Flexible Work in Student Affairs: What S...

In the latest episode of NASPA's Student Affairs Voices from the Field podcast, the conversation dives deep into one of higher education's most timely topics: What does a successful flexible work environment look like in student affairs today and in the future? This episode, recorded live at the 2026 NASPA Annual Conference in Kansas City, captures a chorus of perspectives from student affairs professionals across the country and around the globe, each sharing insights on how flexibility is shaping the present—and the promise—of our profession.

A key theme that echoes throughout the episode is the shift from the traditional 9-to-5 on-campus model to one that centers both staff well-being and student needs. Alan Thompson highlights this shift, noting that "the typical nine-to-five...is no longer going to work with the way the world is shifting around us" 00:00:50. Flexibility now takes many forms, from remote and hybrid work, to alternative scheduling, to using digital tools like chatbots for student support outside normal hours, as mentioned by Enoke J. Agyei.

Supporting staff as whole people is another recurring message. Kerry Greenstein underscores the importance of supervisors who "are understanding and able to support their teams," allowing staff to do what they need to be their best selves for students 00:02:11. The theme of trust and autonomy surfaces in Mishka Murad's comments on letting employees choose their work settings and hours to find individual productivity and balance, so long as the work gets done.

Many contributors advocate for meeting students where they are—digitally, asynchronously, and outside the office walls. Dan Volchek and Diana Sims Harris both suggest that student affairs professionals must adapt to students' diverse schedules and preferences, ranging from in-person to online interactions. At the same time, contributors recognize the challenge of designing flexible policies that remain inclusive, equitable, and responsive to both staff and student needs.

From practical solutions like cross-training backups and honoring comp time, to broader reflections on rethinking institutional culture, the episode brims with wisdom for every level of the field.

Whether you're a new grad or a seasoned dean, this conversation is a must-listen. It's packed with concrete ideas and heartfelt stories about finding work-life integration in student affairs. Tune in to SA Voices from the Field and explore how flexibility is not only redefining our work, but also sustaining our passion for serving students—today and into the future.

TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Student Affairs Voices from the Field, the podcast where we share your student affairs stories from fresh perspectives to seasoned experts brought to you by naspa. We curate free and accessible professional development for higher education professionals wherever you happen to be. This is season 14 continuing our conversation on the value of Student Affairs. I'm Dr. Jill Creighton. Sheher hers your SA Voices from the Field Host welcome back to another episode of SA Voices from the Field Today is our third episode that was recorded live and in person at the Kansas City, Missouri 2026 annual conference. We asked you about the third focus area for the conference, which was about workforce trends and the future of the profession. The question posed was what does a successful flexible work environment look like in student affairs today and in the future? Here's what you told us.

Dr. Alan Thompson [00:00:50]:
Alan Thompson at the Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington Director of Academic and Career Advising Having a flexible work environment is so important to the professionals who work in student affairs today as well as the future. The typical nine to five, five day or six day work week that we were once accustomed to in years gone by is no longer going to work with the the way that the world is shifting around us, it is important that we as professionals have a work life balance and oftentimes that means that having a flexible work schedule, working different hours throughout the day or even various days of the week, being able to work remotely two or three days a week, is very, very successful in creating an environment in which student affairs employ, want to work and are available to work given the many complexities that we have outside of the typical work environment.

Kerry Greenstein

Kerry Greenstein, Sweet Briar College I'm the Dean of Student Life. A successful work environment to me looks like supervisors who are understanding and able to support their teams, allowing them to come late, take time, really do what they need to do to be there best selves so that when they are present and helping the students that they serve that they are really at their best and able to serve them as best as possible. Hi everyone, my name is 

Gada Endick [00:03:08]:
Enoke J. Agyieu. I am a second year graduate student of the Student Affairs Administration Program at Michigan State University. I'll be graduating in May and I am glad to share my perspective as a new professional and a new grad. How I see flexible work environment is using technology and data to help students with services even without the physical appearance of professionals. With the age of AI, we can have chatbots and other technologies that can respond to student needs while professionals are not in their offices or they are not having a direct interaction with students and I think that is the way to go in the future as student affairs professionals. Be at the back end monitoring student trends and their concerns and how best students can be referred with in person and face to face services. So basically that is what I can share and I can see that profession have a great promise for some of us as early career professionals. 

Mishka Murad [00:04:23]:
My name is Mishka Murad and I have worked in student affairs as well as worked as an adjunct instructor. I'm originally from Pakistan and I've worked in Pakistan, Thailand, Mexico and the US Online classes suddenly because of a snowstorm. And so just having that ab ability to be able to adapt, I think is a really important skill that we're able to then give to students as well. So I think a flexible work environment is that ability to say I need to work from home or I'd like to work from home because I don't do so well with a chatty environment and I really want to zone in. Or guess what? I wake up at 5am every day and I'm most productive at 5:30. And I definitely don't want to come into the office, but if I'm working from home, that's possible. So I think it's really understanding that it's all the work we really do for students, which is they learn in different ways, they, they need different kind of advising. We show up for them at different times, on different days. Just bringing that into the world of student affairs where the same is allowed for us. So I too can have that flexibility. I too can work a particular hour that I might work well. And more than anything, a successful work environment is not just saying you can do these things, but is trusting people that they will do these things and they are doing these things. And so I believe that it's not just what is offered to you by an institution, but it's the kind of faith your dean and your supervisor have in you.

Gada Endick [00:05:14]:
I'm Gada Endick and I'm the Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Life at Rutgers University. And we focus on creating an interconnected graduate student experience across our eight grad schools. So we're here to kind of improve the quality of life for graduate and professional students, serving their diverse needs, fostering a sense of belonging, and really helping them just make the most of the many resources Rutgers has to offer. So we do programming that's designed to connect students across their disciplines. We provide spaces for them to meet and gather, and we also focus on events and initiatives that celebrate their contributions, their achievements, and amplify their voices. A successful flexible work environment in student affairs today, I think recognizes that the work is both relational and adaptable. It balances the need for in person student connection with flexible options that support staff well being, productivity and trust. So in the future, the most effective environments, I think we'll focus less on where work happens and more on impact and empowering the professionals to serve students well while sustaining their own well being.

