{"id":30732,"date":"2024-03-04T08:41:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T14:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=30732"},"modified":"2024-03-04T08:41:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T14:41:02","slug":"we-all-work-in-student-affairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2024\/03\/we-all-work-in-student-affairs\/","title":{"rendered":"We All Work in Student Affairs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is the sixth in a continuing weekly series of blog posts about the work of Marquette Law School\u2019s Office of Student Affairs. The <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2024\/01\/some-glimpses-into-the-law-schools-office-of-student-affairs\/\"><em>first<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2024\/02\/30695\/\"><em>second<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2024\/02\/law-school-alphabet-soup\/\"><em>third<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2024\/02\/by-the-students-for-the-students\/\"><em>fourth<\/em><\/a><em>, and <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2024\/02\/the-students-behind-the-marquette-law-mentorship-program\/\"><em>fifth<\/em><\/a><em> can be found at the included links. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>The work and responsibilities of a student affairs team look different from university to university and even from law school to law school. Each is organized in a way that makes sense for a particular student body, curriculum, and school.<\/p>\n<p>At Marquette Law School, the Office Student Affairs is responsible for, among other things, orientation programming, the Academic Success Program, registrar services, student organizations, wellness initiatives, disability services, social media, exam administration, and graduation planning; in other words, we cover ground from orientation to graduation. (Dean Kearney\u2019s opening post to this series introduces you to the members of the office\u2014including, well, me\u2014who do this work, along with Associate Dean Nadelle Grossman, who oversees academic affairs and, as my boss, ultimately our whole operation.) Supporting students as they pursue a legal education is at the heart of what we do.<\/p>\n<p>And, in this regard, we are hardly the only ones within Eckstein Hall to do so. So allow me to break from our \u201cregular programming\u201d to note the collaborative work of a number of colleagues\u2014individuals and teams\u2014all of whom support students in their challenges, work, and pursuits. That is to say, their work also directly involves our students\u2019 affairs.<\/p>\n<p>As her title alone implies, <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/faculty-and-staff-directory\/vada-lindsey\">Associate Dean for Enrollment and Inclusion and Professor of Law Vada Waters Lindsey<\/a> wears a seemingly endless array of hats\u2014from overseeing our admissions process to serving as a tax law professor. She leads our inclusion work and also serves as chair of the faculty\u2019s Diversity Committee. In this regard (<em>or these regards<\/em>) Dean Lindsey holds regular weekly office hours for all interested students, she invites them to have conversations about what they\u2019re experiencing and learning, she listens, and she shares. She is a trusted collaborator and advisor to colleagues and students alike.<\/p>\n<p>As for where to go next, there are a lot of possibilities. The Academic Success Program has a special place in my heart, but it\u2019s not the only place where our students receive skill-building support\u2014far from it. <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/faculty-and-staff-directory\/kathleen-pagel\">Director of Bar Preparation Katie Pagel<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/faculty-and-staff-directory\/darek-ciemniewski\">Writing Specialist Darek Ciemniewski<\/a> (or \u201cDr. C,\u201d as he is known to our students) stand at the ready to provide students with the individualized tools they need to succeed on everything from a first-year legal-writing assignment to a post-graduation bar exam for students who do not intend to practice in Wisconsin. Whenever I talk with a student who is taking one of Professor Pagel\u2019s classes or working with Dr. C, there is never a shortage of praiseworthy adjectives used to describe the experience.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping with colleagues who meet, as a matter of course and dedication, one-on-one with each of their students, it makes sense to turn next to the Law School\u2019s esteemed <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/programs-degrees\/legal-analysis-writing-research\">Legal Writing Faculty<\/a>. Each professor of legal writing brings a different style to the classroom, but all offer their students an education in one of the most important skills acquired in law school. In addition to their classroom instruction, they review drafts of students\u2019 work, meet regularly for conferences with individual students, and get to know our students in a particularly close way. They are also often colleagues who notice and reach out when something is wrong, if someone has stopped showing up, or (it\u2019s not all bad) if someone has shown great strides in his or her work.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/law-library\/staff-directory\">teaching librarians and staff of the Eckstein Law Library<\/a> are a constant, student-focused presence in Eckstein Hall. Our library has no walls, after all. What this means is, among other things, that students always have a friendly face, right there across the Zilber Forum at the Circulation and Reference desks. You\u2019ll also see members of the knowledgeable Law Library team teaching students core skills in Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research and Advanced Legal Research courses; serving as helpful, calming proctors for 1L final exams; and\u2014if you venture across campus\u2014you might even catch some of them at the Marquette Annex, bowling for their\u2014our\u2014winning team, Split Decisions.