S2 E16: How Do We Support Our "Contemporary Students"?

Dr. Joisanne Rodgers and Shyama Kuyver from the Contemporary Student Services office join us to talk about who are our contemporary students and how we can support them in their educational journey. 

Resources: Contemporary Student Services Office:  https://contemporary.gmu.edu 

Check out our website!

Episode Transcript

Rachel (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to the Keystone Concepts in
Teaching podcast.
I'm your host Rachel Yoho, andI'm very excited to be joined by
two special guests for thisepisode.
We are joined today by Dr.
Joisanne Rodgers, who's theDirector of the Contemporary
Student Services Office andShyama Kuver the Associate

(00:29):
Director of the ContemporaryStudent Services Office, both
here at George Mason University.
So thank you both so much forjoining us.

Joisanne (00:39):
We're so excited to be here with you.

Rachel (00:41):
Yeah.
So as we get started, would yoube interested in telling us a
little bit about either,whichever you'd like to do
first, who are our contemporarystudents and maybe a little bit
about your office.

Joisanne (00:55):
Absolutely.
So contemporary students here atMason really means
post-traditional students andoff-campus students.
Now post-traditional may nothave cleared that up as much as
you wanted it to.
So when I talk aboutpost-traditional students, we're
talking about adult learners,but also we're talking foster
care alumni, pregnant, preparingto parent, parenting, or

(01:18):
caregiving students, systemimpacted students, which can
also include justice impactedstudents.
Our transfer students, which isthe big population here at
Mason, but also our veteran andmilitary affiliated folks So
it's a really big mix ofstudents at Mason, but also most
of Mason students fall into oneor more of those categories of

(01:39):
being a post-traditional studentor being an off-campus student.

Rachel (01:44):
Yeah, it definitely sounds like with those, we're
talking about a huge group ofstudents, and so maybe you could
expand a little bit about, youknow, who they are, what does
this mean for the university,what this means for perhaps your
office and what your perhapsday-to-day looks like.

Shyama (02:00):
Yeah, that's a great question Rachel.
Mason has been known to be acommuter campus school that is
really dedicated to itscommunity.
And our community is made up ofpeople who are working full
time, who are caretakers forchildren and parents and
spouses, and even siblings.

(02:24):
And we see that on our campusall the time and being situated
where we are, we also havepeople who are government
affiliated and militaryaffiliated.
And so we are at this reallyunique and very interesting
environment, and it allows us tomeet so many incredible students

(02:47):
because of where we're placed inNorthern Virginia.
And our students are made up ofpeople who aren't just one
thing, right?
So our students aren't juststudents.
The experience of working withpeople who are adult learners
who are over 25 and going toschool to pursue an

(03:09):
undergraduate degree may notseem so normal.
But when you're at a place likeMason, it is actually quite
normal.
And here at Mason, they comprisequite a bit of our students.
At Mason, almost 85% of ourstudents are contemporary
students.
They commute to campus, they'recare taking, they're working

(03:33):
full-time.
So it makes for a reallyinteresting environment where
our students have a lot to bringto the classroom.

Rachel (03:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
What else could you help usunderstand this wide and varied
and very diverse group ofstudents?

Joisanne (03:52):
Yeah, Rachel, I think we can come at that a couple
different ways.
And so one of the things is thatlife circumstances change,
right?
When we think about somethinglike being a student parent,
that status can change overnightand caretaking can change.
We recently did a childcaresurvey thinking, oh we'll be

(04:13):
having a lot of student parentsreply to that.
But we also had a lot of kinshipcare where older siblings or
cousins were responsible forcaring for younger siblings or
cousins in their household.
And so that wasn't surprising tous.
It was interesting to us howmany students replied that way

(04:37):
because we've seen it.
We see it on our lounge.
We have a kid zone in ourcontemporary student lounge in
the hub, and we have oldersiblings bringing in their
younger siblings, helping themwith homework because their
identity as a student doesn't goaway just because they have all
of these other identities.
But it's about finding harmonyin all of those things and
finding little bits of time hereand there to get things done.

(04:59):
And anytime you can double dipin that for anyone, I wanna say
anyone who has kids, but it'sreally anyone who does more than
one thing, which is everybody,you're always looking for those
times when you can double downand get a couple things done.
Can I listen to the podcast thatI need that's gonna help me stay
current as I'm driving to orcooking dinner?