Adam McCready [00:06:24]:
Hi, I'm Adam McCready. I use him his pronouns. I'm an associate professor in higher education programs at the University of Connecticut. Again, if we need to meet students where they're at, part of that is realizing that the 9 to 5 workday and having folks in person on campus is not meeting students and supporting. We need folks who are going to be in those face to face roles at on campus events and programs, but requires flexible work hours. There are plenty of folks in our field who can do their jobs successfully remotely. And if we want to retain and support folks specifically who were able to do their jobs successfully through the pandemic and beyond, we need to recognize that the in person only work experience is not the realm of success in the future. And for students who are coming into higher ed and then moving on into work in our field, thinking about it through that lens of in person work does not meet the reality of their identities at this point in time.

Andrew Finn [00:07:19]:
My name is Andrew Finn and I am the assistant director for Graduate Student Programming and events in the center for Student Involvement at Northeastern University on the Boston campus. There's two approaches to this question. I'll look at it from a staff lens, but also a student lens from a staff lens. I think if we're talking about flexible work, I think it really comes down to staff being able to do the kind of work that they feel they can best do with students in a variety of different environments, not necessarily just an office, but outside of it. Not necessarily alone, but together in collaborative groups that are interdepartmental. Flexibility is not just about space though. It's also about getting a really wide perspective on what we can do as student affairs professionals to help students. And that perspective really comes from increased collaborative opportunities that are cross departmental and cross disciplinary. When it comes to, you know, students and flexible work environments, I think a lot of that flexibility is going to come simultaneously from bringing together asynchronous and synchronous engagement models, both digital and physical, in other words, in person and online, as well as hybrid and really using a lot of those models to quote unquote, meet students where they are when they're being bombarded with so many different engagement opportunities on so many different platforms simultaneously. I think it's important to understand that students have so many possibilities to connect with campus and those around them that we need to provide a lot of different avenues for them to engage in a lot of different ways, whether it's online or in person. That would make it as flexible as possible and help students ultimately connect more in the longer term.

Dylan Dermeyer

Hello, my name is Dylan Dermeyer. I am from Angelo State University and I handle clery compliance and student conduct, including academic misconduct. I think if you're going to be in a career for a extended, extended period of time, especially as many of us are in higher education with the pursuits of retirement in our universities, I think you need to make sure you are balancing a fair work life balance. And as we become higher in our positions within the university, it ultimately makes it harder for us to be away from the university. So I think part of that is training reliable backups, making sure that you have clear standard operating procedures so you can step away and have seamless transition periods.

And ultimately when you come back, everything should still be right where you left it or even further down the road. And overall, I think it is important for people to get out side their university, see new things, take courses that may not be directed for higher education, but more the corporate world because these help us balance us as individuals and as a whole. So overall, I think it is important that people get out of the office, get time on vacation, get time at conferences and find a whole well round being and also definitely support your local sports at your universities. That is always a big one for me. Go Rams. A successful, flexible work environment in student affairs today and in the future I think heavily relies on communication and overall comfort in the office. I know with supervisors it's really up to them to kind of create that space and create that opportunity for their employees and supervisees to feel comfortable in doing their work. And I believe it's it starts with the environment that we work in that can help improve the students that we work for.

Romando Nash [00:10:56]:
Romando Nash Vice Provost for Student Affairs Washington State University I think a flexible work schedule is one that makes sure that we're providing the services that we need to provide for our students. Without doing that, then we're not doing anything right. I think that there's a mixture of remote potentially and then a mixture of folks having to be in person and figuring things out. But I also think that there's a need for us to shut down at 5 o' clock on most days while still being as in person and as present as we can be for the students that need us to be in that way and in that vein.

Brianna Morris

Hello, my name is Brianna Morris. I am from Richmond, Virginia and I currently serve as an Assistant Director for Student Conduct and Academic Integrity at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. A successful flexible work environment in student affairs it will look like prioritizing outcomes, well being and sustainability for a person while also prioritizing the student needs by doing like more of a flexible work schedule, prioritizing outcomes, well being and sustainability as a professional while also making sure that the students are learning what they need to learn more of a flexible schedule hybrid administrative work will be better because that will take away from the burnout that we do receive and professionals in student affairs. Hi everybody.

Karin Gomez [00:12:19]:
My name is Karin Gomez. My pronouns are they she. I am a student program coordinator at the University of Texas at Austin with the scholarship program titled UT for Me powered by Dell Scholars. I feel that a successful flexible work environment for today and in the future would consist of institutions really prioritizing the needs of the staff members. Some staff members are parents, some are single one income households, some have dependents and vice versa. And so some people need to work from home, some people need to work from another state at some point. Some people need to be able to have a space where they can retreat to that isn't necessarily campus or an office. And so having those as opportunities and availability and that freedom for them to decide, okay, today I think I really need to work from home in order to really focus on this project. Or I have a lot of student meetings and I would really prefer to have them in an online modality because I am immunocompromised or something like that. Of course it's not an all exhaustive list, but I think that having that flexibility in general and basing it off of the staff's specific needs that would benefit the work environment overall in student affairs.

Michael Allensworth [00:13:10]:
I'm Michael Allensworth from Michigan State University. I think a flexible work environment looks like fitting the work shifts and the needs to the position. And so we may not need every position on campus five days a week. And there might be some positions that we do need on campus five days a week. So how can we as leaders assess and determine when and what positions we may need on campus to best support our students? 

