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NewsvineThe campus had two vice provosts of student affairs yesterday, and one of them was a student.
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Anna Ho, a Burbank resident assistant, shadowed Vice Provost of Student Affairs Gene Awakuni yesterday in the first a series of shadowings for RAs.
“This is for RAs to see what the role of a vice provost is, what the office does and what Stanford administrators do,” Awakuni said.
The idea for the new initiative emerged last month, when Awakuni met with this year’s group of RAs during their training session to discuss issues of concern to the staff members.
Awakuni suggested that any RAs interested in learning more about what he does as a senior administrator would be welcome to shadow him for a day. Several students responded by writing two paragraphs about their interest in the program. There are four RAs scheduled to shadow Awakuni this quarter.
“I’ve done this before when I was at Columbia, but not as extensively,” Awakuni said. “I just let some students come to meetings and I found that they got a lot of insight. Students often see the University from the outside, as a monolith, and don’t get a chance to see its inner workings.”
Ho, the first student to participate in this program, was excited prior to her day with Awakuni.
“I don’t come in here with any kid of agenda, I’m just really interested to know, in general, what role does the vice provost of student affairs play?” she said. “I would like to share with my dorm just what it is that Awakuni does.”
To that end, Awakuni scheduled a busy day of meetings for Ho. She co-chaired a College Council meeting that occurs on a quarterly basis, in which about 15 offices from across campus send representatives to discuss University matters. Then she met with a group of students who were lobbying Awakuni for funds to attend a conference. Finally, she lunched with the staff of El Centro Chicano as part of Awakuni’s series of meetings with campus community centers.
“The shadowing process was condensed into a two-and-a-half hour day because I know students are busy,” Awakuni told Ho at the beginning. “I tried to provide a diverse set of meetings, though, so you really get to see what I do.”
Awakuni plans to reintroduce the program to RAs during winter quarter when he again meets with them. He hopes to keep the program open throughout the year.
Sophomore Sarah Carroll liked the shadowing idea and saw it as a way for the Office of Student Affairs to make itself appear more accessible.
“I think it’s really cool that Vice Provost Awakuni is willing to give students an opportunity to interact so directly with the University’s administration,” she said. “I doubt that the whole experience will apply immediately to RAs’ regular in-dorm responsibilities, but at the very minimum, I think it will make them much more informed as Stanford students [because] many of us have no clear concept of how our university actually runs or what goes on in the upper administration.”