Did you know there are 42,500 college student marriages each year? This infographic gives you a highlight of the “every day” activities and experiences had by the over 2 million college students in the United States. Link to the full infographic here.
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One night while I was trying to unwind and relax with my friends, I decided to repeat one of my favorite phrases from the movie Babe. “Baa-ram-ewe, sheep be true” needless to say laughs ensued and other funny movie quotes were thrown out there. One of them being “E.T phone home” in the classic E.T voice. This comedic exchange between my friends and I got me thinking, the E.T quote in particular got me thinking – If I were E.T how would I have phoned home?
I am the son of two deaf parents. Calling, or as E.T would say phoning, home has never really been an option for me. Thanks to technology there are wonderful ways that I can stay in communication with my family (Skype is a wonderful way for anyone to communicate with home). Yet this idea had me going in two directions, 1) our word choices are extremely powerful when relaying messages and 2) there are so many invisible aspects that may make up our students that we would never know unless they told us. How then do we serve our students? How do we serve a student population we have never worked with, who we have never learned a theory for, or don’t even really know are on our campus?
For me coming to college was eye-opening, it was the first time in my life that not everyone in town knew me as, “Ryan, he has deaf parents”, it was something that I had to disclose to people. Of course I shared, it’s a part of who I am, a part of what makes me, me! Now that I am in a Higher Ed/Student Affairs masters program and learning about theories for various student populations, I reflect back to my own development and am curious how much of my background affected my development. I had a great experience in my undergrad, and my mentors, advisors, and supervisors were able to help me exactly the way I needed, but I’m just one person – I wonder if there are other students like me and if we as a collective population have some special needs. This has had me thinking lately, what can we do to help those hidden populations of students? How can we bring awareness to them?
Our field places a huge focus on word choice and being sensitive to those words that may be offensive to populations. We have created buzzwords. Realizing that when I heard “E.T phone home” I immediately thought of the fact that I could not “phone” home in the traditional sense. I of course laughed that this is where my thoughts went because it is not a sad situation nor is it a difficult situation for me. Yet it highlighted the power of words. One simple word can influence thoughts, emotions, and actions. How then can we educate our students on the power of words? My opinion and philosophy is to correct them when appropriate, kindly explain to them how those words are impactful, and to be proactive and have the conversations that lead students to realize that what they say carries power. How do you educate your students on the power of words?
Ryan Bye is a graduate hall coordinator at Texas Tech University.
College Student Catch and Release
April 25th, 2012 | Posted by in Campus Issues | Engagement - (3 Comments)In my last post I wrote the following line: “Let me just say, the ‘real world’ as a term is bogus. If college is a fake world then it’s our fault for creating it.” The line came out naturally, and I didn’t think about it much after typing it, although it kept grabbing my attention as I proof read the post. I took some time to reflect and ended up taking a walk and jotting down some notes.
I realized I hear those statements all the time from students: “When I enter the real world…” I struggle with the idea that somehow college is not the real world. That belief is counter to what college is about: exploration and adventure, trial and error, and embracing things that are different. Most universities do offer a comfy world within their campus by offering every service needed: food, shelter, medical care, counseling, activities, etc. Four-year institutions market themselves in nice neat packages, a get away of sorts for students. It’s the last hideaway before the scary real world takes over and worries like taxes, mortgages, and car payments creep in. Even though the majority of freshmen are 18 and considered adults, we provide most services for them, without students even having to ask. What are students losing by having everything at their fingertips?
There are very few things that traditional four-year institutions do not offer. There are competing thoughts on how this came about. It might be because the collective buying power of a large group affords the opportunity to offer discounted services, or universities wanted to attract students and ensure they had a comfortable stay. I will say for certain that it’s not due to student development theory. Student affairs grew from campus need, student development theories hadn’t even been dreamed up yet when the student affairs movement began. No matter how it came about, we ultimately ended up here: A mix between an all-inclusive resort and a home for the elderly (with less elderly… although that population is growing).
