In poor economy, expect surge in applications to state schools - The Boston Globe

In poor economy, expect surge in applications to state schools - The Boston Globe

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Yes we can.

Our new President-Elect, in his ever techno-savvy strategy, has launched www.change.gov. Across the banner was the following quote from Barack Obama:

"Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today."

There's a lot of promise and a level of expectation our country has never seen before for our new President. After the last 8 years, it's not surprising that some of us are waiting for the other shoe to drop; it's just too good to be true. We'll have to wait and see, and Barack has already begun the expectation-lowering messages ("I will not be a perfect President" and "there will be challenges," among others). But what I feel is really different is that this time, so many people are willing to work with him, to help and support an administration of change. The mobilzation of the masses is near-revolutionary.

On change.gov, they ask for stories of American Moments, about what this election has meant to us. I share now what I sent to change.gov:

I am one of the Millennials. I voted in my first presidential election when I was 18, in 2000, only 5 months out of high school. After 9/11, when I was just a sophomore in college, I remember feeling so jaded about America, and what it meant to be an American. The flag had been commercialized into lapel pins and car magnets, a symbol of blind patriotism in a fear-gripped guns-a-blaze post 9/11 America. I was not proud to be an American. I was embarrassed.

On the evening on November 4, and into the wee hours of November 5, I felt something I have not felt in almost 10 years. I live on a college campus, and there were students hugging each other, jumping up and down, parading on the street in a spontaneous midnight march around campus - it was a beautiful sight. Inspiring. As I watched our President-Elect speak that evening, the American flag didn't look so trite. To be honest, it didn't look like the joke it has been for the last 8 years, with various leaders parading in front of it like a bad punchline.

For the first time, I saw the American flag as something built on ideals, and that our new President-Elect would remind us of and guide us toward to the foundational principles on which this country was built. I had this warm, fuzzy feeling like when I was a kid, reading about our Founding Fathers in elementary school. I got choked up when Obama spoke about what changes will we have made 50 years from now- what will our children live to see? For the first time for me, the American flag was about possibility. It was about truly coming together as a nation to build this nation together.

For the first time as a Millennial, I am excited to be a part of this generation, and to contribute to my country rather than rebuke it. This is the first time I’ve felt like I’m willing to give our country the chance, because I feel like it’s taken the chance on us to make a change. For the first time in my life, I am actually proud to be an American.

Thoughts on the financial crisis

Our President has recently announced he would like to hold an open forum on our institution's current financial situation. Earlier in September, an email went out to the entire community assuring the campus that we are in a good financial state. Word has trickled out that our President has opened what is normally a closed meeting to the campus at large is that email was entirely too optimistic, and that things have changed since then.

I think the normal fiscal clamps such as hiring freezes and no merit pay this year are to be expected. What I worry about is downsizing.

I emailed back and forth with some colleagues about what these impending financial times could have on higher education. We speculated that institutions such as mine, a private, top-tier liberal arts school will feel the impact the most, with smaller classes of freshmen, and potentially lower rates of retention. I think large state schools will see a huge rise in freshmen classes, simply because they can't afford the private school tuition, but want a comparable, affordable education. If a student is aiming for Boston College, they might settle for somewhere like UMass-Amherst. I think loan packages, as we have already seen, are going to be key in comparing matriculated class sizes between privates and publics.

I think for-profits are also going to be hit really hard as well. Where I do see for-profits gaining ground is through online education. Online education makes sense for the student that can't afford to go away to school right now, and allows them to work full-time at the same time if they have to. It's an attractive option for cash-strapped families.

My colleague working for a large state school also mentioned that community colleges are going to see huge influxes of students. Get the work done at one school, transfer, and get the degree with the better school name on it. She suspects that community colleges are going to eat a lot of the population with large financial aid packages headed to state schools. Especially with our new administration, there will be a strong push from Washington for affordable higher education opportunities, starting with our community colleges.

While state schools might lose some of their population from those migrating to community colleges, I countered that their absence would be made up by those students who can't afford private. This creates a volatile possibility of higher expectations and demands of our state school systems, as they flock to the affordable school, and yet their isn't the fiscal support to meet their demands. Capitol projects everywhere are getting slashed, and often these are for much needed campus resources, including new student housing.

She also brought up that schools such as mine, with a high alumni support base, may see significant drops in donors and their amounts. People just won't have the money to give back to their college and universities like they used to.

These are definitely uncertain times in higher education.

Remembering Dr. Zenobia Lawrence Hikes

Virginia Tech Press Release
NASPA Remembers Dr. Hikes
Virginia Tech Student Newspaper Article

What a loss to the field. This is so sad. I feel really lucky that I got to see her at NASPA this year.

