The Art of Making Mistakes

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. - Oscar Wilde

    Because I am a Graduate Assistant, this blog is sometimes as much about learning to navigate a position with greater responsibility as it is about Student Affairs.  Today's post is no exception.  In the past few months, I have made some mistakes.  Gasp!  It is not quite surprising - with more responsibility comes more mistake-making potential.  Some of these have been larger than others, and a variety of people have been affected  by each, from students to employees to my supervisor.

     What each of these mistakes have had in common, though, are two moments.  One is a moment of realization of the mistake.  The "Whoops" or "Uh-oh" moment, if you will.  Depending on the scope, a feeling of panic may accompany this realization - a split-second of fight-or-flight in which the short distance from my office to the airport seems short enough to sprint.  Luckily, that feeling subsides, and I have always made it through to acceptance that I messed up.

     The second moment is more important and the central takeaway from this post.  This is where you begin working towards a solution.  In some cases, you may be able to do this on your own.  Being able to solve a problem, or at least plan a solution to implement, is an important skill and shows a heightened sense of responsibility.  If you are able to do this, you will going to your supervisor with more than "I made a mistake," you will be walking into hir office with "I made a mistake, and here's what I plan to do to fix it."  This brings up another simple, yet important point - you need to tell others about the mistake!  Consider who needs to know and who should know (i.e., your supervisor will almost always be in at least the latter group, even if it only affects your direct reports).

     Envisioning a solution and telling stakeholders about a mistake may seem over-simplistic.  But coming from undergraduate, student staff positions, where most mistakes are smaller in scope and had easy solutions with few consequences, making your first mistakes in an entry-level position can be scary, if not paralyzing (helps combat the "flight").  Being the only "professional" staff member in this building, though, has been a great experience for many reasons, not the least of which is having the chance to solve the problems I create.  Not that I advocate for making mistakes; I advocate instead for learning more from mistakes than how to avoid them in the future.  Learn how to address them when they occur.  

What are your thoughts on getting back up after realizing a mistake?

Quote Citation:
Wilde, O. (n.d.). Goodreads. Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/799160-experience-is-simply-the-name-we-give-our-mistakes 

Photo By Me - a couple of birds in the airport!  Choose fight, not flight, at that realization step :)

New Semester, New Goals

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." - Francis of Assisi

Happy New Year, Everyone!  The blog is back!

I realized rather slowly last semester that I was in over my head in this endeavor.  I barely had time to tell my wife about my day, much reflect on it with you all.  So now, after being rejuvenated by a relaxing winter break with my family, I am setting out to do one post per week on Mondays.  As always, thank you for understanding and reading!

I believe a good way to start the new semester would be to set some professional goals for now through May.  I have had the chance to think back on last semester and want to reach for developing in the following ten areas.    Hopefully some may be general enough that other new professionals can relate, or at least consider where they can be analogous to their own positions:

1. Ask for more feedback - I have yet to figure out why, but I find myself consistently wondering if I am doing things well or doing enough in my position.  I think some of the time I spend wondering would be better spent this semester by actually asking someone who will have an answer.
2. Plan and implement a campus-wide program with the Hall staff - We have started to think about it and are excited to make it happen.  This will be a grand test in the action of following-through!
3. Assess some initiatives within the hall - There is a lot that we do that we assume is working.  It is about time that I actually talk to some residents about what they think works and doesn't work.
4. Create more space for academic success - I discovered at the end of last semester that many more residents than we thought were struggling with academics.  We can always do more, so it is time to rethink how we incorporate our Faculty Fellow, intentionally discuss classes, and create a space for students to be first and foremost academically successful.
5. Be a more approachable and intentional supervisor - Again, there is always more to be done, and facilitating the professional development of RAs to me is one of the most important areas of my position.
6. Reflect more on how students manage conflict and how to facilitate this - I plan to discuss this in depth with the RAs I supervise during our winter training; it is an area in which I have become very interested, and I believe helping students manage conflict became a much larger role last semester than I had expected.
7. Gain a sense of my professional network / reconnect - I did not realize how quickly a professional network grows in this field, and before I even thought of how to best network I had more connections than I could track in my head.  I need to at least start a list before it grows beyond my reach.
8. Be more present with advising - I have had the chance to reflect with some mentors on advising and realize that my approach could be less hands-off.  Redefining my role with Hall Council is one of my primary goals this semester.
9. Give more time to one-on-one conversations - Within a conversation with a student I (ideally) have a captive audience.  I need to appreciate this more, capitalize on these moments, and have the conversations I can have with those students.
10. Continue to bring theory into practice - My cohort is finally studying student development theory this semester, and I am excited to apply this to my work.

There you go!  What do you think of these goals?  What do you plan to work on this semester?

Quote Citation:

Francis of Assisi. (n.d.). BrainyQuote. Retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/francisofa121023.html 

Photo By: Me :)

The Professional Development of a Graduate Student

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

     One of my first meetings with my supervisor and team involved a discussion on expectations, and one of those expectations of my supervisor was that we seek out professional development opportunities beyond attendance at conferences.  It being my second week on the job, and thus second week even working this school, I had no clue how I would meet that expectation and only slightly more of a clue what professional development even was.  The way I saw it, every day of training was professional development for me being new to the field.

