Assessment isn’t just numbers—it’s a growth mindset. In the latest episode of Student Affairs Voices from the Field, Knowledge Community co-chairs Dr. Dana Weintraub (Rutgers University - New Brunswick) and Dr. Scott Radimer (William & Mary) share their perspectives with Dr. Jill Creighton on the vital importance of assessment, evaluation, and research in higher education, sparking conversations that will resonate with both experienced professionals and those newer to the field.

A key theme emerges early: assessment is not an “add-on” or a separate chore—it’s a tool that empowers student affairs professionals to make evidence-based decisions, improve the student experience, and honor the promise institutions make to help their students thrive and succeed. As Dr. Radimer puts it, “Assessment work is really just an extension of that promise…we’re failing to keep our promises if we’re not doing that.” Both leaders emphasize that assessment helps colleges move from “just vibes” to actionable data, allowing for advocacy, program improvements, and strategic change.

Dr. Weintraub offers practical advice for making assessment less intimidating, urging colleagues to see how data-driven decision-making fits into everyday life: checking the weather app before dressing for work, or setting personal fitness goals, both reflect continuous assessment cycles. She insists, “It’s about growth mindset. It’s equipping us with the information so we know how it helps us make decisions so much easier.”

For those wary of statistics, Dr. Radimer reassures listeners: effective assessment relies on relationships, collaboration, and critical inquiry—not just crunching numbers. “Usually in student affairs, it’s not that we’re doing bad things…it’s that we have so many things on our plate that sometimes the good gets in the way of the great.” His advice: intentional planning and building assessment into the program design from the start makes it less stressful and more impactful.

The episode also demystifies involvement in NASPA’s Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Knowledge Community (AERKC). Both co-chairs are passionate about the value of networking, professional development, and “work wellness” that the KC offers, encouraging anyone with even a passing interest in assessment to “just show up” and experience the supportive community firsthand.

Whether you’re a seasoned assessment lead or a curious student affairs practitioner, there’s something for everyone in this episode. Tune in to hear practical wisdom, relatable analogies, and uplifting encouragement from two experts committed to making data work for students—and their advocates.

Ready to turn assessment anxiety into actionable insight? Listen to the full episode and discover how you can be part of a thriving, supportive community committed to student success. TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:00:02]: 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 ed pros wherever you happen to be. This is season 13 on the value of student affairs. I'm Dr. Jill Creighton. She her hers your Essay Voices from the Field host Today on Essay Voices, we are continuing our journey with getting to know our Knowledge Community leaders with the AERC or the Assessment, Evaluation and Research knowledge community. Our two guests are co chairs Dana Weintraub, PhD and Scott Rademer, PhD. Dr.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:00:42]: Weintraub is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Strategy, Assessment and Planning in Student affairs at Rutgers University New Brunswick and an Associate member of the Faculty at the Graduate School of Education. Since joining Rutgers in 2016, she's led division wide efforts in strategic planning, assessment, communication and development advancing student success through data informed decision making. Dana serves as the Primary Liaison to the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support and collaborates closely with Senior leadership to shape and implement strategic priorities. She chairs the Student Affairs Assessment Learning Committee and leads training initiatives Taking that sentence over Chris, she chairs the Student Affairs Assessment Learning Committee and leads training initiatives on research and data strategy. Her scholarship, which explores topics like student leadership, gender equity in STEM and civic engagement, has been featured in academic journals and global conferences conferences. Outside of work, Dana is a proud mom of two, a marathon runner, dancer and passionate board game enthusiast. Always ready for a strategic challenge whether at the office or around the game table. She holds a Ph.D.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:01:41]: in higher education and organizational change from UCLA, a master's from Indiana University in Bloomington, and a BA from Ithaca College. Dr. Radimer is the Assistant Dean for Assessment, Accreditation and Accountability for the School of Education at William Mary. Prior to working at William Mary, Scott was the Director of Assessment and Planning at the University of Houston for the Division of Student Affairs. He has over 9 years professional experience in assessment, 22 years working in higher education, and serves as the co Chair for NASPA's Assessment, Evaluation and Research Knowledge Community. He's published and given presentations on topics such as One More Time on that. He has published and given presentations on topics such as assessment, men and masculinities and urban serving institutions. Scott earned his Ph.D.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:02:22]: in higher education from Boston College and his Master of Science in Higher Education from Florida State University and his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Vermont. Welcome to SA Voices. Dana hello hello and hello Scott.

Scott Radimer [00:02:37]: Hello.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:02:37]: We are thrilled to have you on the episode today to talk about the NASPA Assessment Knowledge Community, aerc. And I'll let you all define that a little bit more as we get into the conversation. A lot to talk about in the assessment world right now, but as we jump into our topic, we still love to get to know you first. So, Dana, let's start with you. How did you get to your current seat at Rutgers?

