The BYU Dean of Students Office is holding a discussion series to answer questions about student affairs as a career on Thursday, Nov. 21 at 11 a.m.
This will be the first discussion in the series, and the Dean of Students Office hopes to continue to hold them once or twice per semester.
“One of the things that we've noticed in this field is that a lot of people just aren't familiar with student affairs, that it's an actual profession that people go into,” said Kyle Slaughter, the consultant for assessment evaluation and research for the Dean of Students Office.
Student affairs jobs include deans, advisors, administrators, program coordinators and more.
The Dean of Students Office is partnering with the Women’s Leadership Lecture Series for this first event. The speakers will be BYU Student Life Vice President Julie Franklin and BYU Dean of Students Sarah Westerberg.
'We're specifically interested in getting their perspective being women leaders on campus,' Slaughter said.
Employees in the Dean of Students Office said the purpose of the discussion series is to not only help students learn about possible careers in student affairs but also help them understand the plethora of available resources.
'We want to be able to help students not just become familiar with these opportunities, but also put into perspective the resources and services that are provided to students on campus and recognize that there are probably more opportunities than they're taking advantage of currently,' Slaughter said.
'We're creating a more accessible image for these people that are here to help the university,' said Victoria Greenwood, a BYU design major and a research assistant for the Dean of Student's Office. 'They do a lot of great things for the university.'
Greenwood said though the event is called a discussion series, each event will take different formats. Thursday's event will be more like a lecture, while the next event in February will be a panel discussion.
'We want to provide opportunities for students to learn more and answer their questions about student affairs at all of our events and we felt that the discussion series title best captured what we will try and accomplish through the series over the years,' she said.
The event will be held at the Varsity Theater in the Wilkinson Center.