Beyond the fact that students have everything they would need at their disposal, the part that concerns me the most is the relative alienation of our students from the surrounding community. Students don’t to need to venture out into the community unless for small activities like going to get food or grocery shopping. The community within the campus is enough for most students. The problem then becomes students don’t engage their community because they don’t need to. Universities promote community engagement but it doesn’t go much further then community service and internships. My concern is institutions don’t hold these ideals valuable enough to urge our students to step beyond the walls and truly engage the diverse communities they reside in. Community engagement should go much deeper. Same for diversity, it shouldn’t mean just the diverse backgrounds and perspectives of those attending college. Our communities are built on diversity and should be embraced as a resource and learning tool. What stories are we cutting out by building walls between community and college. Are we afraid of having students leave campus?
There are programs across the country that urge student-community interaction. While doing benchmarking interviews for a project I came upon two welcome week programs that piqued my interest: American University’s Discover D.C. program and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s SLO Bound program. Both programs recognize the necessity of student familiarity with their surrounding communities, not as a passing experience, but as a resource and integral part in learning.
I hope institutions urge their students to embrace community for everything it offers. If not, we are missing an opportunity to show students how truly amazing our communities can be.
Steven Harowitz is a graduate student at the University of South Carolina, and serves as the Graduate Assistant for Carolina Productions.
A Creative Solution to an Antiquated Problem
April 24th, 2012 | Posted by in Campus Issues | Low Cost Programming | Resident Life | Student Discipline - (4 Comments)One of the most salient traits I have noticed about working in a residence hall is that every year brings with it a unique set of problems. Last year, for example, my common area kitchen was constantly trashed. No amount of signage, threats, or interventions helped. Yet, our public laundry room was always immaculate. This year, our laundry room is a mess while the common area kitchen is often pristine. Bizarre? Yes, but that seems to be the way it works.
Another issue that arose during the start of this year was an unexpected wave of indoor smoking. I was shocked by this because… it’s 2012, right? Yet, it was this year’s biggest issue in my building and I received numerous complaints from students and their parents about the smell of cigarette smoke infiltrating rooms and lingering in the hallways.
The problem with indoor smoking in residence halls is that it is extremely difficult to identify when someone is in their room with their door closed. By the time the smell reaches the hallway, the deed has been done and locating the room where it is coming from is a challenge. I told students to call Campus Police if they smelled any smoke indoors, but more often than not by the time they would arrive all they encountered was a faint haze.
We needed a creative solution.
At the end of the first semester, while brainstorming, one of my staff members and I came to the realization that the best way to go about finding a solution was to approach the situation from a peer impact lens. We decided to create a survey that asked residents 1) whether or not they support the idea of people smoking indoors and why, 2) how peers’ decisions to smoke indoors impacts them directly. We promised to publish the results and reassured everyone that their responses would be anonymous.
Within three days, we had almost 60 responses. The answers were mostly dichotomized between those residents who were deeply upset by people smoking inside and those residents who confessed that they smoke inside because of convenience. The end product of the survey was tangible evidence that indoor smoking hurts and bothers many residents for numerous reasons and that students who perpetuate it do so for unconvincing reasons.
My staff member and I assembled the survey responses into a printed booklet and distributed it to the students in our building. This generated many discussions about the impact of indoor smoking and since then there has been a dramatic reduction in the instances of it happening. I have not received one complaint about it this entire semester.
The lesson that I took away from this situation is that sometimes students legitimately have no idea how their behavior affects others in the community, and will make damaging choices as a result. This survey project gave students being most affected by these choices a voice to express their experiences. At the same time, it gave the smokers insight into how much their behavior was hurting others. The resulting decrease makes me think that community respect was the motivating factor.
This approach is certainly not applicable to all conduct issues, but for a problem that was negatively impacting a lot of people, it worked wonderfully.
Adam J. Ortiz is a House Director at Hampshire College.
There was an incident on our campus several weeks ago that could have ended very badly, but it turned out to be a misunderstanding about an umbrella. It was early Friday morning and an alert went out that someone had been spotted on campus with a rifle. The suspect was located near the residence halls, but everyone on campus was supposed to find shelter.
