The Media Center

The fun continues

jasonr833 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:08:00 GMT

Tuesday was a very busy day for all of us. I moderated the DNC Youth Council meeting and was happy to see a large turnout. The enthusiasm of the audience was evident by the numerous questions they asked the panel. It’s great to see young people so interested and willing to be involved in public service!

The second night of the convention was even more energetic than the first. The Pepsi Center was filled to capacity as delegates and guests anticipated memorable speeches. They were not disappointed.

The day kicked off with speeches with from various politicians, including Governor Jim Doyle and Representative Tammy Baldwin. Wisconsin delegates gave both hearty welcomes, cheering and shouting as each came on stage.

Eight women U.S. Senators covered the key issues of this election. Each woman delivered a brief message about the importance of the issue, as well as the necessity to rally around Senator Obama. Their apparent dedication to the American people prompted enthusiastic rounds of applause from the Pepsi Center.

Keynote speaker Mark Warner delivered a powerful message of support for Senator Obama. He was met by cheers and waving signs as he reiterated they key issues of the campaign. His message of unity was one that was echoed by most of the other speakers.

Senator Hillary Clinton was undoubtedly the highlight of the evening. She was introduced by her daughter, Chelsea. Former President Clinton was in the audience showing his support. Senator Clinton thanked her supporters and called for everyone to throw their support behind Senators Obama and Biden. The crowd was on their feet throughout most of the speech, cheering wildly and waving signs reading “Hillary” and “Unity.” At the end of the speech, the Senator could not leave the stage because the roar of the crowd was so loud!

After the Convention, we went to a party for DoSomething.org and GlassBooth. Our excitement from the Pepsi Center carried over into the party and everyone was pumped up. We met Jorja Fox (Sara from CSI), which was very exciting. Then off to the hotel for just a few minutes of shut eye before we do it all over again tomorrow.

The first day in review

jasonr833 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:23:00 GMT

Just a quick post on the first day...

The opening night in the Pepsi Center was full of energy and set the stage for an exciting week to come. The floor was a sea of cheering delegates waving blue banners. The level of energy in the building was through the roof.

We were addressed by numerous state officials and US Senators and Representatives, all of whom conveyed strong messages of support for Senator Obama. A number of everyday Americans shared stories about how Obama has made a difference in their lives and how he shares their American values.

One of the highlights of the evening was Senator Ted Kennedy’s surprise address. He was preceded by his niece Caroline Kennedy and a tribute video. His appearance brought everyone in the house to their feet chanting “Ted-dy, Ted-dy” over and over. Many were moved to tears by his speech and presence.

The keynote speaker for the night was Michelle Obama. She was introduced by her brother, Craig Robinson, who praised her and recalled memories of their childhood. A tribute video described her early life and shining personality. It also detailed the beginning of her relationship with Barack Obama, which drew chuckles and applause from the audience.

Michelle Obama’s speech resounded with not only the delegates in the Pepsi Center, but also undoubtedly with the American people as a whole. It was adorable when her two daughters came to the stage with her and they shared in the moment.

This was only the first night of speeches and the energy was running high! Every person was hoarse after screaming their lungs out for hours. Everyone’s arms were tired from waving the signs. But no one is tired themselves because the energy is through the roof. And this is only the first day.

The Convention Starts

jasonr833 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:22:00 GMT

Greetings from Denver! Everyone is clearly excited to be here for the Convention. The streets are filled with vendors selling Obama-Biden paraphernalia and almost everyone demonstrates their support through the buttons pinned on their shirts.

My first day began with an early welcome breakfast. We were addressed by Representative Tammy Baldwin. Her speech inspired a visible increase in the energy and enthusiasm of the entire Wisconsin delegation which is sure to persist throughout the Convention.

The Colorado Convention Center is charged with energy. Everyone from the vendors to the delegates hurry from place to place. Reporters abound, and every few feet we see TV cameras and reporters.

This afternoon I participated in a press avail for the DNC Youth Council. The panel consisted of representatives from the numerous youth organizations. Each representative echoed the importance of youth participation in the upcoming election and beyond. They also reiterated the importance of continual involvement for the future.

It’s only early on Monday and we haven’t even gotten to the Pepsi Center yet for the big speeches, but I tell you, we are going to have a great time. The energy is running high and all looks great for a fantastic week!

You know what really grinds my gears???

evans437 — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:34:00 GMT

Despite the Family Guy reference in the title, this next article is going to talk about the graduate assistantship process and how one would go about this process. First of all, I think that the NACA National Convention is a GREAT place to interview for graduate assistantships. With the evolution of this new joint partnership with NASPA (National Association for Student Personnel), ACUHO-I (The Association of College and University Housing Officers - International), NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) and ASJA (The Association for Student Judicial Affairs) combining to make "The Placement Exchange", it has become the ideal place for new job hunters to go and look for jobs after their graduate assistantship.

If you think I am going to talk about the job search process, you may want to stop reading here. Since I am going into my second year of graduate school, I have just one more year of being a student and then I must join the “real world” workforce. I don’t know about you all but if I hear anything about joining the “real world” when graduate school is done, I think I am going to explode. To be honest, what is it that we do then? Is everything that happens during my assistantship surreal? I will tell you this much the amount of hours that are put in my graduate assistants sure aren’t surreal, HA! But, on the flip side, it’s the experience that we are being paid with, not just the VERY small amount of money. That portion of the article is coming soon so stay tuned. As for what to expect when going into an interview for an assistantship, just be you! There is nothing more frustrating than interviewing a candidate that doesn’t end up coming off as well as their resume seemed to portray them. For those putting resumes together, don’t use words in your resume or cover letter that you wouldn’t normally use in real life. If you are trying to say something like, “I work well in a team setting regardless of the individual.” Try to stay away from saying something like, “My collaboration skills with other members of my cohort far exceed any expectation that you may have and are not contingent on the individual person that is a part of my committee.” This is just my opinion, but I would say that the simpler you are, the better it makes you look. If you start using words that you don’t use on a daily basis, most interviewers will be able to point that out during an interview. I will be writing an article for NACA Magazine in the coming months about what to expect during a GA interview, so get stoked for that!

Another things that grinds my gears is this next part of the blog. As per Minnesota State Statute, we are not able to unionize as graduate students. I am not sure what other states are like, but I just know we in Minnesota cannot do such a thing. I am not sure how many students would unionize if we could but going through all my classes gets me to realize the benefits of having a union, one of them being contract negotiation. Our graduate assistant salary is a whopping $10,000 and not negotiable after that. I was told however we got a $125 raise from the previous year which after you take that over a span of 9 months minus the taxes taken out it equates to them taking more money than they were before, HA! Does that sound right to you? We are required as per our assistantship to put in no less than 20 hours. But, what happens when you habitually exceed 20 hours? I just know that most, if not all, student activity programmers will put in over that much time in a week's span. Why can’t we be compensated as such? When getting into the student affairs field, it definitely is not for the money but the joy of working with students and having an impact in their collegiate experience. Can you imagine what life would be like if we all got paid hourly?? That would be somewhat intense! Just something to think about....almost like a Chicken Soup for the NACA Soul sort of thinking!

