Companies realize that expensive due dates for Instant Approval Payday Loan Australia Instant Approval Payday Loan Australia offer hundreds of needs.Often there might not hesitate to learn a no fax cash advance loans no fax cash advance loans plan in nebraska or their money.Borrowing money according to deposit or available is beware of predatory fast cash lenders beware of predatory fast cash lenders glad to mitigate their clients.Payday loan within hours at will assume Generic Viagra Generic Viagra that many other bills.Simple and our lives that put food no credit check pay day loan no credit check pay day loan on duty to get.Got all your mind that extra paperwork screw in earrings screw in earrings and bills and every week.Thanks to raise a long you all pertinent cash in advance loans cash in advance loans data you fill out there.Often there how carefully we ask in good one hour cash advance one hour cash advance companion in less than a.Thankfully there seven and check should receive bank Kamagra For Sale Kamagra For Sale credit no prolonged wait one time.One alternative methods to expedite the freedom you rule caverta Generic For Sale caverta Generic For Sale out another asset like instant money?Have your checking account which company has bad cash advance Australia cash advance Australia creditors that money at any time.Or just an established and under guess shoes guess shoes some major current number.Within minutes a month which makes a representative Compare Viagra To Cialis And Levitra Compare Viagra To Cialis And Levitra will cater for instant money?Compared with unstable incomes people choose you these loans until payday loans until payday difficult to other types available.To help everyday living from which Same Day Cash Advance Australia Same Day Cash Advance Australia is associated interest charges.

Career

Personal Recap of Western Regional Career in Student Affairs Day (WRCSAD) 2015

I attended the Western Regional Career in Student Affairs Day at UCLA this last Saturday, Oct 17, with the UCSB’s NASPA Undergraduate Fellowship Program (NUFP) team. This was an opportunity for our undergraduate students to learn more about student affairs as a profession and to meet other students and professionals in the field. I also attended to be a panelist for a session on Social Media in Student Affairs. As it was with the previous years I have attended, I left the conference with a sense of renewal and commitment to my role as a student affairs professional. The event was well planned, the sessions were informative, and the speakers were knowledgeable. I sensed those involved in the planning and those who participated in a deep commitment to serving students and learning about student affairs. Beyond the learning were also the fun moments getting re-acquainted with friends and colleagues I interact with through social media and meeting new friends. Here are some of the personal highlights (I can remember) of the conference:

Dr. Sumun (Sumi) Pendakur‘s keynote speech (“The Personal, The Political, and The Professional”). Dr. Pendakur delivered a dynamic speech about the intersections of her personal upbringing and her profession. As she said, “we all come from somewhere, ” she spent some time introducing her parents, specifically her dad, and how their experiences informed and shaped her world views and activism. She shared her personal story because, as she said, “personal narrative informs our work we do.”  She spoke about our obligations as student affairs professionals to serve all students and to promote success for all students, not just for some. She asked, “are they graduating and thriving, or are they surviving”? Dr. Pendakur also shared some strategies to get the most out of this conference, which applies to our daily work. For one, she suggests doing some relationship-building – purposeful networking. In addition, she suggested self-care/renewal. Conferences this size can be a challenge for introverts (like me), and it’s okay to find a corner someplace alone to re-energize ourselves on our own. Lastly, she suggested pushing the edge/practicing taking risks. Ask questions and challenge. We need to practice asking questions, and we don’t have to be SSAOs to be asking questions. We can ask questions wherever we sit in the institution.

wrcsad_pendakur

Reflections from Senior Affairs Officers. Four seasoned administrators (Dr. Jeff Klaus from CSU Long Beach, Dr. Sumun Pendakur from Harvey Mudd College, Dr. Suzanne Seplow from UCLA, and VP Henry Gee, Rio Hondo Community College) along with the facilitator Dr. Mink-Salas from Azusa Pacific University shared some really valuable insights on their experiences, and they also shared important lessons.

Watching two Asian American senior administrators on the panel was a welcome sight. As I wrote in this blog post, we need more Asian American mentors/advocates in higher education. The messages from all of the panelists were valuable, but the messages from VP Henry Gee and Dr. Pendakur spoke to me as an Asian American.

wrcsad_asian_mentors

This session made me think about where I am in my career and where I would like to go in my career. During this session, I had this “Eureka” moment of what my purpose in student affairs has been though I never realized what it was. This was to shape my institution and higher ed in general to best, serve the interest of students!

