Running head: PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT- DEC 2015

Personal Philosophy Statement- Dec 2015

Daniel Vorwerk
University of Northern Iowa

PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT- DEC 2015

When I wrote my personal philosophy statement the second week of the semester, my
opening line read, I have always viewed student affairs as a profession that is all about the
students, and that statement remains true now that I am a few weeks away from the end of my
first semester in the program. That is really the only part of my original two pages of text that I
would stand by confidently now that I have spent a semester studying the profession.
The idea that I attempted to argue in my original statement was that student affairs has
grown so big as a profession that there needed to be a division between the administrative side
and the relational side of the profession. I made the argument that places such as an office of
admission solely work in the administrative side of student affairs, with little student contact
other than admitting students based on some numbers on a piece of paper and maybe an essay or
two if the institution required it. On the other side, I argued that an office of academic advising
conducts their business in the relational side of student affairs because of their close interaction
with students and the role they play in a students life once they are on campus. To conclude my
argument, I stated that administratively focused student affairs offices worked more for the
success of the institution while relationally focused student affairs offices worked more for the
success of the student.
As the semester progressed, I still saw both administrative and relational sides of student
affairs as I studied institutions of higher education both big and small. What became evident as
the glaring flaw in the assumptions I made in my original personal philosophy statement, though,
was that I believed that this separation in sides of the profession occurred horizontally across an
organizational chart, with different offices or departments functioning as either administrative or
relational. What I now know is that all offices and departments are operating with both

PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT- DEC 2015

administrative and relational tendencies with the difference occurring vertically in each office
silo rather than across an organizational chart.
In my Organization and Governance class with Dr. Jamie Workman, I learned a lot about
how institutions operate and function through their organizational charts. Analyzing the
organizational charts of different institutions such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the
University of Northern Iowa and Wartburg College made it apparent as to why administrative
and relational sides of student affairs exist. Professionals operating in higher positions within
student affairs offices (directors, associate directors, etc.) typically have less interaction with
students because they spend a lot of their time overseeing staff while entry level professionals,
no matter what area of student affairs they work in, spend a lot of time working with students.
When I wrote my first personal philosophy statement, I was focused on how I saw the
profession, not how I see myself fitting into the profession. The biggest part missing from my
personal philosophy statement was the personal part; I didnt include it. Therefore, over the past
few months that is what has changed the most in my view of the profession; it has been a change
from viewing the profession as something that I am working toward but rather, something I am
already engaged in. My understanding of the administrative and relational sides of student affairs
has been challenged through interactions with professionals like Dr. Jon Buse, Vice President of
Student Services at Kirkwood Community College, who is in a position of higher authority but
still makes sure that his entire day has a focus on the students at his institution. The same goes
for Dr. Leslie William, Dean of Students here at UNI, who, in class a few weeks back, shared
with us about her role as the Dean. Even though she did not specifically articulate that her focus
is always on the students, you could tell through her demeanor and attitude that the students are
the reasons why she does what she does.

PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT- DEC 2015

I know I still have a lot to learn about the profession before entering as a full time
professional in a few semesters. However, given the change in my mindset with the profession
and understanding that the role of a student affairs professional is to always seek to put students
first, I am excited to continue to learn and grow as I progress through the program.