Taylor Cercone [00:14:17]:
Hi, I'm Taylor Cercone. I work at Eastern Kentucky University as a residence hall coordinator and housing and residence life successful flexible work environment. Currently at Eastern Kentucky University, we are Very flexible because of the job position as a residence hall coordinator and working in housing, it can kind of feel like you're working non stop. What we do currently is taking a day off after being on call for a week straight or a few days straight. Being able to reconnect with ourselves, pretty much taking the time for ourselves to not create the sense of burnout so we can better serve our students. I think that this is very important because working in higher ed I feel like we're constantly on and we don't get to kind of turn off as much as we would want to. I think being able to take the time self care being away from the job, especially living on campus in the residence halls that we oversee, being able to take the time away from the campus itself to then better come when we come back to be better to aid the students in the future. I feel like a lot of departments should kind of enforce this, take this into play, into practice because it's better serving the employees who can better serve the students and their success in college and being able to be there 100% because anybody at 50%, I'd rather send you home for the day and then get you back at 100% so we can be more successful overall. I think that would be something to look forward to into the future and to bring into play. 

Gada Endick [00:15:46]:
Foreigna Mazalu I'm the Secretary General of the European University College Association. We are based in Brussels in Belgium. It's a European network of universities, colleges and halls of residences doing work, trying to promote the student affairs profession in Europe. Successful flexible work environment. That's a tough one because European institutions are very different all across the continent and flexible work in a student facing profession is not an easy recipe. So I would say look at different traditions, different lifestyle, different cultures and really try to personalize. That's an easy answer, but take the time to think about what your people need and try to be flexible in the mindset. Also take into account new generations coming into the workforce and have an open mindset around their needs and expectations. Sometimes as middle management or senior leaders, we think that we know it all and our experience give us the way to decide. But I think that we have to be humble and take into the account what the new colleagues, the new generations coming into the field have to say. And we have a duty to make a work environment that works for all.

Jordan Payton [00:16:46]:
Hello. Jordan Payton from Ohio State University, a third year PhD student in engineering education. A successful flexible work environment. I think a lot of it today is about acknowledging that Some people work best in different environments sometimes. Sometimes it's from home, sometimes it's when they're traveling to conferences. I think the 9 to 5 structure is so rigid. It's very old school. And I think it's okay to look at things from a different point of view. You know, maybe it's 10 to 6, a lot of us are commuter students or we have kids, you know, that we need to drop off at school like 8am and so then we end up late to work or, you know, we have to do the parent pickup stuff, three which means we gotta leave work early or coordinate with somebody else. So I think it's about being okay letting people work from where they feel most comfortable and also most productive as well.

Dan Maxwell [00:17:27]:

My name is Dan Maxwell. I serve as the Vice President for Student Success and Student Life at the University of Houston Downtown. I think our reality in today's world is that flexibility is going to be key. How do we meet our students where they are? And that may not be traditional. Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm and so how do we support staff who may need to be in spaces past five o' clock or in some cases when we're hosting events for students on the weekend? So as we think holistically about meeting our staff where they are, I would encourage us to begin to think about what does flexibility look like and still get us what it is that we need to do to make an impact on our student lives.

Diana Sims Harris [00:18:11]:
Diana Sims Harris from IU Indianapolis. So a successful, flexible work environment today in student affairs and into the future, I feel like that's one that is responsive and centers student needs first and foremost, but also prioritizes staff engagement and work life integration. I think you can have a vibrant in person culture from, for example, and also allow for some remote opportunities for students. I oversee academic advising in our school and one of the things that we track is how often students want to meet online, for example, and we currently have over 50% of our student appointments online, even when we give students the option to come in person or to attend online. So allowing for some remote work, if that's an interest of a staff member is a really great engagement and retention tool that still centers and meets our student needs. Again, I think it's important just for us to continue to be responsive to what the needs of our students are and be willing to change and be flexible in the future, because what works now may not be the same in just a couple years. Good afternoon.

Dr. Mimi [00:20:00]:
I am Shawnya Rain Coleman, better known as Dr. Mimi Vice President and Dana student at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas. What does a successful flexible work environment look like in student affairs today? In the future, we have to be flexible. I tell people all the time, Student affairs is 24 hours a day. There is not one time that I can say that we are off work. We're not. We're seven days a week. Seven days a week. Even on the holidays and even when the students aren't there, we're still hard at work trying to create spaces for our students so when they do come back, they have that welcoming environment where they have a place where they can call home away from home. So what's flexible for us? We're not looking at what time you get in at 8 o' clock and what time you leave, because we know we're there when we're called upon, we answer the call. So flexibility for me is making sure that there is workplace balance, making sure we're meeting our needs, whether it is our physical needs, our mental needs and our spiritual needs. We're going to make sure that everybody is held accountable in finding their balance so that we can work effectively in meeting the needs of our students. So again, flexible work for me is not being there at 8 and leaving at 5, but being there when we're called upon and being present during that time. 

Ray Handy [00:21:35]:
Ray Handy Associate Dean of students at the University of New England in Portland, Maine Flexible work I'm kind of, as I've said, hard school on this, I think, depending what level you're at. But student affairs has much flexibility built into it. We work long hours, true, in many areas, but we also have a lot of flexibility in our workday schedules and things. I think if there's anything the higher you climb in that ladder of professional areas, many times the paperwork takes over. And I think if there is an opportunity to have some flex days, to be able to get those emails answered and to do the paperwork, that would be something that would be advantageous to folks. But I do think overall it's one of the reasons I'm in student affairs. It's flexible. It's great. You have the opportunity. You don't have to sit behind a desk every single day, so you're out and about. And best thing is you get to work with students.

Brett Peterson Bruner [00:22:09]:
My name is Brett Peterson Bruner. I serve as the Associate vice, vice Provost for Student Success and Persistence at Wichita State University. A successful flexible work environment today in student affairs and in the future looks like truly meeting students where they're at, not waiting for them to arrive in our offices, but meeting them at various parts of the campus community. 