     But once we left RA training and began to settle into a routine, I started to realize just what my supervisor expected.  Yes, I am already registered for a professional conference, but every single day new opportunities to develop professionally arise, some experiential and others more passive.  The experiential ones have been my favorite - I enjoy presenting, advising, teaching, and creating and have capitalized on every such opportunity that has come along.  They offer me to hone these skills and put what I learn and read about into practice.  The more passive opportunities, such as attending presentations and conferences, are exciting as well, because I not only learn from my colleagues but also have the chance to take what I learn back to my practice and experiences, employing that newfound knowledge.

     As great as these opportunities are, I have also started to be very conscious of the time commitment they require.  I am still a graduate student and hall director, which amount to a full-time job alone, and it is not as though professional development activities are an excuse for not completing duties for those commitments - those opportunities are extracurricular.  So now I am very careful to consider three questions: (1) How much time will this take?, (2) When will this occur?, and (3) Will I develop professionally in a way I am not already?  If the time is not taking me away for too long or during an important time of the year (i.e., Closing), and it will assist my development along a competency in which I do not have much experience, I consider taking it on.  The way I see it, I might as well make the most of what is available to me, because professional development will only help me in the end! 

Quote Citation: Edison, T. A. (n.d.). The Quotations Page. Retrieved from: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/793.html 

Some Thoughts on Advising

"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

     Well, a lot has happened since I last posted.  There was conflict, there were - and still are - readings, and there was a ton of fun (what?! =)).  But there was also group advising.  In my position I have the responsibility of advising a hall council - a group of students who advocate for the residents of the hall and put on programs using a portion of the student fees.  It is essentially a full student organization with a full executive board and everyone contributing.  More importantly, they answer to only themselves, as I can only require actions of them when policy (or the law) forces me to.  Other than that, I am simply a voice on the sidelines that they can choose to listen to when they want.

     I have been developing a lot in what I say with that voice.  Last year I advised an excellent Hall Council as a Head Resident Assistant, but it was a very different experience, because they were all upperclassmen, programmed for an Apartment Complex, and were fairly self-sufficient in generating ideas.  This year's Council consists of mostly freshmen living in a more traditional residence hall, and, even though the ideas are always flowing, the follow-through and communication skills are not always.  This has forced me to step-in and guide conversation much more than ever, but the need to do this conflicts with my own views of what an advisor should or should not do.

     An important aspect I see in advising is allowing mistakes to occur.  Plenty of times last year and already a few times this year, I have seen parts of programs and initiatives that I could and wanted to change, but I had to leave them be.  They were simply not mine to modify.  Instead, they were the residents' programs.  Because I have let them be, they have been able to see the mistakes occur themselves, then reflect upon those mistakes and (ideally) learn from them.  This is part of the leadership development that we facilitate in student affairs - growth through mistakes and seeing what does not work when leading an organization.

     This is not to to say that I am perfect, at all.  I have made, and continue to make, plenty of mistakes when planning and executing programs.  I have advised groups and been surprised when their programs do not go well.  The aforementioned growth occurs at every level - I just have the privilege to advise groups because I have experienced more - this does not necessarily make me better.  It makes my voice louder in the room, which is why I have to restrain it at many point.  Because as much as I have steered students away from mistakes in the past, they have also proven me wrong and experienced great success when I saw flaws.  Their potential to create wonderful programs is so vast that my voice on the sidelines could just get in the way.  And so I will continue to only steer when asked.

Quote Citation: Churchill, W. (n.d.). Goodreads. Retrieved from: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2834066.Winston_Churchill 

Current Issues - Program Rankings by Public News Mentions

"To devise the rankings, researchers ran searches of the Google News archive to find out how often more than 12,700 faculty members had appeared in 6,000 news sources from 2006 to 2011. The citations for the professors in each department were tallied, averaged on a per-faculty member basis, and then ranked relative to the federal funds their programs had received." - Dan Berrett

Article Link: http://chronicle.com/article/The-New-Rankings-Frontier-/142197/ 

     It is no secret that the issue of how to rank colleges, universities, departments, and programs is currently at the forefront of news on Higher Education.  President Obama's new plan for higher education ranking and funding, which I commented on recently, re-sparked the debate on what constitutes quality and where does one find the value of a college degree.  It is a difficult, if not impossible, question to answer.  Being very new to the field, I am still among those who say it is a too subjective question to answer - quality and value of education depend on the student in my opinion.  If you want to view this issue in academic capitalist terms, the consumer drives the value, not the researcher or anyone else.

     Unless you rank programs using the system devised by the Faculty Media Impact Project, described by Berrett in the article hyperlinked above.  The Project ranks institutions based on the number of citations in the news per faculty member in departments of Anthropology, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, and Political Science/Government. Federal funding was also considered in the rankings.  The lead on the project, Dr. Rob Borofsky, recognizes that this approach has its flaws but simultaneously feels that its merits lie in the measurement of public service.  However, Borofsky also notes that "Much research is valuable and of high quality...while not being of interest to the public" (par. 15). 

