Three quick stories, one important point.

Story #1:
Last week, before my soccer match, I watched a little league softball game on the field next to us. Surrounding the field was a collection of parents multitasking between the game, their blackberries, and babysitting their, even younger, offspring. One parent in particular was having a hard time keeping her little one under control. Her kid kept racing up and down the sidelines while mimicking a train. He put his hand in the air, pumped his fist, and as he passed us let out a loud, “Choo Choo!” Then 30 seconds later he’d come steamrolling back. The kid clearly had extra energy and needed to let it out. The parent, and most parents would agree, didn’t try and stop him from running, instead she calming kept looking a few yards ahead to clear away any dangers that might be in his way. The little kid was motivated to run, so instead of trying to stop him, the parent took on the role of laying tracks for him to keep running.

Story #2:
My brother and I were playing Frisbee Golf and he lodged his frisbee square in the middle of a mud pit. I quickly looked around for a large stick and without much thinking took two steps into the mud pit, reached out my arm, and started to retrieve his frisbee for him. With my foot half covered in mud, my brother said, “never get in the way of a motivated individual.”

Story #3:
At this year’s ACPA conference in Philadelphia, the conference organizers hosted a special social media strategy session with several individuals to talk about how they could better leverage social media for the ACPA community. Throughout the session it was clear that someone needed to step up and lead the charge. Looking around the room, there were many capable individuals, but the question was who was the most motivated and ready? Kathy Petras raised her hand and agreed to lead the group. Since then,  she has been a wonderful leader, and had we had enough data to work with, probably could have predicted so because Kathy was already a trending leader in the community. She was a newer associate that recently took on a leadership position in another committee as well as led an ed session for the first time this year. If we were to tally up her actions, we would’ve seen she was a trending leader and was hunting for her next level of growth. In this case, leading the social media adoption committee was a perfect fit for her.

Point:
Every student group/classroom can be broken up into varying levels of engagement. Based on a specific student’s engagement level, they want to be treated in different ways. A fully involved students wants to be treated in a totally different way than a student lurking on the edge of the wall. A student’s engagement level is constantly shifting though, with a hope of always trending towards more involvement. It’s up to the leaders of the community to thus recognize the individual engagement level of each student, and also to recognize how an individual is trending. Find out who the Kathy is of your community that is trending towards being a leader, then lay down tracks for her to continue to be great, because the worst thing a leader can do is get in the way of a motivated train.

When I was an undergraduate, I had no idea that I came from a working class family. My parents taught my siblings and me that we were “middle class” because we were not financially destitute. While my parents always provided enough for our family to survive, the reality is that they were never financially secure and have always had sizable debt. There certainly was never any saving for college in my family.

When I started school as a first-generation student, I found myself surrounded by students who had a lot more money than I did. My college was small and private, and I was able to attend because of a scholarship. The majority of my peers wore expensive clothes, drove nice cars, and always appeared to have money to spend. Naïve, I just assumed my parents were more frugal than average.

For me, the most difficult part of college was struggling with inevitable class issues and having no awareness of their source. I dealt fine with working multiple jobs, but serious blows to my sense of self worth came when I started believing that my lack of cultural capital was an intellectual deficiency. I often wondered if I didn’t have clear career goals because I was too lazy. During a precarious semester abroad, I returned early from Europe largely because I ran out of money.

While I learned about Marxism broadly in my courses, I was never given the direct opportunity to address class in my personal narrative. As a result, I internalized the bulk of my struggles and assumed they were personal flaws.

When I started graduate school, I began to explore class identity through the lens of social justice education. I learned that many of my frustrations were common among students from working class backgrounds. I also learned how to identify these frustrations and deconstruct them, digging to the core cause of a classist social structure. Since then, exploring socioeconomic class in the context of student affairs had become a salient personal and professional practice.

One of my most rewarding experiences during my first year as a professional was watching one of my student staff members explore classism and use his personal narrative to support other students. Inspired by a dialogue about class during RA training, he decided that he was going to help other struggling students. His determination led to our collaborating with a campus Dean to create regularly-occurring dialogues about socioeconomic class. All of the dialogues were greatly attended. This fall, we are collaborating with other professionals to create wider class-related programs and initiatives.

