A Final Report By Yunshan Li

My research question is generated from my interviews with Student Engagement (below refers to SE) employees on the topic of their work related to student clubs. One interviewee said, “Could they do these things without us? Probably.” Then he explained the difficulty students could meet without their support, but I started to consider what would happen if they were actually not there. According to Yacob and colleagues, in universities, there is a long history of clubs and student groups (Yacob et al. 2022). However, according to my interlocutors, in Uoft, Student Engagement rose relatively late. Similarly, leadership training in university is also a new field that has developed in recent years. Therefore, student clubs exist far earlier than leadership training which is still a new professionalized field. 

Based on this observation, My main research question is, as Student Engagement is also known as Clubs & Leadership Development, what is the necessity of club service and leadership training in the context of current UofT student life with a historical background without this type of training? More specifically, this research aims to understand the practice through which SE concretizes leadership and trains students to be “ideal” leaders.

To address this overarching question, three sub-questions are proposed in this research. Firstly, to contextualize the research question, it is necessary to understand what type of leadership training SE provides and how SE staff build it. Secondly, comprehending SE employees’ understanding of leadership offers insight on the purpose of carrying out these programs. An assumption can be the university expects students to be a specific type of leader or gain specific type of leadership skills, and meet the requirements of contemporary university. Therefore, it is necessary to understand what is a “good” leader defined by SE. Finally, it is also helpful to understand how leadership development is professionalized in the context of the university. Even though there are work-study students in SE, it is still mainly led by full-time employees who have an educational background or relevant experience. Therefore, their specialized knowledge reflects skills that are needed for developing leadership training programs, and how SE concretizes leadership. 

Methods

I planned to address the research questions through ethnographic interviews with staff members, participant observation of leadership programs and document research. However, during my fieldwork, I met difficulties in conducting participant observation due to SE’s concerns about student privacy. Therefore, I turned to focus more on interviews and document study, especially program handouts or slides provided by my interlocutors, which depict the general idea and flows of programs. In the end, I had the opportunity to conduct four interviews with two interlocutors. Each interview lasted 40-90 min. All interviews were tape-recorded. I also analyzed three documents, along with information provided on Student Life’s official website.

Contextualization

Before answering my research questions, it is necessary to briefly introduce the general context of my research. My research is concerned with the work of SE, particularly the Student & Leadership Development Division. It is one department of Student Life. According to its website, the Club & Leadership Development Division’s function is to support students in formal leadership positions in clubs and groups, as well as students who want to join clubs and develop leadership skills (Student Life 2024). In practice, SE is responsible for everything related to supporting more than 800 clubs in uoft, including leadership training and relevant administrative matters for clubs and club leaders. Because my research focus is leadership development, I mainly interacted with staff and analyzed the programs in this field.

Leadership training is one of the main functions of this division. SE provides both online and in-person programs. It includes several larger series intended for Student leaders of U of T recognized campus groups that contain basic knowledge regarding operating student groups and serve to connect student leaders (Student Life 2024). This training program is constructed by many workshops and seminars, such as Clubs Essential Training Workshops, which provide training in three aspects: 1) Organizational Development and Membership Engagement (ODME),  2) Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDl), and 3) Executive Role Development (ERD), which are respectively about practical organizing skills, creating inclusive and equal space and self-development of leaders (Student Life 2024).

Furthermore, Clubs Essential Training also contains Presidents’ Retreat, Club Cafés and Clubs Conference which provide spaces for connection and communication between club leaders. Besides Clubs Essential Training, there is another program series Learning to Lead, which is prepared for students who are interested in but not yet leaders to gain a basic understanding of leadership (Student Life 2024). In general, for leadership development, SE provides diverse programs for current and future leaders to meet their needs for leadership development.

Even though nowadays many events are hosted online, the Club House is still an important site for my research. The SE offices are located in the 21 Sussex Clubhouse. It is an old-fashioned 6-storey house located behind the Robarts Library, where 50+ clubs are based. It is usually quiet, with doors to most club offices closed. People walking through the house seem busy. Only during open days or special events does the house radiate vitality. Here is where I did all interviews with SE staff members and conducted participant observation on a few events. 

Even though SE is responsible for supporting over 800 clubs, it is actually a small team. There are only 7 full-time employees. One interlocutor said even though they are not shorthanded, some work takes a very long time. This situation also causes each one of them to have a clear labour division. 