Dana Weintraub [00:02:58]: Thank you. Really wonderful to be here. Dr. Creighton, thank you for having Scott and I on, on the podcast. So I am actually starting my 10th year at Rutgers New Brunswick, which is, it's been amazing to have just completed nine full years. So I actually, I grew up in South Jersey and the funny thing which my parents actually like to tease me about is when it came to me to apply to colleges, I really wanted nothing, to be in my home state. I wanted to travel as far as possible, but that flipped. Prior to Rutgers, I spent 13 years working and going to school at UCLA.

Dana Weintraub [00:03:36]: It was an amazing experience, very fulfilling experiences. And when I was graduating from the PhD program at UCLA and it was time to job search, job opportunity came up at Rutgers New Brunswick and it was, it was just, it was the perfect job on paper. It was an opportunity to create a student affairs assessment unit. And so it was going to provide me the opportunity to apply everything I was learning in my doctoral program and actually really returned to what I love most, and that's student affairs, but doing it through a research and an assessment lens. So that's how I got to Rutgers New Brunswick. And over the past nine years I've been very fortunate to gain new experiences and opportunities. And I just, I really love being at a large public research university, really love and appreciate my student affairs colleagues and campus partners and how much Rutgers really does center and prioritize and value the need for evidence in making decisions and using evidence based research to improve the student experience.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:04:41]: I always love it when someone is able to find a role that fits both of their passions or multiple passions and comes together to be something that you can enjoy doing every day. I'm glad you were able to find that.

Dana Weintraub [00:04:51]: Thank you.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:04:52]: And Scott, how about you? How did you get to your current seat at William and Mary?

Scott Radimer [00:04:55]: Yeah, so I'm originally from Vermont, grew up in Vermont and attended the University of Vermont for undergrad. I was one of those stereotypical student affairs college students in that I was involved in everything as an undergrad. And so I kept on interacting with all the master's students in the HISA program at the University of Vermont and I thought they were pretty cool people and that's how I got exposed to student affairs as a career. When I was a senior in college, I. I thought I wanted to go to law school and be a lawyer. And then I quickly realized I didn't want to do that. So it took me a little bit of time to figure out what I wanted to do after college. And I ultimately decided that I was going to go into student affairs because if I didn't like it, I'd be working at a university, I could get a different degree and I could move.

Scott Radimer [00:05:50]: So that seemed less scary than my other kind of big idea was I might get a PhD in political science, which was my undergraduate degree. And that at the time seemed too intimidating to me. So I went into student affairs. I ended up Florida State University for my master's degree, which, coming from Vermont, I felt like that was my study abroad experience that I never had. It was a great experience, definitely opened my eyes to a lot of things that I had assumed everybody thought or did and was not the case. Worked in assistantship, in academic advising, and then moved back up north. Got my first job working in residential life at Vassar College. Worked there for three years, just in time for the 2008 recession to send me job searching again.

Scott Radimer [00:06:36]: Ended up at Bentley University working in res life for three years. Decided that I had spent enough time working in residential life and being on call all the time. And so I ended up making the transition to being a full time graduate student again as a PhD student at Boston College in their Higher Edition program. Found that I liked research a whole lot more than I had anticipated when I went in. And so when I graduated, I ended up getting a job doing student affairs assessment, which felt like a kind of perfect marriage of my prior experience and skills that I developed at bc. And so I became the Director of Research, Assessment and Planning at the University of Memphis. Memphis, Tennessee, was there for three years until they got rid of their division of Student Affairs. And so I ended up doing a similar position at the University of Houston, which is where I was for six years until just very recently.

Scott Radimer [00:07:43]: And then I actually just had my first job transitioning out of student affairs, Although I'm still involved with NASPA and the aerkc William and Mary with the School of Education, doing assessment and accreditation work. So it's kind of an extension continuation of my work in assessment.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:08:00]: So assessment in student affairs, I think has been historically a bit of a hill to climb for many of us where we find folks like yourselves who are very passionate about the way that we assess and Evaluate our work and we're able to tell stories through the data. But then others who are like, oh my gosh, assessment. I can't believe I'm still. My brain can't get around it. And I think we have that binary to a degree in the profession. So I'm wondering if you can tell us what you love about the assessment, evaluation and research process for our profession.

Scott Radimer [00:08:30]: Yeah. So my number one Cliftons strength is strategic. Right. I'm always looking at everything as what's the best way to get from A to B for that? How can we achieve the outcome? So I've always been very focused on how can we improve things, what makes the most sense, what's the most efficient, what has the best return. I feel like colleges make promises to students that if you enroll here, we are going to help you succeed and we are going to get you to your degree. And so I think that assessment work is really just an extension of that promise and that we're failing to keep our promises if we're not doing that. So we're saying we're going to do our best to help you succeed. As long as you, the student, do your part, that you do your work, that you study, and that you're a good citizen of the community, then we are going to help you succeed.

