Joe Sabado – Higher Education & Technology Leadership

Photo courtesy of Eric Stoller (http://ericstoller.com/blog/category/technology/)

I have a job that combines two of my interests – student affairs and technology and the NASPATech conference is the only one I have ever attended that combines both. I have been to technology conferences but never in the context of student affairs.  I am excited to meet the folks the student affairs professionals and students I have met through social media (twitter via #sachat, #satech, facebook, and linkedin) in real life.  I am also excited to learn how other organizations and professionals utilize technology in student affairs beyond the IT perspective.  While my formal position is in IT leadership, I do consider myself as a student affairs professional first who works with technology and not a technologist who works in student affairs, having spent almost 20 years in students affairs in multiple capacities, including non-technical roles.

In this transformational period in higher education when technology has become an integral part of every function in the university and consumerization of IT has changed the technology landscape, the role of IT department and professionals are changing. In addition to the role of technology providers, IT departments must now play the role of brokers, playing the role of consultants between departments and vendors, campus units within and outside of student affairs as the push for combining services to cut cost continue, and with other campuses as collaborations between campuses expand. In addition to having to adopt a new role, there is also the challenge of having to keep up with the faster pace at which technology is introduced and the expectations of our customer that go along with it.

IT is often recognized as a utility, providing the network/server infrastructure, software and services. Given the scarce resources and dwindling budgets, the challenge of “keeping the lights on” by providing reliable and secure services while being innovative is very difficult. However, in my opinion, IT must go beyond being a utility provider and become a strategic leader by embracing new technologies and practices along with the expectations/attitudes and apply them in the context of the mission of our university and student affairs. To be able to do this, IT leadership must not only continue to understand the current/future needs of  our customers, but to also learn from the experience of others,  and to be aware of relevant technology trends and consider them in our strategic planning.

When NASPATech was announced a few months ago, I was not sure if my department would have the funds that would allow me to attend the conference and so I offered to review some program proposals. I also spoke with Joseph DeSanto Jones who was kind enough to spend some time sharing the purpose of this conference as well as to listen to my thoughts on student affairs and technology. I realized after reviewing the proposals and from my correspondence with Mr DeSanto Jones that this conference was too important for me to miss. I wanted to come, not only to meet the folks I’ve met via social media, but also to understand the current/future needs of our customers, learn from the experience of others, and to be aware of future trends.

For those at the conference, I would love to be able to share our experience/ideas on student affairs, either technology or in general. Whether you’re here or joining us via social media backchannels, what would you hope to get out of this conference?

Courtesy of My Accidental Muse

Update:  Online experience is “real life” so I’ve come to use the phrase “face-to-face” instead of “in real life.”

I was checking my twitter timeline on my way from the airport to my hotel in Newport, Rhode Island for the NASPATech Conference when I realized I was missing out on the experience of seeing this new place for the very first time. While it was late at night and it was hard to see outside from the shuttle van, it was an experience I told myself I should not be taking for granted.

At that moment of realization, I put my iphone away and started a conversation with the driver, talking about the signs on the roads and how I noticed that Newport seems to be surrounded by water. I learned some things about him like he used to live in Orange County in California but he was born in Massachusetts.

I know some folks at this conference via twitter and I’m thankful for being introduced this way. I will make the effort however to make sure to have more  conversations rather than tweeting and looking down my iphone, missing the experience of meeting these folks in real life.

Photo courtesy of Innovation Excellence

I was watching an episode of Top Chef Just Desserts wherein Cat Cora, the only female Iron Chef, was the guest judge. I could not help but notice how complementary and nice she was to the contestants, even when offering her critiques which was a contrast to the other judges. The other judges, especially the head judge, were particularly critical of the contestants. Even when offering credits, the other judges had to inject some criticisms in a way that could have been more constructive. What came to mind is how Cat Cora acted like she has nothing to prove, which given her accomplishments, probably does not.  i do not follow the show and I do not personally know the judges so the roles they play and the way they act may jut be what they have been told to do. This weekend, I was watching an NFL (professional football) recap show and there were two announcers discussing Tim Tebow’s performance. Tebow is one of those players that seem to polarize football fans. for some reason.  One analyst refers to Tebow’s fans as “apologists” to which the other announcer promptly says “faitfhfuls”.  In my career, what I have noticed is that those who don’t seem to have much to prove are less critical of others compared to those who seem to have the need to criticize others to boost themselves and their positions.  Even in criticizing the work of others, these leaders who have nothing to prove do it in a way that preserve the dignity of the other person being criticized. I must admit that I’ve  fallen into this trap early in my career but as I progressed throughout my career, I’ve been careful not to be so critical of others and realize the areas I need improvement on.