I just got back from Rochester, MN where I met with my fellow Northern Plains RLT and conference committee to plan for our upcoming conference in April. It is shaping to be quite the event so I am really excited. Talk to you soon!

Under a month to go...

jasonr833 — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:57:00 GMT

We are under one month until the start of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. And I can tell you, this month is going to fly by. Before I head out to Denver, I thought it might be nice to give a little background on myself and my experiences.

I'm a student at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For those of you who have never been to campus, you definitely should come for a visit. Milwaukee is a great city, especially in the summer.

In addition to being a fulltime student, I'm also one of Wisconsin's members to the Democratic National Committee. I was first elected back in 2004 at the age of 17 and was just re-elected to another four year term in June. I ran because I wanted to make sure that young people had a voice in the party.

I've also been involved with a variety of different things on campus, mainly focusing in student government. I've served as a Senator, Parliamentarian, and Legislative Vice President. It's through those experiences with my advisor in student government that I came to learn about NACA and the great work you do to help promote student activism. I'm excited to keep you posted on what develops at the convention next month. Until then, enjoy the rest of your summer!

Flying Higher and in 1080p--Eventually

glennf@naca.org — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:18:00 GMT

By Glenn Farr

When I recall a few facts about technological advances in my own lifetime, I’m stunned. Some things I simply can’t seem to live without today didn’t exist when I was born and most didn’t become part of my everyday life until the last decade.

For example, recent estimates (http://ask.yahoo.com/20010116.html) indicate there are more than 8,600 man-made satellites orbiting the earth—that do everything from tracking weather and allowing us to call Europe by phone to facilitating the Internet and beaming pristine, pretty pictures to our TV sets.

The irony is that when I was born, back in the dark age of 1955, the ONLY satellite orbiting the earth was the moon.

That’s right. The only satellite orbiting the earth was its natural one—no man-made objects had yet been launched. That didn’t happen until the former Soviet Union launched Sputnik I on Oct. 4, 1957, about seven weeks before my second birth day.

Of course, I don’t remember any of that, but I do remember the USSR-US space race that followed, and that became a big part of my childhood as I geekishly followed the Gemini and Apollo launches and the ultimate Apollo lunar landing on grainy black and white TV delivered to my home through a rooftop antenna.

But, in my lifetime, we’ve gone from one natural satellite—that’s still out there quietly circumnavigating the blue orb we call home—to nearly 9,000 artificial ones (and that number doesn’t include the approximately 16,000 man-made objects that are in some state of orbital decay and are no longer serving their original functions). Seems we might next need to launch some kind of giant space vacuum cleaner to suck up all our space junk.

Anyway, some of those nearly 9,000 satellite that are still functioning serve to deliver crisp high definition television to my home—which is one of those technological advances I discovered within the past few years that I now can no longer live without. Sometimes, when I look at what I now spend on my current personal entertainment budget, I’m shocked and decide I must cut something. But what? I can’t do without the SciFi Channel or BBC America or the Science Channel or Boomerang or during Ancient Egyptian Month or UFO Month, even the History channel. That’s very ironic in that until 1998, I subscribed to neither cable nor satellite TV service and depended upon rabbit ears or a huge antenna suspended from my attic trusses to deliver some of my favorite TV programs to me in colorful, but snowy, glory. (Sometime I’ll have to share the lengths to which I was willing to go with metal rods and coaxial cables to receive Babylon 5 over the air when it was first syndicated in the early 1990s.)

This all comes to mind because I received an e-mail notification from my satellite TV provider (DISH Network, for the curious) today that effective Aug. 1, they begin broadcasting HD content in 1080p resolution. Wow! And according to their news release, no one else is yet doing that. And this is all possible due to the recent successful launch of a new satellite. (Does this make 9,000 and one?)

So, what does that mean for me?

In the short term, not much. I mean, it’s another nice technological advancement of which I’m sure I ultimately will take great advantage. But for now, I have two HD TVs, both of which are 30 inches or smaller, and neither of which can display a 1080p signal. One maxes out as 1080i and the other at 720p. Also, to receive the 1080p signal, I would need to buy or lease a new, special DVR. So, to take advantage of this wonderful, new advance in broadcasting, I would need to buy the DVR (up to $500 on the Internet) and a new TV (anywhere from $1,200 to $2,500 depending on brand, features and size).

Anyone who knows me understands how much I like to spend money, especially when I’m dropping coin on a new gadget.

But not this time. No thanks. I’ll wait.

I’ll remind myself of my and my planet’s humble origins with respect to satellites, natural or man made, and savor the advances I already enjoy for a while.

One year down...one more to go!!!

evans437 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:22:00 GMT

Hello all,

Let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Evan Schaefer and I am currently a Program Adviser/Graduate Assistant for the University Program Board (UPB) at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, MN. I just completed my first year of graduate school and plan to graduate in May 2009 with a Masters in Higher Education Administration. My undergraduate was done at Simpson College, a small liberal arts college in Indianola, IA (about 20 miles south of Des Moines) where I received my Bachelor of Music Education degree. Believe it or not, I actually have a license to teach in the State of Iowa. But, I chose a different path after college. Simpson has a campus population of about 2,000 students which made my transition to the 16,000 St. Cloud State University that much more difficult. Overall, my experience has been phenomenal and I would not change anything about it.

As I am now currently taking my last academic class to fulfill the course work for my program, I look back and realize I have only been here for one year. It is hard to believe that I officially started my second year at the turn of the fiscal year which, as most of you know, is July 1. There are many things about my graduate assistantship that have helped me become who I am today. Going from a small school to a large school was the biggest transition that I had to make. I was used to people on campus knowing who I was and being able to have a conversation with anyone that walked by me because I either sat through a class with them, met them at a CAB event or just knew them from another organization. From the aspect of taking classes, I was petrified about the first day of class. In my case, my classes were all on the weekend (Friday night and then all day Saturday - every other weekend throughout the first semester...sounds worse than it is, I will explain that later.) so I really wasn’t sure who all was going to be in my class. When I first walked in to the class I was amazed because I was definitely the youngest one in the room. There was only one other student in the room that was a graduate assistant from another department that also came directly from his undergraduate institution. All the other people in my class (soon to become my HIED (Higher Education) cohort) came from a variety of different disciplines. The different people in the room represented Financial Aid, Human Resources, Admissions, Foreign Language Faculty & Information Technology. As you can see there was a very diverse amount of people making up my HIED cohort. It made my classes so much interesting because I was able to bring the Student Affairs aspect to the table because this is one area most of them didn’t really understand.

