[3452] in APO News
another service opportunity :P
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Catherine M Coury)
Mon Sep 28 16:40:03 1998
From: Catherine M Coury <cmcoury@MIT.EDU>
To: apo-news@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 16:39:07 EDT
The Student Resource Service is a group which works to connect
students with on-campus service opportunities. They are having a
training session (where you get to learn all sorts of useful and
spiffy things about the administration and mediation and negotiation
and such) possibly this weekend; if not, in the future. Here's more
information - if you're itnerested in going through the training
or finding out more, email resources@mit.edu. (Also, John is
a brother of this chapter.)
YiLFSRS, Cathy
-----------------------
Dear Prospective Member:
On behalf the Student Resource Service, I would like to thank you
for your interest in our organization. Below I have attached
additional information about the Student Resource Service,
the upcoming training session, the Institute Foundation (the
group that supervises the Service), and our upcoming member
meeting.
If you are interested in the Student Resource Service, or in any
aspect of the Institute Foundation, please contact us at
resources@mit.edu. If you would definitely like to attend the
training on October 3-4, please send the attached application to
resources@mit.edu. (If you would like to go through training, but
cannot attend the Fall session, please let us know. We will you
contact you about the IAP training session.)
As promised, if you do not contact us or attend the member meeting,
this will be the last message you receive from the Student Resource
Service. If we do not see you again, I wish you all the best in your
years at MIT.
I look forward to meeting you at our upcoming meetings and training
sessions.
Very truly yours,
John S. Hollywood G
President, Institute Foundation of MIT
-----------------------
Outline:
1. Information about the Student Resource Service
2. Training Information
3. Application for the Service
4. Information about the Institute Foundation
1. Information about the Student Resource Service
The Student Resource Service helps students solve Institute-related
problems. Generally, this means putting students in contact with the
"right people". It also means assisting students on how to
communicate with the "right people".
We try to interact with other students as informally as possible, as
"helpful friends" rather than as staff members. All of us have the
experience of having friends come to us to tell us about a problem.
As a member of the Student Resource Service, you provide assistance to
your friends and colleagues that goes beyond listening -- as
requested, you provide them with information that helps them solve
their problems. We do staff an e-mail question line, but that is not
the focus of the Service.
To do this, we:
-- Train ourselves in MIT's administrative and resource structure,
along with other resources available to the community (student
governments, faculty committees, student groups, etc.)
-- Record what we know about MIT's resources in our 50+ page
guidebook, which we update regularly.
-- Do the research necessary to find out who to go to if we don't
know the answer to the question.
-- Train ourselves in how to deal with students and resource people.
This has several parts. First, we study general strategy techniques
on "How to Get Things Done at MIT". Then, we study communications
skills, in three parts -- how to communicate with students who come to
us, how to assist students in contacting staff and faculty, and how to
communicate in meetings and e-mail exchanges.
-- In some cases, we relay concerns to people for students. These
are usually student-faculty complaints or student-MIT agency
complaints. (We generally do not handle disputes between students).
-- Publicize our existence to the MIT community. The Service does
do some general publicity. However, members are expected to advertise
their role to their living groups, departments, and other groups they
belong to.
-- In some cases, if a lot of students are being adversely affected
by an Institute policy, we lobby for Institute policy changes as
an organization.
In summary, to help students solve Institute-related problems, we
provide information about resources, communications assistance, and
lobbying support. Note that we do not provide counseling -- members
may not provide counseling services on behalf of SRS. (You may
offer counseling services through another organization.)
Much of our operating philosophy from MIT's Ombudspersons. We try to
give the students who come to us options to choose from rather than
set advice. We do not do anything on our users' behalf without their
permission. Also, all of our contacts with students are confidential
unless a situation involves a serious crime (legally, we comply with
the Commonwealth's requirements that citizens report felonies). We do
not keep formal records, nor do we provide any information about who
came to talk to us or why.
2. Training
This fall, training will be held on Saturday, October 3, and Sunday,
October 4. If you cannot make these sessions, we will offer another
training session over IAP. (If you have conflicts with some of the
sessions, talk to us.)
The schedule is as follows:
Saturday, October 3
10-12 am: Introduction to the Service
Intentionality, Power, and Getting Things Done at MIT
12-1 pm: Lunch
1-3 pm: Discussion of the MIT Administration and Student Resources
Sunday, October 4
10-12 am: Active Listening and Communications Skills
Acting like an Ombudsperson
12-1 pm: Lunch
1-3 pm: Exercises, role plays, questions, and T-shirt distribution
In addition to the formal training, members are expected to
read the Guidebook thoroughly. While members are not expected
to have the Guidebook memorized, they should know where to look
up different types of resources.
3. Application
We require members to submit an application. We don't use these for
selection purposes -- the major purpose is to have our members commit
to certain principles required of us by MIT and Massachusetts. We
also use the applications to get general information about members.