Rachel Amaro [00:23:03]:
My name is Rachel Amaro. I am the admissions and academic advisor for the Department of Educational Leaders Leadership at Cal State Fullerton. I think a successful flexible work environment in student affairs includes the incorporation of remote work. I think that while the pandemic sort of forced us out of our regular spaces of office, I think it really taught us that we can still be effective and do our jobs from anywhere we are. I think that it helps in terms of the environment. I think it, you know, reduces sort of people's, not just their commitment commute time, but the use of cars and transportation. I definitely noticed a change in my area in terms of the traffic and now we've seen an uptick in traffic and everything. So I think remote work helped even wider scope than we can imagine. And I think it helps us with our time management. I feel like when I'm able to work from home or someplace else, I'm still getting a ton of work done, but I'm doing it at a different pace and sometimes even with more focus because I don't have people interrupting me or I'm not getting interrupted. I just. I'm able to focus a lot better. So I think we need to have a good balance of allowing people to have that freedom and that ability to feel like they can be relaxed and still come into the office and enjoy the office environment.

Hanisha Dushara [00:23:47]:
Hi, my name is Hanisha Dushara. I am originally from South India, but went to University of Cincinnati to get my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. Currently I work as part of business system strategy team at NASPA. A successful flexible work environment both currently and in future. The way it should be is focusing on work life balance both for professionals and college and personal life balance for students as well. For a professional, definitely having work environment that works for them and not them fitting into the work environment would be the focus that I would highly recommend. And I think they should also think about the workloads of how much they're taking on. Because taking on high workloads would just often lead them to burnout which is detrimental to their actual focus of supporting students better. So they need to take care of themselves, so take care of their physical and mental health to be able to support students better and do their job. And I would say should focus on well being and sustainability of them as supporters and going forward in the future, like better integrating the digital tools that are available at their disposal and help them use them and understand them better so that they can do their work properly would be the other thing and that would very much help them succeed in their profession and will help be flexible, help them have a flexible work environment.

Hi, I'm Jeanne Masterdicasa and I'm Assistant Provost and Director of Institutional Assessment at the University of Florida. I think really getting your hands around what work needs to be done in the office, what work needs to be done when students are not around, etc. I do know that student life in general, although many of us have to be at work at 8am, students are not there. So there really needs to be an understanding that there's administrative work that needs to be done, preparation work that needs to be done, meetings. But I think it's really going to be a little more focused on flexible hours and a little less on sort of the traditional mindset. The other thing is I do think the younger generations are not going to put in a lot of uncompensated work and we need to be prepared for managing that.

Ethan Williams [00:26:16]:
My name is Ethan Williams and I work at University of North Texas Health Science center in Fort Worth, Texas. As far as a flexible work environment, I think that that is very important to attract new people to the field. I've worked in both. I currently have a two day a week hybrid schedule which is pretty nice because I have a young family and with our different needs, it's really flexible. Granted, I do get more work done when I'm in the office. I think that there's a big value. I would never want to be fully remote. I think that there's such a value in being able to talk to your peers and obviously we're in student affairs for the students and I get a lot of energy from interacting with the students. But I think that having a flexible mindset about what work looks like would greatly impact the field as to bring new new talent in and evolve with the changing work landscape just in the field.

Chris Hall [00:27:04]:
Hi, I'm Chris Hall. I am the Director of Residence Life and Student Housing at Georgetown University Law Center. Well, for us a successful and flexible work environment right now looks like we have some people within our department who are remote, others who are hybrid and others who are working day to day in the office. And to be completely honest, I think that there are some feelings where that that is not equitable between the different groups. It's understood why some people can do that and Others can't. But I think it is necessary, you know, to be able to do that. We don't have the space for everybody to be on campus anymore. And so some people who truly can work remotely, that allows them. I think what would be really nice would be to be able to have a little more of a flexible schedule. I think that would be the one thing that we could do that we're not necessarily doing at this time.

Tiffany Riggers Peel [00:27:56]:

Hi, I'm Tiffany Riggers Peel, Associate professor of Higher Education at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. I think in student affairs today and in the future, we really need to think about counteracting ideal worker norms by providing opportunities to work remote without penalty or use of PTO and offering opportunities for folks to share time and spaces. So hoteling when necessary and giving them the opportunity and trust to work from home and work from the office to allow them that flexibility so that they can really create spaces of welcome for students on campus, but also have the opportunity to work appropriate hours so that they have time for family and a successful personal life so that they don't get burned out and leave the profession.

Jackie Yun [00:28:45]:

Hi, I'm Jackie Yoon and I serve as the Assistant Vice President of Student Experience at Emerson College in Boston. I think we need to understand what needs to be done to support students, and probably a lot of that needs to come from asking students and evaluating our work. But I think in order to prevent burnout and to make sure that student affairs professionals are also supported, we need to think about what the workplace looks like, what the hours look like, and we probably need to be more flexible, nimble, and we need to see that the profession has evolved. It's not always going to be the same way that we sort of grew up in. In student affairs, it's changing, and I think it really comes down to are we doing good work with students, are we meeting them where they're at? But because the profession can be pretty exhausting, can have long hours, can have a lot of nights and weekends, we probably need to be more flexible or folks are not going to choose the this vocational path because there's other professions that give that flexibility. And so we're going to have to be creative in thinking about our metrics of what we expect from our staff and ourselves so that we can continue to do the work and do it in an energized way. 

Dr. Amy French [00:30:28]:
This is Amy French from Bowling Green State University. A successful, flexible work environment in student affairs today respects boundaries. Boundaries allows for recognizing when professionals work late and then have early mornings that perhaps they have the latitude to make healthy decisions throughout the day, where they may have some space in their workday to perhaps go to the rec center to eat healthy meals, to do some mindfulness strategies. One thing that I've started doing is more crafting and watercolor. And so even having a space on campus where not only students can have mindfulness spaces, but also the professional staff have those spaces that in between meetings and busy schedules and late nights, there is some rejuvenation space. 

Dan Volchek

Dan Volchek, Harvard Griffin Grad School of Arts and Sciences and finally, for question number three, we often say that student affairs is a student facing organization, so we need to be on campus to be with students, but that's not necessarily what students want. Students want to be able to deal with things on a virtual basis. So creating FAQs on websites, virtual office hours, ways students can contact and work with student affairs staff that aren't necessarily on campus five days a week would be a great thing to look at as well as what the communications methods are. We've moved into email, but are we going to do more with more instant messaging type systems so that students can contact us and we can respond back in those methods?

