C.S....Nope Not Cinnamon Sweets...Its Content Strategy!

In Student Affairs, we find ourselves most often being a Jack-of-all-Trades: from student leadership conflict management to financial aid applications to academic advising and end with seeking out Psychological Services for a referral...and this is all with just the first student of the day. 

Now, on top of that, most of us touch social media or the website in one way or another on a daily basis. For myself, having a B.A. in Communication with an emphasis on Mass Media, website design wasn't exactly my strong point, however due to circumstances I was given the task of website and social media. Now, upon taking on this new task, I trotted along my merry little way with my pre-written codes and passwords and began organizing and planning our department sight. There was talk about this content strategy stuff and basing the website on student development theory, etc., but by day's end we would just create a page and put it out there so at least we can say "it's on the website". Launch and Leave syndrome was our content strategy. On our single department sight, by the time I left for Grad School, I was up to almost 1000 pages and many times 5 and 6 levels deep. 

Now, as I mentioned before I attended the High Ed Web Michigan Conference at the beginning of this week. And the kickoff keynote was all about content strategy. At the beginning I was a little nervous afraid it would be techy talk and above my head. But it wasn't and I got a shock of how much I could advance student development with well performed content strategy. That keynote set the tone really well for the conference: Be specific and strategic; Do not be afraid to say no, but do not be afraid of trying new things. 

As Student Affairs Professionals, we are always creative and do our best to serve our students in any way possible, whether we have a social media profile for every staff member or office or  perhaps a growing "Frankensite". However, as we move forward, and resources are getting more scarce and job responsibilities are growing, and unfortunately there is still only 24 hours in a day (Which BTW someone should fix...just saying) we need to really pay attention, analyze and strategize about our web content and social media. 

Online is the present and the future. It's here to stay and just having a page up is not serving our students any more. We cannot afford the Launch and Leave Syndrome to continue if we want to remain proactive and mold student affairs to our incoming generations. 

After the conference I decided to confirm the need for content strategy. And so I played on the web with my old job. I Google searched key words and tags for my department to see what would come up. It was astonishing. Pages from before I started my professional career popped up because no one had ever deleted the files and pages. They just deleted the links. Information was contradictory and confusing. There was old contact information, non-existent clubs, and old policies and handbooks. It was mad chaos. 

So I'd encourage you just for fun and info to see what there is out there on the web about your department or division or even school. But really consider making content strategy a key player in moving your functional area forward. 

Random Cool and Thought Provoking Points

I went to a Higher Ed Web Conference this week in Flint, MI. It was amazing. I'll be posting about one or two topics in the next few days, but I thought I'd give you some of that random knowledge and thought provoking points that I learned and experienced to start off with.

Let the randomness begin:

HiPPOs: Highest Paid Person's Opinion

Unicorns and Rainbows: A more intriguing way to say: "In a perfect world"

Web Monkey: The person who is on the other end of "Hey, web monkey, go make these updates"

Frankensites: Websites that have been mutilated and grown to epically tragic and large proportions

Lauch and Leave: Launch a site or social media profile and never update it

BYOD: Bring You Own Device


Just some cool and thought provoking points. :)

My Warm Fuzzy

Over the past few weeks, I've been watching all the commencement ceremonies happen. One of the warm fuzzies has been watching several students that I worked closely with in my previous position graduate.

I think one of the best privileges that we, as Student Affairs Professionals have, is to watch the students grow.  We see them enter as doe-eyed freshman and watch them walk across the stage as mature adults, ready to take on the world. We understand and have seen first hand what they have been through to get that degree, whether it is overcoming family issues, personal tragedies, periods of lack of motivation or just simply burnt out from being over involved. Many of us have the chance to walk with these students as they journey through their years on our various campuses, and guide them through those rough patches, and while we may be "behind the scenes" we have our role in getting these student to graduation.

Watching the students walk across the stage and take ahold their diploma I found myself hoping that they would have that energy, excitement and hopefulness for the future for the rest of their lives. Hoping that in their dark days they look to the future and see it is always bright and full no matter the circumstances.

I know that, personally, I am making a key effort to stay in communication with them, and I know many of my co-hort does the same with the students they have mentored. I want to see how they are doing, but also to continue to be a friend and mentor as they move forward into the "real world".

We have highs and lows, like every job, and the university politics can easily get in the way of daily operations, however at those frustrating times, just think about who you are really there to serve and that all the gratitude and motivation you need is to watch them walk off the stage at Commencement with their diploma in hand.

Taste of Our Own Medicine

One of the most interesting revelations I've had while being a graduate student was about 2 weeks ago in the last class for the Administration and Organization class.

The professor of the class really left the burden to learn and figure out the information for ourselves We would sit through lecture and periodically he would have us talk in groups about the lecture and how it applied to the schools we worked or studied at. He would then walk around the class and help guide the conversations in the right direction.

In the last class we all were able to put in our own thoughts on his teaching style and ways he could improve or should leave the same. While listening to my fellow classmates, I realized something. The way he taught us, were the same processes that we use with our students to teach leadership and help them figure out problems. It was the first time in my graduate studies that we were given a "taste of our own medicine".

While listening to everyone we were not great at taking our own advice nor practices that we offer to students. We see students get frustrated and discouraged often times when we only offer them more questions or vague advise to help them learn and grow. And many times we don't understand why they are getting upset or frustrated or we are unable to guide them properly through those discouraging times and simply end up telling them what to do. When in their shoes, I was just as frustrated at times with my professor because he left it to me to make my education and wanted him to just tell me what to do, though now, I have a new appreciation and perspective of the way he taught our class and the way we advise our students. Which seems to be an interesting perspective. I wonder if we were able to put ourselves through those processes more often then perhaps it could help us better teach and advise our students and give them a better learning experience.