The most significant lesson I have learned in my own class journey in higher education is that many college students enter our doors without having ever discussed their class narratives. Many of them, like the undergraduate version of me, are not even aware of the ways their class identity affects their lives. In my experience, students who are encouraged to think about their class narratives, given the safe space to tell their stories, and affirmed by peers are far more likely to both seek and provide much-needed support.

Does this experience reflect any similarity to your own? In what ways does your campus help students explore and understand their class narratives? Have you ever coordinated any class-focused programming?

Adam J. Ortiz is a House Director at Hampshire College, Massachusetts

I recently re-read an article from Bloomberg Businessweek, Five Ways to Ensure Mediocrity in Your Organization, by Liz Ryan. This article resonates with me every time I read it because the article focuses on some supervisor’s disregard for their employees. This disregard can create a revolving door of turnover within an organization. Student Affairs is a great career that will prove a worthwhile experience for many; however, it’s important as a new professional to be workplace savvy and trust your instincts.

According to Ryan, the five ways to ensure mediocrity are:

1. “…Make sure your employees know you don’t trust them.” Basically, supervisors hire a competent employee and then micromanage the employee. What’s the point of hiring talented people when you don’t trust them? Once a new professional gets the impression that management does not trust their work, an employee will shut down and give an organization mediocre work.

2. “…don’t tell them when they shine.” Paychecks are great incentive, but some times praise will go a long way to build morale. Lack of praise will also damage morale. Employees want to feel appreciated, valued and empowered. Ryan suggests that lack of praise from supervisors could be because managers fear a request for a raise or promotion. Employees understand that many institutions are feeling the budget crunch, but kindness goes a long way to build loyalty to an organization.

3. “…keep employees in the dark.” How can employees be invested in the organization if they do not have a seat at the table? Ok, ok…if not a seat at the table, employees should at least be regularly informed on new initiatives and programs. I believe employees should be aware of the organization’s mission, goals, and values at all times; this helps provide focus to your work and it becomes more intentional.

4. “If you value docility over ingenuity…” The most precious gift you can give an employee is autonomy and responsibility. Micromanaging could potentially drive a professional with a masters degree slightly insane. Like Ryan, I agree, employees who are treated like children will more than likely seek out an employer who trusts and empowers them and treats a supervisor like a professional with and advanced degree.

5. “If you fear an empowered workforce more than you fear the competition, squash any sign of individualism.” Young whippersnappers beware, don’t rely on your education and experience to challenge the system. Knowledge is power, but not in an organization that prefers mindless minions. In reference to management shaking down it’s employees Ryan states, “They do it by instituting reams of pointless rules, upbraiding people for minuscule infractions and generally replacing trust with fear throughout their organizations.”

I agree with Ryan that poor management will only rappel good employees.  Once managers begin to realize why they are losing solid, competent employees, you may be settling into a new job.

Carla Finklea Green is a residence hall director at Old Dominion University.

Facebook status update from my 18 year old cousin.

 The elephant is in the room and now we can tiptoe around it carefully, mouths agape, or we can  acknowledge its presence.

I hate organized mentoring programs.

There, I said it.

Student affairs, as a field, has a storied culture of mentoring. We mentor student leaders who  express an interest in pursuing a career in the field. We mentor young professionals as they earn  their stripes and join the ranks. We continue to validate the need for effective mentoring  throughout careers.

Often this validation appears in the form of mentoring programs offered through professional organizations and formal outlets. It feels oddly like a dating service, filling out a vague, brief questionnaire and then being paired with someone with whom I’m supposed to develop a relationship of mutual learning and sharing. Worse yet, the mentoring programs often work under the assumption that one must be of a higher professional level to mentor someone else.

But is that how mentoring relationships that persist really develop? Can our development as professionals – as people – actually be reduced to six questions and an anonymous matchmaker?