Katherine Hall-Hertel

Katherine Hall-Hertel, UNC Charlotte and the issue of flexible work environment in student affairs is such a loaded question right now. Many of us are having pressures from our system office or just our institutions, our elected officials, to make sure that we are serving the taxpayers by being present on campus. And that's all fine, but it doesn't support the needs of our staff and our workforce. And so I think it's a real challenge that we need to grapple with because we need to take care of our people as well as our students.

Dr. Scott Peska [00:32:16]:
Hi, this is Scott Peska, the assistant provost of academic and student success at Waubonsie Community College in Sugar Grove, Illinois. So what does successful flexible work environment look like in student affairs today and in the future? Well, I think that it's I guess the way I would answer that question is flexible work environment is being able to be adaptive to the types of classes that students are taking. So if they're in high flex or if they're online classes, we need to make sure we have support systems and services that are available in each of the way that students are there and being able to make sure that our facilities, faculty and our staff especially have the support to engage with students those ways. This is John Gardner from the University of South Carolina and from the Gardner Institute for Excellence in Higher Education. Well, I think I'm already seeing a number of aspects of it. The many student affairs colleagues are are no longer segregated into units where they're their only colleagues for each other. Many of them are now assigned out in other academic units. I'm really not sure about this. I don't think and now I need to so I'll revisit this.

Caitlin Talbot [00:33:41]:
Caitlin Talbot, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign Assistant Director of Graduate Professional Programs for Bioengineering A successful flexible work environment to me means folks are recognizing and supporting remote and flexible work. Covid has happened. It opened the doors for folks at all levels to find new work environments. For me, there's so much work that is collaborative in the office, and when I am remote, it allows me to sit and work uninterrupted, aside from the occasional scratch for the dog. But overall it allows me time to focus, which is definitely what I need.

Dr. Lori White [00:34:40]:
My name is Lori White. I am the President of DePauw University. I am a former NASPA board chair, and I served as a vice president for student affairs for 13 years and a flexible work environment for student affairs today and in the future. Certainly we want to be a profession that enables people to live a good life, to be able to have that, you know, proverbial balance, to be able to have families, and yet at the same time, our work means that we have to show up in person to be able to interact with our students. And so I think we have to ask ourselves today, what does it mean to be a successful student affairs professional, still showing up for our students in person and yet allowing for the opportunity for people to do the work and still have some sort of balance in their lives and families?

Karen Riedel

Karen Riedel, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign I'm the Assistant Director for Graduate Programs for Bioengineering the events of the last five or six years have shown us that remote work can work. With an increasingly diverse graduate and professional student population, it's important to have the flexibility to meet them where they are on campus, online at hours that can accommodate working students. Students have issues outside 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, and we need to be able to meet their needs.

Dr. Keegan Newkirk [00:36:19]:
Hi, Keegan Newkirk from the College of DuPage. I'm a president vice vice president for Student Affairs. A successful flexible work environment looks like really just hitting the pause button during your day to reflect on your work that you're doing. I think if you need to take a long lunch to reflect, or if you need to run a quick errand, it's absolutely okay. We work long hours, but I think putting it into Perspective we don't always have to work those long hours is really important. Foreign

Marlee McGeehan

I'm Marlee McGeehan. I'm the graduate Student Affairs Coordinator in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. I think that remaining open to remote and hybrid work arrangements is super important now and will remain important in the future. Recognizing that our our students often prefer to meet from their apartments or their labs or a coffee shop and we don't always need to be physically present to be supportive and impactful and emotionally present in our students lives.

Serena Stujavent [00:36:59]:
Hello, my name is Serena Stujavent. I currently serve as the Assistant Director for Commuter Student SAS at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. A flexible work environment for me in student affairs looks like a place where my supervisor recognizes recognizes me as a whole person and doesn't ask me to not be that person in the workplace. So acknowledging and supporting whatever unique needs I may have and meeting me where they are realistic things, of course, still helping me identify ways that I can be successful and still show up in my role and in my career, but also managing the unique realistic circumstances I may be dealing with or navigating. 

O' Keefe Johnson Rayner [00:38:28]:
Hi, my name is O' Keefe Johnson Rayner and I'm the Assistant Director of Graduate Student Involvement at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Having worked in residence life in the past, I know what it means to live where you work. And I think anybody in student affairs can recognize just how much we live in our work. Regardless of the area, whether you're in residence life or in campus life or any kind of engagement with student affairs work. Recognizing that we really do live in our work and of our work, we take it home, we come back to it, it's not really something we put down. I think recognizing that if we make our work environments a place that we want to be, that respects our autonomy, that believes in our ability to do really good work individually without close monitoring or without unnecessary roadblocks. I do believe that people want to do good work. It is really great intrinsic motivation to love the work that you do. And the more trust there is in our ability to work and to engage in whatever that might look like, the more likely you're going to get good quality work. And so when it comes to a flexible work environment, recognizing that I can get work done just as well in one environment, you know, whether that's at home or outside or you know, in my own timing, as long as it's done by a certain time, I think that working in that way and being flexible to recognize that really great work can be done when there is room for creativity and there is, there's investment in trust for your professionals and your employees, I think that's a really good direction to go.

Dr. Jamie Washington [00:39:46]:
Hello, I am Jamie Washington. Pronouns he, him and his. And I am the President Emeritus of the Social Justice Training Institute and the president of the Washington Consulting Group. As I consider who would be doing all of this and what does flexible work environment look like in student affairs today? It would be a work environment that recognizes student life that's much broader than what we kind of grew up with in traditional four year nine to five offices and maybe longer just for some student life folks who were doing advising and programming. But it would be looking at how we not only serve not students, just student services, but student wellness and support. That when beyond the traditional workday that created flexible work environments, which might mean a half day in the morning and then maybe a half day later in the evening, but things that worked in terms of the life experiences of the workers.

Lauren Zelinski

Hi, my name is Lauren Zelinski. I am the Associate Director for Student affairs in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Office of Graduate Studies. Student affairs departments have to prioritize flexible work arrangements for their staff for better retention and to stay competitive with hiring new staff. It would also help with burnout of current staff members.