Scott Radimer [00:09:27]: And so the thing that really motivates me about assessment work and why I think it's so important and why people should view it as integral to their job, not something else that gets in the way of them doing their job is that it helps you be more efficient. It helps, you know, if what you're doing is working. It helps you tell other people why they should be involved with your programs or services, why they should support them, why they should donate money to them, is you need to have more than just vibes, right? It's like, here's some evidence. Don't just take my word for it. Here's the feedback from the students, here's their grades, here's these outcomes for that. So I view it as a real extension of the promise that we, we make, that we're keeping our word, that we're going to do our part if they do their part.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:10:14]: I feel like you just encapsulated something really important for student affairs, Scott, which is like, our whole careers, all of us have been like, student affairs is more than just vibes. But we've been saying it differently in a lot of different ways. So thank you for that nugget.

Dana Weintraub [00:10:26]: So I appreciate Scott's response because I very much See that, make a commitment to students when they offer students admission to the university. And I see that colleges and universities, it's our responsibility to provide all of the support that students need to thrive and graduate, ideally within four to six years. And assessment allows us to be able to provide. It provides us with the information that we need to be able to know what supports are needed to ensure that students are going to thrive and graduate. And what I appreciate so much about assessment is it's about growth mindset. It's also about just providing. It's equipping us with the information so we know how it helps us make decisions so much easier. And some of the things that I really like to, to kind of like help my colleagues see that they're actually doing assessment all the time.

Dana Weintraub [00:11:26]: They just don't call it that. So my easy ways that I, you know, start open up a presentation is I'll ask my colleagues, how did you determine what you're wearing to work today? You know, people don't just open up their closet and say, oh, I'm going to wear this. You check a weather app to make sure that your clothing is weather appropriate. You also check your calendar to see what do I have today, who am I meeting with? How should I dress to present myself in accordance with those meetings? Well, that's assessment, your weather app, your calendar. It's providing you with data and information to help you make the decision, what am I going to wear? And so, and that's really, and I think too often we get so concerned about if we collect data, what happens if it's negative, what happens if we're told something that we don't want to hear? Well, isn't it better to hear it? Isn't it better to find out that the program that you're planning may not have resonated with students the way that you hoped? Isn't it better to have that information so that you can make tweaks and make improvements? So I just really love assessment. I think it's really, it's about growth mindset, it's about how do we improve. And it's providing us with the information that we need to really best engage, best align, best support and best do what we are so passionate about doing in our work. One more final thing is I think too often in student affairs, I grew up in student affairs, where it was a matter of student affairs is co curricular, extracurricular.

Dana Weintraub [00:12:54]: No, no more of that. We are an integral part of the student experience. And I like to say that students will not even show up to the classroom unless they receive the nourishment they need in the dining halls, the conversations and the relationships that form in the dining halls and the residence halls, unless they have really proper care, they're not even showing up to the classroom, let alone thriving. And so student affairs really needs to believe in the value and the purpose that we bring to the academic experience. Experience and we are essential to student learning.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:13:27]: Dana, I feel like you're really good at making assessment more approachable or less terrifying for people who are a little bit scared of it. Can you give some pro tips or advice to people that are listening, that are going, oh my gosh, assessment makes my heart sad versus people who are like, assessment brings joy to my life because I think we're all out there. But I'm just trying to reflect on all of my experiences across my career in student affairs and knowing that for a good chunk of it, I was in the camp of going, oh, this is a bit scary.

Dana Weintraub [00:13:54]: Yeah, absolutely. I think what I like to do is I like to try to make assessment really relatable. And so I know for me, I happen to be someone who I really love setting goals related to fitness. So as an adult, I came into marathon running. And when I run a marathon, I'm following a 16 week plan. And for me it's very relatable to relate the assessment cycle to that 16 week plan. You set a goal, it's a nice, clear, specific goal. You pose a question on what information do you need to be able to achieve that goal and that outcome? What data do I need and how do I get that data? Is it data that is already available, like through student admissions applications or through event check ins? So is it data that I don't even have to collect, it's already it exists.

Dana Weintraub [00:14:46]: Or is it data that I have to collect in some way and gather? What are the relationships with people that I need to be able to help gather the information that I need to answer my assessment question? What are the methods that best align with answering that question and best helping me to interpret the data that I either had that exists or that I collected? And then what do I do with the information that I gathered? What do I do with the interpretations and how do I develop recommendations that are actionable? And then the beauty of assessment is the cycle continues. And so what I say, because I think too often people get stuck in two aspects of assessment. One, getting stuck in the limitations, where all assessment processes have limitations. And so the beauty of it, of assessment being continuous, is you can Think of it as I can improve on these limitations the next go around. The other piece that I often hear is there's this myth that you have to be this mathematician. But really, actually the hard part about assessment is not the analysis. And anyway, besides the fact, quantitative assessment or quantitative research, it's about telling stories from the numbers. So assessment, really, essentially, it's converting numbers into stories and how to make meaning with words if you're doing qualitative.

