AVP: Leading from the unique role of Associate/Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs

Always good to read a book for my professional development – on the job reading!  The book is called AVP: Leading from the unique role of Associate/Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs, edited by Amy Hecht and Jason Pina.  It is a good introductory read for anyone who is moving from a directorship position in student affairs (Housing, Career Services, Multicultural Affairs, etc.) into the #2 position working directly for a Vice President of Student Affairs.  Each chapter is written by a number of student affairs professionals who provide their personal journeys on the road to or through the Vice President position.  The first chapters capture what it takes to be a great AVP, from competencies necessary to expectations.  The next chapter follows the progression from being hired, what it takes to be successful in the first 30, 60, and 90 days with some helpful tidbits/nuggets of common sense to do the job well and connect to the institutional mission, division goals, and the networks of staff/students who you will need to get to know.  There are some redundancies throughout the book on the supervision piece, managing multiple areas of the division, and ensuring you serve your VP well.  Other focus areas within the book include: navigating politics in the role; human resource management; managing fiscal resources (a 101 version in my opinion); and creating a work-life integration model.  The last chapter was helpful to reinforce eating healthy, integrating a daily physical exercise regimen, and get enough sleep into one’s life.  The only piece I completely disagree with is the idea that the higher you move up, the less interaction you have with students.  I maintain, and always will, that is a personal choice one makes in their life.  If student interaction is something you value, build it in!!!  Chapter 9 focuses on maximizing the role, how to stay motivated and remaining effective.  This was probably my favorite chapter of good solid take-away ideas to be successful.  The last chapter followed the paths of five professionals who landed an AVP position and moved on to VP.  I was much less interested in this chapter, ho-hum good for them, not sure how it was helpful for current AVPs…  Overall a better read for newbies with some self-reflective exercises to keep one thinking about your development.  Pretty quick book to finish with a few nuggets and mostly common—sense, oh-yeah, that is true statements.  NASPA produced book.  Oh yeah, and always fun to be reading a quote that you provided to one of the authors!  Thanks JPK!