Jeff Knapp [00:40:56]:
My name is Jeff Knapp and I am at the University of Nebraska Medical center and I am the Director of Counseling and Psychological Services. With a successful and flexible work environment, we just have to look at what the needs of our employees are. And they are people first, they are families first, they are so many other things first. And we have to put that first in a way that allows them to do that, but also do their job because they want to do their job, they want to do well. And so sometimes that's flexible work schedules or varying things. And I think we just need to take a broad approach and not be so rigid in our approach to employment practices.

Michelle Burke [00:41:53]:
Hi, I'm Michelle Burke. I'm the director of Post secondary Programs and Partnerships with the Michigan center for Adult College Success based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I've been higher ed adjacent now for about a dozen years. When I worked on campuses it was very much a 247 mindset. And I worked in student life for most of that career and it was you were there when the students were there, which is night and day. And I worked in different environments. One environment was very inflexible, that no matter how late you stayed the night before you had to show up at 8:30 the next morning and Then I worked in other environments and I led an environment that was much more flexible. And that's crucial to make sure that your team has time for their families and time for pursuits outside of work. That's something I didn't really enjoy in my career, that I wasn't able to pursue a lot of interests outside of whatever was going on in my campus community. I still work in higher education, but I don't work directly on a campus. I'm very much enjoying being part of the community that I live in. And it's important to give all student affairs practitioners the opportunity to do that and to be part of the community beyond the campus so you can be flexible and you can still be fair. And it's really about understanding as a leader who each of your staff members are and how the whole team can work together. And sometimes some team members will pull ahead to accommodate someone who needs the extra space and time. But if you're doing that in a way that can be beneficial for everyone, you'll be in a better spot than if you just demand, demand, demand from your staff. 

Dr. Ed Cabellon [00:43:35]:
Hi, I'm Dr. Ed Cabellon, interim vice President for Student experience at Frederick Community College in Maryland. For me, success would be defined as exceeding student expectations and improving student outcomes that meet the institution's mission. 

Tiffo Carmichael [00:44:26]:
Hello, my name is Tiffo Carmichael. I work, I work for the University of Texas at Austin. I'm the graduate program manager for the interdisciplinary life sciences graduate programs in cell molecular biology, biochemistry and microbiology. Flexible work I think is really critical in higher education right now because again, I guess speaking from my institution's place, space is always a huge issue. We're a very large university. We do not have really much space to be able to become any larger, at least not in our current configuration. And but student population is growing and our needs are always growing. And so we have to find a way to make that work logistically. And so I think flexibility in how staff do their work, especially also because of the fact that we're a state run, we are limited in how we can offer salary and compensation and other way and things like that. And so having flexibility in work schedule can be such a benefit to people that allows them to meet their needs in ways that are not associated with financial compensation. If you can allow it so that a parent can work, flex to schedule and be able to pick up their kids and save that money on childcare, then maybe they don't need to worry about getting that higher paying job or being able to take care of their elderly. Parents or whatever. So I just think, to me, what does it look like? I mean, I think literally flexible schedule for so many people. I think you should be able to come in and say, this is the work that needs to get done. This is what we expect. You know, we expect it to be, quote unquote, a 40 hour work week. And what that work week looks like is up to the needs of the deadlines. And if people want to be able to flex that work from home, work long hours, you know, before something, but then take a day off afterwards, I think, I think the important thing is that we get the work done and that we do it in a way that allows people to live their lives. They feel like they have the capacity to continue to get the work done in the future. And so therefore they don't get burnt out. And you then have massive turnover and institutional loss. And it's just bad all around. And I think flexibility is the way we have to go.

Dr. Brooke Hildebrand [00:46:01]:
Hello, I'm Dr. Brooke Hildebrand, clubs, and I am the program coordinator, coordinator and assistant professor for our Higher Education Administration program at Southeast Missouri State University. Boy, that's tough. My daughter Avery is a hall director at Southeast Missouri State. I mean, she literally lives where she works. She works where she lives. And so I think that is a thing student affairs professionals have struggled with, regardless of their position, is having that good work life balance. So I think anything that we can do to promote well being and to reduce burnout, the emotional exhaustion and the depersonalization and the lack of personal accomplishment that comes with burnout. And if that means having some work from home days, if that means changing our schedule so that we work longer some days and then don't come in on other days, I think there's a lot of possibilities there.

Olivia Callahan [00:46:40]:
My name is Olivia Callahan and I'm the alumni manager for the Computer Science and Engineering division at the University of Michigan. I think that a successful flexible work environment for student affairs can really depend on the position. But for those of us that might be working after hours or on weekends, flexible work really provides us the opportunity to again reserve capacity as individuals and being able to work remote on days when we maybe have to come in person on the weekend, being able to work remote on the weekdays is really helpful to again, really help us maintain our mental health and being able to make work flexible and prevent burnout. Maybe a hybrid environment. That's what I personally work with and I really enjoy the hybrid environment because it gives me the opportunity to connect with both students and my colleagues in person. And maintain those connections in community while again being able to prevent burnout and have capacity by being able to work from home.

Dr. April Perry [00:48:16]:
Hi there, I'm Dr. April Perry. I'm a professor of Higher education at Western Carolina University. I think that this is a question that we absolutely have to bring to the center of the conversation. As Millennials and Gen Z come into the workforce, we want flexibility. We need flexibility. And I think we have to recenter what the traditional work day and work week looks like and offer services to employees to frankly keep the sustainability of our industry and higher ed over. 

Dr. Rolanda Horne [00:48:54]:
My name is Dr. Rolanda Horne and I am the Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness at Georgia Piedmont Technical College. A successful flexible work environment in today's age and in the future, how does that look for student affairs? Well, we have to make sure that our students are taken care of. We have to make sure that we're servicing them and that there are no gaps in the services that we're providing. So flexible work schedule environment will entail all of the managers ensuring that our employees at every level have an opportunity to choose maybe one or two days a week where they can possibly work hybrid schedules or maybe a telework schedule, but at the same time making sure that our students are getting what they need. Maybe at times having blackout days where like, okay, during peak registration times or graduation times, there are no flexible work schedules because all hands are needed on deck to service our students. But providing an opportunity where people can work from home or even come to work and maybe work at the coffee shop while ensuring that our students are taken care of. 