The following is the membership application. Return it to
resources@mit.edu.
----------Biographical Information----------
Name:
Address:
Living Group (if applicable):
Phone Number:
E-mail:
Department / Major (if known):
Year:
----------Background----------
1.) What activities are you involved in?
2.) Do you have any previous experience in dealing with MIT
agencies and administrators? If so, what?
3.) Do you have any special skills or training that you feel would be
of help to the Student Resource Service? (Examples include peer
counseling, mediation training, MedLinks training, etc.)
----------Personal Statement---------
Please comment on why you would like to become a member of the Student
Resource Service.
----------Conditions---------
To become a Member of the Student Resource Service, you need to accept
certain policies. These policies are required to protect the students
we assist and to comply with certain laws. By returning this
application you agree to accept these conditions.
1) Members of the Service shall provide only the following:
A. Referring students to the appropriate agencies and persons
necessary to have problems solved.
B. Doing the work necessary to determine which agencies and
persons a student should see.
C. Advice to students on how to contact and meet with parties
that students need to see.
D. Relating students' concerns directly to parties that are
troubling those students. Members will consult with the
service managers before relating concerns.
Members of the Student Resource Service will not offer any other
forms of assistance as an agent of the Service. This condition
does not limit any assistance that Members have been trained to
provide through other agencies.
2) The Service will act only at the request of students. Members
shall not take any actions, to include referring a case to MIT
agencies, without the permission of the students, unless such
actions are required by law.
3) All conversations between students and members will be kept
confidential unless disclosure is required by law. When requesting
information, members should provide only the minimum information
needed for the managers (or MIT staff) to make correct decisions. In
general, this information should not include students' names or other
identifying information.
4) If a Member is not sure about who to refer a student to, they may
not guess. Instead, Members will ask for the needed information from
Service managers or from other MIT administrators or faculty.
-----------------------------
4. About the Student Resource Service and the Institute Foundation
The Student Resource Service is an independent student group not
affiliated with any MIT agency or student goverment agency. However,
SRS does receive professional advising from the MIT Public Service
Center. It is managed by a (roughly) eight-person Executive Board.
Some of the Executive Board members are "Managers". Managers help
members with questions the members are not sure how to address, and
manage complaints or proposals the Service makes on behalf of
students.
The Service is a branch of the Institute Foundation, an ASA recognized
activity dedicated to empowering students at MIT. In addition to
SRS, the Foundation runs several other services to help students
gain more control over their lives at MIT.
* _Institvte_ is a monthly electronic journal that publishes quality
analyses of student affairs issues. It is a community forum that
provides students with an effective means to analyze and influence MIT
policy. It welcomes submissions from any member of the MIT community.
The Foundation is looking for new staff to edit the journal and to
publicize its existence to the community. _Institvte's_ web page is
available from http://web.mit.edu/institvte/www.
Where SRS helps individual students, _Institvte_ is a tool to push for
campus-wide changes. SRS members, and the students we help, have
often used _Institvte_ to lobby for policy improvements. The journal
has been quite influential. Its dedicated readers include many of
MIT's senior administrators and faculty, and some of its articles have
helped improve student policies. For example, some articles helped
bring about programs to reduce dormitory overcrowding and redesign
MIT's dining system.
The articles in the July issue of _Institvte_ show the style of the
journal:
-- An explanation of the sanctions given to a fraternity for violating
MIT's alcohol policies, written by the Public Relations Chair of
the InterFraternity Council.
-- A notice on how to get a copy of the final report of the Student
Advisory Committee to the Task Force on Student Life and Learning.
-- An analysis discussing the statistical and analytical shortfalls in
recent projects to improve student life (both at MIT and nationwide).
-- A proposal to create more social space in the Student Center.
-- A proposal to give students universal card access to dormitories.
-- An analysis that praised Cambridge for repaving Vassar Street,
but criticized MIT for failing to repave Amherst Alley.
As a historical note, _Institvte_ preceded the creation of the Student
Resource Service or the Institute Foundation. That is why the Student
Resource Service's home page is reached through the "institvte"
locker.
* The Institvte Digital Information Service (INDIS) is a web based
service that offers links to commonly needed information sites, such
as news articles, job listings, and social events, all from one
easy-to-use menu. This is a new service, and the Foundation staff is
interested in growing and maintaining it. The "beta version" is
available at http://web.mit.edu/institvte/www.<p>
* The Foundation offers Leadership and Management Seminars during IAP.
We will offer a seminar on Project Management; we may also offer a
seminar on Influence and Power.
===================================================================
John Hollywood |
MIT Operations Research Center | "Liberty cannot be maintained
77 Massachusetts Ave, Rm. E40-130 | without general knowledge
Cambridge, MA 02139 | among the people"
(617) 253-6185 | --John Adams
jshollyw@mit.edu |
===================================================================
