Within a month of assuming her position as dean for undergraduate education, Patricia Turner is already filling out her schedule for 2014.
Turner and the other administrative occupants of Murphy Hall are notoriously busy people, which is probably why Chancellor Gene Block’s student office hours are restricted to 10-minute time slots.
Busy as they are, the effort to reach out to students and gather their input should be among administrators’ most important duties. Even Block occasionally breakfasts in the dining halls and attends student events, as he noted in the recent invitation email for his office hour.
Just weeks into her tenure at UCLA, Turner is already ahead of the curve.
In her former position as vice provost at UC Davis, Turner would invite students to discuss timely administrative issues such as general education requirements. Turner said she plans to adapt these meetings – dubbed “Picnics with Pat” – to UCLA.
The program, which was originally “Pizza with Pat” until she tired of the same food every session, allowed a dozen or so students to share their opinions.
Other administrators, whom students may be reluctant to contact directly, would gain from adopting a similar strategy to engage with the campus. Close contact between students and administrators allows the university bureaucracy to align its interests with those of the UCLA population.
For example, at UC Davis, Turner began to hear administrators say that students were demanding more online education.
“I’ve had students demand many things, but not online education,” Turner said. “So I took the Picnics with Pat group there, and just started out a session by saying, ‘Tell me what your thoughts are on online education.’”
The students, in turn, gave Turner their perspectives and shared their experiences.
Administrators can also attend student sponsored events, as some already do. Turner is already double-booked for Thursday night, with plans to attend both the men’s basketball game and a memorial for two African American students who were shot to death in Campbell Hall in 1969.
Of course, in the interchange between administrators and students, administrators can’t be doing all the work. If student groups don’t take the time to make administrators aware of their goings-on, administrators can’t be blamed for missing them.
Moreover, though groups such as the Student Fee Advisory Committee exist to keep administrative staff clued in on student voices, they are too limited in scope and reach to achieve that goal in a significant way.
So while it may seem daunting to reach out to high-level university officials, students should keep in mind that many of these people were, at one point or another, fully employed as professors.
Reaching out to a dean or a provost should be no more intimidating than reaching out to a lecturer for your class.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal study, five percent of the cost of educating a UCLA student goes toward administrative spending. By reaching out to administrators, students can make the most of those funds.
Turner said that “Picnics with Pat” will make its UCLA debut sometime this quarter. Any student with an inclination to chat with the dean for undergraduate education will soon have the chance to do so.
Of course, Picnics with Pat should not be the sole or final way to bring students and administrators together. Instead, that relationship must be fostered by mutual effort, outreach and understanding.
Email Arom at darom@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to opinion@media.ucla.edu or tweet us @DBOpinion.