Dana Weintraub [00:16:07]: But what I say is the core of assessment. It's about relationship. The reality is we have a lot of programs that help us analyze both quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, research and data. But what we really need to do is it's the relationships that help us identify what aspects of student learning are we interested in measuring? How do we engage with students to really empathize, hear, narrate, form, trust with our students and their experiences? How do we develop relationships with colleagues who have information and data that we really could use to be able to help improve the student experience and our environments? So really, the key is it's about relationships. And so what I hope is that it's, you know, helping to make things more accessible, whether relating it to a passion of my colleague or relating it to, like, something we do on a daily basis that we all know that we're really good at something else. I do actually, in the class I teach is I have them thinking about sorting laundry and relating qualitative coding to laundry, where it's when you think about, you have your laundry basket and what's your method of folding and sorting your clothes? And that's very similar to how I approach qualitative coding. So I do try to make assessment very accessible and very practical ways so that it becomes. It's fun and interesting.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:17:34]: I'll give a shout out to my qualitative methods professor, Dr. Mark Smith. He brought to class on one of our first days of coding exercises, like a giant bag of crafting beads and just dumped them on everybody's table and said sort, which was a wonderful way of kind of thinking about coding. And everyone had a different method that kind of showed up. So thank you, Dr. Smith. He's now living his best life as a dean in the South. So, Scott, same question for you.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:17:58]: What are you doing at your institution to make assessment more accessible and less scary for people who maybe don't interact with it as much or in the. In the same headspace that you do?

Scott Radimer [00:18:07]: Yeah. So I think the most important part is that I think we need to view our work as More of a science and less of an art, especially in student affairs. I think there can be this tendency to view this as it's a skill that you have or you don't have, that some people are just good at it and other people are not, as opposed to something that you can improve on, that there are different ways to handle it. And I think that's one of the troubles that we get into for people who have been in the field for a really long time is that that we're used to doing things a certain way. It's worked, it's been really successful. And so we keep doing it for 20 or 30 years. And some of those things stay the same, and they're great traditions, and it really makes the college experience. But for other things, they're very different.

Scott Radimer [00:19:01]: If I think back to what the world looked like when I was in college, it's a very different place than it is today. And the students are very different, and the world is very different. And so the kinds of programming that made sense in that world doesn't necessarily make sense or is interesting for this world. And so we always just need to check, like, is this what people need? Is this what is useful to our students, but not feeling like it's hopeless or that you just have to figure it out, that there are ways that we can determine what is working and what's not working and how it can help. So to Dana's point, I like to talk to people that are doing assessment to remind them that they are always doing assessments that they're judging. Like, how is this conversation going? Is this going well? Is this not going well? Is this event going well for students? Or is this application process working? Right. We're always making judgments about things. So assessment is just a way of checking our biases, the things that we don't realize that we're doing.

Scott Radimer [00:20:07]: Because our informal assessments make up a statistic. I feel like they're probably right 80%, 90% of the time, maybe even 95% of the time. But there is this percentage of the time where we're wrong that it's our biases, it's our assumptions about things. And so, you know, some people are really energized by interpersonal conversations. And so you're trying to have this big event and reach a lot of students. And maybe a lot of students didn't show up, up, or they came, but they didn't have a very good experience. But you had a really moving, engaging conversation with a student in person. So you're feeling really energized about this.

Scott Radimer [00:20:47]: And you think this was really great because this is what gives me energy. And I got energy from this event. And so that must be the case for everybody else who attended it. But it's not. Or you're really into this tradition because this event was your alma mater and you did this and now they're doing this. But that doesn't necessarily mean that people are having that same experience coming away from this. And so you want to be intentional about how you're collecting information and checking the results to confirm like, was my impression correct? And most of the time you're going to find it's correct. And it may just be a degree of magnitude that like, oh, this was good, but this event was, this other event was great.

Scott Radimer [00:21:28]: That it had a much bigger impact that, you know, this, this very intensive, time consuming process that required a lot of people hours to do, moved retention rate 1% for students. But this other thing that we did that was maybe more scalable, increased it by 5 or 10%. And so usually find in student affairs and the work that we do, it's not that we are doing bad things, it's this we have so many things on our plate that we don't want to let go. That kind of the good things get in the way of the opportunities to do great things or really impactful things. So I try and talk to people about systems. How do we know what we, we think is going on? How do we know that? Do we have data to support that? A lot of work that can feel overwhelming sometimes is just that there's so much that we have to do that takes up so much time that people don't feel like they have the energy for things and that it really becomes a lot less overwhelming, I think when you just plan on the front end. And so a lot of the work that I do is asking people to record things on the front end or tell me what you're going to do or what you just did. And maybe in the moment that doesn't feel super awesome because you've got 11 other things on your to do list today.