Specifically, the work of my interlocutors focuses on 1) administration and club recognition and 2) leadership training program development. For 1), their daily job is to answer any inquiries that students have, mostly through emails, but they also have open hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is sometimes a trivial job – when we were having an interview, a student came in just to drop the key to the club office. Other times they do club recognition acceptance and renewal process. Because it is not the focus of my research, I would not elaborate on that. For 2), this type of work is less directly student faced, but focuses more on leadership program design and launching. However, they do not build it from zero, but they have a series of “anchor documents” for each program from people who were once in this position, which have very detailed information regarding the program including the aim, the target population, the detailed process, involved staff member list, and student feedbacks of the program. These documents provide a basic structure of programs, which helps them modify existing programs or develop new programs, which I will discuss more later.

Individualized Leadership

One puzzlement I had at the beginning was how can programs that face all students be individualized. One core idea of these programs and services SE staff provide is that they are here to support students, and students can choose what they think is helpful for them, such as choosing to attend workshops that meet their needs. SE provides supportive and instructive services and programs but lets students choose and apply for themselves. It does not force students to do anything or intentionally shape students into a particular type of leader. Instead of a managing or leading role, Student Engagement’s work is more like meeting student clubs’ and leaders’ needs in their leading process, and students themselves close this loop of individualization.

When asked how they understand leadership, my interlocutors gave similar answers. Emma emphasizes that leadership is an individualized thing, and it could be quite different depending on the student’s personality and their experiences. They do not have a standard measurement to assess if a student is a good leader. Rather, they would let students explore by themselves. Another interlocutor Joseph also argued that, even though they know in students’ eyes they are like a parental role, they actually do not intervene in students and clubs too much as long as they follow the general policies of the university, including the “Policy on the Recognition of Student Groups”, and the “tri-campus guidelines”. Besides these official guidelines, they rely more on the constitutions of the student group. It is the same in leadership development. Certainly, there are some basic standards students have to follow and skills students have to grasp, which I will elaborate on later. However, as another interlocutor said, 

“of course a leader shouldn’t be someone who’s like mean or yelling at people like there are certain things that maybe aren’t the greatest indicators of a leader, but this person could still have leadership qualities and they could still make a great leader one day.”

This quote implies that in the context of student groups, even though people may have diverse personalities or leading styles, everyone still has a chance to become a good leader, and that is what SE hopes and helps students to do. Similarly, Joseph said the good thing about being a student leader is it is an opportunity to make mistakes. It is terrible to make big mistakes in academic studies because it impacts GPA and leads to a series of consequences. However, if a student leader did not organize an event well, it is not a big deal and the leader could learn from it with a small price and do better next time. In general, there is no standard for what is a good leader, but while ensuring leaders have some basic skills and qualities, SE encourages students to explore on their own.

Concretized Leadership

As I mentioned above, even though SE views that everyone could become a good leader, some particular qualities and skills are still necessary. To answer the question of what type of quality and skills are needed, I analyze it by dividing them into three categories. Firstly, navigation, which is a more institution-related issue. Joseph’s work of answering students’ questions is part of this aspect. This type of knowledge is closely related to the characteristics of uoft. As Emma said, uoft is “a behemoth”, which hints that uoft is a huge system, and requires a mass of knowledge for students to find useful information and coordinate with different concerned parties within this system. Additionally, things are always changing. In a Club Cafe, a student talked about the confusion of transferring from CLNx to Folio, which are old and new versions of a student co-curricular platform. Emma said people still consider themselves new even if they work in this department for four years, because there are always too many new things to learn, such as buildings, services and programs. It is a long time learning for those who work full-time here, and would be even more difficult to master all institutional knowledge for students. This is also why employees have the anchor documents because the partially structured workflow is a reassurance for them.

More importantly, Uoft is also a decentralized system. During my fieldwork, I observed a conversation between a staff member and a student leader, where the student leader was looking for financial support from the university for his club. The staff member suggested he try a series of institutions, including UTSU, his faculty student union, and Hart House, and consult other student leaders in his faculty because his club is academic-related. There are also many leadership training programs that aim to help students navigate as a club leader, such as the introduction of the club recognition process (Student Life 2024). Similarly, Joseph is also developing a webpage on Quercus, which concentrates on all Student Engagement services, which helps students to navigate. These examples show that their work regarding leadership is quite basic. Compared to helping students lead “better”, it leans more toward helping them lead more efficiently. As Joseph commented, “life is administrative”, finding useful information in the right way is an important skill in the whole life of students, and he considers that as part of leadership soft skills education.