Paul Rossi [00:50:22]:
Hello, my name's Paul Rossi. I work at the University of the Arts, London and part of the Omoshi association in the UK for leaders in student services There flexible work environments in student affairs today should be kind of mirroring what is expected by and for our students. The idea that everyone leads an office work hour set has been really challenged by the pandemic, and I think flexible working arrangements that have been brought in place post pandemic are going to have to move into continual, refined modes of thinking in order to ensure that future work patterns not only serve the institutions, but serve the students that we're looking to provide services and support for. This will be different in different fields of operations within institutions, but I think the conversation in those that can be more flexible have only really just begun properly and there's still a lot of work to do on that. 

Sam Miller

Hi, my name is Sam Miller. I'm the Assistant Director for Student Engagement at the University of St. Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Successful flexible work environment means looking at the employee holistically. It's taking advantage of the time that we have while at work and also taking advantage of the time that we have away. 

Gianluca Giovannucci [00:51:34]:
My name is Gianluca Giovannucci. I come from Italy, Europe. I am the president of European University College Association, a Belgium based association that connects residential colleges universities in Europe. We are working in 18 European countries. A flexible work environment means that your staff can join you in person during the week, but also work remotely. We call this in Europe smart working. But we think that really in person environment is absolutely necessary required to be in touch with your colleagues and to better understand each other and cooperate to obtain new goals and new achievements. So I mean that there is a possibility of a remote job time, but you need also to be in person together in the office and to talk one to one. 

Antonia McFarland [00:52:30]:
My name is Antonia McFarland. I am Assistant coordinator for our Residential Conduct and Community Standards office at Stony Brook University. A successful flexible work environment looks like taking care of yourself and leaving where work needs to be. That looks like removing yourself at certain points, asking for help, delegating help, not always trying to be a superman and do all the things at work, but knowing how to delegate that and knowing what energy to put and place. It is really important when it comes to having a successful work environment. 

Dr. Carrie Montgomery Orozco [00:53:21]:
I'm Dr. Carrie Montgomery Orozco. I'm an adjunct faculty member at the University of Florida's online Student Personnel in Higher Education program. For me, a flexible work environment is one that really is respectful of the humanity of our workforce. So in the environment now of return to work for a lot of people and the flexibility of some remote work has maybe gone away. I think it's important to really take the lessons that we learned through Covid and having to do that very quick pivot and think about what can make sense for people and for people's lives that can help retain people to our field. Because the lack of flexibility that we are going back to is, I think, a driving force for people potentially not wanting to stay in our field. We have to recognize people's lives and have some flexibility in there that can sustain our workforce and sustain our profession.

Trinity Miller

Hello, my name is Trinity Miller and I am an assistant coordinator from Stony Brook University University. I think a successful flexible work environment looks something like hybrid. I believe that since the pandemic has really changed how working in corporate America is, I believe having that ability to be hybrid, some days to work from home, some days to work in the Office. I find out that sometimes working from home is beneficial because it gives you an ability to create your independence, your ability to be flexible, your ability to work at your own pace. And being able to work from home also allows you to be able to recharge in addition to then going in the office and being able to connect with your peers. I think it's a really well balanced situation to be able to do both. So I feel like a flexible work environment would be one that is hybrid.

Dr. Art Munin [00:54:42]:

I am Art Munin, Senior Associate Vice President at Liaison, working exclusively with graduate programs. And then last one, what does a successful flexible work environment look like in student affairs today and in the future? None of these jobs are 9 to 5. I spent most of my career as a dean of students. We need to be able to have the flexibility to work from home. We need to be able to have the flexibility to work after hours and then be able to have the flexibility to take care of ourselves. One thing that I always prided myself on and I challenged myself staff to do is that I worked out over the launch hour. I would go to student rec to be able to spend time working out. So not only could I be taking care of myself, but spending time in community with students.

Daelyn Doe [00:55:26]:
My name is Daelyn Doe. I use she her pronouns and I'm the associate director for the Women in Science and Engineering Residence program at the University of Michigan. I think as far as a successful flexible work environment looks like, honestly it's different for everyone. And I think we really have to be willing to meet people where they're at and provide flexibility that meets folks in the moments that they're in. Everyone's going through different experiences in their personal life and so trying to understand that each person's experience is unique. And so we really have to think about the support that we have and especially as supervisors, really helping our supervisee navigate their own personal experiences. And so just being willing to provide that flexibility and whatever that looks like for the individual.

Dr. Kimberly Goldsberry [00:56:13]:
Kimberly Goldsberry, Vice President of Belonging, Engagement and mission at DePaul University a successful flexible work environment in student affairs today can range from just knowing that you have the ability to ask for, offer flexibility, to truly having a position that's designed and structured in that way. At my institution, we hire everyone to be in person with flexibility, so we don't treat one unit exactly the same way as another because their work differs. And by having that openness to flexibility, we can create a successful pathway for our staff to work and achieve the goals we have as a department but also know their whole work experience is increased in value by having flexibility built into it.

Carly Matthews

Hi, my name is Carly Matthews and I'm an Area Coordinator in Residence Life at Rollins College in Orlando, Florida. And for me in Residence life, I work on an on call capacity, so after hours, so flexibility for me would be surrounding that. Not all student affairs professionals have the wonderful opportunity to be emergency personnel or support students mainly facing crisis situations. 

So staff mental health is also something that is deeply important to me and needed for the success of the field as well.