Scott Radimer [00:22:43]: But when you do it on the front end, when you're thinking about what your goals are, like Dana's example, if you're looking at what you're going to wear for work that day, if you're looking at your calendar, you're going to be in a lot better position than if you're just like, okay, what's clean? And here we go for that, that that might not work out so well. For you. So if you can take the time to think in advance about what you want to do, a lot of it just gets built right in that you made sure to collect the data, you took the card swipes for the students coming in, or you had a QR code for the survey, or you made a point to get quotes from students or take pictures or whatever it was that you're going to do. That when you plan it on the front end, it becomes a lot less time consuming, is a lot easier, a lot less overwhelming. 99% of the time, you're not going to be doing statistical analysis or need to do any math involved with that. So those are the ways that I like to talk about assessment work and hopefully make it less overwhelming for people.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:23:46]: Let's get into the KC a bit. You two ran and were elected as co chairs. So I'd love to know how you connected in the first place, given that you're, you know, several hundred miles apart.

Scott Radimer [00:23:55]: So we were both joined, I think around the same time, a couple years before we joined. And so when the elections were coming up and they were looking for new co chairs, we'd had former co chairs reach out and ask, hey, would you be interested in doing this? So I had known Dana before, but we hadn't worked together super closely, more just in kind of monthly meetings for that. And so as we were discussing this opportunity is when we really connected and got to know each other much better and find a lot of common ground and common perspective and experiences on things, which has been one of the really most rewarding parts of the process is getting to work closely with Dana and get to know her better and feel like we can contribute back to the field in the same way.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:24:43]: Dana, anything you want to add on that?

Dana Weintraub [00:24:45]: I was just going to say, I mean, I think that, you know, one of the really amazing opportunities about being involved in a KC is the opportunity to develop relationships and friendships with colleagues across the world, I guess you could say, because it is an international organization. And I think what I find most rewarding is always having a colleague, and especially now, and working so closely with Scott. I mean, I think we're sort of messaging each other almost on a daily basis. And I appreciate, like our weekly meetings. It's like we meet for an hour and it's like half past, we're like, oh, wait, we should probably talk about KC stuff. But it's like that that first half hour is an opportunity for either me or Scott to get advice on something, for us to just kind of share experiences. And it's just really, especially doing assessment work, which is complicated and it's just really, really like. I think it just allows us to like, grow even more and grow our passion for the work that we do when we have a colleague that works at a different university, even in a different area of assessment.

Dana Weintraub [00:25:51]: And we're really able to, to share experiences, rel the challenges and the opportunities, and provide each other with support and most of all, a really good laugh.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:26:01]: I think that's such an important story to tell because I think a lot of times, especially newer professionals can look at Casey leadership and wonder, how do I get there? We continually hear, I joined because I was interested in the subject matter. I met other people and it's such a natural evolution to maybe not being as collegially close to someone at the beginning and then at the end going, wow, I rely on this person or I see this person so often. And I think I say the same thing about Dr. Chris Lewis, who's the other producer and our audio engineer for the podcast is, you know, we didn't really know each other when we started working on the pod, but now we're very, very close colleagues. So it's such a great way of keeping connection in the field without necessarily being on the same campus.

Scott Radimer [00:26:40]: Yeah, I was just gonna say I've been involved with NASPA since 2004. Right. I've been involved for a long time. If I had things to do over again, I would have gotten more involved with the organization much earlier. I think that the best thing was colleague who's also in the KC has been like, scott, you need to show up. Like, you need to join these meetings. And so I did. And really the most important thing is just show up, volunteer if something that you're interested in that you care about, go to the meetings, show up, ask how you can get involved.

Scott Radimer [00:27:12]: Because we're looking for volunteers right now, right there. There continues to be opportunities and a lot of it is just like, show up, share your opinions, listen, and the rest of it kind of of happens naturally. I know that student affairs is a very extrovert, focused field. I am not an extrovert. I enjoy my downtime and my reflection time, but it's not difficult or overwhelming. Even if you're not one of the people who think strangers are best friends you haven't met yet. It is not this overwhelming kind of barrier. It's really just like, find something you're interested in and show up.

Scott Radimer [00:27:50]: And a lot of the work gets done just by doing that for an.

Dana Weintraub [00:27:53]: Interesting connection that I'm making right now. So one of the myths, myths of assessment is, and Scott mentioned it earlier, it's considered an add on, something extra. I have to do that I don't have time to do when really what we're trying to convey is assessment is not an add on. It is going to help you do the work that you're doing in a more meaningful value added way. And when it comes to involvement in the knowledge communities, I think too often people say I don't have time, which is true. And I felt that way too. I don't know how I'm going to have the time to do this. But what I would encourage folks to think about is getting involved in NASPA and professional organizations and especially in the knowledge communities.