     This was the exact sentiment I shared when reading Berrett's article.  For the sake of academic freedom, scholars should be able to research where they feel holes exist in the literature.  If a scholar has left a door open for you, and you want to walk through that door and have the ability to, then no one should be able to tell you "No" - besides your tenure board, federal funding agencies, the mass media, and others.  Cynicism aside, there are multitudes of research out there that no one outside of the scholars in a specific field have read, and yet those studies were incredible discoveries in their own right and led to even more such discoveries.  Furthermore, the frameworks and theories employed by authors of studies that grasp public interest were discovered or invented by previous scholars, and I am sure that most of those scholars were not cited in the news for those articles.  

     This is not to say that Borofsky's project has no merit.  Publicly funded institutions do have some implicit responsibility to their investors. "'People dealing with social sciences should be dealing with social concerns'" (par. 8) is not an unwarranted statement.  It all depends on what you see as the purpose of higher education.  Bowen (1977) separates the goals into those for individual students and those for society, noting some academic freedom in pursuing the direct enjoyments of learning for the individual student, while noting that promotion of social welfare was important in the goals for society.  Guttman (1987) more closely approaches the issue at hand by separating the purposes into academic and societal purposes while nesting both under democratic purposes. I believe that how well an institution meets a healthy balance of these varying goals should contribute to a metric of its quality - operationalizing that metric will be the next challenge.

Citations:

Berrett, D. (2013). The new rankings frontier: Mentions in the media. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from: http://chronicle.com/article/The-New-Rankings-Frontier-/142197/ 

Bowen, H. R. (1977). Investing in learning: The individual and social value of American higher education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Gutmann, A. (1987). Democratic education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Picture source: http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2009679209_guest18kim.html 

Being On Call

"Nothing is so aggravating than calmness." - Oscar Wilde 

     Apologies for the pause in posts last week, but I had two important and time-intensive items on my plate - a leadership retreat for Hall Council two weekends ago and being the Hall Director On-Call from Tuesday to Saturday. Both were amazing experiences that I would do again in a heartbeat (well, I could use a short break from being on call), but the time they took away from work and sleep meant that I needed to read for class in the time I would have taken to write here. But no worries, I'm back!!

     I will eventually write more about helping with the Leadership Camp, but today I wanted to reflect a little on my first experience of being on call. The way our system is set-up here, there is one Hall Director on call for all of the residence halls at all times. We exchange the phone on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and each person does this duty once or twice per semester. The main purpose for having a Hall Director on call is to maintain protocol and procedure - this person enacts certain reporting chains, grants permission to call for emergency maintenance and custodial services, and acts as a consult when Resident and Desk Assistants are unsure of what actions to take. They also respond in person for more serious incidents to take control of these situations, making sure to obtain as much information as possible firsthand and ensure that the well-being of the community is kept in mind.

     All of the above became so much clearer to me after my first time being on call. Before that, I was not only terrified of not knowing what to do, making the wrong decision, etc., but also slightly uncertain of my purpose in everything. There are plenty of people above me in these reporting chains, and the protocols are rather comprehensive and clear. So why was I important, and why do those RAs and DAs need me?

     What I realized rather quickly was that a lot happens on a large campus that requires consultation. This is not to say that protocols and procedures are not clear enough - rather, students tend to find a way to sit in the few gray areas and make decisions difficult for RAs. This is where I come in. Not to save the day or be heroic, just to make the decisions and the calls that the RAs and DAs are unsure of. I get to be that reassuring voice saying, "Good job, you're making the right call" or joke with them about just how far out there an incident is. I hope they appreciate my sarcasm, because that's what I have to go on at 2 in the morning when something outright awkward is occurring. More importantly, though, is the calming voice I have to use when things really do blow-up and the person calling me is truly stressed. I find it extra-important in those situations that I am on my game, because those people are relying on me to be the voice of calm and reason. It is a great experience to be able to do them that kindness.

Quote Citation: Wilde, Oscar. (n.d.). Thinkexist.com. Retrieved from: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/nothing_is_so_aggravating_than_calmness/217597.html

Photo By Me

Current Issue: Social Media

"University-affiliated accounts—for instance, a department's Web site or library's Facebook page­­—are a different animal. They can broadcast a university's strengths, be used in teaching and research, attract prospective students and faculty and staff members, and cultivate relationships with alumni. But encountering a negative comment thread, or getting no response at all to questions or input, could turn off a student or donor. In the most dismal scenarios, online harassment or unreported threats could lead to legal complaints or campus violence." - Jennifer Howard

Article: http://chronicle.com/article/Worried-About-Message/141773/

     While this article does not provide much "new" or "exciting" information, the fact that it exists in the Chronicle should cause one to take pause and reflect on "What does my institution have out there?" and "How does my institution represent itself online?" As a student worker in my old institution's scholarship office, I was partially responsible for maintaining a website, Facebook page, and Twitter account. That was for one office. As a Hall Director, I have partial oversight over a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and an Instagram (I do not know how to use the latter). Again, that is only one out of over twenty residence halls. Knowing the amount of time and energy that should go into these initiatives versus the amount of time that I have put into each of them due to prioritization, I can relate to the desire for institutions to keep better tabs on their social media output.

     A big change that I have noticed at various institutions is one towards standardization and consistency. It simply makes sense. Inconsistency across social media accounts indicates a lack of cohesiveness at best and a breaking of ranks at worst. How many times have you clicked through a schools website and see myriad page backgrounds, fonts, colors, and even institutional names? If you are affiliated with that institution, it may not seem that large of an issue, but in that case you should consider the perspective of a prospective student. What does that inconsistency say to them?

