{"id":1493,"date":"2010-08-09T13:18:57","date_gmt":"2010-08-09T17:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/higheredcareercoach.com\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2014-08-13T15:34:35","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T15:34:35","slug":"getting-ready-for-the-other-new-arrivals-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/higheredcareercoach.com\/staging\/2913\/getting-ready-for-the-other-new-arrivals-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Ready for the Other "New Arrivals": Staff!"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the academic year begins this August, approximately 2 million new students will flood campuses in the United States (according to the National Center for Education Statistics), representing about 68% of the nation\u2019s recent high school graduates. <\/strong><\/p>\n

When you work in higher ed, you spend the summer getting ready for this great mass of humanity, their parents, and all their stuff<\/span>.<\/strong> Each year, the next most-connected generation in history descends upon campus, ready for the mythical wonderland called college…full of challenging classes, enlightened professors, new friends, great parties, and steeped in fine traditions, pomp, circumstance, and loads of fun. The newest, most exciting “best days of their lives.” And they come with almost romanticized visions of college, so we spend our time and efforts on being ready, smoothing out the edges, and making that move-in and arrival period as painless as possible. We concentrate next on getting our student staff trained (whether they’re resident assistants and orientation leaders in brightly colored move-in shirts, or dining hall crew members, desk staff, or teaching assistants, etc.)<\/p>\n

It’s easy during busy times like this to forget how important it is to make sure our new professional staff members make the adjustment to campus successfully, as well. <\/strong>We hope for it, and plan for it, but sometimes drop the ball in our planning, because of all the other priorities we’re juggling. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, there were 124,600 postsecondary administrators in the country in 2008.Of course, most of these are not new staff. As experienced professionals, they know the drill, have the routine down pat, and motor along the path of same-old, same-old. Sometimes, right over the new staff, who are still looking for the bathrooms in the building, don’t know the code to the copier, and haven’t received a computer password, not to mention a paycheck yet. It can be a rough adjustment for these new staff, and retention of good staff is always an issue. Sometimes, we burn them out with training and teambuilding before the first student moves in, or the first class bell rings.<\/p>\n

This month, we’ll spend some time on the topic of transitions, and to invite some guest bloggers to contribute their thoughts on how we prepare our new staff.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some possible formats include:<\/em><\/p>\n