A fresh start

So it's been a few months since my last post. A lot has happened in those months :)

I have a new job at a new school. Still a small private institution, but larger than the previous school at which I was working; less than 10,000 students at my campus, but a completely different student profile. I've been here almost two months, and institutionally, it's a much better fit. Once again, I live-in. Well, sort of... it's an odd hybrid of live-in/on. I don't have an RA staff to oversee, but I am a point person in the building where my apartment is, although technically, b/c there is no RA staff, it's considered an unstaffed hall. Compared to my last position, I feel much more removed from the students. The apartment is also pretty swanky, so I can't complain there. My husband and I finally feel like we're not so immersed with residents.

The work I'm doing is also more removed from students, in that I'm not supervising an RA staff or directly programming in the halls. I do a lot of publication work, as well as venue management of a much sought after residence hall lounge. The rest is all random administrative work throughout the department. It's varied enough that it keeps my short attention span satisfied, and will hopefully build a unique set of experiences to take with me elsewhere (be it at the university or otherwise).

I'm also a part of the administrative on-call rotation, which is at a higher level than I was previously. Though nervous for my first rotation a few weeks ago, it was relatively uneventful. I got the luck of the draw for on-call rotation this week, and apparently Halloween is a happening event on campus. We joke in my office that this weekend is going to be the real "hazing" as opposed to my first rotation. We'll see ;)

My second course for my graduate program has now wrapped up. My focus for the next 7 weeks will be to set up my electronic portfolio. Thankfully, my program has the format all set up, it's just a matter of picking a template and design that suits my style... and knowing how much of a perfectionist I am, that will take the full 7 weeks, I'm sure ;)

The student development theory course I just finished was fascinating and I got some great very early thoughts on where to point my Applied Research Project. Right now, I'm looking at Millennials (isn't everyone in the field right now? It sure seems that way) and brand management, and connecting the two in terms of identity development. It's all very rough stuff up in my head, but after doing some reading, I'm encouraged at where I can take it.

So, in the spirit of a new start, I've decided I need to post more here. There are lots of great topics and issues that are raised in my online discussions that I really should post some of those thoughts here; our classes disappear after a semester, but this way, I can keep a good record of my experiences in one location. This is also a great place for me to track my research, when the times comes.

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. -Maria Robinson

A formal introduction to my blog...

I recently read an excellent article on NASPA's NetResults (http://www.naspa.org/membership/mem/nr/article.cfm?id=1630) that suggested reflective journaling of major points along a career timeline. With my annual evaluation around the corner, I figured what better time to begin this journey of self-reflection thus far, and to begin chronicling from this point forward.

I have been building a timeline of significant events in my professional career, and a future post will included outlining those key moments. For now, I start with a refreshed perspective on my current position, and some more concretely defined short-term and long-term goals to bring to this position, my department, and to the College in general. These goals will also be featured in a future post.

I've had several "false starts" with blogging in the last few months, so my first few posts are actually copied and re-posted from other blogs I (half-heartedly) maintained. Those blogs may have fallen apart, but these posts reflected significant moments for me that I feel are important to include in this blog.

This blog is timed just right, and I need to set the goal to maintain and update this for all my major events in my career, my personal life as it relates to my career, and my graduate education, all as I tread water through these "new professional" years.

Here's to the future!

"...other duties as assigned."

I'm not really sure how to even approach this moment. In preparation for new midstart student move-ins, I just cleaned the toilet, shower, sink, and kitchen of a student apartment with one of my RAs.

I think this experience encapsulates much of my frustration with this school and its practices. As an RLC, I came to this profession to encourage student growth and development- all those "touchy feely" aspects of student affairs. In all seriousness- it is these aspects of student affairs that have driven me to get my foot in the door in this field and to pursue my Master's. These are the things about which I am passionate.

I did not sign up to do housekeeping.

This illuminates so much of what's wrong process-wise here; the room for growth and change is wide, and with as much freedom as our department has had to take things and run with them, there is still the same old political bullshit that binds up things like housekeeping, maintenance, and security at our apartment property. Frankly, as an employee, this is inexcusable.

And yet, I'm still here after a year. I understand this is work that needs to get done, and I don't want to come off as elitist to my peers and supervisor, but I'm sorry - scrubbing toilets and showers is not what I'm getting paid to do.

This last year has been a tumultuous one, and I keep telling myself that next year will be better- a new property, new students, and new grounds with which to explore and experiment with training, supervision, and programming. But sometimes, moments like these make it hard to look to the future with optimism.

This is what I know.

From a conversation with a colleague today:

this is what I know
that this process, although a pain in the ass, and really frustrating
is preparing you for your next position
you will be so incredibly ready to deal with whatever you are handed...because of some of the things that you had to deal with here
you are being prepared
you are getting an experience unlike anyone else, and when you move on
your resume will be effin ridiculous

. . .
My mantra prior to today: in one minute, I can change my attitude. And in that minute, I can change my entire day.

Mantra addendum: this is what I know.

