This Assessing and Improving Student Organization (AISO) program is intended as a guide for leaders of student-led college organizations. It is designed to promote the assessment of their organization by leaders and members, help them with planning and improvement, and assist them in responding to reviews by governing bodies and national chapters. Apart from affording their members a structure for engaging with peers in activities of mutual interest, collegiate organizations provide them with hands-on opportunities for enhancing understanding of groups and organizations, and how they operate, and for acquiring and practicing the leadership, communication and collaborative skills that are so important for personal and professional effectiveness throughout life. This Guide provides you with a structure for analyzing the workings of your organization. It will generate insights to help you determine how effectively the organization is functioning, identify strengths and weaknesses, devise priorities and plans for future improvement, and in the process, promote your reflective learning.The AISO process constitutes an ideal laboratory to practice and refine your capabilities for analyzing and improving groups and organizations.Purpose and Elements of the AISO ProgramThe Assessing and Improving Student Organization (AISO) program is intended as a guide for leaders of student-led college organizations. It is designed to promote the assessment of student organizations by their leaders and their members, to help them with planning and improvement, and assist them in responding to reviews by governing bodies and national chapters. Apart from affording their members a structure for engaging with peers in activities of mutual interest, collegiate organizations provide them with hands-on opportunities for enhancing understanding of groups and organizations, and how they operate, and for acquiring and practicing the leadership, communication and collaborative skills that are so important for personal and professional effectiveness throughout life.In addition, the AISO leadership process - unlike comparable programs - provides students with immediate and authentic feedback to evaluate their leadership, and how they impact their organization, community, and campus. The program consists of three elements: a Guide for Students, a Student Workbook, and a CD-ROM for facilitators.AISO has been developed under the auspices of NACA and ACPA by two authors who are experts in organizational and leadership development, student affairs, and human resources management.This is a unique, easy to use, and effective process that reflects input from student leaders.An ACPA Publication
Nolfi, Tricia: - Tricia Nolfi has spent the past twenty years working in higher education in the areas of student centers and student activities, judicial affairs, student governance, leadership education, and human resources. In addition to administrative work, she has served as a course instructor in the area of leadership development. She currently serves as the Associate Director of Human Resources at Rutgers University providing direction for employee professional development programs, divisional marketing and outreach, employee recognition efforts, and new employee programs. Tricia has authored articles on student leadership development is editor of Advising Student Governments: Models for Practice and Strategies for Success (NACA Educational Foundation, 2000).
Ruben, Brent D.: - Brent D. Ruben is a distinguished professor in communication at Rutgers University, where he also serves as senior university fellow, advisor for strategy and planning in the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, and was the founder of the Rutgers Center for Organizational Leadership. He is also a member of the faculties of the Rutgers PhD program in higher education and the Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine. Brent is author or co-author of numerous publications in communication, organizational leadership, planning, assessment, and change, including Excellence in Higher Education Guide (Stylus, 2016), What Leaders Need to Know and Do (National Association of College and University Business Officers, 2006), and Communication and Human Behavior (Kendall Hunt, 2020). Ruben was a founder of the Rutgers Department of Communication, and first PhD program director of the School of Communication and Information. He was a founder and first president of the Network for Change and Continuous Innovation in Higher Education (NCCI), served as Rutgers inaugural liaison and is a frequent contributor to the Big Ten Academic Alliance leadership programs, and serves as an adviser to colleges and universities has and nationally and internationally.