As for my graduate assistantship, I would be lying to you if I said that I came in prepared and ready for ANYTHING!! I was rudely awakened very quickly. Come to find out, I don’t know everything like I thought I did, HA! It's weird how long it takes one to realize that. My first event was pretty intense. It was the Johnny Holm band concert here on the SCSU campus during the Fall Kickoff activities. Now, if you are from Minnesota reading this, you understand how intense these shows can get in terms of attendance. I was absolutely amazed by the amount of people that turned out for this event. I think the final number came out to be about 1500 students. I don’t know about you, but being my first event, and coming from a campus that had about 2000 students, that was like having an event where EVERYONE from Simpson was in attendance. It was intense but AWESOME all at the same time. My job was simple: front of house security. Yes, I was in charge of making sure no one charged the stage. If you are going to ask me what kind of barricade we used, save your breath because it was definitely just me, two of my students and the Public Safety officer coordinator. Yep, there were only four of us keeping 1500 students from running onto the stage. The hardest part was making sure that the students didn’t crowd surf. Due to such a confined space, there was really no other place for the students to go except down. So many times I had to go in and get students off of other students from mosh pitting and crowd surfing. If you have never met me, I am 6'4" 2XX lbs. (we just met and I never disclose that information right away, HA! just think BIG!) and very claustrophobic which made my life just that much better. But, it was my first event and I didn’t want to say anything so I just went with it. Before the night started I was given a name tag by my director and told to wear it at all the events that UPB puts on. I said okay and proceeded to put it on. To my dismay, I managed to somehow, in the midst of the crowd surfing and mosh pitting, get my name tag knocked off of my body and thrown into the crowd. Needless to say I was out a name tag on the first event day and not sure what to do. During the clean up one of the students found it pummeled into the ground with a lot of scratches and cracks making it look like it had fallen into a trash compacter. It was pretty awesome because we referred to the experience as my initiation into the department. I will have you know that he is coming back this year and we will be having barricade!

I think that is enough for today. Stay tuned because I am going to talk more about my course work and other events that have highlighted my first year!

Watch out NACA; the LOBSTER is BACK!

LarrytheLobster — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:08:00 GMT

Many times in one's life decisions are made that force your claw. Today happens to be one of them so I say go ahead punk make my day. I had been living the life of royalty in retirement eating king-sized prawns on the reef when I overheard some young crustacean start rambling on about the new web content guy at NACA. How he had new and refreshing ideas, like blogs, forums, and layout design. What! I had these ideas years ago! Who dares take credit for this lobster's work? The challenge was laid out before me, the gauntlet thrown down like avoiding fishing vessels in the sea, to come out of retirement and take back my pride.

No more MR. Nice Lobster, the rubber bands are off the claws.

Democratic National Convention Blog

chrisn — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:02:00 GMT

Beginning in late August, Democratic superdelegate and Marquette University student Jason Rae will blog for NACA from the Democratic National Convention. He will be sharing his thoughts and opinions on the Convention and the upcoming election.

To learn more about Jason Rae, watch this Current TV video or read a story about him in Details magazine.

Democratic National Convention official site

The Evolution of a Student Leader

angell@usca.edu — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:56:00 GMT

So I struggled with what to write for this last blog. Having already talked about developing leaders in the classroom and then developing student leaders I wasn’t really sure what you all might find interesting. With the help of my supervisor I finally settled on the evolution of a student leader. I hope you all enjoy this last entry!

Motivating your new student leaders

We often find new student leaders need a push to get them started on their leadership path. When students take on a new leadership role they are often timid and don’t know where to start. This is where retreats are useful. Before your new (or returning) student leaders begin their assignment, spend a day or two with them going over what is expected of them in this new role. A good idea is to give them handouts, or a binder of handouts, going over everything they need to know and even some stuff they might not need to know. By giving them a folder or binder of information, even if they forget some of the things you tell them in the retreat, they can always refer back to that information as a refresher. During the retreat do some icebreakers and team builders with your students. You as the advisor should participate as well so that they get to know and be comfortable with you too. Once everyone’s comfortable with each other, run through scenarios with them, explain to them exactly how they should address each and every situation. Help to prepare them for the best and the worst of experiences. If your new student leader is prepared he or she will be much more comfortable in their new role. Also, remember to continue to challenge and support your student leaders, whether they be rookies or veterans, throughout their leadership experience. The more you challenge your students to be better leaders the more they’ll start to be comfortable in their new role and taking on more responsibility.

Burn out

On many of our campuses we find that the same students are involved with everything. Last year’s student body president at USCA was also a member of the programming board, an executive member of the concert committee, an active member of her sorority, a volunteer with the community service programs, a student employee in the chancellor’s office, an orientation leader, and an active member of a number of other organizations. While this specific scenario may not always be the case, many times we find that there’s a small core of student leaders on our campuses who do everything. Unfortunately, this is often where we first look when recruiting volunteers as well. We as professionals know that we can count on these students to get the job done, and do it well, so we frequently call on them when we need something. The problem many of us are finding is these students are over involved. These are the same students who are constantly stressed because they have too much going on in their lives; they carry multiple planners to try to keep up with where they’re supposed to be when, and what they’re supposed to be doing for each organization and class. They are often the students in our offices crying because some small task or minor incident has them very upset. They are the students who are freaking out afraid they’re going to fail a test or course because instead of studying over the last several days they’ve been preparing for programs and events. These are the students we need to keep an eye on.

Recruit new students

While we know we can count on these students to get the job done well, we need to put ourselves out there more and try recruiting more of those students who aren’t yet over involved. This is where we need to be looking for that leadership potential in some of those first year students and recruiting them to take on the smaller, simpler tasks instead of relying on those who we already know can get the job done. This will also help to keep us from over taxing our current student leaders to their breaking point. If we make a more concerted effort to recruit new student leaders and prepare them for the smaller task at hand, in a few semesters we will have a larger pool of students to use for those major undertakings which require greater student leadership.

Evolution

As we all know our students quickly evolve from being a timid rookie in a new role to be that over involved student who cannot say no. While it is easier for us to continue using the same, seasoned, student leaders for everything, it is up to us as educators and professionals to keep an eye on our students and make sure they are remaining healthy and not wearing themselves down. In order to do this we’re going to have to stick our necks out there a little more and recruit and train some younger students with leadership potential (not yet skill) to do some of the easier tasks and only call on our pros for the most important stuff. While this may seem more time consuming at first, it will make our lives easier for us in the long run because we won’t have so many students getting burned out by the beginning of their senior year.

I hope you all enjoy this last blog. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing about leadership and sharing my thoughts with you all. I also have to thank some of my colleagues for letting me bounce ideas off of them and helping me proofread and edit the blogs so thank you to: Jared Tippets at the University of Kentucky, Wes Riddle at Kennesaw State University, Luke Massee at the University of South Carolina Aiken, and Ahmed Samaha at the University of South Carolina Aiken.

Angel

Developing Student Leaders

angell@usca.edu — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:35:00 GMT

Outside of getting them in a classroom and teaching them directly, how do we develop our students into effective leaders? One of the easiest ways to do this is to take the students on our campus who are already in leadership positions and develop their leadership potential. I find that this is where Sanford’s challenge and support theory comes in handy. Then the question becomes how much do we challenge our students and how much do we support them? When is it okay to let them fall flat on their faces and when do we need to step in and take over for them? What is the balance between these two polar opposites? I would like to spend this next blog exploring these questions and others.

How do we get them in leadership positions in the first place?