In my career, I have had the pleasure of working with leaders like Cat Cora. One person in particular is my mentor, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at UCSB Dr. Michael Young.  One of the many attributes I admire about Dr. Young is his humility and his diplomatic approach to his work. It is rare that Dr. Young offer criticisms and when he does, he does it in a way that does not degrade the other person.  Another quality of Dr. Young that I emulate is treating everyone like they matter, regardless of their position in the organization. It does not really matter to Dr. Young whatever age, race or sexual orientation he is speaking with. He will take the time to talk to anyone with the same level of respect and attention. There are other leaders I admire who carry themselves like they have nothing to prove and in addition to the qualities I admire about Dr. Young, these leaders have another thing in common – they don’t take themselves too seriously.  They don’t use their position/stature as some form of immunity from light jokes or from the admission that they don’t know everything. As a matter of fact, I think I’ve heard more “I don’t know the answer” from these leaders than some of the folks I’ve worked with who seem to have answer for everything.

I think we have all been subjects of criticisms. In the past, I felt like I had to justify/apologize for my work but I came to realize that I was doing the best I could at that point in time in my career. I have just learned to laugh the criticisms off knowing that they came from only a couple of individuals and not representative of my work.  I’ve learned to focus on building others and making sure that the culture in my organization promotes creativity and recognition of what my colleagues contribute. I know I have much to learn and all I could do is to continue learning from others and on my own. There’s a sense of freedom in accepting that I’m not the smartest person in my organization, or the most talented. This perspective allows me room to be inquisitive, to learn from others, and also make mistake from time to time.

Photo courtesy of Scottishgames.net

I’m not sure if it is physically possible, but I feel like I have been in adrenalin or some kind of a rush the last few weeks. My mind is just racing with ideas and I just have not had the need to sleep. Some of my colleagues wonder how I am able to function with 2-3 hours of sleep a night and work all night. It’s hard to explain, but while I do “work” until early hours in the morning, it’s not really work, it’s just fun. Maybe I have some sort of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) of wanting to learn as much as I can, but with social media, one link leads to another and before I know it, I’ve spent all night learning some idea I just stumbled upon on twitter.

Work/life balance is a concept that comes up from to time within student affairs professionals and to me, this balance, for me personally, has nothing to do with the amount of time I spend “working” and with my personal life. For me, it’s more psychological/mental. I can spend all night “working” or have 60+ hour work week but when I find what I’m “working” on really enjoyable, then it’s not really work.

I consider myself very lucky and blessed that I have a job that I truly enjoy and I have a team I enjoy working with. I love learning and being presented with challenges, both of which my job offers me. Everyday is a learning experience and while I certainly do experience some momentary frustrations when challenges are presented to me, the thrill of being able to move projects going, get folks working together certainly more than make up for the frustrations.

Who knows what future holds for me but I’m just having a fun time right now and I am not taking this for granted.

Fear does not paralyze me but it does provide me with that extra motivation to take action, to spend more time learning,  to improve myself.

Job security is something I don’t believe in anymore given the volatility of the economy. I have this fear that I will be the first person to be laid off at my organization when the budget gets worse or when the university starts consolidating technology units.  I’m not the most technically adept one amongst my co-workers, I don’t hold advanced technical and/or management degrees. I’m at the level of middle management. These are all factors that make me feel uncomfortable. But what I’ve learned a long time ago is that there’s a few people that can outwork me. The only person I know who can is my father who worked three jobs or four jobs at a time in his lifetime.  I may not be the smartest but I will work, learn 20 hours a day if I have to, just to keep up.  At the end of the day, there’s no one that will look out for me but myself. I’ve learned from experience that talks reassuring me about my place in the organization are just talks. I’ve learned to trust only few individuals who will actually look out for me.

I have this fear that I will be left behind when it comes to technology. The speed at which consumer-led innovations like social media, mobile and cloud is quite fast and I don’t want to be left behind, especially in my position in the technology field. It is this fear that I learned to accept the inevitability of having to work in a world where I will not be able to keep up with the new gadgets, new ideas but instead of resisting it, I will just have to keep up as much as I can and maybe stay ahead of the curve if that’s even possible.

I’m actually a very positive person and I hope for the best, and I can make something out of any situation.  Fear does give me that extra kick from time to time to get me to the next level.