     And then there comes the issue of student-run accounts. Not that students cannot run an account - as I have indicated, most students could run an Instagram account worlds better than I ever will. I am thinking of the administration's perspective on the exponential growth of social media accounts that occurs relative to the number of student groups there are, and the inability to control them. As Howard writes, institutions are moving away from the "We could never think to control this" perspective, and I am very interested to see what new policies and procedures come out of this movement.

Citation: Howard, J. (2013). Worried about message, colleges scrutinize social media. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from: http://chronicle.com/article/Worried-About-Message/141773/

Picture by: Me :)

The Importance of Faculty Connections

"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate desserts." -  C.S. Lewis

     I had a wonderful conversation today with one of our AVPs of Student Affairs on our Faculty Fellows program in Residence Life here. It was a rather informal conversation, so I had prepared very little to be honest; however, I found myself speaking rather passionately on the program's importance to our students, citing my own former connections with faculty in my undergraduate experience.

     What I shared with our AVP were thoughts on the relationship between institution size and faculty connections. This is nothing ground-breaking or even that difficult to deduce - a smaller student body tends to afford undergraduate students with more opportunities to interact with faculty, while a larger one tends to decrease such opportunities. In my undergraduate experience, I was essentially able to ask any professor any question over e-mail and expect a response within 24 hours. Beyond that, they were very open to appointments and held regular office hours, and classes were usually small enough to allow for multiple questions each block. Yes, I was that student who raises hir hand at least once per session (and still am - apologies to my cohort...).

     When I overhear or speak to students about their experiences here - at an institution much larger than that of my undergraduate experience - I obtain a rather different story. Many students here do not have the same personal connection with professors, and those professors do not seem as available to them. Most know how to reach out to a TA much better than how to reach out to the professor, and even I would be very hesitant to raise my hand in a class of 800 students. Faculty do hold office hours, but I have not heard about students utilizing them as much, and it seems that they occur only two hours per week for the most part.

     These are simply personal observations - I did not collect any data and my sample to draw from is very limited and not random. However, I think these observations still highlight the important academic resource that all students living in the halls here have - the Faculty Fellow. When my hall's Fellow came for a program the other day, the program turned into a Q&A session, with the participants asking many important questions. These ranged from "How do I use a syllabus" to "How do I choose a major" to "What should I do to get into [insert program here]." When I heard these questions, I was surprised - why did these students not have these answers already. For some, the answer was probably that they had not thought of them yet. I am sure that others, though, had not had the chance or felt comfortable asking yet. That program gave them that chance, and the connection our hall has with that faculty member enabled that program.

Quote Citation: Lewis, C. S. (1943). The abolition of man. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Photo By: Me - Boulders Beach, South Africa :)

Article Reflection: "Developing a Leadership Identity, A Grounded Theory"

Abstract:  This grounded theory study on developing a leadership identity revealed a 6-stage developmental process. The thirteen diverse students in this study described their leadership identity as moving from a leader-centric view to one that embraced leadership as a collaborative, relational process. Developing a leadership identity was connected to the categories of developmental influences, developing self, group influences, students' changing view of self with others, and students' broadening view of leadership. A conceptual model illustrating the grounded theory of developing a leadership identity is presented. (Komives et al., 2005)

     This week I finally read an article on Leadership Development, which I think is slowly becoming a passion area of mine. Despite having been somewhat a leader at my previous institution through many clubs and organizations, I have never read any theory on how it happened. What stages did I go through to developing my own idea of who I am and what I do as a leader? How did I move from one stage to another - what were the influences? This article, "Developing a Leadership Identity: A Grounded Theory" by Komives et al. (2005) approaches these questions using grounded theory, a qualitative analytical approach that I believe is a great approach to finding motivations and influences in people.

     The article citation can be found below - you can find it on any database through which you can access the Journal of College Student Development. I will just be addressing what I found interesting in the article and how I will bring this into my practice.

     I really enjoy the focus on group and relational leadership this article puts forward - understanding, of course, that it was really the participants' inner theory driving that, and the authors simply extracted it through the interviews. The growth of the leader through interaction with the group is a concept that seems simple, especially given the unconscious nature of that growth at times, but the authors are able to pull it apart and show just how intricate and complicated and recursive that growth is. It builds itself just as the authors build the grounded theory, an analogy so appropriate that Komives et al. (2005) do not even need to state it.

     One aspect of this study I wish was made more explicit is the amount of time the authors felt was spent growing from one step to another. This may seem trivial, but as I was reading I found myself wondering at what point in my life I was at each step. When reflecting on Stage 3 - "Leadership Identified" and Stage 4 - "Leadership Differentiated" I felt as though I had spent years  in Stage 3 before moving into Stage 4 during my late high school years. However, I am now in Stage 6 less than six years later - and yes, part of being in Stage 6 is having the confidence to say that I am. :)

     I am certain that I am going to bring this theory into my role as a supervisor of student staff and an advisor of a Hall Council. Having these stages in my toolkit will potentially assist me in identifying developmental blocks of the student leaders with whom I interact. I see that Stage 3 to Stage 4 transition being a potentially difficult one for students who do not see themselves as leaders. To get past that, I think they need more from Komives et al.'s category of "Changing View of Self with Others" through more group interaction and "Meaningful Involvement" (2005). Furthermore, Stage 5 could result in leaving a group when a leader does not feel fulfilled - ze is not finding hir passion or values in the work of the group and thus leaves to find a group in which those values are realized. Without that passion being realized, ze will be unable to develop new leaders within the group, an element of leadership I see as essential to the sustenance of an organization.