Often we as professionals see leadership potential in our students and struggle with how to tap into that potential and get them into those key leadership positions. Each student is different in how you should approach them about taking on leadership roles. Many students will take the initiative on their own to pursue leadership positions on campus. Others however, need a little push. I have found that with some students all it takes is simply mentioning some of the leadership opportunities available. These students will usually take this and run with it. Often these may be the students who did not know about the opportunities or just needed a small amount of support from an external force to push them to pursue leadership opportunities. Many students on the other hand need a lot more support than just a mere mention. I have found that some of my students need me to directly tell them that they should pursue a position because I think they would be successful at it. Then I have to stay on them repeatedly reminding them and reassuring them that they can successfully fill that position. The problem with this is that the student can mistakenly think that simply because I told them they should pursue a position they will automatically be placed in that position. This is where you have to find balance between supporting a particular student in his or her endeavors and making sure they understand that just because you encourage them to pursue a position or opportunity does not ensure they will be granted that opportunity. I try to make sure that when I encourage a student to pursue a leadership opportunity I remind them that my support does not ensure their placement in that opportunity.

I have found that many of my students don’t pursue an opportunity simply because they have a fear of rejection. When students tell me this, I use these opportunities as teachable moments. We all know that our students are going to have to face rejection at some point or another in the future. Whether it be when they start applying for jobs after college or in their personal life, at some point they are going to be told no. It is part of our job as educators in the field of higher education to prepare our students for this rejection. This is when we can step in and challenge them to stick their necks out there a little. I find myself often telling these students that the worst thing that can happen is they’ll be told no. Then they’re no worse off than they were before they pursued the leadership opportunity. I try to be honest with my students about the fact that they are guaranteed nothing in life and life will be a lot easier if they learn to handle rejection sooner than later.

Once they’re in place what do we do with them?

Once we’ve gotten our students with leadership potential into those leadership roles that we knew they could learn and grow from what do we do to develop that leadership potential? I have learned from experience that you can challenge a student too much and cause a huge blow-up at an inopportune moment. I had a student a few years ago who I knew had great leadership potential and was going to be a great leader. I often pushed her to think outside of herself and her social circle. I was constantly challenging her and asking her questions with the simple intention of trying to help her see the bigger picture. Unfortunately, I did this a little too much and in the middle of an event she broke down and tried to start a yelling match between the two of us in front of her committee. I quickly realized that I had been pushing her way too hard. While I knew that she had amazing leadership potential and was going to be a great leader, I was trying to get that leader out of her way to quickly and before she was ready. Two years later she graduated one of the finest leaders at our university and ended up being one of the best students I ever worked with. Had I not realized (with the help of my supervisor) that I was pushing her too hard to quickly she could have shut down completely and things could have turned out very differently.

On the other hand, we cannot provide too much support for our students causing them to get lazy and too comfortable either. My first year as a new professional I learned this lesson the hard way. I had a committee chair who often did things the easy way. Because I was new to the field and the university I was afraid to push her too much because I wasn’t yet sure of the campus culture and I didn’t want to upset the pot my first semester at work. This committee quickly went downhill however. The events weren’t well attended and the committee became non-existent. By the time I realized that simply supporting this student’s ideas and endeavors wasn’t enough, it was too late to save the committee for that year. I have spent the last couple of years working with the new committee coordinator trying to rebuild the committee and its programs. Due to my lack of challenging one student coordinator for a semester the committee suffered a huge hit and has taken twice as long to recover.

Finding Balance

How do we find the balance between challenging and supporting our students? We don’t want to push our students so hard that they simply shut down but we don’t want to support them so much that they don’t try to do better either. I have found that posing simple questions that plant seeds into their minds helps a lot. One, you are not telling the student directly that what they’re doing is right or wrong. Two, once they ponder the question for a little while they’ll most likely come up with an answer similar to what you would have suggested but because they’ve come up with it on their own and it’s their idea they’ll be more accepting of it. The key is to pose the question so that you have a slight push in the right direction. Questions like: Do you think you should check with the rest of your committee about this first? Have you considered A, B, and C? What if you did such and such instead? These questions are non-threatening but challenging. Each student is going to respond differently, and the key is to learn what works with your students and tailor your style to them.

It is often hard to find out what does and doesn’t work with our students. Some students need and like more challenge than others. Some students need a lot more support in the beginning until they get comfortable with their leadership role. It is up to us as professionals to get to know our students and learn what’s going to work best for them. Each student is going to be different; it’s simply a matter of us adjusting our advising/supervising style to be most beneficial for our students.

Angel

Cell Phones, Contracts, and Capitalism

chrisn — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:05:00 GMT

By Chris Neiger

T-Mobile has finally jumped on board with other cell phone providers and is reducing the costs of its early termination fees (ETFs) by setting up a prorated system of contract termination. Verizon Wireless implemented a similar system almost two years ago and AT&T set up its reduced ETF system this past May. Which leaves Sprint/Nextel as one of the major cell phone carriers that as of yet has only announced they will cut their ETFs but hasn't set up any plan. The new T-mobile ETFs will start on June 28 with all new customers that have a one or two-year contract, or existing customers renewing their contract. Here's the breakdown of the new fees:

91-180 days left on contract: ETF drops from $200 to $100

Fewer than 91 days: $50 fee

Last 30 days: Either $50 fee or your standard monthly charge, whichever is cheaper

Instead of beating up on the big bad cell phone companies, which can easily be done by just about anyone who's owned a cell phone, we need to keep in mind that these are contracts. They aren't just pieces of paper we sign so they will let us walk out the door with a free phone. At the same time, the cell phone industry needs a refresher course on Competition 101 to realize that consumers will eventually go elsewhere when they find a better deal.

Let's talk about the contracts for brief moment.

They're a pain. We walk into the cell phone store, browse around for a cool phone (or for some of us, the cheapest one we can find), and pick out a plan from those tri-fold U.S. maps with about 27 different shades of the same color showing you different coverage levels. Finally they start typing on the computer and 10 hours later we have a new phone, a new company, and most likely a two-year commitment to some provider that may or may not have "best calling network" in the area. Side note: Is it me, or does every single carrier literally claim that their network is the largest, strongest, most advanced receive-a-signal-in-the-ice-caps-of-mars network?

So we've got our new phone and we've got our new company, now what? Well, we squint our eyes, hold our breath and call our friend to make sure everything is working on that expensive phone that looked like brushed aluminum (but we'll learn it's just cheap painted plastic when we drop it for the first time) and hope that it will actually sound halfway decent. Herein lies the problem. We've had to agree to something before we can actually use it. We've signed away hundreds of dollars, or thousands, in our one or two year contract before we could even turn the phone on and listen to what the ear-piece quality sounds like. It's not really a fair proposition, so some cell phone companies have set up a 15 or 30-day trial period to let people test out their network and phones. Now that may seem like it's a fair system, but that trial period usually isn't enough time to find out things like:

Your carrier drops calls as often as Samuel L. Jackson stars in movies
You won't get that text message until days after your friend wanted to see that cool new movie
You live in the 27th shade of color on their coverage map but you thought that meant you had the best coverage

OK, so I beat up on the cell phone companies just a little bit. But here's my counterpoint... we still signed the agreement. When we enter into our cell contracts, we're entering into a legally binding agreement with a company. As lame as that may be, we're still responsible to fulfill our part of the agreement; which is to pay our monthly bill on time and for a set amount of months. If we want out, they have every right to charge us money for breaking the agreement. We all know this, but when problems start happening with our phone or we're being charged for packages we didn't agree to we all feel liked we've been had.