(05:21):
What can I double down becauseI'm not getting any more than 24
hours in the day?
So what can I do?
And our students are feelingthat in really big ways and
really impactful ways.
And so there's a lot ofmeaningful conversation and
meaningful actions happeninghere at Mason to ensure there's
a sense of belonging for ourcontemporary students to ensure

(05:42):
that we're getting ourcontemporary students connected
to each other because that isincredibly important.
We know that from our practice,but we also know that from loads
and loads of research as well.
But we're also looking at how toensure that those students are
also looking at not just eachother for supports, but they

(06:05):
know where to find support andresources at Mason because our
contemporary students don't havea lot of time.
And so if we can make it clear,if we can make it simple and
ensure that they have theresources they need to support
their success, because the otherthing that we know is that many

(06:26):
of our contemporary studentshave higher GPAs.
They graduate at higher ratesbecause a lot of them are
upskilling reskilling or havehit a paper ceiling.
And so they're here with deeppurpose to get done, and to get
their degree and to get back totheir professional goals and
their life goals.

Rachel (06:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
As we're thinking about who thestudents are, part of this is
obviously how the university notonly acknowledges these
different pressures, but itseems like a lot of the role of
your office is creating thatsupport, creating those
connections, making that processor resources more transparent.

(07:07):
So for our listeners who areMason faculty and our listeners
who may not be Mason faculty,but might be looking for
something similar-ish on theirown campus, what can you tell us
about what your office does, howit does that and what should
faculty know about the office,if they don't already?

Joisanne (07:27):
I am gonna set this one up, and then I'm gonna let s
Shyama hit it out of the park.
I like to describe our work asACES, A, C, E, S.
We advocate, celebrate, educate,and serve.
And that is directed not just toour students, but it's also
directed at our colleagues, thefaculty and staff here at Mason.

Shyama (07:48):
Yeah, so, ACES gives us an opportunity to provide our
campus and our community, withan opportunity to provide our
students with a morewell-rounded and robust kind of
experience.
So ACES, that's really like ourmulti-pronged approach to
supporting our students.

(08:09):
So advocacy is obviously how wework with institutions on
campus, off campus.
And we're very deliberate andpretty tenacious when it comes
to advocating for our studentsand with them.
We make sure that we're alwaysamplifying their voices and we

(08:32):
ensure that we have a presencewith our students so that when
we are advocating, we're notjust utilizing research.
We utilize research, obviously,but we want to make sure that
our students always have apresence in every presentation,
in every meeting that we're in,they're definitely there with us
at the table.

(08:52):
Celebrating them is celebratingour culture, right?
And at an institution likeMason, that is so special and so
diverse, celebrating them allowsus to really recognize what a
public institution can reallybe.
You know, we have such a robustsystem here at Mason.

(09:17):
And we educate ourselves and ourfaculty and staff peers to
really be able to meet ourstudents where they are with
what they need to attain theirdegree So we want to create as
many opportunities of access forthese students as possible.

(09:37):
It's really important to be ableto educate ourselves on what
they're facing so that we cankind of help lessen any barriers
that are in the way for them toattain that degree.
And finally serve.
And I think that serve is reallythe foundation of everything
that we do.
It really is that opportunity toprovide our students the

(10:01):
scholarship, the experience, thesense of belonging, the basic
needs, the sense of connectionthat they might miss out on
otherwise, because we know thatcontemporary students they don't
always realize that they have somany other options and
opportunities that they couldhave.

Rachel (10:20):
Yeah, absolutely.

Joisanne (10:21):
And I'll add onto that too.
And Shyama spoke about access,right?
And a lot of times when we talkabout access, we think about
access to higher education.
But in reality, when we'retalking about contemporary
students, we start thatconversation about access, it's
also information, it'sresources, it's support, it's

(10:43):
all of those things in a waythat's gonna meet those students
where they are.
I researched post-traditionalstudents for my dissertation,
and access was one of the bigthings that came up for
post-traditional students ofknowing if there were
opportunities because thetraditional ways of flyering

(11:04):
across campus and those kinds ofthings didn't always make it
into their footprint on campus.
And so how access to informationand opportunities comes to them
is incredibly important.
And that's one thing that we areworking with our colleagues
across the institution to ensureis that traditional hours, like

(11:26):
those nine to five hours ofoffering services isn't gonna
meet everyone's needs.
So how can we work to ensurethat there's access to services,
support, and information andgetting that out in different
ways in multimodal, just like wethink about if we're trying to
get information to our onlinestudents, that's a different way

(11:47):
of getting information than atraditional student in a
residence hall.

Rachel (11:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
And so we're talking aboutaccess and I really like how you
were talking about how accessisn't that single point in time.
It's not just access to highereducation, it's access to all
the things within and assituations and circumstances
change as well.
But let's take even a step backwith this because here at George
Mason University, we often talkabout, or particularly the

(12:15):
university president, PresidentWashington, often talks about
access to excellence.
So can you tell us maybe in thatbig picture sense about how
supporting contemporary studentsbroadly creates that access and
that type of support, aligningwith the university mission,
vision?
How we're supporting so manydifferent identities and

(12:37):
experiences with that.