I think about the mentoring programs for which I’ve signed up, both as a mentor and a mentee, and realize none has successfully produced a pairing where I felt sustained support or felt as though I could provide that to another person. Worse yet is having only 15 or 20 minutes laid out for us at a conference to even begin to navigate the waters of that conversation and then having the onus of finding a mutually acceptable communication plan for the duration.

Instead I reflect on my mentors and the variety of ways they’ve appeared in my life and how we’ve connected — the traditional routes such as jobs and internships; the soon-to-traditional routes of social media platforms. I reflect on the people who have told me I’ve served them as a mentor, identifying connection we shared that aided in their growth (and mine, too!).

In May, I asked the #SAchat community to share thoughts on mentoring in the comments of a blog post. As I reflected on what was shared, it validated my non-scientific believe that rarely have organized mentoring programs produced an actual mentoring relationship.

And so, as we start another year, this is my call to arms for our field:

Let’s stop forcing mentorship. Let’s stop creating false expectations of mentoring relationships and how they’re formed. Let’s stop using verbiage that makes it sound as though finding a mentor is as easy as completing an eHarmony dating survey. Let’s stop saying we need a mentor in a specific area or field and be open to mentors who are not what we expect.

Let’s focus on the tangible benefits of mentoring. Let’s replace the 30 minute faux mentoring at a conference with a brief session on intentional networking. Let’s better define mentoring and stop using the word so flippantly that it loses its meaning. Let’s be honest about who our true mentors are and not only how we connected the first time, but how we sustain those relationships.

August brings fresh goals, dedication and excitement of the quickly approaching academic year.  One way my department  looks to revitalize its’ professional staff members is through its annual retreat. For two days more than twenty staff members share ideas, plan for the year and most importantly, laugh and bond over the common lifestyle we share in residence life.

During the retreat, I had the opportunity to learn from some of the best hall directors about what they learned during the first few years in residence life.  Many of them shared funny conversations with parents while others shared intense stories of on-call experiences.  The more seasoned professionals continued to emphasize the importance of work/life balance and having free time to do with what makes you feel fulfilled.  However, being a Millennial, I have been raised to constantly jump at any opportunity to further my goals and to never turn down experiences to further my education.  While at the retreat these conflicting pieces of advice and my personal perspective came to head; would becoming more involved on campus sacrifice the balance new hall directors are desperately trying to cultivate?

A colleague at the retreat told me that free time is the best time to be busy.  How does a new hall director who is looking to make an impact on  student and campus life balance having free time with taking advantage of professional development opportunities on campus?  Do you use your free time to invest further in your staff or do you spread out across campus involving yourself in campus committees and initiatives?

Upon reflecting on my experiences and what has made me a better professional I considered a number of factors.  One, what are my goals with my student staff and what are my goals as a hall director?  Two, what tasks in my position do I find most fulfilling?  Three, how much personal time do I need to be able to be a happy and high functioning student affairs professional?  As I thought about finding new opportunities on campus with my partner, we both agreed that to be a successful partner and colleague, I needed to have at least three nights a week free per week to satiate my introverted ways.  However, I also found that I would have a few extra hours during the workweek to explore other opportunities on campus because as a returning hall director I am lucky enough to also have a second year graduate assistant experienced in holding judicial hearings and meetings with my student staff.  I also learned in my first year as a hall director, that I am most satisfied in my job when I can work with colleagues outside of my department utilizing my residence life skills.  I appreciate that my department and supervisor are willing to accommodate my interests and encourage taking advantage of these opportunities.

Therefore I ask, how do you balance taking advantage of other opportunities on campus versus keeping extra time for your core job responsibilities and personal life?

Jess Colwell is a residence hall director at Boston University.

James Fowler’s keynote address at the #ACUI11 conference this year stirred up quite a discussion after he made the claim that online relationships had little influence over behavior. As expected, our friends in the #SAchat community quickly expressed concern for the statement through the Twitter backchannel and afterwards in the hotel lobby as they’ve experienced a great deal of influence exchange through #SAchat. In talking over the keynote with Jeff Lail from UNCG that night, he brought up the idea of weak ties verses strong ties within relationships. In-person connections are more likely to build strong ties whereas online connections are more likely to result in weak ties.

