On Deck with Student Affairs June/July 2024 Edition

From the Desk of Vice Chancellor Brandon Frye

Dear Colleagues and Friends of Student Affairs:

The summer is here and with that brings new student orientation, planning for the fall 2024 semester, and for many, trying to fit in some well-deserved summer leave. The summer for me has also been a time of reflection.

In the spirit of reflection, over the last few publications of On Deck with Student Affairs, I have highlighted our Division’s Core Values. The final value I will discuss, and arguably the most important is integrity; which, we define as “maintain[ing] open and honest interactions.” Integrity must be at the core of our work with students, staff and faculty colleagues, and ECU stakeholders. It is the foundation for our working relationships with others. Integrity also says-we are going to do what we say we are going to do.

I believe that Student Affairs has displayed integrity and followed through on accomplishing our mission of “supporting Pirate success through environments that enhance student development, engagement, belonging, well-being, and career readiness.” Over the last year we have been open in our commitment to student success by focusing our key priority areas of: student engagement, student health and culture of well-being, student belonging, career readiness, innovation, and divisional financial health. In the spirit of open and honest interactions, below are a few examples of our commitment to student success:

• The Dean of Students Office received a $162,000 grant from the UNC System’s Case Management Expansion Initiative. The funding was used to hire two case managers to specifically work with incoming new students who identified as needing support through their first year at ECU.
• Student Health Services completed more than 21,000 appointments over the last year with students.
• The Center for Counseling and Student Development served 1,497 students from July 2023 – May 2024.
• Student Affairs Business Administration completed year 3 of UNC System All Funds Budget Process, utilizing Anaplan budgeting software, with projections of total revenues of $113.1M and total expenses of $108M.
• The Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities is revising the Code of Conduct which will be in partnership with representatives from the faculty, staff and the Student Government Association. This change will better meet the student body's needs by providing a clearer understanding of the code for students and their parents or partners going through the conduct process.
• In August 2023, Disability Support Services opened a new Health Science Campus Testing Center and administered 982 exams during the first year of operation.
• To enhance campus safety, Campus Living (Housing) planned and prepared for Campus Living access control conversion from key fobs to 1-Cards for a phase one roll out in August 2024.
• Career Services organized and executed 12 in-person job fairs, a record number at ECU-which drew in a record-breaking attendance of 944 employers and over 4,735 students during the 23/24 year.
• The Financial Wellness Hub successfully hired and onboarded a new student staff of 10 student interns offering individual sessions and workshops, while also providing leadership and support for the UNC System Office Financial Wellness Working Group and presenting at their Financial Literacy.
• Parent and Family Programs Facilitated the process for a committee of ECU parents that awarded 14 Parents Funds Grants to department, student organizations, and University programs totaling $10,000.
• Student Affairs Technology Services successfully closed 925 service tickets during 23/24 with a 4.89 out of 5 or higher ratings in all customer survey categories.
• Club Sports had 396 donors which equaled to 14% of total University donors during Pirate Nation Gives.
• Student Affairs Assessment, Research and Planning developed and published the Methods and Measures Guide for ECU Student Affairs team in support of enhancing division’s quality of evidence and improvement efforts.
• Student Affairs raised over $737,000 from July 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, and is on pace for another $1,000,000 dollar fundraising year by July 1, 2024.
• As of the end of April 2024, the Student Centers traffic count is 1,313,165 and on pace for 1.4 million visitors - 50,000 over last year's record.
• 77% of students attending Student Engagement events reported feeling more connected to the University (events ranging from SAB events to Homecoming to Greek Fest).
• The Military & Veterans Resource Center (MVRC) moved into their new home on the second floor of the Main Campus Student Center.
• Williams-Ross Purple Pantry received an endowed gift of almost half a million dollars from Drs. Williams and Ross.
• 4,057 students and 4,293 parents/guests attended this year's (23/24) orientation session(s) [including summer, transfer, and spring] for a total of 8,350 individuals.
• Pirate Media 1 students produced new on-air sports and news programs, blogs, live media events, more than 575,000 radio streams, 26 newspapers and newsletters, three magazines, and a mental health section in collaboration with nine other state universities in addition to donating to the Purple Pantry and the Pitt County Humane Society.
• ECU SGA hosted the NC Association of Student Governments (ASG) for the first time in over six years, and ASG elected ECU student leader Cameron Brown as their statewide president and selected immediate past SGA President Javier Limon as their Chief of Staff.

