While returning students have succeeded in their transition to college, they are still in need of support and attention which builds upon their increasing independence and maturity. Because they have the ability to choose where they live, upper class students make housing decisions based on cost, ability to live with friends, location, parking and transportation, facilities, and services. The on-campus living-learning environment must have added advantages that can compete with off-campus locations. The first-year experience provides the greatest marketing for upper-class on-campus living. Living on campus has to offer something students want, and can’t get elsewhere.

All students want living spaces which are comfortable, safe, and attractive. They also have a need for something more. First-year students should live in small communities, where residents can develop a sense of ownership and identity — where they feel that they belong. These small “home bases” should have flexible design elements which can accommodate individual and group studying, casual conversation, gaming, formal programs, food preparation, eating, and just “hanging out.” While private bedrooms are the desired standard for students, the developmental value of learning to interact and live with diverse others should be retained. Spaces should maximize the opportunities students have to meet and interact with others. Technology should be integrated into the environment, and consideration should be given to utilizing the latest technologies for the delivery of information, enhancing learning, connecting students to resources, and supporting student communities.

The residential program should address the needs of specific populations of students. No single program or staffing design can meet the needs and interests of all students. First-year student populations require staff in residence who are respected, visible, available, credible, and skilled in personal and community development. They should be knowledgeable about university resources, and they should genuinely care about each student’s success, not just academically, but holistically. Returning students can still benefit from affiliation, support, information, and specialized programming. The role of live-in staff should change to reflect the increasing maturity of these students.

These live-in residential staff are at the center of a larger “learning team,” and they are pivotal in integrating faculty, staff, off-campus students, building workers, and community members into the learning environment. All members of this learning team can offer personal attention, information, resources, and engagement opportunities which promote student learning and support and guide students through their academic, personal, and social transitions. Formal academic department-based living-learning programs can build upon this design, adding program-specific staff and facility configurations and programs. With flexible design elements, all on-campus living environments, not just academically-related formal programs, would be designed around the seamless integration of living and learning, and would build upon the best practices learned from the more formal programs.

The residential experience at MSU can add value to the educational experience of all residents. Living on campus will become a unique benefit of being a Spartan.

Organizational Synergies in Retail, Catering and Conferences

SWOT Analysis led the group to identify seven common themes:
1. Opportunities to Increase Revenues, Profits and Brand Strength through E-Commerce - The future of business will continue to develop around e-commerce, whether purchasing a retail product, securing a golf tee-time, approving a catering function menu, or booking a hotel room.
2. Increased Brand Positioning through Improved Business Definition and Integration of Services - The brands we sell and promote need to be thoroughly defined, and service functions need to be integrated to the extent possible for efficiencies and to be transparent to the customer.
3. Creation of a Unified Sales Portal through Destination Marketing Organization - Catering & Conferences need a single point of contact to accommodate the needs of group sales, and marketing efforts need to be redefined. Retail apparel sales can use the same approach to unifying efforts.
4. Technology as a Strategy to Maximize Efficiencies - The latest technologies need to be planned and utilized to make the best use of staff and resources.
5. Improve Community by Providing a Desired Mix of Products and Service Amenities in Dynamic Environments - Through active involvement with the customer, the community can be better served and live in an improved environment that is responsive and forward thinking.
6. Be a Leader in Social Responsibility within the Campus and Beyond - Sustainability, environmental stewardship, diversity, inclusion, community, and volunteerism are but a few initiatives that we as leaders can accomplish.
7. Use Our Core Strengths to Increase Our Ability to Drive the Pace of Change - We are an organization of talented staff with a “can do” attitude that brings out our best during times of fast-paced and necessary change.

SWOT ANALYSIS
(Number in parentheses indicates number of participants identifying that item as being in top 3)

STRENGTHS

WEAKNESSES

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

Partnership and Collaboration

Be aware of Partnerships. They are easily taken for granted. It is human nature to take our closest relationships for granted. After all, those are the people who will be willing to forgive and forget, who might not even remember transgressions.

Partnerships take many forms. Our partners may be relying on us to do a task, or, we may be dependent on their business process to complete ours. We collaborate because it somehow helps our cause. Do we collaborate when there is nothing in it for us?

What’s your GPA-- Grade for Partners & Associates? Ask yourself, what Outstanding Spartan Experiences are you delivering right now, to colleagues, peers, dependent departments, collaborating units and even the units in your department? Are you leading from every angle of the organization?

Partnerships x Outstanding Spartan Experience = “Spartner” Rate your own quality considering this framework. Do people work with your department because they have to or because you have good, reliable services?

We want to create Spartans for Life. To do this effectively, we have to show the same philosophy of care and courtesy to our guests and to each other. Collaborating partnerships see the win-win+. What do you see?

Strengths

• We get it done
• We create durable, positive and lasting impressions of MSU.
• We demonstrate flexibility with a multitude of partners.

Cost effective and efficient.
Size of system allows a greater number of things that can be accomplished.
Employee development opportunities for all staff including students—regardless of the job.
Great involvement with the University.
External network locally, regionally and nationally.
We are an economic engine for the local economy.

Weaknesses

• We need to let go of the past; of the old ways that are holding us back as partners.
• We do not collaborate for a win-win.
• We label employees which is divisive and creates classism.
• We are not strong at collaborating with subject matter experts and the academic units.

Compete for the same partners.
Do not building bridges with student groups.
Competition between venues, resources.
See costs as reason to want to go elsewhere for services.
Time management is critical to practice good partnerships.
Old stereotypes of different departments persist.
Customer service is uneven at all levels in all cases.
We do not face the brutal facts of our brutal facts.
Red tape creators.
We reward poor performance and don’t provide incentives for those that do perform.

Opportunities

• Providing services to others in the Division with sharing space, referrals, recommendations. Attracting business externally with entertainment, housing, dining, meetings, large convention space.
• E Commerce in the big sense. Conducting business on line to assist customers and to provide services customers expect.

Partnering across campus.
Creating Spartans for Life: from the first tour, sport camp, to students, to alumni and beyond.
Pilot opportunities for testing products, working with industry partners, academic research/study, farm to table.
Being a trendsetter in the Midwest for bioenergy and other sustainability factors.
Close the gap with graduate students and non-traditional students.

Threats

• We are not aligned closely enough with the academy and we rely on others to come to us. We do not understand the needs of the academy.

Residence life is critical part of our process, yet not aligned.
We rely on others for major parts of our business process, which affects outcomes.
We do the same thing to ourselves between departments
We are not truly in tune with student life on this campus.
Town/Gown impacts
Dated facilities.
We don’t hold people accountable.

Synthesizing the Weaknesses and Threats (see chart), if we do not continuously improve, we face a possible future of:
Impact on Employees
Impact on Students
External Partner Impacts

In our preferred future, we capitalize on our Strengths and our Opportunities. Great Partnership and Collaboration looks like an Environment is created that utilizes our Strengths to create Spartans for Life (see chart).