Article Citation: Komives, S. R., Owen, J. E., Longerbeam, S. D., Mainella, F. C., Osteen, L. (2005). Developing a leadership identity: A grounded theory. Journal of College Student Development, 56(6), 593-611.

Photo By: Me :) 

Current Issue: Recruitment & Retention Practices

"Strategies that succeed at one college might not work for a competitor. There's no guarantee they'll even work at the same college for long." - Eric Hoover & Beckie Supiano

     An article in the Chronicle the other day, entitled "In Admissions, Old Playbook Is Being Revised," caught my eye. Not because it was a surprise - most professionals in and scholars of Higher Education are aware of how enrollments have gone "bonkers" these past few years. They're up, they're down, they're more diverse, they're orange, but whatever they are, they are not what were expected. I was interested to read this article and see who was recommending what to make expectations come closer to reality.

     The chart about two-thirds of the way through the article - Pros and Cons of Key Enrollment Strategies - gives away the rest of the text. No one can definitively recommend anything. Part of this is that the problem transcends most, if not all, strata of institutions; large state schools, small private schools, for profits, and everything in between and beyond all need better enrollments in some cases. What works for one will not necessarily work for the other, if at all. Moreover, as the title alludes, what used to entice students does not look as appetizing anymore. 

     My guess is that this latter element of the issue stems from a combination of growing student debt and a change in character of the applicant pool. (Yes, this is meta-reflection, as I am a millennial). Students, as evidenced by the comments on St. Mary's survey, want and almost expect that very personal, connected admissions process. They want to be able to text admissions officers, post questions on a Facebook page, and see what is new with the process on Twitter. Not providing that could mean providing another school the opportunity to make that more personal connection.

     An additional aspect of this article that spoke to me was the emphasis on retention. As the authors indicate, many admissions offices forget that the number of students still enrolled in their second or third semester matters much more than the number of students enrolled on day one. They need a reason to stay, or the reasons that they came mean almost nothing. While the idealist in me is conflicted on the needs-aware admissions that University of Denver has begun employing, I think that it is an appealing solution to growing student debt and thus better for both the student and the school in the end. Again, schools want the students walking in to only walk out having completed a degree.

    I have learned a lot about how my position as a Hall Director can and does affect retention, and I won't lie - it adds some pressure. Students who live on campus can gain a sense of community here in the hall. They can gain leadership positions. They can study in the lounges. Such aspects of residence life give them a reason to stay, not only in the halls but at the university. These can also factor into a positive effect on their grades, giving them a sense of accomplishment in their studies and thus a desire to continue. Something I require the RAs I supervise to do is have one of their events per month be either bringing their residents to a campus-wide event or bringing in a campus partner to meet and present to their residents. Again, this plays into retention, as such events build better connections with the campus at-large. Hopefully they will connect to campus and stay enrolled.

Article Citation: Hoover, E., & Supiano, B. (2013). In admissions, old playbook is being revised. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Admissions-Playbook-Is-Up/141625/

Photo By: My wife, Jenn :) Enrollment numbers seem to be delicately balancing, much like that rock on the right!

Colleagues & Classmates

"Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down." - Unknown

     Moving across the country to start a new job and program has made me incredibly appreciate the importance of the people around me. My wife and I left a ton of family and friends behind when we moved, and I would be lying if I said I were never homesick for either my hometown or my old campus. Keeping in touch has been tough; missing important events that I definitely took for granted at the time has been tougher. I do not know what I would do without my wife, Jenn, as she has been wonderful support in addition to being one of the very few aspects of my life that has remained constant. And my new colleagues and classmates have been wonderful as well.

     I could tell from day one that my new department was going to provide me with an amazing experience. Several of my new colleagues were standing on the curb when Jenn and I drove up, ready to assist our moving-in with hand trucks and smiles (the latter was more impressive with the heat). The welcoming nature only continued - our Director asked me about our wedding as soon as I met him, Jenn was always welcomed warmly at social events, and I began feeling at home much more quickly than I ever expected. It always stops me in my tracks when I remember that I have been here only three months, since it feels as though I know my co-workers so well already and they help me along as though I have always been part of the family. I miss my former co-workers dearly and will never forget where I have come from, but I am also thankful that I have made it to my current institution. :)

     My second life here is as a student, and if my undergraduate classmates ever helped me along, my graduate classmates will be about a hundred times more important if my syllabi are good indicators! Today starts the fourth week of classes. The fourth week of reading. The fourth week of completely new concepts, theories, and readings. The fourth week of reading. Did I mention reading? We help each other through these trials and tribulations that are the (digital) stacks of papers we must sift through every week. Going out after the last class of the week has been a wonderful weekly tradition thus far - I cannot stress the importance of de-stressing with friends while in graduate school. It is also important to do after training/opening with colleagues!

