A couple of weeks ago, I was part of a conversation on Twitter about how #SAchat has changed since its inception in October 2009. The discussion, sparked by a comment about the recent lack of responsiveness to questions on the hashtag, then transitioned to a conversation behind the scenes with those who manage the operations of this blog and the weekly chat. Our thread moved from defining leadership within the #SAchat community to examining why the community has these storming conversations seemingly more often than other online communities. We reached no conclusions on any of this; rather, we decided that the discussion needs to be broader.

About a year ago, I promised transparency in this community and asked the same from all of you. Instead of a topic poll this week, I’m inviting you to participate in what we are calling The State of the #SAchat Chat at our regularly scheduled time. We want you to tell us about why you participate (or don’t), how your relationship with the community has changed, what you need from the community. Consider this our town hall forum. We’re all eager for your feedback and to continue shaping what it means to participate in #SAchat. I hope you’ll join us tomorrow, Thursday, at noon CT/1 p.m. ET.

In the United States,  Constitution Day is rapidly approaching. Oh, you’ve never heard of Constitution Day? It’s not your favorite fall holiday? You’re not alone. Constitution Day celebrates the signing of the… wait for it… United States Constitution on September 17, 1787. Relevant to many colleges and universities, the legislation authorizing the creation of Constitution Day states,

“Each educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year should hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17, of such year for the students served by the educational institution.”

After seeing what my campus planned for Constitution Day (free nachos and copies of the Constitution being handed out between classes!),  I did a quick Google search to see what else is going on around the country. This New York Times generated list of programming ideas was the most comprehensive resource I found, though it lacks information about which institution is hosting the listed events. Reading other websites and program teasers, it felt as though the requirement isn’t taken seriously by many institutions, which made me wonder if students understand why these programs take place. And, so, I’m turning it over to our community to discuss –

What does your campus have planned for Constitution Day? How seriously does your campus take this programming requirement? How effective have your previous Constitution Day programming efforts been?

I’m going to make a sweeping generalization about student affairs, and then immediately tell you why student affairs should stop making sweeping generalizations.

We have a bad habit of making assumptions about students and defending it behind professional experience.

I was part of a conversation on Twitter last week about the Beloit Mindset List and the sweeping generalizations it makes about the class of 2015. As the discussion progressed, several of us wondered what the list would look like if it were generated by a more diverse, representative body than the committee at Beloit. The list assumes an extraordinary level of privilege and access. It also assumes everyone entering the class of 2015 is eighteen years old and just out of high school. I know that’s not the case on my campus, and seriously doubt it’s the case at Beloit.

This semester I’m teaching a first-year student threshold course (a modified FYE course, of sorts). My peer mentor and I have answered common first-year questions about dining options, the location of the library and how to buy books. In a more humbling moment, though, we stayed after class this afternoon to explain to a new student what PowerPoint is and how to access it for class.

The generalizations apply to more than students. It’s extends to assumptions about parents. Over the past two weeks as semesters kicked off around the globe, I noticed a lot of Twitter conversation and helicopter jokes criticizing parents who were still on campus with their students.

What happens if we turn it into a question instead of an assumption? Why are those parents still on campus?

• The student may require additional assistance due to a physical challenge. The parent may be helping the student learn the campus as campus access professionals are overwhelmed this time of year with both academic and physical needs.
• The family may be from an area affected by power outages resulting from Hurricane Irene and not be able to return home.
• The student may be from out of state or out of country and the parent traveled with them because, after these two weeks, they won’t see their student for a year.

I’ve started practicing this technique of turning my first assumption into a question. Tonight I walked to a local grocery store to pick up dinner and noted a student driving from our parking lot to the store across the street. While my first reaction was one along the lines of,  “This store is 300 yards from your front door. What is going on?” I more thoughtfully asked myself, “What is going on?”

• The student may have received her financial aid refund and is stocking up for the entire semester at once.
• The student may not have had much assistance moving in and planning to pick up larger items such as laundry baskets, a bucket or mop that would be difficult to navigate through a busy intersection.
• The student may work at the store and doesn’t feel comfortable walking back to campus alone at midnight when the store closes.

Some assumptions and generalizations are necessary in our work, but I urge each of you to challenge yourself when you find yourself making an assumption and turn it into a question that can best be answered by the student.

 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.