Dana Weintraub [00:28:40]: Consider it like work wellness because you fit it into your schedule. But it is just such a refreshing opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with colleagues. And so I acknowledge it is intimidating. Know how do you have the time doing assessment? It feels like extra work, but when you get into the routine, you realize how much value comes from it. And the involvement, it's just, I mean the hours that I spend meeting with Scott with the leadership team, they fly by. There's just so much energy that comes out of the room and the conversation. So I really encourage folks to really kind of consider if you're treating yourself to work wellness by getting involved, what's.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:29:24]: Important to the KC right now? What are the focuses and the hot topics?

Scott Radimer [00:29:27]: Yeah, so I'll say the big focus right now is we have a new pre conference that the KC is hosting that was just accepted that is called Assessment 301 Director of Assessment Institute. And so overall doing assessment work kind of as like a sub field in student affairs is still a relatively young career track. And so there's still a lot of like kind of figuring out your way. There's not, it's not like the res life to Dean of Students kind of track that's more well established and understood. That in many ways Dana and I are still kind of trailblazers in this part of the field, which is weird to think about yourself that way. But one of the things we notice is that there's not a lot of opportunities to kind of think about professional development tracks and kind of how you handle these positions. Because at a lot of institutions you're the first person to do this or the second person to do this and you might be the only person or you have some graduate assistant support. And so we thought we should make the professional development opportunity that we're missing for that.

Scott Radimer [00:30:40]: And so we've created this pre conference ahead of the national conference in March that we hope people will be interested in and sign up for to be able to help people in these more division wide positions think about, you know, what are the things you really need to do to excel in the current job but also what are the things that you want to think about as you're thinking about next? Because for many people this might not be the last job that they, they want to hold that they might want to do other things as well and be thinking about that. And so I think for the KC it's a lot of what is the needed professional development opportunities both for everybody in the field. Right. Like what are. And we also offer an assessment 101 that's a very long standing assessment and successful pre conference for these kind of like what does anybody need to know? And you don't have to have any background in assessment to come and get value out of these kind of introductory things. But then also how do we think about this smaller, more dedicated part of the profession that maybe hasn't been attended to as much before. And so how do we help people in these more senior responsibilities think about their continued development and career growth and also just building community for people. That's something that Dana and I think have gotten a lot out of being involved in the KC and in our leadership positions.

Scott Radimer [00:32:02]: But we want that experience and opportunity for other people as well. So what are the ways in which we can help bring people together, being able to find community and maybe even commiserate at times for some of the challenges that they're going through and help them be more successful as they go forward.

Dana Weintraub [00:32:21]: Assessment, evaluation, research. Casey, we're really excited. We're still celebrating our 20th anniversary along with all knowledge communities. And so it's been really, really wonderful over the, over the year to look back on our past, the present and really chart our way for the future. We are so fortunate that on our leadership team we're still very connected with some of the, the earlier chairs of the Casey and so we really have a very, very strong, committed leadership yesterday. So I guess by the time this airs we could say in, in September we did an open meeting where we invited those interested in assessment who are part of the KC to attend one of our leadership team meetings and gather information about the role of assessment that it plays in their day to day work. What are some resources and supports and professional development services. So it gives Scott and I and our colleagues on the leadership team an opportunity to think about, you know, what are our goals and what are the resources that we want to provide our membership.

Dana Weintraub [00:33:26]: We have a thriving knowledge community, some really great opportunities, whether it be a writing group, so folks coming together on a continuous basis to pursue a writing project, gather, gain some feedback from peers, write in community. We do ongoing discussions on really important trends and topics related to assessment. So for example, our most recent conversation was on data lakes that brought together colleagues in assessment in information technology institutional research to talk about ways to bring existing data across campus together and think about the various different questions and ways that the data can better tell a story and define our work and how do we go about developing the relationships that we need with data custodians to be able to bring the data together. So lots of exciting, exciting opportunities within the Casey and we really pride ourselves in really providing our membership with an opportunity to find community and find colleagues that share their passion in assessment and to help share resources and strengthen the work that we do.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:34:36]: Can you talk a little bit about the mix of people in the KC in terms of people that are in roles like yourselves that are leading assessment, assessment for student affairs or student affairs adjacent roles versus people who might have full time positions in a different functional area but really appreciate assessment?

Dana Weintraub [00:34:50]: Our membership and also our leadership members of our leadership team hold very diverse roles related to assessment. So some are in very traditional director of student affairs assessment positions, some at large public research universities, some at smaller schools mid size. We also have members that work in academic assessment, may work in program review accreditation roles at their universities. We also have folks that work in other functional areas but really believe and are really value assessment and enjoy have been exposed to assessment, whether it be, you know, in their graduate program and taking an introductory course in assessment and really want to be doing assessment more infusing it into their role. And so we could have folks that work in for example student activities work but do assessment concentrated in student activities or for example maybe a liaison between their department and an assessment committee. So within the knowledge community we really aim to provide a community for all folks, whether it be I'm really passionate, I believe in the value of assessment and I want to strengthen my assessment assessment skills all the way to I'm in a full time assessment role whether it be in student affairs or in academics or at the university and for example accreditation role.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:36:18]: And if I'm a NASA member thinking about joining the AERKC but haven't done so yet, what would you like me to hear?