Secondly, leadership development is also about practical skills rather than an abstract concept. According to Dopson and colleagues, leadership in a university is contextual, processual, and relational, which means that leadership is not just about individual traits or characteristics but also involves social and developmental processes, and is related to the university context (Dopson et al. 2018). Besides the ability to navigate the Uoft system, SE is also dedicated to helping leaders gain practical leadership skills in a concretized way, and this ideology runs throughout the Essential Training workshops. One example is a workshop “Event Planning for Clubs and Groups. (Student Life 2024)” This workshop starts with letting participants reflect on their own experience of attending events, and consider what makes it go well. Based on that, the facilitator first introduced a general event planning process, starting from the conceptualized mission/vision and goals of the event to creating a plan, and finally running the event and evaluating. Based on this main structure, the facilitator introduced every part in detail and the operational steps, including what aspects should organizers consider, and practical skills such as budget planning and marketing. This example shows that leadership could be broken into many smaller aspects, and each one of them contains a series of basic steps, which SE tries to convey to students. 

Event planning is a relatively concrete topic. In Essential Training Programs, there are also more abstract topics, such as how to create an inclusive space in the student group or how to eliminate oppression and discrimination. However, the facilitator still broke the general concept into smaller parts and provided chances for participants to discuss and practice. In conclusion, leadership is not an abstract concept but is constructed by many workable aspects. 

Besides these practical skills, some qualities are also considered necessary to be a good leader. However, there are still some universal standards for being a good leader, which are represented by inclusiveness and equity. There is a whole Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Education Series. On the official site, it is introduced as “Develop practical skills for equity, diversity and inclusion through formal training and casual chats. (Student Life 2024)” This series includes workshops such as Creating Inclusive Environments and Introduction to Anti-Oppressive Practices (AOP). Therefore, even though varies types and forms of leadership are accepted, some most basic values have to be followed.

Connective Leadership

Besides helping with any requests student leaders have and providing training workshops, SE also serves as a bridge between different clubs and leaders. SE works on integrating separated clubs into an organism and creates an environment for communicating with each other. One example is the Club Cafe that SE hosts weekly. In the beginning, I thought it was a staff-directed event that led students to discuss a designated topic according to the introduction on the website. However, when I actually attended one, I found it was simply a space provided for student leaders to communicate and discuss their confusions and challenges, and SE staff are only there to discuss with them their chosen topics and provide them suggestions. Similar examples include the Club Open House which is organized by SE but allows students to learn about every club, and the Club Award which compliments best clubs and leaders. These are practices that enhance the cohesion of all student clubs, and SE plays the role of intermediary in this process. These examples show that compared to a management role, SE is more like a bridge, between the university policy and clubs, and among clubs themselves.

Leadership Based on Students’ Needs

When discussing what type of programs they launch, Emma said it is heavily based on students’ feedback. When one workshop is finished, students receive an evaluation form on the event regarding their feelings and what they gained in this event. Emma evaluates, renews or modifies existing programs or develops new programs based on feedback and attendance numbers along with anchor documents. In this process, she tries to find what is best for students and ensure they learn what the programs are designed for students to learn, “Like if they’re saying, I learned about the best pizza topping, but the workshop was on spaghetti, then we need to go back and revise the learning outcomes.” One example is they once had a workshop teaching students how to use social media, including how to create accounts and post. Then they realized that nowaday students do not need and are not interested in learning these types of skills. To deal with this situation, they revised this program into marketing and promoting the social media account which they find are more relevant to students’ needs. Emma said she invited a guest to speak about how they grew their Instagram account to 70,000 fans, which she considers more helpful for student leaders. In general, SE is developing its leadership training programs to be more practical and closer to student leaders’ needs, and student leaders can actually use them in practice, which is reflected in their feedback to SE.

Professionalized Leadership

A final question is how leadership development became a profession and what type of professional knowledge is required. As the responsibilities of university leadership and faculty management have increased, so have additional tasks in the areas of teaching and research. Schneijderberg and Merkator argue that the growing complexity of universities led to the professionalization of functions for which specific knowledge and abilities are needed (Schneijderberg and Merkator 2012). The intervention of a special group of workers other than faculty members becomes urgent. In the context of uoft, firstly, the most obvious necessity of SE becoming a full-time job is the requirement of workload could not be handled by work-study students. Even thought SE is not shorthanded, it is still tough and time-consuming to handle so much work and needs of all the clubs. More importantly, as mentioned above, it is a job that requires experience and takes years to be familiar with this system. Not to mention the broader Uoft, Student Engagement is a large system with abundant training programs and events. Due to the instability of work study, it is crucial to have full-time employees to be responsible for this work. 

