My
first example of the butterfly effect is the establishment of our Monday meetings. I work for the WW ERAU campus in Rota,
Spain. Our school shares an office with
three other universities. In the past
the four universities were very disconnected and even went through phases of
immense competition. Previous reps for
some of the schools were treating students like numbers and looking out for the
interests of the schools instead of the student’s needs. In the six years I have been with the Rota
ERAU campus I have seen some great changes in our office. The more aggressive school reps have left and
some more ethically-inspired reps have taken their place. My Director being one of them, has very
student-centered values and between her and myself we have been able to change
the culture in our office to one that honors and respects the needs of our
students first.
Three
years ago I suggested to the other schools that we hold a weekly meeting to
talk about things happening in the office.
We could discuss course schedules, office hours, (if anyone was on leave
for example) educational opportunities, events and other related subjects. Before we started having these meetings, the
universities never communicated with one another. If a rep was out sick or if they heard about
an event we could participate in, we sometimes didn’t know about it. Everyone was out doing their own thing and
sometimes overlapping or doubling our efforts.
The Monday morning meeting that we have instilled now offers all the
schools the opportunity to share resources and talk about possible events for
outreach opportunities.
Since
we have begun these meetings we have learned the strengths and resources of
each university. For example, ERAU has a close connection with the air force
squadron on the base and Central Texas College has ties with the security
command and the Marines. We all pull in
our resources and together are able to reach out to a larger audience on the
base and promote the importance of education.
Because of these monthly meetings our office has become a seamless
source for education. Students know when
they come in that they will get personalized attention and non-biased academic
advising that addresses their personal needs.
In 2011 our Navy College office won the quality performance award out of
all the Navy Colleges. This was a
testimony to how all of the organizations came together and collaborated to
provide a seamless quality service to the students who came to our office,
regardless of the school they attended. Reeves & Deimler (2011) tell us
that the more traditional strategies “aim to build an enduring competitive
advantage by achieving dominant scale, occupying an attractive niche, or
exploiting certain capabilities and resources” (p. 137). This tactic doesn’t seem to work in such a
small communal environment that is a military base. First of all, all the schools tend to recycle
the same body of students at some point in time. Military students tend to jump around a lot
when it comes to getting an education. A
lot of this is the lack of availability of schools in certain areas. Here in Europe, we are all fishing from the
same pond. Secondly, as an office, we
all came to a unified realization that our ultimate goal is to provide the
student with the best services. We are
after all nonprofit institutions. The
competitive edge that has lingered in our office has been heavily influenced by
the military culture and certain competitive and aggressive employees who
forgot to take off their military dress when stepping into these civilian
jobs.
The
environment we work in is highly complex due to the nature of many different
entities interacting. On one side you
have four different colleges and on the other a student body comprising of both
military and civilian members. To top it
off, funding is always unpredictable with the military and processes are short
of efficient. Every day there is a new
crisis to deal with and sometimes it seems chaotic. Yet Obolensky (2014) reminds us that from the
chaos simplicity and order are born. Complexity science helps us understand these
complex environments and learn how to inter-relate, adapt, become
self-organized and emergent with new solutions.
My
second example is the mobile advising opportunity that we provide to the Air
Force squadron. I work on a Naval base
with a small Air Force squadron that also functions out of this base. The Navy personnel can come to the Navy
College counselors for assistance regarding their military TA or any other
educational inquiries that relate to their military training. The Air Force squadron however has to report
to their educational office in Ramstein, Germany. ERAU has become very well versed in the
processes and requirements for the Air Force education. We are able to give them one-on-one
assistance that they are lacking on this naval base. We took the time to train ourselves in their
procedures and educate ourselves on the rules and regulations of their tuition
assistance program. Also, our Air Force
service personnel work alternate shifts either from 0700-1900 or 1900 to
0700. It is very difficult for them to
come see us in the office sometimes.
Therefore we established a mobile office where we visit their squadron
from 0800-1100 and we bring our services to them. By being on site we are able to assist a lot
more service members with their educational needs. We have a much larger population of students
now due to the accessibility they have to our services. On a higher level, some of our other European
campuses have copied this initiative and are also offering the same type of
mobile service. Since we began this
outreach project our presence at the Air Force squadron has increased as well
as our reputation for being an efficient service advising team. Our students receive the attention they need
and more of them sign up for classes.
This small effort on our part has enhanced our reputation on the
squadron and enhanced the trust that students have in knowing that our ultimate
goal is to help students achieve their academic goals.
References
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