     Again, I would not trade the friends I still have across the country for anything. I have finally gotten to chatching-up with some and hope to be more consistent. I also know that they are happy for me and glad that I have found an incredibly supportive environment here as I continue my new adventures in Higher Education. =)

Quote Citation: Unknown. (n.d.). Thinkexist.com. Retrieved from: http://thinkexist.com/quotations/Friendship/

Photo By: Me - anotehr new friend I made on a recent hike! =)

Current Issues: MOOCs

"Technology is just a tool. It terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is most important." - Bill Gates

     I do not expect this to be my one and only post on Massive Open Online Courses - better known as MOOCs. It is a very current issue with too many stakeholders for me to fully wrap my head around in one go. In addition, I do not yet know how I feel about it - and the same can be said for many professionals and educators much more experienced than I am. There are clear benefits: access, low costs, time management. The caveat is that these only come if MOOCs are utilized with the intention of better-serving students. If not, the clear deficits arise, the most worrisome being the undermining of public education and the decrease in value of the campus experience. Not to mention businesses replacing administrators. Yes, I am slightly biased.

     Today's discussion revolves around two articles from the Chronicle. One concerns Google and EdX's new venture in providing an open-source site for anyone - literally anyone - to post their own MOOCs. The other is in regards to a renowned MOOC professor "defecting" due to his worries that supporting this movement will help justify lower funding for universities. Thus, we have two sides of the same issue.

     As far as the invention of MOOC.org, I think it is safe to say that it is too early - both in the MOOC movement in general and in the life of this -3-month-old site - to see where this will take us. In general this movement is taking us back to the goals of higher education, which I recently learned are too many and too diverse to attempt to delineate. Do they match the purposes of MOOCs, though? I have my doubts. Both have excellent goals, assuming that MOOCs have general purposes lying in the engendering of a better-educated society and wider dispersion and sharing of research and knowledge. And the fact that this site will be open to any aspiring teacher makes it all the more intriguing and impressive. While I worry about regulation of courses, I am sure that the CEOs running this venture will be careful. Furthermore, I have high hopes for educated, proper use of the data collected on the students using MOOC.org.

     In the case of Professor Duneier, I trust that he is making the decision that is best for him, and it is clear from the article that there is no general opinion coming from higher education professionals or professors on MOOCs. I do share concerns for the future of public education and the place of living, breathing professors who make their living teaching these introductory courses in person, though. The article alludes to cutting costs. I would prefer that the institutions be open about whether or not those monies are being repurposed, and then what they are being repurposed to. If you are taking the money that you would be using for your Intro Psych classes and putting it toward starting a new academic program, say so. If it is going towards the football team, tell someone. Either way, there are always going to be stakeholders agreeing and disagreeing with that decision, so you might as well be transparent. Hopefully cutting costs is the reality, though, and not Duneier's fear of cutting funding.

Article Citations:

Kolowich, S. (2013). Google and edX create a MOOC site for the rest of us. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/google-and-edx-create-a-mooc-site-for-the-rest-of-us/46413

Parry, M. (2013). A MOOC star defects - at least for now. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from: http://chronicle.com/article/A-MOOC-Star-Defects-at-Least/141331/

Quote Citation: Gates, B. (n.d.) BrainyQuote. Retrieved from: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_technology.html

Photo By: Me =)

Policies, Procedures, and Conduct

"People say I make strange choices, but they’re not strange for me. My sickness is that I’m fascinated by human behavior, by what’s underneath the surface, by the worlds inside people." - Johnny Depp

     This past week I heard my first conduct cases, and the building I oversee saw its first policy violations. Consequently, I have had the chance to have some quality discussions about our polices and procedures for living in the residential community on campus, and how one's conduct in the community can affect those around them. Lots of educational moments.

     As I think is natural, I have left each of these conversations with the lingering thought, "Did I get through to him?" [disclaimer: every one of these conversations was with a resident who identifies as male] In other words, was the moment truly educational, or was that just happening on my end? Many elements of these conversations are scripted - I need to recite a policy or justification thereof, go through the sequence of a proper conduct hearing, or be consistent with the six residents involved in a single case. Due process in life is not always individualized, so we cannot individualize every hearing as officers. Overall, I am fine with this - not only is it part of the educational process, but it makes the process a lot easier for me.

      I think that the due process element of conduct hearings educates residents. It shows them that they are members of communities, and that they are all members of communities. The other elements - the non-scripted conversations, the rationale for decisions, etc. - are up for discussion. When I ask residents if they understand how what they did violate policy, they invariably agree, because the policy is right there in front of them. When I ask if they understand how what they did affected their academic pursuits and those residents in their community, they invariably agree, because I am right there in front of them. That is more of an issue. I need to be there to hear the case and ensure an educational moment, but my being there adds a stark difference in power/authority to that same moment.

     All I can really hope for now is to make the conversations as organic as possible. I start the conversations with asking them about their days, classes, environment. I try to be personable. I show them that I care about their growth more than their sanctions. How this comes across is also up to them, and I need to remind myself that more than anything - student development, especially their conduct, is at least a two-way street.

P.S. Apologies for the delay since the last post! More urgent and important things came up...see my post on Time Management for how I prioritize.

