A CACUSS Presentation by Terri Budek and Jude Butch
Excerpt from CACUSS 2012 Conference Booklet:
The University of Buffalo transformed its leadership program, increasing both awareness and participation, without creating a single new program. Simple marketing and repackaging of current leadership and service programs created a renewed sense of enthusiasm and a more comprehensive and meaningful experience for students. The TORCH Leadership Certificate Program model for how to re-energize and refocus your leadership program by simply packaging your program to meet the needs and desires of a diverse student body.
The session began with Jude Butch sharing with the group that he was from Pennsylvania, and attended Slipper Rock University. He is responsible for leadership programming development at the University of Buffalo campus. Terri Budek joined in and shared that she was from Markham, Ontario (crowd applause), and that she went to the University of Guelph (even bigger crowd cheering). Terri went to Western Illinois University first, and has recently spent the last five years at U of Buffalo. Terri shared with the group that they were going to highlight the Torch Program for the session, a leadership certificate program that was meant to "ignite your leadership potential!"
The two presenters shared with the audience that the University of Buffalo had a total enrollment of 24,049 with 19, 395 undergraduates and 9653 grad and professional students. The Center for Student Leadership & Community Engagement where they worked had a total of 22 staff members. The center had adopted the use of the Social Change Model of Leadership Development, focusing classes on the individual, group and society.
In discussing the evolution of the past "Students and Organizations Understanding Leadership" (SOUL) certificate program, the two presenters discussed the progression towards Torch. "Students in the millennial generation love certificates. They are tangible , and students can show others and say look what I learned." In using this notion to their advantage, they created the LCP Leadership Certificate Program, which modified to TORCH afterwards. Before they created the program however, they bench marked other programs in order to pick and chose portions from a school down the road that was doing certificate programs. One unique aspect to Torch, was that it expanded upon their existing programs such as the Life and Learning Workshops. They made these preexisting workshops the first level of their certificate program. Next, they added other current programs and made them the other level. The presenters emphasized that in the process of creating Torch, they didn't create any new programs - they had simply "...repackaged them and marketed them differently. This changed the culture and the leadership program significantly."
Terri and Jude indicated that they had largely based the program on the TED Model (Training, Education, Development) (CAS, 2003, Roberts & Ullorn, 1989, 1990) and the Comprehensive Leadership Model (Students, Structures, Strategies, Scope). The final stage of the program "...involves a Leadership Philosophy Paper reflection on what the courses taught them, and what they got out of it. Students must do this in order to get any certificate." The presenters indicated that it was interesting to see the level of reflection as it changed from 1st year students to 3rd year students. As an additional piece to the program, they also ask students to write down their current definition of leadership is. "These are students who consider them to be leaders...the majority have never articulated what they feel to be leadership." In doing this, the presenters shared that the student can see how their definition has evolved over time.
In learning more about the Torch leadership program, the presenters shared that the program has an initial consultation component. This is carried out by the Leadership Service Educators do the initial consultation. Next, student can attend either the Leadership Training Camp 4 workshops. There is no timeline for completion, however the goal is for it to take a year. The final stage involves a meeting Process where a leadership philosophy statement and student organization membership reflection is reviewed. Tracking is maintained through their student voice collegiate link (students track this, which results in zero administration on part), a site built by the University of Buffalo IT department.
Terri and Jude have accessed campus partners such as Intercultural & Diversity Center (IDC), Career Services, and Intercollegiate Athletics. There are typically 25-30 participants for inter-campus collaborative workshops, with around 10 people for other workshops. The first year of the program saw 80 total participants, with the program growing to 1280 participants after five years. "It’s not going to be like this from day one, you are going to want to grow this." Considering the number of students who completed the program after the first year, the number is 15, with the programming growing to 313 completions after five years. The Life & Learning Workshops saw 262 students after the 1st year 262 with a total of 3174 after five years. In terms of community engagement hours, the program's first year saw 8870 hours completed, with a total of 127, 248 hours after five years. The University of Buffalo Leadership Week saw 47 people after its first year, growing to 1803 after five years. Finally, their Women Empowered to Lead (WE Lead) program had 89 in its first year, with 983 after five years.
The University of Buffalo has learning outcomes for every program, outcomes that are reviewed at the beginning of every semester. There is an overall assessment at the end of the program. When asked about some challenges to the program, the two presenters offered that tracking was one area. The presenters "...don’t tell the students that they track their progress, we expect that it comes from them". The program sees sign in sheets at the start of our sessions in order to track attendance. There are also space limitations for the program, as they have a nearby classroom with a capacity for 30, and sometimes as many as 80 people show up.
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