Recently, a class action suit filed by some customers against Sprint/Nextel claiming that their ETFs were too harsh, was struck down by a California state jury. The customers weren't awarded anything, not even the satisfaction of winning, because the jury ruled that the fines were legal.

Consumer Options

Luckily for us all, things are starting to go more in the consumer direction. Some companies have plans that don't require any contract, T-Mobile is one of them. Today, Virgin Atlantic also announced that they would start a no-contract plan on July 1 that will be one of the cheapest flat-rate plans available right now. On top of that, the FCC is starting to look into cell phone affairs more when it comes to ETFs and is also pushing for consumers to have the option of buying what cell phones they want and use them for any company they like. These may seem like small steps, but they allow us to have more options of where we go for our service and what phones we can buy. And eventually, it gives us the freedom to shop for the best quality at the best price. So the next time you're overcharged on your bill or your company's customer service representative doesn't understand the meaning of the word "service', just keep in mind that things are moving ahead in cell phone business, and both the consumers and the companies will be the better for it.

Student Leadership Classes, where and when to start...

angell@usca.edu — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:49:00 GMT

So this is the first blog I’ve ever done so just bear with me as I learn what works and what doesn’t. If any of you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. So my topic this week is on fostering student leadership. With this being a wide open topic that most of us in the field are interested in I wasn’t really sure where to start. I finally settled on a topic for today so here goes… I hope you enjoy!

A number of us have leadership courses for students on our campuses and those of us who don’t are probably looking to start some. The question is, where do we start?

What do we include in these courses?

When teaching a leadership course you have to decide what approach to take. Do you want to do a more theory-based course and use a book by Maxwell or Kouzes and Posner as your text or do you want to do a more experiential course and include activities such as a ropes course and guest presenters? You can always try to incorporate the two into your course as well. Kouzes and Posner wrote a great leadership book titled The Leadership Challenge which walks the reader through “five practices of exemplary leadership”: modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. This book is great for freshmen and sophomore level students who have leadership potential that you wish to foster. Another great book to use is John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Maxwell takes the reader through the 21 qualities a leader should develop to be successful and effective. Both of these books also have supplemental materials such as the Leadership Practices Inventory by Kouzes and Posner and the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Workbook by John Maxwell. There are a number of other great leadership books out there that can be used as a text. I would recommend that the person teaching the course read some of these books and determine what would work best for their audience and their institution.

Guest speakers are a great way to vary the content of your course. One idea is to bring in presenters who are or were student leaders during their collegiate career. This gives the students a feel for what they can become if they capitalize on their leadership experience while in college. Various speakers will also likely keep the students engaged because each presenter is going to have a different style that may appeal to various students in the class. If you plan to incorporate guest speakers and a text in your course I would also recommend sending them a copy of the text, or at least the chapter you are studying at that moment, and ask them to make sure they incorporate the book in their presentation.

What year should we start teaching leadership courses?

We all know leadership courses can serve as a bridge to those leadership positions we all have on our campus, and can help those students who are already leaders improve their leadership skills. So do we start with first-year students and use the course as a pool from which to recruit new student leaders? Do we teach to upperclassmen to help them refine their leadership skills? Or, do we open it up for anyone and let first-year students and upperclassmen, who are most likely at two very different leadership stages, take the course together. The answer to these questions can vary depending on what it is you want your students to learn.

Many institutions offer emerging leadership courses to their students. The University of Kentucky has an Emerging Leaders Institute offered only to students in their first two years of college. The students who wish to take this course must apply for admission and get accepted; although students do not receive any university credit for this course. Once accepted, students are taught leadership theories and how to put those theories into practice. Often these students are used as a pool from which to recruit student leaders. Many of UK’s student government officers, programming board members, and Greek life leaders complete the Emerging Leaders Institute prior to their role as a leader on campus. This is just one example of how one institution handles the concern of when to start teaching students leadership courses.

The University of South Carolina Aiken does it very differently however. USCA allows any student to take their Emerging Leaders course. There are four sections taught in the fall semester and two in the spring and any student can register for the course. Students receive two credits upon completion of the course. Throughout the semester guest speakers visit and present to each class. These speakers are campus faculty and staff who discuss with the students different areas and topics of leadership such as service, communication, ethics and power, empathy training, and a number of other leadership related topics.

No matter how your institution selects students for a first-year student leadership experience, the focus should be on developing a well rounded and effective leader.

Expansion

An introductory leadership course is just the beginning of teaching leadership to students. The University of South Carolina Aiken offers a second leadership course focused on service titled Citizen Leadership. This course is for students at or above the sophomore level and is a follow up to Emerging Leaders (although Emerging Leaders is not a prerequisite for this course). Many campuses have leadership minors where students can take a program of leadership courses and receive a minor in leadership. Some institutions have a leadership program or fellowship that students can participate in. These students have to partake in a number of leadership initiatives such as workshops, courses and events to complete the leadership programs. The options are wide open in regards to where you go to help continue with leadership development on campus. There are a number of different institutions across the nation that have various leadership programs incorporated to suit their campus. The key is to figure out what it is you want your students to learn and what will work for your campus.

I hope some of you who read this and have various leadership courses on your campus will share with us your ideas and successes. I look forward to hearing back about what you all think about my first blog!

Angel

Microsoft's New Push to Be Cool

chrisn — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:53:00 GMT

By Chris Neiger

Yesterday I read an article on the Fast Company website about advertising genius Alex Bogusky and his new $300 million deal with Microsoft to produce the next ad campaign for the tech giant (read about it here). After I read it, I kept wondering what exactly is wrong with Microsoft's image, how can it be changed and what can Bogusky do to fix it? I have to admit, when I think of Microsoft, I tend to think they're boring.

A Brief Background on Bogusky

If you're unsure who this guy is, maybe you'll recognize some of his work over the past few years. He's built up his ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky churning out the "Truth" campaign ads against smoking, launching Coke Zero with commercials showing Coke suing itself for "Taste Infringement" as well reviving the Burger King brand by bringing back the "King" icon form the 60's; just to name a few. Oh yeah, and the semi-creepy Orville Redenbacher doing his own popcorn commercials came from him too.

His company is known for using viral marketing and the Fast Company article notes several times of a certain cool factor that Bogusky has. Actually, the article is even entitled, "Can Hotshot Ad Guy Alex Bogusky Make Microsoft Cool?" And that, apparently, is what Microsoft is looking for.