As you can see, our division has been busy this year and has much to be proud of. Thus, I want to thank our Student Affairs team for your hard work! Additionally, I want to thank our campus partners for assisting us on projects and initiatives that support student success.

Again, I am very appreciative for all that you do to advance Pirate Nation.

Parent & Family Programs – FERPA Process Simplified

Good news! The annual FERPA permissions process for students and parents/guardians has fully transitioned to CampusESP, ECU's Parent & Family Portal.

How do students create and modify FERPA permissions?

1. FERPA permissions resource page: Detailed instructions on how to grant permissions to parents, guardians or other individuals using the ECU Parent and Family Portal.
2. CampusESP/ECU Parent and Family Portal: Log in with SSO, click the person icon in the main menu (upper right). Select Admin and search using the student's name or ECU email.
3. PiratePort: Students access the portal by searching for the "FERPA Permissions Form" application in PiratePort.

How do parents/guardians request FERPA permissions?

Parents/guardians request FERPA permissions through the Parent and Family Portal for access to:

The request is sent to the student's ECU email who then grants the permissions. Academic and financial information is pulled from Banner and displayed for parents in the Parent and Family Portal.

Note that "Other" category items are not displayed in Parent and Family Portal. Parents/guardians contact those areas directly.

How do faculty and staff check FERPA permissions?

Faculty and staff have multiple options for viewing students' FERPA permissions before speaking with a parent or guardian:

1. CampusESP/ECU Parent and Family Portal: Log in with SSO, click the person icon in the main menu (upper right). Choose Admin and search the student's name or ECU email.
2. Banner Admin Pages, SPACMNT: Only users with Banner Admin Pages access. Use comment type FRP. *Note: not all users will have access.
3. ECU BIC Report: In development.
4. PiratePort: Search PiratePort for FERPA Admin.

Learn more

More details for students, parents/guardians and faculty/staff are found on the FERPA permissions webpage.

For questions specific to the ECU Parent and Family Portal, please contact Carter Fenwick, Director of Parent and Family Programs at morselle17@ecu.edu.

Campus Living Drop-Off / Move-In for Fall 2024

Submitted by Steven Holingsworth and Gretchen Brockmann, Campus Living

August is almost here, and we are gearing up for a successful Move-in process for our students who live in the Residence Halls. We have two opportunities for students to move into their rooms with our Drop-off option and our standard Primary Move-in period.

Participating in Drop-off is optional for students. The Drop-Off opportunity allows around 30% of our on-campus student population to bring belongings to their residence hall rooms a few weeks before the start of classes. Students sign up for a two-hour block of time to move in items and set up their space. They return home and come back to campus after we wrap up Primary Move-in. The Drop-off option relieves stress for families and decreases Primary Move-In queue times in Minges Coliseum and the residence halls. In turn, this leads to increased availability of move-in carts, elevators and volunteer assistance. This initiative started during COVID-19 when we needed to limit the number of people in our halls at one time. The inaugural Drop-Off was so successful that we continue to utilize this initiative to help manage resources and provide a smooth move-in experience for students and families. Drop-off this year will occur August 1-3.

