Let Me Rant About Class

So, today is just gonna be one of those blogs where I rant on to try and figure out my class. So feel free to be thoroughly entertained by my thought process which maybe extremely unlinear at best. J

Currently I’m taking a class entitled Organization and Administration in Higher Education. Its primary focus is learning, reading and maneuvering through the higher education system from an administration/organization point of view.

Now, keep in mind I’m a communication major, an extremely Feeling and Perception based individual. So, switching my mind to business concepts is like telling me I can’t have warm fuzzy movies to watch…there will be resistance.

Anyway, so far, we’ve learned the terms core technologies, product functions, organization organism, and so forth. While my mind is spinning and still trying to get a firm grasp on these terms and this organization frame of mind, I have to admit it’s definitely giving me a new perspective on the way I view a university.

For example, according to the concepts and models of higher education organizations, the university is here to educate students. That is the primary function. Students attend for many reasons including, peer pressure, parental expectations, self-motivation and the list goes on. However the institution exists to educate those who are accepted.

Thus, according to the literature of organization theory in higher education, as Student Affairs professionals, we are the support of that purpose. We get the students in the door, offer them the services needed to get that education and then process them for graduation. However the core function of our existence as a university is to educate them and graduate them in specific fields. Core technologies will be different between institutions, however, the goal is the same; educate the students and graduate them in these core technologies.

It seems very raw and cold as well as very linear and small. I’m hoping in the next few chapters, as we build on these basics that it takes on a broader characteristic. As we talked in class, it seemed that it might and I hope it does. Though, again, perhaps the resistance and confusion in my mind is due to my Student Affairs family mindset. Even so, I’m hoping to really get out of my comfort zone with this class and maybe answer some of these questions in the hopes of being a better-prepared future administrator. Though I do acknowledge that I also may be missing the boat entirely on this class right now.

But rest assured, there will be later posts on this and my struggle to look at higher education as an organization rather than a family and how I champion these concepts :)