Microsoft's Apple Envy

Obviously, there's no denying Microsoft's impact on technology, culture, innovation, etc. but lately they haven't been as successful at branding a good image as rival Apple has (I know I've mentioned Apple several times in the last few blogs, I promise I'll cut back). With the Mac vs. PC ads, the arguably failed launch of Vista in both software and advertising considerations, and the simple fact that not many people like the guy who's king of the hill for long, means that MS may in fact need a few suave pointers to get us interested again. The fact that they hired Bogusky and didn't turn to their go-to ad agency McCann Worldgroup, is a pretty good sign that the company is looking for a change. The question is whether this new ad direction will turn heads and change Microsoft's image from a cigar-smoking fat cat to... I don't know... a young, quick-witted hipster with blue jeans and long hair.

Needs vs. Wants

Although the company has hit a rough patch in the last few months with the whole mess with Yahoo!, causing their stock prices to drop off during that time, the company has still seen 10% profits over the past 5 years and, lest we forget, they still hold 90% of the market for applications and operating systems and Kiplinger.com still had them on their list of "5 Stocks We Love" back in February. Not that I'm defending the giant (this writer still enjoys his aging Powerbook G4 over any new PC he's used and drools over the latest iPhone) but a lot of what I do for my job is done on a PC and chances are you're reading this on a PC right now. So maybe it's just that Microsoft WANTS to bee seen differently, rather than actually NEEDING a new image.

Either way, whatever Bogusky and his co-conspirators come up with will launch sometime next month, and I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with. If they're successful in their campaign, maybe Microsoft can shake off its lameness and start competing in popularity contests with Apple. But until then, I'll continue being enthralled with rival commercials that remind me that Microsoft = Excel and Apple = All things cool.

Teaching My Parents about Technology

glennf@naca.org — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:37:00 GMT

By Glenn Farr

   I should have known I’d be driving uphill with a few failed cylinders and no clutch when my mother sincerely asked me one day if it were necessary to rewind DVDs.
   Yes, she actually asked me that when I gave them their first DVD player at Christmas a year ago. And to make matters worse, she butchered the acronym, calling the shiny silvery discs VDVs, making them sound more like a social disease than a piece of technology.
   I had to laugh, no matter how hard I tried to stifle it. My father had to laugh, even though he’s only marginally more technically proficient than she.
   I was comforted a few months later when Zits, one of my favorite daily comics, featured a panel in which teenaged Jeremy was asked the very same question by his parents. At least neither my mother nor I were alone in this respect. (Jeremy, though, had the grace not to laugh.)
   It’s rather amazing that I have any technical expertise whatsoever, even more so that I am writing a technical blog, albeit one focusing on the softer, user-end aspect of technology. When I joined NACA in the late‘80s, I worked on a black monitor that flashed bright, eye-deadening orange letters at me as I typed. When we moved toward a Windows-based desktop network, I groused and complained about how none of what I saw on the screen made any sense to me and I’d never be able to use it.
   Well, sometimes, it just takes the right form of technology to get someone hooked. A short while later, a co-worker introduced me to his personal Mac, I obtained Internet access and I was reborn a technophile. (That’s not an endorsement for Apple®, folks—it’s just that Macs always sang a song to which I could harmonize.)
   In fairly quick order, or so it seems from a backward glance over time, I moved from computer to computer, then on to two PDAs and several cell phones, cable TV boxes, satellite dishes, and two high definition TVs. (Oh, and somewhere in there, I must list a couple of answering machines and home burglar alarms that were amazing in their own rights.)
   Because my parents neither own nor use any of these devices except a satellite dish and a simple cell phone, I am the walking encyclopedia on all things technical to them. I do my best, although some of the questions they ask are truly mind-boggling.
   For example, my mother heard all about the controversy surrounding the illegal downloading of music from the Internet and thought ALL downloading was illegal. I happened to mention I had gotten some music online (meaning I bought it from iTunes) and she nearly freaked, thinking the FBI would be storming my door any minute to carry me off to jail.
   When I explained I had bought the music with an online account using a credit card, I was greeted with another chorus of alarm. My parents won’t even plug in the phone line to their satellite converter box for fear the satellite provider will erroneously charge them for pay-per-view without their knowledge. Using a credit card to buy something online through a computer to them is tantamount to selling your soul to the devil.
   Anyway, last Christmas, I gave my parents a DVD set of the first season of The Big Valley. (They like westerns and hate sci-fi, which is exactly the opposite of my viewing preference.). On my next visit, my mother told me the DVDs didn’t work—that they were able to watch only one episode per disc, while “the box says there are more on there. Maybe you need to take them back.”
   When I pointed out they were neglecting to move the cursor on the DVD navigation menu to select a different episode than the one they had by now watched four times, their mutual response was a somewhat sheepish, “Oh.”
   On a subsequent visit, I discovered they had added their local network channels to their satellite package. They did this all on their own—I was so proud. They equally proudly announced they had done it because they knew they’d lose their over-the-air analog local channels when the nation converts to digital broadcasting in February 2009.
   Well, bless their hearts, they got it partly right. They didn’t realize those disappearing analog channels would be replaced by crisp digital versions, also available for free over the air, and took down this enormous rotating rooftop antenna they had used for years. Due to where my parents live, that antenna could pick up signals from three states—South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. And although they live only 30 minutes from Columbia, SC, they preferred the network affiliates in Charlotte, NC, Greenville-Spartanburg, SC, and Augusta, GA—all of which that monster on the roof could pull in.
   Their satellite provider, on the other hand, offers local network channels based on broadcast market, and due to their proximity to Columbia, SC, they were given the Columbia TV stations when they added the locals to their subscription.
   They did not expect this and quickly began to complain about not being able to watch “Greenville, Spartanburg, Augusta or Charlotte” anymore.
   When I explained they could have kept the rooftop antenna—and with a digital converter box (that would be almost free due to the government coupon program)—could have kept watching the far away stations they preferred, they were not happy.
   All I could say was, “If you had asked … .”
   To which they responded with another sheepish, “Oh.”
   After a beat, my mother asked, “Well, what is this digital TV anyway?”
   I sighed and began composing an on-the-fly Reader’s Digest condensed version of digital and high definition television and what it all meant to the average viewer. I completed what I thought was a fairly easy-to-understand description, only to be greeted with two blank stares.
   “Well, what’s the difference between high definition and what we have through the satellite?” my mother asked.
   I thought I had just covered this and, nearing exasperation, responded, “A high definition picture is about 10 times sharper that what you are looking at right now.”
   Referring to the scene from Bonanza being transmitted to their TV via satellite (which, by the way, I had explained WAS digital, but only standard definition), she asked, “How could anything look any better than that?”
   I turned toward their console television set that is so old it now displays only muted shades of yellow, brown and blue, and shook my head.
   “Trust me. It just is,” I said, remembering their responses to some of my childhood queries, and left it at that.

Here are your keys...good luck!

c1kane@bridgew.edu — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:23:00 GMT

Some of us have started new jobs with that very unsettling version of new employee orientation, "Here are your keys... good luck!"

(oh, and sometimes you don't even get keys!)