Quote Citation: Depp, J. (n.d.). Quotelicious.com. Retrieved from: http://quotelicious.com/quotes/famous/johnny-depp-quotes 

Photo By: Me (community of penguins!)

A GA's Dilemma - to keep the door open or not...

"Every wall is a door." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

     Happy Labor Day! I promised a post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so this is me keeping said promise. :)

     Today I am going to comment on a dilemma I have been facing lately - whether or not to keep my office door open when doing my reading for classes. I have been attempting to not read in my and Jenn's apartment, because it is too easy to fall asleep, turn on the TV, and/or do anything but work there. Furthermore, when you add up all of my "scheduled time" - meetings with RAs, professional staff meetings and trainings, conduct hours, hall council time, committee meetings - that amounts to about 15 hours, give or take 1 depending on the week. To keep the good work-life balance I am still acquiring, I am supposed to work 20 hours a week. If I stuck to that, I would be in my office - available to residents to stop in, say hi, and most likely ask questions - only 5 hours a week. Since I do not find that fair, I read in my office when not doing 5 hours of preparing for the scheduled time (returning e-mails, preparing team-builders, writing reports, etc.).

     The associated dilemma is whether or not reading will actually be done in such an atmosphere. So far, the open door policy has proven quite helpful as far as assisting residents. I have helped residents to order refrigerators, switch rooms, watch "Pretty Little Liars" in the TV lounge, work through other crises, and more. When I am helping them, though, I am not helping my studies, because I need to focus my attention elsewhere for the moment, and then take time to refocus it upon my return. It is not an incredible interruption. Of course, there is also the noise factor - my office is right off of the lobby and near a lounge. Factoring in the usual noise from the front desk and the piano in the lounge, there are additional organic detractions to focus.

     Is the open door always helpful to residents? Emerson seems to lean towards "No" in the quote above. If they had a smaller issue - one they could fix themselves - then possibly a closed door could create an educational moment. As I have been learning more about the goals of higher education, I can now say with some authority that we hope for students to learn how to solve problems on their own. We want them to know their options, think critically about each of them, then use that thought to choose one and follow-through. By being so available, I am providing them a shortcut that they may not need, and thus taking away a potentially educational moment.

     Still, the fact that a larger issue - one in which a resident truly does need me or someone to talk to - could walk through my open door keeps it open for me. I still have not gone through my weekly routine yet, and will not until next week, so I cannot say definitively whether or not I have enough time to read in my office. I will report back eventually, but for now I may just need to turn up my classical music.

Quote Citation: Emerson, R. W. (n.d.). Goodreads. Retrieved from: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/31820-every-wall-is-a-door

Current Issues - Tiffin University's Ivy Bridge College

"News of the investigation comes just weeks after Tiffin's accreditor ordered the university to halt new enrollments at Ivy Bridge, an associate-degree program designed to serve working adults that has been recognized as an innovative model by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other organizations. More than 90 percent of the program's students received Pell Grants." - Goldie Blumenstyk

     I will be honest that I am only just catching-up on the news on Ivy Bridge College, but what a saga it seems to have been. You can find the article about the Justice Department's recently-opened investigation here, but if you want more background you should select the links within the article or even read the links below first:

• Initial article reporting on the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) order for Ivy Bridge College to stop enrollments
• Follow-up article HLC defending its decisions
• Article on HLC permitting Tiffin University to bring Ivy Bridge into its own online Associate's Degree program
• Almost most importantly - the Ivy Bridge College Facebook Page

     To summarize the "issue" at hand: The HLC of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools - a regional accreditor (basically decides what education is and should be) - told Tiffin University to stop enrolling students in Ivy Bridge College, its joint business venture with for-profit company Altius Education, Inc., the purpose of which is to offer online Associate's Degrees. Ivy Bridge's students appear to be primarily working adults from traditionally underserved populations. The HLC had originally ordered that all students must transfer either to another Associate's program or to Tiffin's Bachelor's program, but then alleviated some of the strictness in saying that they could continue in the online Associate's program originally offered by Tiffin before it created with Ivy Bridge. It is difficult to tell what, if any, of that has changed with this new investigation.

     The rest seems to be a battle of subjectivity and "he said, she said." There is disagreement as to the crux of why the relationship originally needed to end - the top reasons appear to be (1) The HLC having stricter rules governing such partnerships, (2) Tiffin University withdrawing its accreditation application for Ivy Bridge, or (3) The HLC's order, which it retroactively defended with claims of lacking academic integrity and oversight by Tiffin - but the primary reason depends very much on to whom you are speaking. Many words have been exchanged between and said about the HLC, Tiffin, and Altius Education, and most can be read on the articles and Facebook page. On one hand, we have a university that could have been a degree mill, simply taking Pell Grants to pay for pieces of paper. On the other, we have an innovative approach - regarded as such by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - to providing education to those who simply do not have any other option than this relatively inexpensive, online medium of academics.

     The issues of academic integrity and oversight bring us to the new investigation. Prompted under the Federal Claims Act, which covers the misuse of federal funds, the investigation seems to be primarily concerned with what recruitment measures were used by Tiffin for Ivy Bridge and what Tiffin's true role was in the administration and education occurring through Ivy Bridge. These factors play into whether or not the College followed federal-aid guidelines.