Is One Sub-Population Education Diversity?

So I was doing my daily morning news surfing for interesting articles and whatnot and came across an article about the search for the University of Kentucky's Provost. It intrigued me because it triggered some thoughts I had a year or two ago. What is the purpose of diversity for just diversity's sake?

In many of my classes, diversity, inclusion and multicultural issues and programs have been discussed, suggested and studied. However, theory and practice seem to be a connection that is not made all the time.

I remember as an undergraduate student leader and in the first few years of my professional career that the diversity office on our campus was not all that active with diversity issues. Primarily it focused on race, and in particular one minority group. Now, the programs they engaged the students in were fantastic, however, I remember thinking that why are we not exposing the students to other sub-population groups as well?

I understand that it is important to educate students on their historical culture and to share that knowledge with the campus community, however, is there a potential diservice when that is the only programming that is really engaging and made as a priority? I think that there is a potential wall that is built. While a program is educating everyone on a specific sub-population, should there not be a balance on educating the university community on other sub-populations?

As I've been going through my classes, there is always a need for balance. A balance of gentle prodding and a strict hand, a balance of support yet encouraging students to figure things our themselves, a balance of academic and holistic approaches. Should there not be a balance on diversity and cultural education as well?

My ethnicity is Asian, specifically Korean-American, and I was always looking for programming about the heritage and culture. However I never saw any programs form the diversity office. I was a little put off by that, and have always been a little wary of diversity offices that only focus on one or two sub-populations and does not balance them with a wide range of other educational programming concerning other sub-populations.

Just some old random thoughts that recently arose with some news articles that have been written lately.

What If "Shit Just Happens"?

Yet again, my thoughts are triggered by an unfortunate incident. :(

The Boston Marathon (if you have been living under a rock this week) was terrorized by several bombs during the event, and killed 3 people and injuring almost 200 others.

While the incidents did not happen on a college campus, colleges and universities across the country began tightening security. And once again, conversations began to open back up on security, additional officers, and other such measures.

For some reason, though, something was bugging me in the back of my head that these tightening up of security just didn't seem like the right response to the event. Then I found an article on insidehighered.com which clarified my little "bug". It basically made the point that most colleges and universities have adequate preventive security measures, and some times "shit just happens" and that campuses should focus on adequate response programs just as much as the preventive measures.

One of the positives of the Boston Marathon Attack was the response of the security and Boston PD as well as attendees of the events. For the most part, communication and response was tight and on point.

To me it seems that campuses are so engrained in preventive measures that they loose sight that "shit just happens" and in order to have a fully adequate security program an effective and purposeful response program is a must as well.

As a professional I had an idea of what I should probably do in the case that such an event happened on my campus, however, there was no official procedure, nor walk through or practice for such an event. Now, our public safety department is one of the best I've seen on a campus, but if an event occurs there is still a responsibility of the staff and faculty to take care of any students within their immediate area. I often did wonder if such events happened on campus, what I would do. I was a new professional in charge of a highly active Student Organization Center on the 2nd Floor of our building with the rest of my office on the 3rd floor on the opposite end of the building. So for all sense and purpose, I was alone if such an event happened, and as these events have been growing in number, this has been a concern for me. I researched suggested practices and had a plan if something happened, however it was only the measures that a new professional could come up with.

As these events seem to be escalating, I have to wonder if there will be a practical shift towards a balance of preventative measures with educating staff and faculty on effect responses and procedures, in the case this would happen.

It is scary to think that amidst everything else Student Affairs professionals get to endure, campus shootings and stabbings (or worse) could occur, but if we want to be proactive in this time of growing violence, perhaps we should continue the great preventive measures we all have, but also focus on what to do if "shit just happens".

In closing, my thoughts and prayers go to all the victims, families, cities and anyone effected by these latest shootings, stabbings, and whatnot across the country, be it on college campuses or not.

Groundswell and Politics...Easy Way to Loose Your Job?

"The lessons of the Penn State abuse scandal are clear: university officials, at the highest level, are responsible for safeguarding the welfare of our students, and must be held accountable for their failure to do so."

This is a line from a letter from the Rutgers Faculty to their governing board, demanding the resignation of University President Robert Barchi

Ever since this latest incident occurred and hit the news cycle, I've been wondering a lot about the responsibilities of administrators.

I've been watching as individuals, over the past year or so, on campuses are being reprimanded for a variety of incidents. From Penn State to now Rutgers University, in particular coaches, are being caught for illegal, unethical, or unprofessional attitudes.

As it should be, these individuals are being reprimanded, fire, let go and the proper legal action is being taken. However, it is not stopping there. As in the letter from the Rutgers faculty, higher administrators are being held accountable to the point of being asked for their resignations.

I find that some of this is very political and some of this is just a frenzy and groundswell from social media. So, I'm wondering at what point does the accusation stop and the re-habilitation start? As a far future administrator for the Student Affairs field, I feel that any decision one makes could come back to haunt you, whether it was good or bad. And many times when there is a gain in one place, there is a loss somewhere else. So at what point in time can the whole picture be taken into consideration in regards to accusing administrators and demanding their resignations?

The Penn State and Rutgers Presidents are being asked to step down in extremely different situations. I feel that with Rutgers, its more of a political move rather than a purposeful move.

Not totally sure what my final opinion on this will be, and still thinking this through, but, this is just where I'm at with my thought process for right now. :)