I happened to be in a room with several other staff members along with a few students and many different rumors were zipping around. While we were locked down a fellow staff member said something along the lines of “I can’t imagine being on the wrong end of a gun or being shot”. I wanted to reply “you may not be able to imagine it, but can you separate yourself from that image enough to relate to someone who has been on both sides of a deadly weapon?” Her comment made me think about our lack of awareness and I can only hope it made a few others think, too. How many students in that office know someone who’s been involved in the war? How many of the staff members there have family overseas with our military? Or, it could be worse, how many people in that room have lost someone due to war? I was lucky, my husband could have been on the ground in the war zone, or he could have been forced to stay in when his contract expired, but for someone else, that comment could have brought up a lot of sad memories.
Although I think every campus should have an office to support veterans, military personnel, ROTC students, and those on campus with military connection, a veteran-friendly campus can start with awareness. Students with military connections, whatever it is, may not want to be recognized, or may want to be recognized, but we should be aware of their presence. Attitudes toward the war(s), current administration, or military as a whole can be communicated in many ways, and we should be aware of how those attitudes can affect our students. Comments, even during times of high stress, can show our ignorance or lack of compassion toward students who have faced some very scary times.
I know I could have had that conversation with my fellow staff member, but it also came back to her identity development and willingness to accept new idea and concepts. I also don’t think it would have been an appropriate time to really discuss awareness of language. But I do think it’s good to keep in mind the multiple identities of our students, which can include some type of military history, background, or connection.
Chelsea O’Brien is a Senior Staff Assistant at Rochester Institute of Technology.
It seems there is heightened amount of conversations about students coming into our universities as fragile, coddled, and riddled with heavy mental baggage. The severity of the situation hit when I opened up an article on Psychology Today titled “A Nation of Wimps.” The article paints a frightening climate of psychological distress (anxiety, depression, etc.) on the steep rise and the more developmentally appropriate issues like relationship problems and time management not taking a backseat either. Counseling centers across the country are completely booked with students waiting at the door hoping that someone cancels.
How has student affairs responded to that? If current events tell us anything we typically will create a new office or new initiative to try and broadly assist all of those loosely defined students. Whether that course of action works or not is dependent on your school, but typically I feel that approach falls flat. I tried to put myself in an administrators shoes: My students are coming in more medicated, with more mental health issues, and are more over stimulated then any other generation. That’s a tough problem to solve and most people would say it starts with K-12 and parents, which is a nice way to say, “it wasn’t our fault.” Colleges bring students in already carrying baggage and the onus on us is to unpack that and help the student become fully developed and ready to enter the “real world.” (Let me just say, the “real world” as a term is bogus. If college is a fake world then it’s our fault for creating it.) Colleges were never in the business of fixing student’s problems. Even in the 1900′s professors acting in loco parentis did not go so far as to try to disassemble their students to the core and try to tinker with its systems. It’s a tough challenge, and as I sit here writing about the topic I realize that there might not be a great answer. In a perfect world students would get one-on-one focus, consistent mentorship, and counseling, but the one downside about staff: they aren’t easily scalable. University’s will continue to increase enrollment and tuition, and with that comes even more students who need extra assistance, but the amount of staff hired will not directly correlate to the extra students. Compound that with students staying longer then four years, and you have a potential recipe for disaster.
Student Affairs practitioners will always have a strong bond to this problem. We are charged to focus on student identity development, amongst a host of other “outside-the-classroom” responsibilities. Yet how many in our profession take a student and get to the core of their issues? Most of us aren’t counselors and might find it irresponsible to try and act as one. But in this culture of student fragility should we have to adjust our education and practices and add more counseling to our plate? Should all student affairs practitioners go through programs that have a heavy counseling aspect, not just those who select counseling based programs?
Steven Harowitz is a graduate student at the University of South Carolina, and serves as the Graduate Assistant for Carolina Productions.
