Campus Visits and Life After OPE

It’s getting closer and closer and by it I mean the 32nd Annual Oshkosh Placement Exchange (OPE). At the end of this week, hundreds of anxious candidates will descend upon the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh hoping to get a magical letter in there OPE mailbox asking them to visit a campus. For me, it was an amazing feeling to check my mailbox on Sunday after my last interview and see a few envelopes in the box–it was even better to open the envelopes and read my campus visit offers. In a previous post, I talked about managing the campus visit process by asking employers for their hiring timelines and putting them on a calendar. This practice can really come in handy at this time.

In your campus visit letter, the institution will most likely offer a few date ranges for their campus visit days. If you have an idea of when they want to have hiring finished or when they start making rolling offers, it helps you figure out when you should go to campus–especially if they’re one of your top schools. If you didn’t plan out these things in advance, it would be a good idea to ask employers when they start making offers when you communicate your campus visit decision. It’s important to get in touch with these employers as soon as you get back from OPE so that you can show your interest in the position. Keep in mind that they may not be able to get back to you as soon as you would like because other placement exchanges tend to take place right after OPE.

I Made it to a Placement Exchange…Now What?

It’s that time of the year again and I have had the opportunity to pass on some knowledge that mentors shared with me about navigating a placement exchange. There’s not an exact science to being successful, but there are some guidelines to follow that may help you be successful. Last year I wrote a post titled “Looking Back on OPE” with some tips on being successful at the exchange. I want to write a followup post about what you can do both at an exchange and what to do after your interviews are over. 

Staff Development for All…

Previously Written for Campus Talk Blog (campustalkblog.com)

Staff Development training is something that people working in Residence Life are very familiar with, but we often forget about the student workers who are changing lightbulbs and serving spaghetti in the student union. Many of these students, given the right tools, would make fantastic Student Affairs administrators, or could simply benefit from training outside of their normal job description. Working in both student union activities and campus housing, I’ve noticed a significant difference in the training and development programs between these areas. While many student union staff are trained specifically for their job function, resident assistants and housing staff are trained in life skills and are given several opportunities for experiences beyond the scope of their employment. This is an understandable difference because staff development is somewhat ingrained into the culture of Residence Life.