Lisa Matye Edwards

Community colleges play a vital role in Higher Education (HE) by serving a diverse range of students, each with their own unique circumstances and goals. This demands a comprehensive and tailored approach from Student Affairs teams, who must communicate with, engage, and support students of varying needs and backgrounds. 

Lisa Matye Edwards, Vice President (VP) of Student Affairs at Arapahoe Community College, sat down with Co-Host of The Interview, Max Webber, to share how her team navigates the complexities of serving a diverse student body, and creates initiatives that foster individual growth and success. 

Lisa's Journey

Max: Let’s start with a brief introduction to yourself and your institution… 

I’m Lisa Matye Edwards, and I’ve been the VP of Student Affairs at Arapahoe Community College for the past seven years. We serve between ten and twenty thousand students, including students seeking degrees on-campus, completing their studies online, or attending through our partnerships with local high schools and workplaces. 

Max: What drew you to a career in Student Affairs?

I come from a small town in Oregon, so I loved the social side of college. Unfortunately, that meant I failed miserably, but the staff in Advising and Career Services, and my fellow students in Student Government, really supported me. I went through a lot of growth, both inside and outside of the classroom, and that pushed me to look at the people who had helped me, and find out what their work entailed. I left college and went into employment, and then decided to get a Master’s in Student Personnel Administration. I really enjoyed it, and I’ve worked in the field ever since.

Max: How do you create a sense of belonging on the Arapahoe campuses?

We serve traditional 18-year-old students, but we also serve 30-year-old students who have kids and jobs outside of their learning, so we know how easy it is for their studies to be thrown off track by simple problems. We make sure that our students know we care about their success, perhaps even more than they care about it, reminding them we’re here to help, and constantly asking how we can improve our support resources to meet their needs. For our students, knowing that our teams and the wider student community care about them strengthens their sense of belonging.

Max: What’s the best way to communicate with students about your support resources?

Unlike when I was at college, there’s not a main cafeteria that every student goes to where our team can set up a table and be done with it. We have to utilize things like social media because we know that our students congregate digitally. However, that presents another issue because, while a social media post might engage one student, another student may read our posters, or seek support from their faculty. That’s why we take a multi-pronged approach to communication, combining old-fashioned word of mouth with modern means, as well as helping our faculty and staff understand our resources. It’s a continuous improvement piece, so we’re constantly trying to utilize various means of communication, and touch base with as many students as possible. 

Max: How do you provide support for time-poor students who work alongside their studies? 

We give our students the space to engage with the resources they need on an individual basis. A certain student might come to us and ask for help with their studies, so we’ll connect them to a study group in their school. Other students may come forward with their struggles parenting alongside their education, so we’ll set up a parenting fair where they can share their trials, tribulations, and celebrations with students of a similar background. We might have a lunch-hour dodgeball game where students can engage in physical activity, or an application workshop where they can tailor their CV to a certain job role. We’re a tinker toy with a lot of connection points, but as long as our students have a place or person from our team that they can engage with, we can get them the support they require.

Max: Amid a tense political landscape in America, how do you enable students to communicate effectively across difference?

HE institutions are uniquely situated to enable students to exchange ideas with respect, without conversations degrading into an ‘I’m right, so you’re wrong’ argument. But it takes a lot of vigilance to maintain that atmosphere, and we rely heavily on our faculty to set expectations for dialogue across difference. As staff, we model the civility needed to navigate tough conversations, and we treat our students with respect even if we happen to disagree with their viewpoints. We also encourage students to think critically about the sources from which they’re getting information, and help them synthesize knowledge from different areas. While we value free speech, we don’t support hate speech because that’s not appropriate anywhere on our campus or in the world outside it. Educating our students about what makes a ‘good’ dialogue is a challenge, but it’s increasingly important to HE as a whole. 

Max: How do you ensure students are engaging with these important topics outside the classroom? 

At a traditional college, students often learn to engage with people from diverse backgrounds in their residence halls. It’s more difficult for us because most of our students live off-campus, so they may only engage with each other for a few hours a week. Study abroad programs are one way we close that gap, as well as on-campus engagement activities like mental health awareness week, or debates that deal with sensitive topics. We’re also fortunate to be recognized as a campus with high voter engagement, so we invite different groups to come here, put forward petitions or stage protests. Many people question why we allow that, but it nurtures students’ relationships to their civic responsibilities, allowing them to engage with a range of topics outside the classroom. 

Max: What’s the best advice you’ve received during your career?

You have to care about the people who will be impacted by your work before you can do the work, so always operate with an ethic of care. For example, our English students might not want to take a science class, so we explain that we want them to be well-rounded individuals. If a student is missing classes, rather than telling them they’re going to fail, we ask what we can do to help. That ethic of care informs our approach to everything we do, and it always achieves results.