      I would like to bring some focus back to the students. The Chronicle's articles were at least decent in their profiling the students enrolled at Ivy Bridge, but more is deserved. These are mostly non-traditional students. They provide care and have dependents relying on them. Most are receiving Pell Grants. No matter what decision is arrived at, a disservice has been done unto them. If the DOJ decides that mismanagement occurred with their funding, I am confident in saying someone should be ashamed of their actions. If they decide nothing is wrong, then these students have been put through frustration for the second time in two months - not knowing if they will have to transfer (some of them for the second time, according to Facebook), not knowing if their degree is or will be worth something, or even attainable. One can only hope that their advisors are helping them each step of the way.

Article Citation: Blumenstyk, G. (2013). Justice Dept. opens investigation of online program at Tiffin U. The chronicle of higher education. Retrieved from: http://chronicle.com/article/Justice-Dept-Opens/141289/

A Day in the Life...Now a MWF Blog!

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." - Henry David Thoreau

     Yesterday was my first Tuesday of the semester, and it was eye-opening in some ways. A quick disclaimer: this will sound like complaining, but I enjoyed almost every minute of yesterday. Here is the schedule of yesterday's events:

• 5:30AM-6:00AM: Wake-Up; make breakfast for my wife, Jenn; and get ready for my run
• 6:00AM-6:45AM: Jenn leaves for work, and I go on my run
• 6:45AM-8:00AM: Stretch, shower, dress, eat breakfast, do the morning's dishes, and quickly check e-mail and schedule for the day
• 8:00AM-10:00AM: Get coffee, prepare for morning staff meeting, prepare materials for area-wide program later in the day, and answer e-mails
• 10:00AM-12:00PM: Area Hall Director Meeting
• 12:00PM-1:00PM: Lunch
• 1:00PM-3:45PM: Respond to multiple calls (all from different offices), show a campus partner a public space for a future event, assist a resident with multiple cable issues, call Tech Services to report that issue, prepare more for program later, prepare a form for my staff to do roster verifications, and prepare for class
• 3:45PM-4:15PM: Change for class and later program, carry items for program over to other hall (including a large cutout of the school mascot - it looked hilarious I bet)
• 4:15PM-6:15PM: Statistics Class (got out early!!)
• 6:15PM-7:15PM: Assist with final parts and clean-up of area-wide program
• 7:15PM-8:00PM: Dinner with Jenn
• 8:00PM-10:00PM: Hall RA Staff Meeting
• 10:20PM - Bed time!

     I hesitated in posting this, since it could look as though I am trying to scare future professionals away. That is not the intention at all - I have always disliked any program, be it undergraduate, graduate, or professional, that attempts to weed-out or scare its students. I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday and appreciated the reality-check of how the next two years will look every now and then. The only item yesterday that will not always occur is the area-wide program (which went really well!) - other than that, this is how Tuesday will look weekly for me. I am fine with it. I am both a student and a graduate assistant, and I want to be a student affairs professional, so this is what I signed-up for!

     Given all of that, I have decided to change this blog to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday blog. As you can see, Tuesday is slightly cramped, and my class with the heaviest reading occurs on Thursday, so I will rarely be able to prioritize posting if I have not already prepared something the day before. I promise the content will stay the same, if not improve! Thank you for staying with me as I continue this experiment in reflection. :)

Quote Citation: Thoreau, H. D. (n.d.). The quotations page. Retrieved from: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/26843.html 

Running!

"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement." - Steve Prefontaine

     Sorry this post is so late, but I had errands today...and my graduate program orientation! Tomorrow I have my first-ever class as a graduate student of higher education, and I am honestly super-excited! Sure, looking over the syllabi was a wake-up call of just how much work this will be, and thinking about what professional development opportunities to take, what organizations to become involved it, and what research I should / want to do has been making my head spin at times. But overall it is exciting to think that tomorrow is the next big step towards my career.

     Adding classes and reading to my weekly schedule has sparked new thoughts on the ever-elusive work-life balance that many of my advisors have preached these past few months. The past few years I have developed a much higher regard for my own mental health and downtime. A momentous point was when I realized how much more productive and focused I was if I gave myself a break from work every once in awhile. Really, it worked.

     Thus, I have spent much time thinking of how to fit classes, readings for those classes, my assistantship, and some free time (which includes actually spending time with my wife of two months) into my weekly schedule. I know it is do-able, but these next two weeks will be an experiment in actually doing it. This brings me to the title of this post - running! Part of that free time needs to also consist of making sure that I stay healthy. My father has always taught me that maintaining physical health and shape is one of the most important parts of life, and I finally started listening in my senior year of college. 

     This past month, I have started running on weekdays in the morning after my wife leaves for work (I technically started last semester, but now I am much more consistent). I never thought I would like it. Against all odds, I have now begun to enjoy running. I do not know whether it is the participation in a mindless activity, how quiet it is on campus at 6 AM, or rocking out to my tunes, but I just feel great after finishing a run. And with my conduct hours all being in the morning, it is a good thing for students that I start the day off feeling good!

Quote Citation: Prefontaine, Steve. (n.d.). Brainyquote.com. Retrieved from: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/steveprefo177923.html