A Guide to Stealing Joy by My Ego
April 3rd, 2012 | Posted by in Campus Issues | Leadership Training - (2 Comments)Most folks out in #SAChat land know that outside of my student affairs life I play roller derby with Assassination City in Dallas, Texas. I love playing derby for many reasons, one of which is the fact that it is completely different from my day job. (I swear, I have never hip-checked a student.) However, this season I have been serving as a co-captain for our team, and I have started to see the ways in which derby overlaps with student affairs. Not with the skating and fishnets, but with the team development, commitment to a cause, and DIY mentality.
A few weeks ago we had a heart breaker of a bout. We were favored to beat the team we were playing, but ended up losing by 7 points. For those of you not familiar with derby, losing by 7 points is like missing a free throw at the buzzer, or the final field goal attempt bouncing off an upright. So close, yet so far. Understandably, I was upset. I believed I could have played better, was frustrated with a few calls the refs had made, and was worried that my team would be upset with me because I wasn’t able to lead them to victory. Yes, you read that right — I took a team event, and made the entire thing about me.
See, we had a rough season last year, and we have a lot of new women on the team who are also new to the sport. We have spent a lot of our off season figuring out ways to mesh the team together, identify strengths, and asking folks to step up and play positions that were new to them because we had holes to fill. (Sounds familiar, yes?) I thought that if I could deliver them a victory, they would feel like it was all worth it, that they had made the right decision to play with out team. In my distress that evening, I failed to look around and see the joy the team had despite the loss. They were excited for the marked improvement of the team, they saw that we had worked together better to make our walls, and provide better offensive support. The were celebrating personal bests. They realized what I did not that evening, that as a new team, it didn’t matter that we had lost our bout. What mattered is that we worked together better as a team, and we played to our potential.
When I finally checked my own ego at the door, and allowed myself to see the good in our loss (and in full disclosure, this took a couple of days), it led me to wonder about how many times I may have stolen joy from my students. Focusing not on the good that was happening, but instead on low program turn out, staff that was failing to meet expectations, or initiatives that weren’t supported by higher up administrative folks. I truly believe that team development is one of my greatest strengths as a professional, but when I don’t take time to celebrate the good, what tone am I setting for the group?
I don’t have the answer to that one, but it did manage to bring up several other questions I am still thinking about today: How many times do we allow the pressure of our position, or long term departmental goals to negatively influence the way we look at success? When have you made a program or an event more about you and your needs rather than taking time to get real input/feedback from students? Yes, we are in a time when budgets are tight, and we have pressure to produce results for those higher up, but at what cost? What little successes are we missing today because we are too focused on achieving the long term success of the future?
Racist Halloween? Not for these students.
October 31st, 2011 | Posted by in Campus Issues | Creativity | Diversity | Education Theory | Engagement | Event Ideas | Leadership Training | Marketing | Student Activities | Student Discipline | University - (5 Comments)By now, you may have seen a link circulating across social media and email inboxes highlighting the ad campaign created by a group of students at Ohio University. The posters show students holding a picture of a Halloween costume, either worn commonly at parties or sold in party stores, depicting caricatures of their culture. You can see the full account with pictures of each of the posters here.
I post about it here on the Student Affairs Collaborative because every year, there is always one theme party that makes national headlines (not to count the thousands that don’t) as being derogatory, racist, offensive, and whole list of other words that indicate unsafe environments for students with traditional marginalized identities. When I was an undergraduate student, my University community, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was torn apart over a Greek mixer titled “Tacos ‘N Tequila”- I’ll let your imagination do the work here, but suffice it to say that students were not dressed up as food or bottles of alcohol. The experience, which still elicits a physical reaction with me, cast a shadow over my college experience which, for all intents and purposes, was otherwise one of the happiest times of my life. I remember feeling frustrated, alienated, and hurt that people who lived in a place I love and called my home could make me, as a person of color, feel so unwelcome. Last year it was the Compton Cookout hosted by UC San Diego students, but there are plenty more out there that don’t make national headlines.