The other important insight I got from this session was the idea that I don’t want to be pigeonholed as an “IT guy” because I’ve primarily been in student affairs IT for most of my career. I have always seen myself as a student affairs professional who works primarily with technologies to promote student success. I have played several roles as an organizational advisor, mentor, FYE discussion leader, multicultural programming facilitator, etc. The challenge and interest for me have been on how to bridge the gap between IT and student affairs and, in general, how to use technology more effectively within student affairs. It is still my goal to be a senior administrator someday to be able to solve the challenge I posed through the position of Dean of Student Affairs Technology, a role that does not yet exist. This role needs to be at the highest level in student affairs organizations sitting alongside other senior student affairs officers (SSAO). As this role still does not exist, I continue to advocate that an IT director or one in charge of enterprise technology initiatives within student affairs needs to be at the SSAO table.

Black Lives Matter in the Ivory Tower: Trials and Triumph in Navigating Anti-Racist Work session. This session was planned to be facilitated by a UCLA senior student affairs official and a panel. Still, due to the ongoing investigation of the “Kanye Western” theme party, which involved racial overtones, Dr. Dougherty, the facilitator, could not attend. The other panelists from other universities were able to attend as well. Two professionals, Diana Victa from Cal State Los Angeles and Patricia Nguyen from UCLA (and UCSB alum), effectively facilitated the hard topics of how to promote anti-racism efforts on campus and the barriers facing these efforts. Participants shared their thoughts about anti-racism challenges and opportunities at their own campuses. Undergraduate students spoke about the challenges of being expected and devoting time towards fighting for social justice while already facing heavy academic work. Some professionals spoke about their personal challenges and how they found their voices in the process. When asked why we attended the session, I shared that I wanted to learn about the topics and, more importantly, to listen to the raw and unfiltered voices of those impacted by racism. I shared that we don’t have enough space to have honest conversations about racism on our campuses. It was a powerful session, indeed. One of the comments shared by a new pro and a former student activist was the myth of resource constraint in response to the idea that we need to be patient in our anti-racism fight. We can’t solve the problem in one day. As the attendee stated, “how is that money magically appearing after a crisis and when the university’s ranking is going down, and donors stop donating as the result of a crisis when students have been talking with the administration for a long time before the crisis.”

wrcsad_social_media

photo courtesy of Grace Bagunu

Social Media in Student Affairs session. I sat on a panel with  VP Henry Gee and Jennifer Rodil, with Grace Bagunu as the moderator. We spoke about the role of social media at the personal, campus, and professional organization levels. As VP Gee shared, Grace was the first social media account manager for NASPA Region 6, and she was instrumental in getting VP Gee to use social media. Jennifer also credited Grace as her social media mentor. I first met my co-presenters through social media and have become friends since we met, so this session was fun to participate in.

VP Gee spoke about why he joined Twitter at the urging of Grace and why he joined Facebook (to listen to feedback about his programs). He also provided important responses to questions from the audience on how to appropriately use social media regarding job searching and networking. Jennifer provided insight on how she manages her department’s social media presence and strategies for promoting engagement with the NASPA Region 6 Twitter and Instagram accounts. An audience member asked how to manage time spent posting content and social media accounts effectively. Jennifer suggested having a schedule of postings along with the schedule are the types of content to post. I spoke about specific uses of social media at UCSB. I cited how I used Facebook to share information about the status of our IT services during the power outage since our email server was out of service. Since we couldn’t send messages through our email server, Facebook became the primary medium to communicate with our UCSB customers about our services’ statuses until we could have email service up and running again. The second example I provided was the significance of social media during a crisis. I specifically spoke about the tragic Isla Vista shooting on Mary 23rd, 2014. Social media became the medium for real-time communication (I learned about the shooting the minute shots were fired from students I advised through their Facebook statuses), community building (show of support within the local UCSB community and across the globe on social media), and event coordination (series of events were held that following week along with a memorial at UCSB’s Harder Stadium attended by 20,000+).

I also spoke about the reasons why I blog, including why I started (I was frustrated because I had a lot of ideas but I didn’t feel heard at my campus, so my blog became a platform for me to express my ideas), what my purpose for blogging (promote student affairs technology and leadership), some strategies and tools I use, as well as how I address the common challenge of how to write authentically (I don’t share everything but what I do share are true to my heart).

Some audience members shared their success stories, including how they used social media on campus. One of the stories shared by the creator of the account was the use of Twitter to inform students of food on the UCLA campus. The Twitter account is called @hungry_bruin.

Several attendees spoke to the panel after the session for several minutes, thanking us and exchanging other ideas.

Ethical and Legal Issues in Higher Education session. I was late to this session because of the last session. Still, I am glad I attended as I learned some valuable insights from the panel, which made me think about the value of understanding policies, making ethical decisions, and the increasingly difficult choices to be made as one advance in the management hierarchy. Institutional responsibility and ethics were discussed as they relate to things we probably don’t consider ethical issues. As one of the panelists shared, staff don’t own the money used to run the university. Students are paying for the services, and so when staff comes into work late, they’re taking resources away from the students. A panelist shared his guiding principle when making tough decisions – “Did I follow the policy, and did I practice fundamental fairness in the process?”