Shyama (12:40):
Yeah, I think the amazing thing about when you
support contemporary students,you really kind of build an
amazing infrastructure of accessand support for all students,
right?
So it, it kind of creates almostlike a universal design.
And I think a perfect example iswhen lockdown in the covid

(13:00):
pandemic first hit, and rightbefore that when our office
first opened and we were reallytrying to encourage people to
have more flexible hours and tohave more virtual hours, and
people were really like, nah, Idon't think that will work.
And then they were kind offorced--

Rachel (13:19):
Oops! Yeah, hahaha.

Shyama (13:19):
--To do it.
So it was, I hate to say it, butit was a little bit of a boon
for our office'cause we're like,well, now you have to do it.
And you can see that it actuallyworks.
And it not only works forcontemporary students, but it
worked for all students.
It worked for students who justneeded that flexibility, needed
to find another job, needed tohave more time off campus.

Rachel (13:43):
It works even for students who are very
traditional in many aspects whodon't wanna walk two buildings
over but are still gonna attendyour office hours.

Shyama (13:51):
Right, exactly.

Rachel (13:52):
So we're supporting everyone with all this.
Yeah, that's great.
So let's shift over in ourconversation.
You know, we've talked a littlebit about the big picture and
the university, and a little bitabout what your office does and
who our contemporary studentsare.
But let's shift specifically toa faculty audience.
So this for our instructors, forour faculty members who are

(14:13):
listening.
As with many aspects, thereisn't a prescriptive approach,
obviously, when we're talkingabout such a large and varied
group, to supporting andincluding contemporary students.
But how do we think about this?
What can we do?
How do we move into a spacewhere students can succeed or
feel their voices are heard orfeel they're part of that

(14:33):
community and culture?

Joisanne (14:36):
I'll start this conversation off and then I'll
kick it over to Shyama, becauseI think one of the important
things in this conversation isthat contemporary students, when
we look at the data from campussurveys, contemporary students
report things like belonginglower than traditional students,
like five, seven points lowerthan traditional students.

(15:00):
But when it comes to questionsaround what I'll call a Patriot
Pride index, so their pride inMason, their wanting to be here,
their excitement to be a GeorgeMason University Patriot, the
score around those questions isactually almost 11% higher than
traditional students.
So while the belonging islacking a little, their pride at

(15:22):
being here is off the charts.
So I think that really kindaspeaks to our contemporary
students being full in here andreally proud to be here and
excited.
And as Shyama spoke to earlier,when we're talking about
contemporary students, we'realso many times talking about
multi-generational approaches inthat too, and that they're proud

(15:46):
to be here.
They want their kids to knowthat they're here.
They wanna bring them ontocampus.
They want their parents to knowthey're here and bringing them
onto campus.
And seeing that they're doingthis and they're proud to be
doing it here at Mason.

Shyama (16:00):
That was really good, Joisanne.
I think that the part where thestudents start to feel like
they're really part of thecommunity and culture is when
they're kind of called out.
When they hear programs that arefor transfer students, right?
And they're like, oh, that's fora transfer student.
I know I can go to that.

(16:21):
And at a certain point,something clicks and they're
like I am just a Mason student.
And that takes like about asemester, maybe two semesters.
And they always have that kindof transfer student pride, but I
think inviting them in as atransfer student and then kind
of reminding them that you'renot a transfer student anymore.

(16:44):
And we try to kind of, usherthem in and make them feel a
sense of belonging through thespaces that are on campus.
That there are these nooks oncampus where you can just go and
be.
There are people on campus thatyou should really go and get to

(17:05):
know because they wanna investin your success.
There are classes and programsand speakers, and these are all
designed so that your experienceis enhanced and you get to just
learn.
This is your time to just takethings in.

(17:27):
And we try to tell our studentstaff to remind other students
that too.

Joisanne (17:35):
Yeah, and our students encouraging each other and as
they're in our contemporarystudent lounge, talking to each
other about great experiencesthat they've had in classes or
how a TA was really helpful, orhow they went to a tutoring
session and that was reallygreat, or they had a question,
so they went to office hours,and encouraging others to do the

(17:57):
same and to leverage thoseopportunities like office hours
and knowing that we havecontemporary student champions
across campus and being able toconnect students with them and
doing, for lack of a betterterm, a warm handoff and saying,
Hey Rachel, I have this reallyamazing student they have some

(18:17):
questions about this.
I directed them to you.
Keep an eye out for them.
I told them that you're awesome.
Being able to say that makes alot of difference for our
students because they knowthey're going into a place where
they will be welcome andaccepted and somebody who
understands and will listen.
And that makes all thedifference in the world for our
contemporary students.
At the end of the year, so eachspring, we do a contemporary

(18:39):
student graduation celebration.
And when our students RSVP forthat, we ask them who were
amazing champions or advocatesfor you during your time here at
Mason.
Tell us who it is.
Tell us a little bit about howthey were a champion or advocate
for you.
And we take those and we putthem in a slideshow.