As student affairs practitioners, I feel that we are the ones responsible for addressing the issues that arise from such incidents. We are the ones that are held accountable for the parties occurring, though they are never officially University sanctioned. They are often a classic example of higher education, and especially student affairs, of being reactive versus proactive. Have you had any proactive conversations on campus about what to do if/when an oppressively-themed party hits your campus? What did you discuss?
As a student, I remember feeling frustrated that the administration didn’t automatically remove these students or ban the particular organizations from campus. Now, with a few more years under my belt, I understand their decisions as a necessary step to protect free speech rights at a public land-grant institution. But it still doesn’t feel good nor does it change the fact that, even though I was not a part of the group directly being stereotyped in the party, I still felt like an outsider in my campus community.
It is wonderful to see students at Ohio U. taking a proactive stand against a very public display of intolerance. I applaud the unsung heroes of the initiative, including the advisors who helped them with the program and funding for the project, the people writing articles about them in major news sources, and all the other supporters of the initiative. I think it is a wonderful example of student empowerment and activism and I hope to see the proactive educational initiatives continue.
How do you feel institutions should respond to theme parties? Can you give where an institution effectively responded to such a situation? What other ways can higher education, or we as individual practitioners, support proactive measures to counter negatively themed parties/costumes?
Viraj S. Patel is a Hall Director at Georgetown University.
Why Office Politics Matter
August 10th, 2011 | Posted by in Campus Issues | Careers | Collaborative Learning | Creativity | University - (2 Comments)I often hear some of my fellow educators talk about their lack of interest in politics. More specifically, politics includes your run-of-the-mill office politics, local government politics and national government politics. What is most surprising to me is that with each of these levels of politics, I get the keen sense that most people have no understanding of how they are impacted and the implications politics has on their jobs and the ability of students to be successful at institutions of higher learning, especially during such hard times where educational budgets are heavily targeted to be slashed, in the name of cutting costs.
When asked how I view politics, I often reply that “politics are like building relationships; you figure out the kinds of relationships that you need to foster and how those relationships impact you and what you do on a daily basis and the implications those relationships has on those around you.” Additionally, I believe that not all politics are bad and that many great things can happen when you are at your political best. With this being said, here are some thoughts to ponder:
• Take the time to observe the office culture. This allows you to see how to operate in that office culture. From observing, you’ll be able to see how people get things done by negotiating and working with others and navigating their way through the office politics.
• Build relationships. Once you learn the office culture, figure out how you fit into culture and how you can build the relationships with the people who impact you the most. This not only includes supervisors, but their support staff as well. Having a solid relationship with support staff is an excellent way to get a foot in the door and the inside scoop on important things that are happening. Don’t take anyone for granted, regardless of who they are and the position they are in!
• Stay away from drama! It’s not in your best interest to get involved in the problems that others may be having at work. Of course, as you build relationships, you may connect with some people more so than others. This leads to people sharing their woes or problems. You can listen, if you choose, but stay out of it! You do not want to be pulled in the middle of something that you probably have no idea about and it certainly raises eyebrows from supervisors. If there are unpopular decisions that are made, it may not be in your best interest to join the local band wagon and protest. I suggest that you take the time to look at the big picture and evaluate if that issue is something that is worth the time and effort to devote your frustrations. This can certainly save you lots of heartache and pain in the short term and future if it’s not in your best interest.
• Praise in public, address concerns in private. Yes, you’ve heard this before. The truth of the matter is that this really makes a huge difference. If people see you as someone who is always criticizing others, they are least likely to want to work with you, out of hesitation that you may do the same to them. Hence, if you do have feedback to give to others, kindly and respectfully pull them aside and share that feedback in private. This allows for any misunderstandings or miscommunications to be easily resolved without the rat race of gossip that can spread so quickly.
Navigating your way through the wavy waters of office politics can be tricky, but following these general guidelines may be a good way for you to coast on the sailboat vs. rowing in the canoe. Stay focused, build those relationships and be mindful of the culture and how you fit into that culture. Politic away!
Rinardo Reddick is a doctoral student in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University and coordinator for America Reads/America Counts.