IDD&E: Sparkling Oasis for Students and Faculty
By Yuri Pavlov | IDD&E doctoral student (Belarus)
Rebecca Pettit joined the IDD&E Department in the position of Office Coordinator in November 2018. On the day of the interview, she knew next to nothing about our department, but not because she did not do her research—she simply could not find an “ED-IT department” as per the job advertisement. Fast forward 1.5 years, she was recognized with the departmental Ultimate IDD&E Caretaker Award for her exceptional contribution to the operations of the IDD&E department. Water and paper supplies, stationery, labels all around the office, and a never-depleting jar of candy are a surface testament to her space management efforts. One layer deeper lies Rebecca’s virtuoso performance in oral/written communication as well as documentation excellence which help the department run like a well-oiled machine. How was she able to turn the department into a little supportive oasis for both students and faculty?
Born and raised in greater Syracuse area, Rebecca attended Marcellus high school and graduated from Le Moyne College with a B.A. in Psychology in 2012. In her junior year in college, she spared 70 hours between three jobs to be able to pay for her higher education. For the senior year, however, she reduced the number of jobs to two. For 7 years, Rebecca worked at Contact Community Services in Syracuse, NY, after volunteering on their suicide prevention hotline for many years, followed by 2 years at Cayuga Counseling Services as a care manager in Auburn, NY. Her interest in people and fascination about the human condition kept her that long at these highly stressful jobs. She recalls: “These organizations provide great services to the community, and I loved them. But after years of commitment, I started to feel burned out, and when you’re burned out, you don’t give yourself to others as much as what a position like that requires.” It was time for change.
“I was always interested in higher education. I realized I can apply my interest in psychology to supporting students, and I applied to the job opening that I found through SU,” she says. Before long, she was hired and started her job with IDD&E. She remembers her initial feelings: “When I first started, I was a little panicked, because there was no one there to show me what I needed to do. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, so I had to wait for an issue to come up to know that I was responsible for that kind of task.” The new job required paying a lot of attention to detail—a skill she honed in her previous jobs, asking lots of questions, and exercising and improving interpersonal communication. She admits: “I am a big picture person. I need to know how what I am doing fits in to the big picture. I would sometimes go and ask others about the things that seemingly went beyond my responsibilities. I needed that context. Even a year and half later there are still a lot of surprises about the tasks I am doing.”
By and large students know that all kinds of registration forms, petitions to faculty, student employment questions are within Rebecca’s competencies, but some students still think of her as an emergency services contact and hesitate to reach out promptly: “My role is to be there to support students and faculty. Contact me. I want people to feel comfortable to share things with me so that I can better problem-solve or suggest alternatives: Should a student take which course in which semester, should they take an internship position, should they apply for a travel grant. Students need to know that I am available for them for a vast array of questions. Whether preparing documentation or just having a conversation, I am good at listening and pulling out from people what they might not yet be able to identify they want, so we can seek out the help and resources together.”
Rebecca loves her job and finds it fulfilling in many respects: “I love working directly with the students, chatting with them, hearing their impressions and feedback about their classes. It is such a motivating environment to be around. I like that we have such a diverse population in IDD&E, I love learning about their different cultures, even if it doesn’t change how I go about my daily life. For instance, I never thought that they have places with snow in Saudi Arabia. Right? Realizing how I have a particular view that is not necessarily complete is transformative.” Rebecca has intense curiosity about new things, and she is the biggest support a student can find. But there are limits to her powers, she acknowledges: “I will not gossip. Or rather, it’s a one-way street. While I love hearing information, in my position I can’t give the information out. That line I won’t cross. Also, there are situations when I cannot help, for instance, communicating a rejection decision. It’s a miserable experience to announce to someone that we cannot move them forward, despite the prospective students’ best efforts and hopes that they put into their applications.”
The novel coronavirus outbreak impacted Rebecca’s work, but she sees both the good and the bad: “I miss the people and I miss those kinds of interactions that happen while in office. I’ve received many check-ins from students since the lockdown, like “how are you doing?” type of emails. It’s nice to be connected despite being away from everyone. I also like not having to commute, and although it’s only half an hour—I don’t miss that. I don’t like that it takes longer in the shutdown to get things done, the processing takes more time, some departments return the forms later than usual, and I feel like I am behind.” Of course, those who know Rebecca know that she anything but behind. The feeling stems from her deep sense of responsibility and commitment. The longest time it takes for her to respond to an email is 4 hours, unless it’s a day off.
Working with IDD&E makes Rebecca hyperaware at times: “I am more aware of certain things now than I was previously. I used to develop instructional manuals in my previous jobs all the time. Now I am worried that someone is going to look at my registration instructions to students and be just ‘Tsk, tsk.’ That critical eye may be cast—after all, I am in the Instructional Design department with certain standards and expectations to instructions. But no one has ever criticized me for my manuals.”
What allows Rebecca to exceed expectations in IDD&E dovetails with what IDD&E cultivates in its students: flexibility, systems thinking, needs assessment, thoroughness, and resourcefulness. She goes above and beyond when she does what she knows, and far and wide when she doesn’t know it and has to look for practical ways of closing proverbial knowledge/skill/attitude gaps. Rebecca’s determination to help students and faculty is sky-high, if not preternatural. She has been a long-awaited piece to the IDD&E mosaic who helps maintain the convivial and cozy ambience every single day.
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