Lorraine De Leon presents a solid argument in favor of increased collaboration between Student Affairs and Academic Affairs, particularly in the form of Campus Activities clubs and projects, to benefit SCCC students.

Student Affairs and Academic Affairs are two entities that are crucial for the growth of our students.

Student Affairs supports students through the onboarding process and helps enhance their growth and development outside of the classroom via counselors, mental health counselors, career services and campus activities, just to name a few. For its part, Academic Affairs focuses on supporting students through their academic growth from course learning all the way through research opportunities.

In order for our students to have a holistic experience at the college, I believe that the collaborative work of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs is essential.

A perfect example of how these entities come together to support students is to look at the work of Campus Activities. The Office of Campus Activities, a hub of programming throughout the college, is geared toward the growth and development of all students. In order for these programs to run effectively, collaboration between Student Affairs and teaching faculty is essential. Teaching faculty take an active role by acting as club advisors, presenters and collaborators.

Take, for example, the student club program. The club program is made up of over 100 different clubs and organizations collegewide that plan and execute programs for our students. For any club or organization to be recognized on campus, they need to have a member of the college serve as an advisor. More than 50% of the advisors for these clubs and organizations are teaching faculty. The club advisor’s role is to support students in carrying out meetings, events and trips that relate to the mission of the club. Many are academic-based clubs, which are a great way for students to explore their academic interests and connect with a mentor in their desired field.

As the club coordinator, I always look forward to working with club advisors. Our students are truly able to experience a myriad of great opportunities, events and learning experiences because of our collaboration. Here are two prime examples:

• Marine Science Club led by Professor Marianne McNamara: Marianne and I work together to provide our students with eye-opening experiences such as whale-watching and seal-watching adventures out at sea here in Long Island and bringing in an organization for our student to get hands-on experience in the examination of a seal cadaver.
  
  

• Biology Club led by Professor Mark Kenny: Mark works hard to provide students with an array of experiences such as seminars on healthy eating and its effects on the body, conversations about the effects of Covid-19 and trips to the Stony Book cadaver lab with Dr. Peter Smith. During these trips, students are given a tour by Dr. Smith where he explains all the work that goes on in his lab. This gives our students an invaluable experience on the roles and responsibilities of real medical students and professionals, which helps students see whether working in the medical field is something they are interested in.

There are so many opportunities and ways in which Student Affairs and Academic Affairs can come together to support our students. When Student Affairs and Academic Affairs collaborate, our students benefit greatly—and it truly makes our college community a special place.

As professionals, we all have great ideas and a drive to help bring the most out of our students. Through these collaborations we can optimize our skills, knowledge and expertise to create more learning opportunities that benefit students.

Teamwork makes the dream work, and here at SCCC we hold true to that statement, as every day we come together to create the best learning experience we can. Please contact me if you have some ideas about how we can further all kinds of collaborations like these.