Scott Radimer [00:36:23]: Think that if it's something that you're interested in at all. If you think that this is something that you want to learn more about, then you should sign up to join.

Dana Weintraub [00:36:34]: Join.

Scott Radimer [00:36:34]: You can just do that on your profile. You'll get our emails about that. You can find us on LinkedIn. We have a page for the KC and you can see what are the programs, what are the webinars, when are the meetings for that and you can choose to opt in. So it's really as much or as little commitment as you want to make that if you come to one program you're not promising to show up to every program for the rest of your career.

Dana Weintraub [00:37:00]: Right.

Scott Radimer [00:37:01]: That it's really challenged by choice for that and that to the points we've made earlier that it's really not as difficult or overwhelming or separate from your work as it might feel at times that it might feel like especially for those of us that maybe feel more imposter syndrome at time it might feel like oh no, this is something that other people do that aren't like me. That this is really complicated and extra. And it's something that everybody does in their our day to day life. And it's just when you add a little bit more structure to it is what takes it from like having an opinion to doing an assessment or evaluation for that. And so I encourage everybody to think of themselves as assessment people. We're all assessment people as humans and it's just kind of how extra you are in it as we're going through. Yeah. Consider learning more if you don't know anything about it and if you are engaged in it, I would love to have you join us and be engaged with us in there.

Scott Radimer [00:38:02]: And that's what I'd say.

Dana Weintraub [00:38:03]: One more response to my previous answer. I would be very remiss if I did not acknowledge faculty. Faculty are also a part of the ARKC and our faculty partners who teach assessment student affairs assessment who teach in college student affairs programs. It's time to take a break and toss it over to learn what's going.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:38:27]: On in the national Anything else you'd like to share with NASPA today about the AERKC or the assessment profession?

Scott Radimer [00:38:33]: So I would just say that kind of along the lines of people thinking that this separate work I would just encourage people to think about the skills that your assessment staff have in there at your university, that if you're a senior administrator, chief student affairs officer, your student affairs assessment people have skills and experiences that are very valuable outside of assessment work too. That these are people that you should be considering for AVP roles or executive director roles outside of I think that as a field we have a tendency to preach transferable skills to students and talk about how amazing this is. And then we do not practice that at all when we are actually hiring people, because we end up hiring people who have these very traditional career paths and career trajectories and experiences because we just want someone we know can do it, that they've done this before. And then we miss out on we're hiring for experience rather than hiring for skills for that. And so I would just encourage people to think about the skills. When you're doing strategic planning, when you're doing evaluation, when you're working in assessment, you know what everybody in the division does because you're reading those reports, you're helping them design assessments that they can really have a broad and deep understanding of the the work that we do across areas and bring a lot of insight and innovation to those areas if they are given the chance. So just like we shouldn't view ourselves as just, you know, data people are not data people, we shouldn't also view other people who do that as just data people or not data people. So that's my plug professionals.

Scott Radimer [00:40:21]: We can do more than just. Although that is very important, I hope that people value it there.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:40:27]: Finally today a big announcement that the NASPA 2026 Full Housing and Registration is open. I hope that you have had an opportunity to sign up for housing and for the registration. I hope that you have had an opportunity to sign up to attend the 2026 NASPA Annual Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:40:51]: Missouri.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:40:51]: If you have signed up, definitely sign up for housing today. You don't want to miss out on the housing opportunities before they fill up. And we're looking forward to seeing so many of you at the conference, looking through all of the pre conference opportunities. There are so many to choose from, so also take some time to look through all of those. Many of those are hosted by our knowledge communities or through other institutes or other individuals that are spending a lot of time to prepare and to allow for you to do a deep dive into topics that are meaningful to you that are impacting your campuses or you individually. So I highly encourage you to check out the pre conference opportunities that are also available for sign up. Every week we're going to be sharing some amazing things that are happening with within the association. So we are going to be able to try and keep you up to date on everything that's happening and allow for you to be able to get involved in different ways because the association is as strong as its members.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:41:59]: And for all of us, we have to find our place within the association, whether it be getting involved with the knowledge community, giving back within one of the centers or the divisions of the association. And, and as you're doing that, it's important to be able to identify for yourself where do you fit, where do you want to give back? Each week, we're hoping that we will share some things that might encourage you, might allow for you to be able to get some ideas that will provide you with an opportunity to be able to say, hey, I see myself in that knowledge community. I see myself doing something like this. That or encourage you in other ways that allow for you to be able to think beyond what's available right now to offer other things to the association, to bring your gifts, your talents to the association and to all of the members within the association. Because through doing that, all of us are stronger and the association is better. Tune in again next week as we find out more about what is happening in NASA.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:43:06]: Chris, thank you so much for keeping us up to date on what's going on in and around naspa. Another great NASPA world segment from you and Scott and Dana. We are now back with our Lightning round. I have seven questions for you to answer in about 90 seconds. Scott, we're going to start with you and then go to Dana. Are you both ready?