I am so excited to mention that we will be finishing the last step in our staffing strategies journey by welcoming our new Associate Director on Monday! My post today is dedicated to the important task of welcoming new staff and some intentional strategies to make that transition into your office culture a smooth one. After years of observing the victories and disasters in this process, I've come to know a few important things about staff transitions.

If your campus is anything like mine, getting someone up to full "existence" on campus is no small task. Email accounts, calling codes, student information access, keys, ID's... it's all a huge mysterious web of confusion. For us, I am still challenged by the fact that you can't get certain things done until the new person gets here in person and there are some items that you really think should be in place for a new staff member's arrival. The whole process makes me pretty crazy here, so I'd recommend learning your campus steps very carefully. Even though that paperwork alone is enough to occupy a lot of time, I'm writing today about even more you have to think about when trying to build a smooth transition for a new employee.

Many of us have learned about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.. so I want to use that as a way for us to discuss the needs of new staff and ways supervisors can address them.

Physiological Needs:

Physiological needs like food and shelter are the first rung on his ladder and these are also all things that come into play with starting a new job also. The next steps up the ladder include safety needs, so we'll talk about those too.

Where will the person be working? Have the workspace cleaned, get some basic office supplies, and make sure that your staffer has a key to his own office. On the topic of food, I usually plan some lunches for the person in their first week with some fun people. I know this is super-basic, but it has to be said.

Safety needs:

Safety goes back to the issues of making sure the new staff member's work space is secure and that the new staff member has whatever keys or card access is needed for full access to your department from the first day of work. In addition, offering some information about parking guidelines on campus and even emergency procedures and any campus safety procedures should also be addressed.

Belonging needs:

Only after those first two steps are accomplished can things like belonging be addressed. Since we are all campus activities people, we know that "belonging" is one of the things we do best! Make some time to connect your new staff member with those who can help them belong, by arranging lunch appointments and ways for them to get orientations to different offices on campus by people you know to be dynamic, friendly and welcoming. Other ways you can help this new person belong are to make sure they have business cards waiting for them when they arrive and have some kind of "logo" from the college on a shirt, promotional item or even their department nametag.

Love needs

"All we need is love!" We all know that the need for love is expressed and manifested in many different ways by many personality types, but the need to be "loved" still stands in the way of other important things to come according to our friend Maslow. It's hard to explain "love needs" and how it may relate to the workplace, but I think of it in terms of making sure that a new job does not prevent a new employee from focusing on those he or she loves most in life. If someone moves cross-country to take a new job, they may have anxiety about being far from family or significant others. Take some time to talk about upcoming vacations or ability to request time off so that they can maintain those essential relationships. In addition, helping a new employee achieve the elusive "balance" in their life can make all the difference in someone's potential to move further up the Maslow hierarchy.

Competency needs

Now we're talking... achieving needs for competency are pretty important for supervisors and this need focuses on helping the new staff member feel confident and competent in their new role.

You as a supervisor play a key role in making or breaking this one. Your new staff member is dying to know if they are doing a good job in your eyes and you need to figure out a way to let them know, whether you are a "warm fuzzy" with that stuff or not. I know it's not comfortable for everyone out there in cyberland to give that pat on the back, but I need to ask you to force yourself to figure out a way to let the new person know where they stand with you.

I attended the ACPA Mid-Level Managers workshop a while back and they helped me to see the value in a written document that describes supervisory expectations. I really liked the idea of working on this as a guide for new staff, so I worked on an overview of my expectations of all staff in their roles as Manager, Educator and Communicator. I believe that all of my staff play these roles in some degree or form, so this was what I chose as a "springboard" for discussion. I will confess I don't use this document as much as I should, but it's a great start for new staff to understand me better.

Self-actualization

Ah, the brass ring! This is the "full realization of one's potential" and I think it represents what we all want for our staff. To get to this point, however, you can see that a lot of time and effort has to be spent and you can't hit the ground running expecting this to happen overnight. I hope that this trip through Maslow has helped readers to see that all of the "early work" is time well spent as an investment toward true excellence. At the point where you are able to focus on self-actualization, you are able to let your new staffer settle in to focusing on how the work on your campus will help them to achieve their personal goals and development.

Get ready!

My new staff member starts on Monday and I know there is a lot to do if her "self-actualization" is going to be ready for the start of school (kidding! ) I am thrilled that this latest journey into creative staffing is stepping into its next phase but I know that in our field the reality of this situation is all too familiar. I know that what I can do in the meantime is to be sure that I am using the lessons learned along the way to keep our work focused, dedicated to our mission and goals, and always keeping staff development as a priority among our many competing areas of focus...just in case the next wave comes along.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have gone through this latest journey with some extremely talented and patient people. (Matt, Carla, Kristy-Ann, Tia and Christina...there's the shout out you've been asking for!) I know that all of this great experience will sometime "pay forward" for all of us as we move into this great next phase of our department (and our personal!) development.

It's been a real pleasure getting the chance to work on this blog! If you have some comments on any of the posts... please comment! (NACA will make me start asking my mom to post comments...so please!) Thanks for reading!!

Cindy

Clouds and Silver Linings

c1kane@bridgew.edu — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:52:00 GMT

Sure, "see beyond the clouds and find the silver linings..." blah blah blah. Easy to say but hard to believe when you are pulling your hair out trying to manage some kind of staffing crisis. While things may seem bleak when something like this is going on, I want to tell you about what we gained through our most recent round of staffing changes and some true "silver linings" that emerged.

Focus, focus...

After these painful exercises in "what do we need to stop doing," we can now say for sure that we are "lean and mean." We have gone through the process of analyzing all of our areas and can be sure that our college's leadership agrees that we are putting our energies in the right areas. Now that we are so focused, we can make more strategic decisions on new programs, departmental goals, and advocate for growth appropriately because of a solid foundation. All of that hard work helped me to see a clearer picture of who we are and why we do what we do. I also was reminded through that process that although my remaining staff was pushed to the limit with an already full workload, they were talented and patient enough to know that through teamwork and creative thinking we could not only survive but THRIVE amidst chaos. (they may read this post, so I won't go too far in shameless plugs for them!)

Silver Linings

Our silver lining in our most recent round of staffing issues was discovered through a meeting with my VP. We were lamenting over the fact that two administrative staffing vacancies out of a total of four administrative positions would force us to scale back our operations to a painful degree. With spring semester looming, we were worried that our orientation planning responsibilities would have to put everything else on the back burner with only two administrators here to keep things going. My comment to our VP was "if only we had a separate funding source that could help us to add a new position." She then suggested we investigate our fee-based account as a potential funding source and we were overjoyed to find that our current fee structure could support a new position for at least the next three years. We also discussed the fact that we were aware of a great potential candidate from another department on campus who had expressed a goal of job searching in the coming semester for a position in student affairs. So, in one meeting, we found a potential funding source, identified a great potential candidate right here on campus and then wrote a proposal about how this new position would advance the college's strategic goals of continual improvement to the first year student experience. From there, a plan was born, a proposal was accepted, a search was started and our new Assistant Director for New Student Programs joined our team!

Is this the move for you?