Dr. Les Cook [00:57:48]:

Les Cook Chancellor Emeritus, Montana Technological University Assistant Successful work environment for student affairs would look similar to what when we talk about all the time serving students and meeting students where they are, we need to also think about meeting employees where they are. Long gone are the days when you worked 16 hour days all week, you spent all weekend doing the work and took no time for yourselves. And as student affairs staff, for too long we've spent our lives taking care of others and now it's time that we turn the mirror back on ourselves and think about how we take care of ourselves. As Susan Komives once said, take care of yourself first and the rest will follow. I think that we need to live that life and we need to think about how we incorporate that into our work life and student affairs. 

Amarette Ranieri [00:59:03]:
Howdy. My name is Amarette Ranieri and I am an Assistant Managing Director at Texas A and M University working with Mays and Business school. And what does a successful flexible work environment look like? I feel like I'm pretty lucky in the sense of where I'm at right now, but I think allowing staff to have flexible schedules so if they have a student org meeting at night, then they either adjust their schedule that day or the next day or figuring out where they're truly working 40 hours a week and not working 60 plus hours because they have to be after hours for those student org meetings or figuring out what does that look like if they need to adjust their entire schedule. And of course always remembering that people have lives outside of work and so understanding when things come up and life happens, things happen, people get sick, people die. Like all of those things are important. And so remembering that is vital. And I think some of the best places of work that I've been have all taken that into consideration and treated me as a whole person and not just a worker and a cog in the wheel like they see my full self. So I think that's really important. 

Eddie Howard [01:00:30]:
My name is Eddie Howard. I serve as Assistant Dean for Student Success and Enrollment Management at The University of South Carolina, Sacahatchee, which is one of the branch campuses of the University of South Carolina with a two year campus. A successful work schedule environment for student affairs, in my opinion would be one that really where student affairs professionals almost need one or two shifts, a morning shift, an afternoon shift, even a late shift, so that we're at full capacity when we work with our students. I think some of us work 60 to 70 hours a week and we're not always bringing our best selves. But if we could find a way to finance a situation where there were more than one person doing the same job but coming in with their full self, an evening shift, a morning shift, where the students could be supported almost 24 hours a day, and that would allow us as professionals to have the time that we need to recharge and replenish. So totally optimistic, but that's my thought. 

Dr. Julie Payne Kirchmeier [01:01:31]:
Hi there. This is Julie Payne Kirchmeier. I am president and CEO of Edgefield Group. And as far as flexible work goes, I know this is a debate in person, not in person, in person, remote. We need to look again, if we send to the student what is best for them. We can't be 8:30 to 5 anymore in a few physical location on one part of the campus. We need to blend our approach where we are leveraging technology and data, where we are centering student success and supporting it as a structural component of the institution. And really then saying, all right, what do open locations need to look like on campus? How do we need to train our staff to probably be more generalists than they've been recently and then be accommodating? So it can't be that we're all remote. When do we need to be in person, when do we not? But be honest about that conversation. And just like we center students and student success, how do we center our staff and help them be successful as well?

Dr. Melinda Stoops [01:02:45]:
Hi, I'm Melinda Stoops and I do coaching and consulting for higher education. I've worked in higher ed for over 20 years in Region 1, and my most recent role in a campus setting has been as AVP for Student Health and Wellness. Since COVID we've thought a lot about what our work life looks like in student affairs and specifically working remotely or hybrid or in person. And I don't think there's one exact way that all campuses will work because each campus and each system is unique and we need to respect that and be responsive to that. And at the same time, it would really benefit us to look closely at possibilities and opportunities. Just because we've always been fully in person except for Covid, doesn't mean we have to continue that way. And in what ways can we be flexible to recognize and support staff who sometimes need to be home and work from home because of of personal obligations or have a long commute and even remote work one day a week could go a long way in terms of their personal wellness and stress levels. And so I think we need to look at the big picture of our organization and that if you're a traditional on campus situation, of course you need people on campus, but do you need everyone on campus every day, or can you balance remote or even a hybrid with shifts being different? If someone does a lot of evening programming, do they always need to be a 9 to 5 and work late, or would they be better working a 12 to 8 schedule? So I think creativity and thinking outside of the box is key. A flexible workspace to me, honors work, life, balance, the fact that this is a demanding profession and so it has flexibility. It understands that you have ebbs and flows in the work and that it's respectful of that and help students make the most of their time by also maximizing our time and giving people that grace and flexibility. So it looks like comp days or work from home on certain slow periods when you can, and then with the shared expectation that you're showing up when you need to be there.

Seth Matthew Fishman [01:04:36]:
Seth Matthew Fishman, Villanova University I am a professor of Higher education leadership and the Assistant dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. You know, Covid really made us think about flexible work environments. What does that really look like in terms of hybrid online activities? What things can be delivered to different audiences at different time periods? And then also how are we negotiating what it looks like to actually have in our work contracts? What a typical day is thinking about personal time and compensation time and being more flexible with how we allocate paid time off.

I'm James Quisenberry at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. A successful, flexible work environment in student affairs today needs to recognize that people need time for themselves. And so we need to give people grace and time to reach out. Charge. 

Dr. Jill Creighton [01:05:35]:
Thank you to all 60 of you who shared your voice with us on the podcast. We really appreciate you letting us run up to you and ask you to participate and share your thoughts with us. It was an incredibly valuable experience for all of us and I hope that our profession can benefit from the responses you gave us. There were three total episodes on the focus areas, so if you missed the first two. They should be back in your feed now. Thanks so much for speaking to us. This has been an episode of SA Voices from the Field brought to you by naspa. This show is made possible because of you, the listeners. We continue to be so grateful that you choose to spend your time with us.

Dr. Jill Creighton [01:06:08]:
If you'd like to reach the show, you can email savoices@naspa.org or find me on LinkedIn by searching for Dr. Jill L. Creighton. We welcome your feedback and your topic and guest suggestions always. We'd love it if you take a moment to tell a colleague about the show and leave us a a five star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you're listening now. It really does help other student affairs professionals find the show and helps us to become more visible in the larger podcasting community. This episode was produced and hosted by Dr. Jill Creighton.

Dr. Jill Creighton [01:06:38]:
That's me, produced and audio engineered by Dr. Chris Lewis. Special thanks to the University of Michigan, Flint for your support as we create this project. Catch you next time.