Over the past year, it’s been interesting to watch this concept play out within the micro world of Student Affairs. The #SAchat community on Twitter is the most active hashtag for Student Affairs professionals to connect, learn, and grow from each other. However, within #SAchat there are many sub cultures such as Residence Life, Orientation Leaders, First Year Experience, etc. These subcultures have tried, several times, to create and maintain a hashtag to connect their members together. But most of the hashtags have faded away. Why?

Let’s start with #SAchat. The original group of people who started #SAchat knew each other in the real world. There were strong ties within the inner core. This meant that if no one else participated in the conversation, there would still be a longer term commitment to the conversation between the people in the inner core because they shared strong ties. As it happened, other people did join the conversation and over time it grew. If it were a dance floor, the total number of people on the dance floor increased through weak ties, but the number of people with strong ties in the center of the dance floor stayed the same. The critical shift in the community happened last year during conference season when #SAchat members hosted meetups at each conference. They wanted to meet their weak tie online friends IRL (in real life) and thus turn them into strong tie friends. The results were amazing, the #SAchat community grew exponentially. Back to the dance floor, not only did the overall number of people on the dance floor increase, but the number of people in the center of the dance floor increased as many of the weak ties were converted into strong ties. Each meetup repeats this process.

During conference season this year, I made it a point to connect with as many #SAchat people as possible IRL because not only did I want to get to know them better, but I also know how strong ties are what keep people engaged in the community longer.

On the flip side is #FYEchat. I started the #FYEchat community to mimic the success of the #SAchat community. But it has never quite worked [yet] even though I see the value it could provide to First Year Experience professionals. The difference is I started the community on a foundation of weak ties so the commitment to keep the conversation going wasn’t there. So it fades in and out.

Another example is the #WLsalt community. The community started online with a collection of weak ties but has since grown to a dedicated group. The critical difference between #WLsalt and #FYEchat was that soon after a collection of weak ties were created online, they hosted a meetup for the community at a conference to convert those weak ties into strong ties. The strong ties thus formed the inner core of their dance floor.

In terms of weak ties and strong ties, there are two options to creating and maintaing an online community. Either start with an inner core built on strong ties that are dedicated, or convert your weak ties into strong ties quickly. Once the inner core is established, and the community norm of inclusion is practiced, you’ll watch your community grow with little effort from you. Weak ties won’t have as much influence over you as strong ties whether online or offline.

A project I was assigned recently involved analyzing a set of grant applications. The proposals were centered on using technology to enhance student success. My job was to determine commonalities and missing pieces across the proposals. From a list of 20 or so findings, here are the four takeaways I believe are pertinent to our work:

1. Even in a fairly well-defined grant program, definitions for common terms differed greatly across the 81 proposals.
2. Many authors used buzz words in their application narratives, but failed to back up those words or concepts with knowledge or examples that showed they knew anything about the terms.
3. Risks and obstacles associated with the implementation of the project almost always dealt with resistance to change in other areas of campus.
4. Student affairs units were woefully absent among the collaborators in proposed initiatives.

In an era of fiscal responsibility and budget cuts, relevance matters. In era of accountability, meaningfulness is important. In an era of continued alteration, adaptation is key. In an era of “do more with less” (whether you ascribe to that theory or not), collaboration is necessary.  So, I ask you to consider the following as you plan for the upcoming academic year:

1. Does everyone on campus understand what you do? If not, why not, and how will you address that this year?
2. Do you use buzz words so you can be a part of the conversation, or are you driving the conversation because you and your area are the buzz of campus?
3. How are you addressing change head-on and helping others realize its usefulness and necessity?
4. Are you collaborating with non-student affairs offices to learn about their work and efforts, enhance their programs, and impact your campus’ students? If not, why not, and who’s at the top of your list for contacting?

It’s a new year, with new possibilities and new opportunities. How are you going to make this the best year yet? Not ever, because that implies you’ve no way to improve from now. Just yet… better than years past, setting a solid foundation for the years to come.

Matt Pistilli is a research associate in Information Technology at Purdue University. Connect with him on twitter.