Dana Weintraub [00:43:23]: Yes.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:43:23]: All right, question number one, if you were a conference keynote speaker, what would your entrance music be?

Scott Radimer [00:43:29]: I'll say Britney Spears, Toxic by Survivor.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:43:33]: Number two, when you were five years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Scott Radimer [00:43:36]: A paleontologist.

Dana Weintraub [00:43:37]: To be a Solid gold dancer.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:43:39]: Number three, who's your most influential professional mentor?

Scott Radimer [00:43:42]: I will say that it was my friend and colleague Molly Monahan, who was a GA when I was an undergraduate student and is the reason why I'm in higher education today.

Dana Weintraub [00:43:53]: I'd say Dr. Larry Mineta, retired vice president of Student affairs at Duke University. I worked with him as a graduate student and really amazing mentor. And to this day, friend number four.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:44:05]: Your essential student affairs read.

Scott Radimer [00:44:07]: I Will say Guy Land by Michael Kimmel. I think that a lot of the things that happen on college campuses are specifically about how men and women view themselves as men and women. And we usually don't think about that. And so Guy Land's a great way to kind of make the subtext text.

Dana Weintraub [00:44:28]: So I'm going to take this as answering it from a more personal and what was most meaningful in how I entered in the work that I do is reading Dr. Alexander Astin Sandy Astin's what Matters in College. It really just kind of that's the reason why I do what I do. And it was through that read that actually I think kind of like formed a dream. What was a dream at the time and never knew it was going to become reality of actually studying at ucla. And my time at UCLA was my most formative years in higher education.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:45:02]: Student Affairs Number five, the best TV show you've been binging lately.

Scott Radimer [00:45:05]: Frieren is an amazing anime that I highly recommend.

Dana Weintraub [00:45:09]: I don't really watch tv. I wish I had time, but I don't. But I would like to get back to I started watching and binging Veronica Mars and so yes, that's the first that came to mind. That's how I'm answering these questions. The first thing that pops into my mind.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:45:22]: Number six, the podcast you've spent the most hours listening to in the last.

Scott Radimer [00:45:26]: Year, the British History Podcast.

Dana Weintraub [00:45:28]: I would love recommendations listeners, please give me your recommendations.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:45:33]: And finally, number seven, any shout outs you'd like to give, personal or professional?

Scott Radimer [00:45:37]: I'm going to shout out my former supervisor and friend from the University of Memphis time together, Daryl Ray, who is an awesome person and and continues to reach out and check in on me even though we haven't worked together for like six years. Amazing person. Shout out to Darrell.

Dana Weintraub [00:45:55]: Wow. Well one, I want to give a shout out to everyone on the ARKC leadership team who have been phenomenal colleagues and just thank you for believing in Scott and me and all of your support and it's just so fantastic to work with you. And then I want to give a shout out to some of the folks that are the reasons I'm doing the work that I'm doing today. So Dr. Kristen McKinney for giving me that first position as a graduate student at UCLA Student Affairs Research Office. My current supervisor, Dr. Salvador Mena, who's also a very involved member of NASPA. Thank you for believing in the work that we do in Student affairs assessment.

Dana Weintraub [00:46:35]: Want to give a shout out to all of my colleagues at Rutgers and just Scott shout out to you and how much fun it is to partner with you in strengthening the area.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:46:46]: It's been such a wonderful conversation today getting to know about the work of the AERKC and a little bit more about your styles and leadership on assessment. If anyone would like to find you after the show, how can they find both you and the AERC so you.

Scott Radimer [00:46:58]: Can find me on LinkedIn is the best way to connect me. Also, in addition to signing up for the KC through NASPA's platform, you can also find us on LinkedIn as well.

Dana Weintraub [00:47:11]: And same for me, LinkedIn is the best place to find me. You're also welcome to email me and I hope that we get a spike in LinkedIn members from after this podcast.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:47:24]: Thank you both so much for sharing your voice with us today.

Dana Weintraub [00:47:27]: Thank you, thank you.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:47:33]: This has been an episode of Essay 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 your time with us. If you'd like to reach the show, you can email [email protected] 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 five star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you're listening now.

Dr. Jill Creighton [00:48:02]: It really does help other student affairs professionals find the show and helps us to become more visible and the larger podcasting community. This episode was produced and hosted by Dr. Jill Creighton. 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.