wartburg College, I have been
on the periphery of this program
man year with a position working for
the Financial Aid office. Jon does admit that it was a matter of convenience
for him as he said, “I took the job because it was close to was close to my
dorm.” No matter the reason, the decision has seemed to pay off , as it has
lead to a successful 15 year career assisting and influencing students in the
field of Student Affairs here at UNI.
Currently Jon’s responsibilities as the
Dean of Students include serving as the
director of the university student conduct system. Along with this Jon also
coordinates the division of student services response to critical incidents and
concerns involving students and he also
has oversight of the university new student programs.
The position of Dean of Students comes
with a lot of responsibility but is also a
very rewarding position. Jon mentioned
that his favorite aspect of his job is assisting students in reflecting upon and learning from the difficult situations and behaviors that negatively impact their experiences at UNI.
When not keeping busy with his job Jon
likes to spend time enjoying any and all
UNI sports as well as golfing and playing
guitar.
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through an occasional cameo
class appearance, as a host at
Wartburg for a class visit, by
mentoring practicum and internship students, and in the
recruitment and hiring graduates of this program for positions at Wartburg. The presence
of this Student Affairs program
in N.E. Iowa has been a blessing for nearby institutions.
When I decided it was time to
turn over the Chief Student Affairs role at Wartburg to someone else, I hoped to find ways to
use my 42 years of experience in
higher education in meaningful
ways. I was delighted when Dr.
Waggoner invited me to teach on
a part-time basis.
My journey into this field came
more by happenstance than intentionally directed but as opportunities arose, with the support of
many mentors I was able to take
advantage of them. After graduating from Denison University in
the early ‘60s with a degree in
psychology, I spent 4 years in the
Air Force as a Personnel Officer
stationed first at Edwards Air
Force base—Continued P. 4
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Educational Leadership,
Counseling, and Postsecondary
Education
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0604
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Phone: 319-273-2605
Fax: 319-273-5175
Contact E-mail:
mike.waggoner@uni.edu
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Visit us at:
http://www.uni.edu/coe/
elcpe/postsecondaryed
http://www.uni.edu/coe/e
lcpe/postsecondaryed/pro
fessionaldevelopment/uni
spa/unispa.htm
Publication Editor
Mike Peterson
Contact:
Email: petemich@uni.edu
Phone: 319-273-3139
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in California where the first astronaut class was in training and
then at USAFE Headquarters in
Wiesbaden, Germany. When I
left the service, I enrolled in the
graduate program at Ohio University in Clinical/Counseling
Psychology. Rather than accept
an assistantship in the Psychology Department, I chose instead
to serve as a graduate Residence
Hall Director. The rest is history
as they say. I discovered that I
enjoyed the work with college
students more than I did some of
my clinical experiences through
the psychology program. After I
finished my master’s degree, I
knew that wanted to test that
new interest and initial vocational commitment and I accepted a position at Dean Junior
College in Franklin, Massachusetts, as an Assistant Dean of
Students with responsibilities for
residential life, campus discipline, and transfer student counseling.
Once I decided to pursue a doctorate in higher education/student affairs, I chose to do
so at The Ohio State University
(I have never discovered why the
“The” is so important to that
institution, but it is.). My professional responsibilities at Ohio
State during the ensuing eight
years included residential life as
an area coordinator, assistant
dean of students for Judicial
Programs, and assistant to the
Vice President for Student Services. My doctoral work took
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place during the 1970s when
many of the early student development theories were introduced.
It was also a time of a paradigm
shift in the field from the in loco
parentis and student services
orientation to student development. That doctoral program
emphasized for me the importance of a strong theoretical foundation to this field, as students in
the current Intro class might attest. That experience also influenced my professional orientation to one of theory to practice,
to theory. My doctoral research
interest focused on the ethical
and moral development of college students, a continuing interest of mine.
From Ohio State I chose to return
to my undergraduate roots and I
made a commitment to work at
small residential liberal arts institutions. Since the late 1980’s I
have served Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, as Associate Dean of Students, returned to my alma mater, Denison University, as Dean of Students, and more recently at Wartburg College. I have done some
teaching in the past, but on a
more limited basis. I have taught
leadership classes at both at
Denison and Wartburg, and I
filled in one summer at Bowling
Green State University in their
student affairs program following
the death of a faculty member
and I taught two graduate courses
in that program.
On a personal note, my wife
Sharon and I will celebrate our
45th wedding anniversary this
spring. Our daughter and son
are married and between them
we have 7 grandchildren. They
all live in the central Ohio,
Columbus area, and that is
where we head during vacation
times. I was born in Washington, D.C., lived with my family
also in New York and in Florida where I graduated from
high school. My roots have
been longer in Ohio because of
education than anywhere else
so I am still more Buckeye than
Hawkeye, but Hawkeye is
growing. I have one younger
brother who also made a commitment to higher education.
He was just appointed President
of American University in Nigeria and is helping open a
brand new institution in that
part of the world.
I have thought that I would like
to finish my career in teaching.
I look forward with their help
to sharing my higher education
experience with students in this
program and to helping them
prepare for successful careers
in the field. The Student Affairs
field needs bright and talented
professionals to carry out the
important work of supporting
student development and learning for students on our campuses.
Alexander (Lex) Smith