<\/p>\n<p>When you need to find a lost computer file, when you cannot hear what presenters are saying in the Lubar Center, when a professor needs help setting up a recording, or\u2014prepare yourself for this one\u2014when your computer dies in the middle of an exam, who you gonna call? Why, the <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/technology-services\/media-and-technology\">Law School\u2019s Media and Technology Group<\/a>, of course. Located in suite 218, this three-person team doesn\u2019t just fix our tech problems. They also keep things running smoothly in the first place\u2014things that I don\u2019t quite understand and am all the more grateful to the Media and Tech team for not having to.<\/p>\n<p>Marquette Law School\u2019s nationally acclaimed <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/sports-law\">Sports Law Program<\/a> is more than a series of stellar courses, internships, events, and conferences. It\u2019s a close and caring network of which participating students instantly become a part. The program\u2019s invested leadership, faculty, and alumni help develop Marquette law students into future leaders in the field. But one of the most impressive things about the Sports Law Program is the way that <em>students<\/em> support and help develop other students. As it happens here, students, too, are in students\u2019 affairs.<\/p>\n<p>Much like the Office of Student Affairs, the <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/career-planning\">Career Planning Center<\/a> (CPC) and the <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/community\/office-public-service\">Office of Public Service<\/a> (OPS) both have their own programmatic initiatives and services. At our best, the Law School\u2019s various administrative offices act as limbs of the same body, referring students appropriately or making a handoff when the other limb can help a student. It happens often that I talk with a student about deploying (or perhaps I should say <em>employing<\/em>) the services of the CPC or boosting her confidence in her professional skills by participating in a Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic hosted by OPS.<\/p>\n<p>It might be easy to think that magical elves keep our building humming, the Student Success Program sandwiches coming, and the Zilber Forum configured and reconfigured again in a matter of minutes for various large-scale events. But the Law School\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/events\">facilities and events team<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/about\/tory-hill-cafe\">Tory Hill Caf\u00e9\u2019s catering team<\/a> are behind much of it. This past Friday, I ran into a couple of students who asked if they could still come into <a href=\"https:\/\/my.matterport.com\/show\/?m=sXUwFXpjta1&amp;f=0\">Eckstein Hall<\/a> to study over the weekend, despite there being an admissions event planned. I said, \u201cOf course, this is <em>your<\/em> law school.\u201d And as I reflect on that moment now, our students\u2019 law school is a place where they <em>want<\/em> to be not least <em>because<\/em> of our law school\u2019s facilities team.<\/p>\n<p>Even our \u201ccenters,\u201d which might be understood as substantially external facing, are deeply involved in student life. Barely 14 months ago, Dean Kearney welcomed former City of Milwaukee Municipal Court Presiding Judge <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/faculty-and-staff-directory\/derek-mosley\">Derek Mosley<\/a>, L\u201995, back to the Law School, as director of the Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education. And former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Chief Judge <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/andrew-center\/letter-director\">Mary Triggiano<\/a> took on the role of director of the Andrew Center for Restorative Justice at just the beginning of this academic year. Each, together with center colleagues, has infused joy, energy, and a wealth of community knowledge into the Law School. Each already is a force in the lives of our students, welcoming them to our Milwaukee community and introducing them to new people, stories, and skills.<\/p>\n<p>I have saved for last an inclusive mention of all of our <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/faculty-and-staff-directory\">caring faculty members<\/a>. Whether full-time or part-time, whether teaching doctrine or focusing on skills, these are the individuals with whom our students spend the most time. But even setting aside the classroom, it\u2019s not at all uncommon to find a faculty member taking the time to attend a student organization\u2019s event, stopping to talk with a table of students in the Zilber Forum, checking up on a student after something has or may have happened, and, yes, letting others know when they believe a student can use a resource or assistance. Those are among the moments and kindnesses that often stick with our graduates, long after they have moved on from Eckstein Hall.<\/p>\n<p>None of us can (or would want to) do the work of supporting students alone. As I hope is plain to see, at Marquette Law School, in one way, or another, we are all concerned with and dedicated to our students\u2019 affairs. As someone who works in the Law School\u2019s Office of Student Affairs, I\u2019m so grateful to be a part of a community where that is the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the sixth in a continuing weekly series of blog posts about the work of Marquette Law School\u2019s Office of Student Affairs. The first, second, third, fourth, and fifth can be found at the included links. The work and responsibilities of a student affairs team look different from university to university and even from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":291,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marquette-law-school","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30733,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30732\/revisions\/30733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}