Campus Spotlight
Confirming Great Ideas Through Campus Visits
By Daniel Meyers, NetVUE Online Community Coordinator
Colleagues who lead vocational initiatives at NetVUE member institutions sometimes feel isolated on their campuses. It’s easy for them to feel as though no one fully understands their role in designing and implementing these projects, often because they have no blueprint or instruction manual. At Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, one such leader—Sara Smits Keeney—wears many hats: she is associate professor of sociology and social work, director of peace and justice studies, and director of the Anselmian Journeys program. When she participated in NetVUE’s Campus Visit Program last year, her experience not only affirmed that the institution’s ideas were possible, but it also opened up a clear path forward.
Two years ago, Saint Anselm began to engage more with NetVUE programming, and senior leaders who participated in the 2024 NetVUE Conference encouraged Smits Keeney to explore several NetVUE resources, including the Campus Visit Program. She identified the Salve Compass program at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, as a strong fit for her programmatic needs. The Anselmian Journeys program links curricular and co-curricular opportunities for vocational exploration, which helps students understand their identities and value beyond grades and financial earnings. Smits Keeney saw an opportunity to integrate several initiatives already in place into a more comprehensive and coherent vocational exploration program. To realize this vision, she needed to see how parts of her institution’s programmatic practices worked together in a different context. She needed to see Salve Compass at Salve Regina.
Kathleen Farley, the Ryan Family executive director for signature experience initiatives at Salve Regina, welcomed the request from Smits Keeney for a campus visit and hosted the group in May 2025. Farley co-chaired the team that designed Salve Compass, a four-year signature experience that infuses both vocational exploration and career readiness into the curriculum for all students. When Farley and her team designed Salve Compass, they reimagined and restructured multiple programs and resources, establishing the Center for Advising, Career, and Life Design. “Putting myself in Saint Anselm’s position,” said Farley, “I knew it would have been so helpful to have another mission-driven example of how to do this work.” Such examples were useful to Smits Keeney, since she wanted to learn more about organizational structure, budget design, and space use.
Smits Keeney identified Salve Compass’s advising model as one that could inform Anselmian Journeys. At the time, academic advising at Saint Anselm was fairly transactional, and students were expected to pursue larger vocational questions on their own. At the same time, many advisors were engaged in far more intentional reflection with their students. The full-time advisors in the Salve Compass program offered an example of what could be possible in Anselmian Journeys.
For Smits Keeney, learning about Salve Regina’s comprehensive model was not mainly about generating new ideas; rather, the visit confirmed that Saint Anselm could reorganize its existing programs to better support students. This was true about the advising program, but also a variety of other vocational initiatives as well. “The traditions of Anselmian culture are really important; graduates and the community are really passionate, and so change is hard,” said Smits Keeney. “We had to approach this change by recognizing this is work we already do, and we do it well.” The NetVUE Campus Visit Program gave a team from Saint Anselm the chance to see the potential of their own campus, to gain conversation partners, and to confirm that their goals were achievable.
“The Campus Visit program is mutually beneficial,” said Farley, as she described how the visit prompted her and others at Salve Regina to reflect on their own progress and process. “We got to return to the messiness of mapping out our work,” said Farley, “and that is what I appreciate about NetVUE: finding others who sit at the intersection of academic affairs, student affairs, and institutional mission.” Farley and Smits Keeney connected with each other through their campus visit, which led not only to sharing ideas, but also to recognizing their common cause in the distinctive challenges they face in working across the many silos within higher education.
The visit gave Saint Anselm an important boost to reform its advising model. Last year, the college received a NetVUE Program Development Grant to identify the needs of the newly created journey guides, who will function as holistic advisors. This year, Smits Keeney and her colleagues are training these guides to begin their advising work with students. As they do this work, Smits Keeney continues to draw on her experience at Salve Regina to advocate for sustained institutional commitment and has recently secured a new physical space for this program.
For Salve Regina, this partnership has helped Farley see the significance and growth of what initially felt like a small corner of higher education. “As more and more of us are thinking about the return on investment in our programming, vocational work is where we can make a case,” reflected Farley. “If students learn good exploration and discernment practices, that can be a distinctive feature of the education we offer at our institutions.” Farley sees proof of this concept emerge as more NetVUE campuses share their models with one another, distinguishing her institution and others within higher education.
To learn more, see the article about this program in this newsletter or visit the NetVUE Campus Visit Program website with details on how to apply. All inquiries can be sent to John Barton, NetVUE professional development program officer, at jbarton@cic.edu.
Having benefited from a campus visit—which built momentum toward a NetVUE grant and sustained institutional support—Smits Keeney’s advice to other NetVUE member institutions is simple: “Just do it! NetVUE has been incredible to work with, and they are so excited to support and grow this work.”
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