During a recent #SAchat about professional development during the summer months, several people suggested hosting book clubs for student affairs staff on campus. We asked for your favorite book recommendations and are (belatedly) ready to share them. Check out the list of recommendations here.

And it’s not too late to submit your recommendations! Keep adding them here. We’ll find a more permanent place on the blog for the form and list as it continues to grow.

Are you hosting a summer book club on your campus? What book are you reading?

This is not an official response to the current conversation from the #SAchat leadership team.

I’ve discovered recently I’m unwittingly kind of a big deal in the #SAchat community. This had to be told to me by a colleague. It’s only been within the past few months I’ve been able to piece together how it all happened. One week I was rushing home from yoga to participate in evening chat hoping to connect with other professionals, and the next I was acting as MOD. I never asked for additional responsibilities, though I certainly could have turned down the opportunity to take on the leadership role when it was presented to me.

Because of how much I value the community, I’ve always taken my role as MOD seriously. That probably sounds a little funny, but I fully believe it is my job — both behind the orange avatar and my own — to welcome new participants to the community and help them connect with others. Whether you follow me as @StacyLOliver or not (and I hope you do), I likely know a few details about your functional area and interests if you’ve participated in a weekly #sachat or even just used the hashtag. In my own eyes, I do more than moderate chat — I facilitate our community on the Twitter end of things.

So what may surprise you is that I, too, have felt left out during #sachat or by members of this community. There are conversations I haven’t been included in I wish I was and there are people with whom I don’t feel connected. There are members of our community I call friends and there are members of the community I’ve never connected with on a personal level. There are people I wish I knew better and there are people with whom I’ve fallen out of favor. There are people who have unfollowed me after a disagreement and there are people who have given me second chances. There are people who have said and written hurtful things about me and there are people who lift my heart with their kindness.

This is the nature of a community. When we ask our students to develop a community in residence life, we often ask them to draw a sociogram. In this activity, they show us where people fall in the community and which community members interact with one another. It helps identify those who may be living on the fringes and find ways to bring them into the fold. It helps us connect in more meaningful ways and build a stronger network of relationships. Inevitably, though, there are people who just don’t connect with one another. And that’s okay. Because that’s how a community operates, for better or worse.

Tonight I watched a conversation unfold, spurred by a thoughtful post from James Frier, about our #SAchat community. Though I am disheartened there are people who feel the community or people within it are elitist, I am not surprised. I believe any of us would be hard pressed to identify a community where everyone feels included all of the time and everyone gets along and there are no personality conflicts. My hope is that everyone who participates in #SAchat feels connected to at least a few other people in the group because that is where community starts and relationships begin to grow. Yes, some people use #SAchat as a means of self-promotion. But many people don’t. People choose to participate in communities for a variety of reasons, none of which are inherently wrong.

What would a sociogram of #SAchat look like? And where would you fall on it? And are you comfortable with where you would land?

Despite the perception from others that I’m “kind of a big deal,” I see myself first and foremost as a participant in #sachat and our community. I participate to learn from others and to share resources. I participate to make myself a better professional through discourse, including conversations like the one unfolding now, that make me uncomfortable and force me to look critically at my role in our field.

I make this offer often and I mean it sincerely — if I can help connect you with someone else or help you feel more welcome, I hope you’ll tell me (or the orange avatar).

Unfortunately we still don’t have a solution to our transcript woes so instead of your usual Friday morning reading fodder, you’re stuck with me.

April is considered to be unkind to those working in student affairs. Hours are long and patience is short, both for students and staff. There are large events and detailed processes. More often than I’m comfortable with, I hear student affairs professional complaining about the month of April. Instead of joining in with the cacophony of voices, I’m issuing a challenge to our community at the mid-way point of the month.

Reframe the rest of April as a chance to be your best and to do your best. Before you complain, ask yourself, “How can I turn this moment into something better? How can I be better in this moment?” Instead of looking at April as an obstacle, consider it the final exam of your year. You are being tested and you need to prove what you have learned.

I’m a consistent advocate for being honest with yourself and others. There’s no denying the end of the academic year is challenging, but it’s up to us to make it a positive challenge to improve and be truly present for your students and colleagues.  Students can sense our dread and frustration. We owe it to them and ourselves to share in the enthusiasm of this transitional time, this celebratory time, this time of closure for our community.

I hope you’ll join me in making the next fifteen days the best of the academic year.