Finding balance between work life and personal life is perhaps the greatest challenge of our field. The students never sleep, the work never stops, and catastrophe can happen at any minute. As such, we are expected to be able to respond with a moment's notice, and our personal lives often get placed on hold.

In my mid-20's quarter life crisis, I wonder, how much of this young life do I put on hold for the sake of the job? For the sake of others, be they students, colleagues, parents, partners? In the months leading up to my wedding, I was hit with a startling realization of my own mortality. These major life transitions tend to bring that out in most - we start to reflect on the life we've lived so far and you realize that twenty-five years have gone by and it barely feels like it, and now we're doing things like getting married and being all grown-up and such.

This week, I learned a friend of mine from college has died - she was 22. What's worse is she has been dead for two years, but because of shoddy police work and the failure to cross-check a missing persons report with an unidentified body, her family only just learned of their daughter's death last week. Two years of not knowing - unimaginable.

In these moments of mortality, we are reminded of ourselves, of our own purpose and goals. What do we seek to bring to this world? To do? To accomplish? How are we to be fulfilled? Have we been fulfilled? What's missing, and better yet, how do we fill in the pieces?

I have been struggling to find that ever elusive Balance, with obstacles at every turn. This week has been a challenge, from one of the hardest things I've had to do professionally (letting go of a student staff member) to a tragic personal loss, to scheduling work vs. religious commitments (Passover happens to fall right smack in the middle of our move-outs). How do I remain motivated? It's been a challenge, but I just keep repeating my mantra: in one minute... only now I begin with: this is what I know.

This is what I know: Tyler Durden says, "You are not your job."
This is what I know: I am not my job. But so much of me is in my job.
This is what I know: Everything in moderation.
This is what I know: Balance does not come naturally, it is a learned skill. Otherwise, we'd all be Gold Medal gymnasts.

This is what I know. In one minute, I can change my attitude. And in that minute, I can change my entire day.

This is what I know.

Inspired in the spring, as always

Those teasing blue March skies - clear and cloudless, blue to the point of pain - the suggestion that spring is near and waiting, yet delicately waiting to exhale a warm breath on the back of our necks. Sunshine and shadows, and that unblemished sky drawing us nearer to the windows, our inhalation of the defrost and awakening to come - and the harsh late winter wind! Cruel, merciless, and beguiling.

Always in the spring I feel refreshed, inspired, and ready to take on the world. I, like the rest of the natural world, slowly start to awaken from my deep mental hibernation of the last few months. This winter has proved all the more challenging as this was my first New England winter- and of course, the year I move up here, the snowiest in years past. Working in higher education has allowed me to retain the rhythm of the school year, and as March and April roll around, I feel the days growing longer and think about the respite of summer break. The sense of closure, the prospect of a break, and the excitement of moving onward are instilled in me during this time of year.

This year is no exception to feeling inspired. Having just survived my first national conference, I see the wealth of possibilities and where I need to be focusing my energies. My move to Boston was a huge transition, and the perfect opportunity for me to finally pinpoint what I need to be doing to develop myself professionally. (Personal development is worthy of another post.) I have found my fatal flaw to be, as one colleague put it, The Scarlet M - my lack of a master's degree. The glass ceiling in my field is crystal clear, and the fact that I even got my present position still amazes me from time to time.

I have been struggling since I started this position. It's not the workload, or the people, or the sheer logistics - ultimately, it's been the transition in general: uprooting myself from a comfortable, fairly predictable life with a solid base of friends and colleagues to an area of the country that is a) wicked colder b) farther from my family c) rife with opportunity in higher ed and d) where I know virtually no one compared to my circle of friends at home. Home - it took three years to call it that, and now I was leaving as quickly as I had gone down there in the first place.

My sense of stability was completely taken from me. The prospect of the new, the different, and all the work required on my part to adapt - these were all daunting thoughts I did my damnedest to bury and avoid.

The biggest challenge of moving here with no connections was finding work in a field that practically demands a graduate degree. My scarlet M was practically red hot, and in this position, I am paying my dues. I thought sticking it out for experience's sake would be enough, but it's not. I was so grateful then, for a particular session at this conference last week, that highlighted online graduate degree programs in the field. They are few and far between, but they exist. So I pooled my resources, figured out if I can make this work financially and still balance a full-time job, and applied to grad school yesterday.

I'm still kind of in denial that I actually applied yesterday. It's as though my rational, professional developmentally focused self has moved swiftly and independently of my typically hesitant, unfocused nature.

I created this blog last week as a source to vent about my scarlet M, and the struggles and tribulations of being a working professional in a field where the lack of a master's degree is perhaps the ultimate taboo - and here I have applied to a grad school. But I suppose with the inhalation of spring, so came the resolution to move forward, to spring ahead like daylight savings, to close the book on slow, plodding, indolent winter.

In the spring, I have found acceptance. Recognition of what's passed. Acknowledging it's time to move on.

I always seem to start new journals in the spring...

...funny how that always seems to be the case.