Michele Irby leads by engaging in the campus life she directs

It's easy for Michele Irby's days to get packed with meetings. As the director of campus life and event services, she's no stranger to a busy schedule. But the best part of her job, she said, is the basis on which she interacts with students. Her work demands getting out of the office and immersing herself in the community she's bettering. So she acts as the adviser for organizations like Student Government Association and the Homecoming Planning Committee. There, she gets to see what's talked about in meetings then put into action.

How did you get to your position as the director of campus life and event services?

I became the director here because I had worked here [Southeast] in other roles. So I've actually been here 18 years, now, and worked in a variety of roles in campus life. Then in 2002, I became the director of the University Center, and in 2005 I became the director of campus life.

What are some of those other roles you worked in before your current position?

I was the assistant director for programming, and so I worked with our leadership programs. I've been the adviser to the Student Activities Council. I've worked with Greek Life here, then I moved into our operations position, so I worked with university scheduling and working with the student employees that run this facility. So I did things that were building blocks to move into the director position when it became available.

What are some of you day-to-day duties on the job?

What I like best about my job is no two days are the same. What I will say is every day includes working with students, and so as the adviser to several student organizations on campus, I spend time one-on-one with students, helping students with issues. Being the adviser to student government, we're always focusing on whatever is the hot topic that students are working on or what is a hot topic for the university that they want students' input on, so working with those groups. I'm also the adviser to the Homecoming Planning Committee, and so, obviously, about six months out of the year I spend a lot of time on a weekly basis working with students in that group planning those kind of events. A lot of the other meetings that I attend or things that I do are planning for events. We plan Family Weekend, so we work on those kinds of things. Then, obviously, [I] spend time on supervision. We have a staff, and I supervise the staff in our department, budgets and then just having visions of good, new things and initiatives that are important to students that we'd like to see come out of Campus Life.

You mentioned your role as an adviser on campus. How do you exemplify leadership in your roles there?

I think being an adviser to a student organization is one of the most delicate balances that you can have when you work with college students, because you're not paying them as an employee, they're volunteers, and so I view myself as an educator. So I feel like part of what I do is to guide them, to teach them what they're responsible for, but then, ultimately, to let them do the work themselves. The leadership for me in that is not in the doing, but in empowering others and giving them the resources necessary to do the job that they need to do in that particular volunteer role that they've taken on for themselves.

Where do you see leadership pop up outside of the office?

I'm currently the president of the Jackson Middle School PTO, so I spend time in that kind of leadership role. I also work with the [University Foundation]. And we just put on an event, which was a masquerade ball which was actually homecoming weekend, which was unrelated to my job. It was something that I did on that weekend. So I think it's important to take on those skills and join other community or civic organizations and take those skills out into the community. I don't feel like you always have to be the president or the chairperson to bring those leadership skills. I think there's a lot of ways to bring leadership to organizations when you're a member or you're just a follower in those particular groups.

Who have you looked to as leader and a mentor as you've progressed in your roles at Southeast?

Probably the person who hired me. His name was Loren Rullman, and he no longer works at the university, but he was my supervisor and hired me when I first started here. He works in higher [education], and he currently is at the University of Michigan. He really had a vision for working with students and what student leadership was about. That has kind of stuck with me, and I often sometimes hear him in my head when I'm working with students. I'll say, "Oh, Loren would say..."-sort of thing, so obviously there were some good lessons taught through those experiences. ... He was the director here of student auxiliary services, [that] was his title when he was here, and worked with a lot of departments and was a really good role model.

What qualities do you think constitute a good leader?

There's a couple of things that come to mind when I think of a good leader. One is a good sense of who you are and using that to guide where you're going, trust that gut instinct, have a sense of trusting your own vision. I think a lot of times people get caught up in the group and don't trust themselves to make good decisions. I think good leaders are those who listen to the people that they're leading and include people. I believe in a collaborative leadership model, and so bringing those people into the conversation. Three, to have a little bit of vision yourself, separate and apart, for where you'd like to see the organization go, because there'll be times when your team is with you and there'll be times when your team is not with you. So trying to help students to realize they move toward their vision even if it's time when maybe the rest of the group isn't as formed going with them. Because when we're working with students, I sometimes find that there [are] times when they're very dedicated and they're all going in one direction, and there [are] other times when the committee falls away and isn't functioning well, but if the leader has a good vision for where they want to go, they're still successful in the process.