As our faithful readers and chatters know, we provide a transcript of each week’s chat in this space on Friday mornings. Over the past weeks, it has become increasingly more difficult to create that transcript with the service we relied on, WTHashtag.com. This free service allowed us to easily generate the transcript from the scheduled chats, provided statistics and tracked our conversation. Unfortunately, this morning WTHashtag.com posted a notice on its site that it is no longer able to provide this service. Due to a combination of overwhelming their own servers and their interpretation of a change to Twitter’s Terms of Service (TOS), they will no longer be able to provide us with the resources to create the #SAchat transcript.

All of that said, we would like the community’s input in how to move forward. Our loyal transcript creator, Seth Hagler, is researching other services that may meet our need. In the interim, I would love for you to share your thoughts on how to supplement chat should providing transcripts no longer be an option. A few of our ideas include gathering resources shared during the chat and posting those, highlighting a few tweets rather than the entire transcript, or posting a brief summary that others can comment on.

What ideas do you have? How can we leverage this as an opportunity to change and grow with our community?

Kate Feeney, a graduate student at Iowa State University, contacted me earlier this week. For a class project, she was soliciting answers to the following question:

What does access to higher education mean to you?

I took the better part of a day to think about it before responding. What a great question — and something we talked about a lot in graduate school, but maybe haven’t given as much consideration to since graduating.  My response to Kate:

To me, college access is about making higher education accessible and affordable to people from diverse populations, including but not limited to ethnic, racial and socioeconomic differences. It does not mean providing college education to everyone; rather, it provides means for everyone who wants to pursue the opportunity. Access and success are often confused in higher education — access provides the opportunity; it’s up to students to build success.

How would you answer Kate’s question?

Yesterday afternoon in Chicago I sat down with Debra Sanborn and Tom Krieglstein, founders of #SAChat, to talk about the state of our hashtag. As we simultaneously reflected and looked forward, I took advantage of finally having the opportunity to articulate in person to Tom and Debra what I love about #SAChat – that we truly are a community.

There is limitless number of hashtags on Twitter. There are chats held for every possible professional field imaginable and functional areas within those fields. I keep an eye on several, mostly out of curiosity (#ChefChat is a favorite). What jumps at me is that when the scheduled chat ends, the conversation fades. Our hashtag thrives seven days a week and sometimes sees more use outside of scheduled chats depending on what is happening in the world of student affairs. We talk to each other about our personal lives as well as professional development. When I saw Jeff Jackson in Chicago, I felt as comfortable asking him about Titus, his five-month-old son, as I did about his work (and probably asked about the baby first). When I got together with Tom and Debra, we swapped stories of insomnia and sunsets as much as we talked shop. This hashtag has served as the catalyst to our discovery of mentors, job opportunities, friendships and more.

As other hashtags and chats have fallen by the wayside, #SAChat has remained steadfast. We are constantly reviewing and reformatting to better meet the needs of our community, from going on summer hiatus to jump-starting rogue chats in off-hours when we notice a topic seems to be bubbling. It’s a testament to the work we do in student affairs that we are able to use those same skills to build and sustain a community in this medium.

A very small crowd gathers for the State of the Hashtag address.

Over the next several weeks, you will see a series of blog posts about the behind the scenes operation of The Student Affairs Collaborative Blog and #SAChat. You will get to read about some bloopers that have happened behind the scenes as well (because, oh, we have our share of moments). You will learn how we share and trade responsibilities to better streamline our processes to create intentional professional development and community in one package. It is always our intention to be transparent and honest, solicit your feedback, and share our direction with you.

So, let’s start here – for those of you who don’t know, I have served as your chat moderator for the past year. I’m not always the voice behind the familiar orange avatar, but I’m the person most often in the hot seat on Thursdays firing the questions. The first time I moderated a session of afternoon chat, on March 11, 2010, I was out of town and moderated from three different venues in 35 minutes because I couldn’t find a location with a consistent, free wireless Internet signal. Now I moderate from my office, where I use three monitors to effectively keep an eye on hashtag feeds, my own feeds and messages being sent to @The_SA_Blog. I even have a Pandora station specially tweaked for moderating. I’ve always considered it a privilege to moderate chat, to facilitate the exchange of information and support, and to provide context for professional growth every week. If you have suggestions or ideas for chat, I hope you’ll let me know.

As I tweeted after my lunch with Tom and Debra, I’m wearing my sunglasses ((look closely at the picture above — they’re there) because the future of #SAChat is so bright, with all credit belonging to all of you.