More generally, there is a growing need to make Student Life a profession. One interviewee discussed the expansion of Student Life in recent years. In the beginning, there were only a few departments such as Health & Wellness and Accessibility Services. There are other parts of student life that are newer, and new programs appear in most departments every year. In the context of SE, with the growth of club and program numbers, club management and leadership development become an increasingly huge system. From a practical perspective, there is a necessity for professionalizing leadership development. According to the Student Life Strategic Plan, the first goal is “Whole Student Growth and Development,” which aims to “Foster a holistic approach to learning, growth, and development to support students’ personal, academic, and career goals.” Leadership development is part of this vision, which receives support from the university.

The key to being qualified for work in SE is a combination of relevant experience and theoretical knowledge. As mentioned above, familiarity with uoft, especially student club-related issues is essential. Both of my interlocutors had abundant experience in student organizations when they were students and engaged deeply in student life, which later became a crucial part of their working skills. Because they deal with many pop-up situations, which do not have a clear guide from the university, therefore they could only use their own experience-related knowledge to deal with these issues. Both interlocutors also mentioned that there is not a lot of formal training. Besides documents, the support they receive is mostly in the form of communication with colleagues and they gradually learn soft skills in the process of working.

However, many employees who work in SE received a part-time master’s degree from OISE while working. In the process of designing leadership development programs, theoretical knowledge is indispensable when making decisions. Emma said one example is research shows that the first six weeks of a student’s first year is crucial for them to get engaged through the rest of their university. If the student does not participate in any student activities in their first six weeks, it is very likely they will not be engaged at all later. This theory becomes the reference for them to design and schedule the orientational events at the beginning of the semester. Emma would include this theoretical evidence when proposing an orientational event to present how this event could benefit students. Therefore, their decision is a mix of a series of considerations, including feedback, their own experience, theoretical knowledge, and practical considerations such as budget and larger university requirements. 

Conclusion

This research focuses on the pivotal role of Student Engagement (SE) in fostering leadership development among student club leaders in the form of supporting rather than merely guiding or forcing. As a bridge between university policies and student organizations, SE not only designs its programs to help students develop practical skills in an individualized way but also enhances the cohesion of clubs based on students’ needs. The appreciation of feedback and navigation skills ensures the applicability of leadership training, allowing student leaders to learn from their experiences in a supportive environment. With the growing complexity of university student life, the professionalization of leadership roles within SE becomes increasingly essential which reflects university official’s emphasis on leadership training. Finally, the practice of SE leadership development programs shows a concretized understanding of the leadership of students, ultimately empowering students to become effective leaders and benefit their rest lives. 

References:

Dopson, Sue, Ewan Ferlie, Gerry McGivern, Michael D Fischer, Mahima Mitra, Jean Ledger, and Sonja Behrens. 2019. “Leadership Development in Higher Education: A Literature Review and Implications for Programme Redesign.” Higher Education Quarterly 73 (2): 218–34.

Schneijderberg, Christian and Nadine Merkator. 2012. “The New Higher Education Professionals.” In The Academic Profession in Europe: New Tasks and New Challenges, 5:53–92. The Netherlands: Springer Netherlands.

Student Life. 2024. “Clubs & Leadership Development.” Student Life. Accessed December 16, 2024. https://studentlife.utoronto.ca/department/clubs-leadership-development/

Student Life. 2024. “Clubs Essential Training Workshops.” Student Life. Accessed December 16, 2024. https://studentlife.utoronto.ca/program/clubs-essential-training-workshops/

Student Life. 2024. “Learning to Lead.” Student Life. Accessed December 16, 2024. https://studentlife.utoronto.ca/program/learning-to-lead/

Student Life. 2024. “Event Planning for Clubs and Groups.” 

Student Life. 2024. “Starting a Club.”

Student Life. 2024.“Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Education Series.” Student Life. Accessed December 16, 2024. https://studentlife.utoronto.ca/program/equity-diversity-inclusion-education-series/

Yacob, Kamarazaman, Rusdi Omar and Jessica Ong Hai Liaw. 2022. “The Role of The Socialist Club Influences The Students in The University.”  International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 12(12): 1298-1305.