(19:00):
We show it during the event.
But we also reach out to thosefaculty and staff and say, Hey,
your students are saying thatyou're awesome.
We think you're awesome too.
Come celebrate with us.
So if any of y'all get thatemail from us, please come,
enjoy, celebrate with yourstudents because we always love

(19:20):
to see the champions that areout there.

Shyama (19:24):
Some of the ways that those students have relayed to
us that those faculty membershave been champions for them
have been things like theyhaven't made assumptions about
who their students are, andthey've kind of allowed students
to unfold in front of them and,you know, self-identify in ways
and haven't judged them for whothey are or their identities.

(19:48):
Other things that faculty thathave done, that have been really
helpful for our contemporarystudents, have been things like
naming student parents in theirsyllabi.
Like, oh, if you have thingslike caretaking duties, please
let me know ahead of time sothat I can support you in having
more flexibility.

(20:08):
And those things go a long wayjust for a student, even if they
don't take you up on it.
Just for them to feel seen in areally passive way can go a
very, very long way for them tofeel like this is a classroom in
which I can succeed.

Rachel (20:25):
Absolutely.
So with this, it really soundslike our keystone concept here
is really about access.
We talked earlier about it's notjust access to the higher
education side, but it's accessto the resources, to the faculty
members, to participation in thecourse, and that really comes
back to those aspects oftransparency.
How do we create connections?

(20:46):
How do we make people of alldifferent identities and
experiences and contemporary andnot contemporary students feel
seen and heard and have thatsense of belonging?
So it's really about that accessacross all different dimensions
and all different ways andexperiences.
So as we wrap up ourconversation for today, any last

(21:07):
words you'd like to leave ourlisteners with?

Joisanne (21:12):
I'll take the opportunity to do a little
bragging about my team.
In that there are a couplethings that we know that
contemporary students look forwhen choosing an institution,
right?
They're looking for thatflexibility.
They're looking for any kind ofshorthand that tells them that
the institution's gonna befriendly for them and their

(21:33):
identities.
And that can look like if you'veever seen Best for Vets or Best
for Military or those Best forkind of brandings or awardees
that you see differentinstitutions have, and Mason has
some of those, right.
But one of the ones that ourteam worked really hard to make
sure that we had was the FamilyACL, which is a national

(21:55):
certification recognizing theimportance of student parents
and caregivers.
And that there wereopportunities at the institution
and access to economic mobilityfor them to thrive.
We have that seal.
We're very proud of that, and itdefinitely serves as a shorthand
for a lot of student parents andcaregivers to know that Mason is

(22:18):
a space for them to show up andnot just foot in the door and
survive, but to show up, to stepin and thrive here at Mason in
our altogether different world.
But I'll also say that my staffhas done some amazing work to do
some really cool things liketrunk or treat in the fall

(22:38):
semester each year.
And winning a Jack Wood awardfor community and campus
relations with that.
And some national awards, awardsfrom NASPA and other things like
that, that recognize that theway that we are doing this is
unique.
When the university innovated tocreate Contemporary Student
Services, we were, and as oflast Google are still the only

(23:04):
contemporary services unit thatdoes this, like we do it.
And is keeping an eye on risingpopulations.
I always say we need to put thesupport in place before we need
it.
And so we're consistentlylooking to ensure that we're
putting the support in place,that we're doing the research,
that we're doing the work, thatwe're talking to benchmarks and
colleagues across the nation andacross the globe, really to do

(23:26):
good work and to have thesesupports in place to best serve
our students so when they showup, they know that they belong
here at Mason because I thinkthat is part of the founding of
and continued growth and successof Mason.

Rachel (23:42):
Absolutely.
Well, thank you so much forjoining us.
It was great to talk with you alittle bit more about your
office and how we support ourstudents of all these different
identities and experiences andour contemporary students in
particular.
So with that, I appreciate theirtime, and I encourage everyone
to check out our differentepisodes.
We're posting every two weeks,so I invite you back to check

(24:04):
out our upcoming episodes aswell.
Thank you for joining us, and Ilook forward to connecting with
you in other ways as well.

Joisanne (24:12):
Thanks so much for having us, Rachel.

Shyama (24:14):
Thank you, Rachel.