Lynn Riker is the Administrative Coordinator in Dining Services at Rutgers-Newark. She supports all administrative aspects of the Dining Services operation including responding to student questions and concerns, creating and distributing information regarding meal plans and Raider Dollars, inputting data into Transact Campus and billing systems and promotion of dining plans.
How does your position intersect with and/or support student success?
I most frequently interface with students when they are requesting a meal plan, a meal plan change or forget or lose an RU-ID. I try to be helpful and timely with answers to their questions. I also provide as much information as I can to students. They ask me all types of questions and so I show them where/how to look information up on the web. I like to check in with them to see how they are doing. I ask questions, hoping that they will feel more “connected” to the RU-N community and know that they matter to me and to the community. I believe when students feel connected to members of the community, that it helps them be more successful students. I ask them:
“How are your classes?”
“Is the college experience what you expected it to be?”
“Are you OK?”
As an example, a student came into the office and I just felt like something was up. We chatted about this and that. After a few minutes, the student shared some things that were happening. I connected the student to the CARE Team, to emergency swipes, to the Pantry+, etc. As a result of that interaction the student graduated from RU-N two years later.
What is one innovation or unique idea related to teaching or professional development that you’d like to share?
I try to meet students where they are (it may be the 10th time I have answered the same question and it’s the first time for this student), and engage in active listening the best I can. I also attend/participate in as many professional development opportunities (workshops hosted for faculty/staff from Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance, Intercultural Resource Center, etc.) as I can on campus. I like to repeat these workshops every two years or so, too, so I can be informed about any changes or updates in services, processes, requirements and adopt those to our services, referrals, process, etc..
How have you participated in, or engaged with, the P3 Collaboratory’s professional development initiatives?
The Book Club that discussed “Bandwidth Recovery” by Cia Verschelden in Spring 2023 and the P3’s Anchoring Higher Education Conference (AHEC) where she was keynote speaker. She provided a broad overview of student learning and engagement and the impacts they make on student retention and completion. I love engaging with topics about learning and thinking and how that impacts my work as an administrator to support student success and connection in our community. I think about this as it relates to language - using meal plan vs board plan, using full office names and full names not acronyms. Paying attention to the questions students are asking and how students answer each other's questions.
What do you wish your staff colleagues knew about the P3 Collaboratory?
That all the programs are open to staff. I think when you look at P3 programs as a staff member, you need to look at transferable skills. How I present in the classroom or the pedagogy I use is transferable to how I plan a training workshop/series or an “educational” program.
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