Includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions relating to policy development processes used in various contexts, the application of legal constructs, compliance/policy issues, and the understanding of governance structures and their impact on one’s professional practice.

While I have continued to develop my own legal understanding of a private, ‘risk-averse’ institution, I have also begun to teach others of this landscape (particularly during department staff trainings). Institutional policies have also become a focus of my LPG competency development — whether it has been policy enactments around “Food, Entertainment, & Hospitality,” “Prizes,” or more generalized preferrred university spending practice, I have grown significantly. I continue to rate my Law, Policy, & Governance competency as (lower) ‘intermediate.’

Goals

1. Continue to learn the legal operations of a private “risk averse” university.

As stated in my summer 2022 goal, I had to reorient my professional practice to a private institutional context, administratively described as also being “risk averse”. While this has created tensions with some of my public higher education background, I have come to accept that there are significant operational differences, impacted by the different legal landscape. A great example of this has come from my regular coordination with the Office of General Counsel and Executive Director of Campus Operations, as I complete Property Use License Agreements and Artist Performance and Engagement Agreements for most campus events. I continue to rate myself (lower) ‘intermediate.’

In the fall of 2021 I took and completed EDA5288: Politics of Education. The course provided me a volume of new understandings related to educational law, policy, and governance. I am much more comfortable rating my understanding of LPG as (lower) ‘intermediate.’ However, this level of competence came with the unfortunate ability to see that the political trends of Florida, especially regarding the rights of historically marginalized populations in education, were moving in the wrong direction.

Much closer to completing the ‘Intermediate’ level, experiences in the past year on two Student Conduct & Community Standards search committees and having to closely monitor legislative action specific to programming efforts of the Center for Leadership & Social Change, have proven fruitful. And while I was able to become more aware of institutional financial policies, my use of those policies was limited due to spending freezes related to the coronavirus pandemic. Additional coursework related to educational finance schemes has also increased my understanding of the role of legislation in providing access to education, of all levels.

Like many of the other competency areas, I feel as though I have established a solid foundational understanding, and have begun to progress into the intermediate level, however I do not feel as though I have completed an intermediate level of understanding. As I predicted EDH5405 (Legal) did provide a significant amount of assistance in learning about liability and legal exposure. Our weekly focus on hot topics within higher education from both a student and employee/employer perspective were extremely useful. As the Coronavirus pandemic has begun to affect institutional record management, I have remained an attentive eye in my office and as a supervisor to ensure that student data is handled in a manner compliant with the law.

Law, Policy, and Governance still remains my weakest competency area. While I have taken considerable amount of time to identify a functional area (LGBTQ+ student support) and an institutional type (large public research institutions) for future professional work, and have worked with my supervisor to predict and mitigate risk during the six 2019 alternative spring break trips (by hosting a pre-departure risk management/harm reduction program-wide meeting) I acknowledge I have many more foundational outcomes to cover. As I outlined in my goals last Fall, I expect that many of these outcomes will be met through coursework in EDH5045 (Legal), which I will be taking during this upcoming Fall semester. As election season approaches, I remain committed to being informed about leading Democratic candidates positions on higher education – of interest already is Elizabeth Warren’s plan to reduce/eliminate student debt.

Foundational – Having very limited exposure to legal study or application in student affairs, this competency area represents one of my greatest weaknesses. Any introductory experiences are likely to contribute to foundational outcomes that have yet to be met. Presently, my greatest strength within this area lies within understanding harm and liability, following my previous work experience within a harm reduction department of an international fraternity. And, while I have an understanding of power, privilege, and oppression I have not critically examined institutional, local, state or national policy/law for inequitable enactment toward vulnerable populations.