Primary Move-in occurs August 14-16. Students will come to Minges Coliseum to pick up their keys and vehicle move-in passes. Vehicles will be queued and released as spots to unload become available. The vehicle passes will include directions to their specific "Stop, Drop, and Roll" location, where they will drop off all their belongings to their room and immediately move vehicles to the remote lots. Directions to these lots are on their vehicle passes. Campus Living staff members, many campus and community partners, and hundreds of volunteers will provide move-in direction and support to our students and families as they move belongings from their vehicles to their residence hall room, providing a smooth and positive move-in experience for our residents.

We are so excited to continue the time-honored tradition of ECU Move-In. Move-In has evolved from the inaugural 1909 Move-In where Jarvis Hall housed its first residents, to moving in over 5400 students across three campus neighborhoods and 16 residence halls. We are so thankful for the Campus Living team members, University partners within and beyond the division, and the internal and external volunteers that help us continue grow and improve the experience each year for our residential students and their families!

SA Professionals Conference Presentations

Ed2NC Summit

Tom Halasz, Career Services Director, was a co-facilitator for a round table discussion titled “Building a Successful Internship Program” at the Ed2NC Summit held in Raleigh in May.

The Summit brought together representatives from over 20 state agencies and 10 university career services offices to discuss the opportunities and challenges in creating a pipeline of talent by connecting students and recent graduates with careers in state government. Additional topics discussed included “How Can State government Attract Talent”, “The State Application Process” and “Career Paths in State Government”.

Behavioral Health Convening

In May, numerous staff and faculty members at ECU attended the UNC System Office Behavioral Health Convening. This is the 7th year for the event, and the event was expanded this year to cover two days and include institutions from the UNC System, NC Community Colleges, and NC Independent Colleges and Universities.

The convening and the selected presentations were designed to meet several goals, including:

• Engage in conversations about innovative and evidence-informed programming that supports student mental health, social connection, and well-being
• Discuss the scope of student mental health challenges on campuses and better understand current trends and issues within student mental health, including but not limited to eating concerns, social media, suicidality, and substance use
• Share strategies and ideas to promote increased education and access to mental health services for a diverse population of students, their experiences, and across different campus environments
• Explore the relationship among counseling centers, wellness initiatives, and other campus support services with faculty, staff, student leaders, and community members, to increase collaboration, communication, and understanding about how these efforts work in tandem to address the overall health and wellness of students
• Identify opportunities to enhance a campus culture of care and inclusivity to combat faculty/staff burnout and attrition, with an emphasis on campus wide self-care and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives

A focus of the convening was also to highlight and celebrate the success and impact of the behavioral health programs and initiatives supported by the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Funds. One team from ECU presented on the outcomes of a GEER-supported grant that provided case managers related to the First Year Assessment Survey and the First Year CARES Initiative. Dr. Lynn Roeder, Dean of Students, received the grant in July 2023 for hiring case managers to assist with outreach to students who were identified through the First Year Assessment as benefiting from additional support. Information about the program and outreach efforts was shared in the presentation, “From Predictive Analytics to Intervention and Relationship-Building: Using Mental Health Survey Data for Intentional Outreach and Case Management Support.” Presenters included Dr. Lynn Roeder, Dean of Students, Dr. Lauren Thorn, Director of the Center for Student Success, Dr. Jeremy Tuchmayer, Senior Associate Director of Student Affairs Assessment, Research and Planning, Janelle Green and Tezra Egleton, First Year Cares Case Managers and Advocates.

The First Year Cares program and First Year Assessment will continue into the upcoming academic year as a focused effort to support student success, connection to resources, and retention within the university.

Human Resources presents Well-Being featuring CRW

Campus Recreation and Wellness Well-Being Tip of the Month

The Crucial Role of Social Well-Being and Relationships in our Life

In nurturing our relationships, we not only enhance our own lives but also contribute to a more connected and compassionate world. By taking active steps to maintain the connections that matter most, we ensure that our social fabric remains strong, resilient, and vibrant. Let’s commit to being intentional about our relationships — after all, they are not just part of our lives; they are a large part of what make our lives worth living.

To read the full article with tips on building connections, visit the Campus Recreation and Wellness Website.