If you are considering reshuffling responsibilities in your area there are a few questions you will need to ask yourself:

Responsibilities were allocated this way for a reason. Does that reason still exist? What things have changed?
Is the allocation of responsibilities to a less experienced professional a help or a hinderance?
Will you be able to appropriately challenge as well as support the new person in the new role?

If all of this reflection points you toward making the change, then go for it. In my case, it meant that I would need to give up my responsibility for managing the orientation programs that I have directly implemented for the past few years. The major benefit would be new energy and new life to the program. The staff member who we ended up hiring was someone who had worked with our program in a more limited role for a few years in the past, so she was familiar enough with our operation to be enthusiastic and ready to hit the ground running to run her own show. With the two staffing vacancies on our plate for the semester, it seemed like making this change was the only way we were going to squeak by in one piece! So, we went for it!

My own outlook

My own outlook on my job had to change during this process. I mentioned in previous posts that we rarely get the opportunity to "direct" when we are directors of campus activities offices and my reality of my job was that I was going to need to be a greek advisor, an international student advisor and a director during Spring semester and that some of my "director-ish" things would need to be on hold. However, I knew it would only be short term and that the shuffling of the orientation roles was what was going to get me through until the summer.

Now that we are knee deep in the orientation season, I can tell you that the transfer of responsibilities isn't all that easy. You can plan for it and talk about it, but until it is upon you you don't know how things will work. You can pass along every document in your files but until you can figure out how to download experience, it might not be the complete picture.

My involvement in our orientation programs has been very strategic as I have chosen the points where I get myself very involved in what is happening and sometimes intentionally make myself absent so that my very talented staff can handle things without me. I have to be really conscious of the fact that my presence may or may not be welcomed and may actually enable problems to happen if our OL's see a more direct route to an answer to a question my asking me instead of the person running the show.

Let's put it in perspective... it's not like I'm taking vacation or anything crazy like that and I'm only a Nextel "chirp" away. The "letting go" process was definitely one that had to happen intentionally. I will confess to cyberland that I am really missing some of the direct interactions with the orientation leaders (as we all know this is a highlight of a program like orientation!) and the other "highs" of a program so intense. However, I am definitely not missing the food service headaches, the challenges of developing the perfect OL work schedule, and having to address the five hundredth orientation leader complaint when they figure out how little money they make per hour of service. It's all a trade off, I guess!

In summary

Long story short, we grew our department during all of our chaos! We now ended up "plus one" in the staffing tally thanks to the need to manage our crisis in the short-term. I really think the "emergency" forced all of us to pay closer attention to thinking carefully about some creative strategies and it paid off in the end. I'm celebrating a new opportunity for my department, my administrative staff, and my personal outlook on my own life to start some new challenges thanks to this rearrangement of roles.

I'm really lucky that things are starting to get back into whatever definition of "normal" we use in this field. The last piece of this puzzle will fall into place on Monday, as we will welcome our new Associate Director to our team. I'll talk in my next post about preparing for her arrival! I can't wait for her to get here!!

Cindy

The 500 Year Flood

rich.ramos@simpson.edu — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:14:00 GMT

The latest round of floods in Iowa has been called by the media and government officials the 500 year flood. Regardless of what you call it, it is nothing short of miraculous how so many people have stepped up to help the thousands of people who have been impacted by this particular event. As I watched the news and the skies waiting for some relief from what seemed to be the never ending rains, it wasn't until this last week that some relief finally showed. And while it will be months before things get totally back to normal, there was at least the beginnings of some normalcy in Central Iowa.

Simpson College and the community of Indianola, IA, other than seeing a massive amount of rain, sits high enough and didn't see the devastating impact of the floods that so many other communities across the state of Iowa saw. But because of our proximity (12 miles from Des Moines), we were clearly impacted by the tragic stories of people and business who were negatively affected by the rising flood waters and knew that as a college community, it was our responsibility to respond and take an active role in helping our community, our friends, families and neighbors get back on their feet and once again see the normalcy that we in Indianola never really lost. Once we knew that things were critical in the Des Moines area, we knew we had to create plans and provide opportunities to help those who were in need. As a way to be active participants in our community, our college president made it clear to all employees that they could take paid time off from work to volunteer to help those who needed it most. This time off was not in exchange for personal time or vacation time and nor did the time missed from the office have to be made up at another time. It was a way to respond to a situation that needed an immediate response. Many of our staff at the college prior to the president making this announcement, chose to take their own time to help others less fortunate than themselves. Among the other ways the college stepped up and helped out, in place of a full day student life staff retreat, we condensed our retreat to a half day and the rest of the day, we made ourselves available to volunteer in Des Moines.

Not only were we prepared and willing to give of our time to volunteer, but we were also prepared to help out with resources. The NCAA National Track and Field Championships were in Des Moines and we made plans to provide housing for athletes and visitors who may have been displaced due to downtown Des Moines being evacuated. We also made plans to potentially house students from the American Institute of Business in Des Moines who were about to be moved out due to rising flood waters. While neither of these had to happen, we clearly knew it was our responsibility to help out when and where we could and to be ready should we be called upon. So many of our staff and students gave of their time and energy to help out and I know that should your institution be in the same position, they would do the same.

As I said, the clean up and the need for volunteers and resources is going to go on for months, not only in central Iowa, but across the state. As the waters recede across Iowa, please remember that the potential for flooding in other southern states is great as the water that started in Iowa makes its way down the Mississippi river. Be ready to help whenever and wherever you can.

Simpson College was fortunate. We sustained minimal if any damage from all of the rain. There are so many others who have lost everything and that cannot be forgotten. Step up where you can. Be an active participant in your community and give, support and volunteer however you can.

Let me know your thoughts, comments and feelings. I am also going to provide you with a listing of links to show you some of the devastation as well as how you may help out those who are in the most need.

Before and after photos of the flooding in Cedar Rapids
http://bluerobyn.mindsay.com/the_flood_of_2008_cedar_rapids_ia.mws

More images of the flooding across Iowa
http://cfapp2.rockymountainnews.com/photos/slideshow_main.cfm?xml=/photos/slideshows/061208flood/061208flood.xml&slideShowType=default&slideShowName=061208flood&dateCreated=06/12/08

The Red Cross is a great way to show support to those in need by volunteering your time and talents or support via a donation. The Red Cross is a nationwide organization that provides assistance not only to those in Iowa, but to people in need across the U.S.
http://www.redcross.org/

Coe College in Cedar Rapids was greatly impacted by the floods. Here is a link to campus updates and what they have been going through as well as the long road ahead for the college.
http://www.coe.edu/emergency.htm

Iowa City and the University of Iowa were also hit very hard in the recent floods. There are concerns that the university might not be ready to resume normal operations by the start of the fall semester due to the damage.
http://www.uiowa.edu/

The State of Iowa Flood website
http://flood2008.iowa.gov/

I'll end it all with a couple of quotes and I look forward to hearing from you.

~ A VOLUNTEER is a person who is a light to others, giving witness in a mixed-up age, doing well and willingly the tasks at hand-namely, being aware of another's needs and doing something about it. ~ author-Unknown.

~ If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. ~ author-Booker T. Washington