LOEX 2016: Living Learning Communities

Session Title: Breaking Good: Becoming Integrated into Student Learning Communities

Presenters: Santamaria and Pashkova-Balkenhol

If I had to rate these sessions, this one was the second most important one that I attended. The librarians from Millersville University were engaging and their ideas for outreach to living and learning communities were sound. Michele Santamaria was a trained Anthropologist before becoming a librarian. She actually did research on Quechua speakers in the Andes. She talked about 4 considerations outsiders need to break into a group: timing, local context, endorsement, and relationship building. The joke here was that despite her training, she did not think to apply these considerations to groups of freshmen living in these student learning communities on their campus. She definitely got some laughs. Her co-presenter was Tatiana Pashkova-Balkenhol. They mainly talked about breaking in with their Millersville Scholars group (first generation college students) and the international students. One great tip was to get in with the students when the group is just forming their bonds, because you will be seen as an insider if you are part of the group early on. They tried a number of events related to research. One was called “Treat Yourself” and was around Halloween. This event was not very well-attended, but they tried having snacks and doing research consultations. Around the same time, they also met the person coordinating the Millersville Scholars because they were in the library setting up for an event. This was their way of getting in with the group--they helped the director move furniture. The next thing they planned was an “exclusive” event where they had golden tickets and made themselves available 3 nights in a row from 6-9 PM. They had peer mentors come from the writing center and they also planned the event around a big deadline for a common assignment. This was also lightly attended, but the idea was still sound and they planned it at the right time. They also did a chat version of the event. They chalked the lower attendance up to the fact that the students felt uncomfortable with them as outsiders and that as first generation college students, they may be nervous about asking for help. When talking about the international students, they said that it helped that both of them are considered to be international in some way--Michele is Latina and Tatiana is from Russia. During the session talking about international students, they mainly talked about a few of the students that they had connected with more deeply. One of the good ideas from this session is that during their library tour, they send students around with a video camera and have them make a “library story”. Although I like our iPad scavenger hunt for our institution, this was a neat idea. The presenters said that even though their events were not always a success, it was great to get the exposure and that they feel that students may have felt more comfortable coming later, even if they did not come to the event. A big takeaway here was that it is one thing to be introduced, and another thing completely to be endorsed. They now have a seat at the table when it comes to the Millersville Scholars because of the events that they put on, and they encouraged people to become ‘part of the system’ when it comes to certain university groups. I got a lot of ideas from this session and I plan to include outreach to Living Learning Communities at ECU in our RIS department goals.

They recommended a book called For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood by Emdin.