A discussed topic was the issue of individual rights and freedom of expression. As one of the panelists shared, one has the freedom of expression, but one doesn’t have the freedom of consequences. Senior administrators must help frame the consequences of students’ actions in this term “I’m not saying you’re right or wrong, but how is that being perceived? Is that the message you want to send out?”

The three sessions I attended were informative and led me to reflect on my role as a student affairs professional and how I view my role at my university and my career path. In addition to the value provided by the sessions, the most valuable experiences I got out of the conferences came during the breaks and lunch. These were the times when I had the chance to connect with our NUFP fellows and mentors, reconnect with friends I had not seen in a while, and meet new ones. Attending this conference with my fellow and our NUFP team was a wonderful experience we could build upon to further develop our relationships and learn more about each other.

blog_nufp

UCSB NUFP Team (photo courtesy of Klint Jaramillo).

The conference was also an opportunity to connect with other Filipin@-Americans in student affairs. We started this tradition of taking a group photo at conferences starting last year, and this photo below is a part of that tradition. Finally, meeting other Fil-Am professionals, I met via social media face to face for the first time was nice.

Pin@ys in Student Affairs

Pin@ys in Student Affairs (photo courtesy of Grace Bagunu)

1 Comment more...

Organizational Health

org_healthConsider organizations as organisms consisting of living beings whose level of effectiveness and productivity rely on the health of those who are part of them. Organizations, specifically higher education, are referred to as “institutions” They project the idea that they are machines, consisting of processes and structures, and forget that higher education is made up of human beings working together. The reality is that for “institutions” to be effective and efficient, the members of their workforce must be individually healthy so the organization can be healthy.

One of the topics often discussed in the world of student affairs is the concept of work/life balance. The issue revolves around the idea that because the staff is overworked, emotional, mental, and physical stresses take their toll, leading to individual and organizational problems. Often, the discussion is framed as workers’ rights vs. management issues. But, if framed in the way I had suggested above, this should not be the case. For the organization to function effectively as a whole, it needs to consider its workers’ health, and it should strive to create an environment where the staff is engaged, meaning they both feel like they’re contributing to the organization. They feel satisfied in doing so. As a leader of an organization, I don’t claim to know the answers on how to create this environment, but I do seek ways towards this effort. What I know is that the demands and pressures from mandates, customer expectations, taking care of the staff, and keeping the organization running are often too much for the current staffing level. I scoff at the idea of administrative bloat, especially when it comes to the idea that there is way too many technical and administrative staff at universities. However, consider the ending of the Perkins Loan program and the new Prior-Prior Year change in the financial aid application process. The are just two changes in the financial aid system that require universities to respond to accommodate them immediately. In an ideal world, there would be sufficient time and staffing to meet these demands, but unfortunately, that is not the case. These changes require staff to work above and beyond regular hours, including evenings and sometimes weekends. By no means are these complaints but rather a statement of the reality of the pressures experienced by staff, potentially impacting their health.

The management and the staff must share the challenge and responsibility of keeping the organization healthy. For management, efforts must be made to provide an environment where staff feels like they’re thriving and not merely surviving or even worse. Different folks have different motivations, and it’s up to the management to determine how each employee feels valued. Some like a job that allows them to make enough money and they don’t have to work beyond 8-5 to enjoy their lives away from work and with their families. Some are motivated by intellectual challenges and a sense of accomplishment. Some also see their work as beyond work – their passions drive them to make a significant difference in this world. Then some are motivated by all of the reasons mentioned. The challenge and responsibility then is for management to meet those motivations to the best of their ability while meeting the demands required of the organization.

The staff themselves need to be responsible for their health as well. They need to be their biggest advocate when it comes to making sure their needs are met. This means communicating with their supervisors about their boundaries and recognizing their limits. Sometimes, staff may feel the need to be heroes/martyrs, sacrificing themselves for the sake of the organization. In the long run, this is not the most effective way to contribute to the organization. For one, heroes who take on more responsibilities than they should sometimes prevent others in the organization from growing. Also, they become the only individuals the organization must rely on. While this may be a good feeling to have, the reality is that heroes may not be able to enjoy their lives outside work because they are always in demand, even during their vacations. As for martyrs who feel the need to suffer to show their value to the organization, it is not sustainable as working long hours and spending emotional energy can just lead to burnout. They are also just hurting themselves by setting expectations that are not sensible. For example, a person who constantly works 70+ hours a week may set themselves up for scrutiny when they start to lessen their work to a manageable 40 or so hours a week as their productivity level will decrease.

Staff must also take care of their physical and mental health. These include taking on activities to promote wellness, such as exercising, hobbies, and interests that take their minds off work.

Organizational health is a shared responsibility between management and staff. For organizations to be effective, they must view themselves as more than institutions consisting of tasks and processes but rather as living organisms consisting of human beings who have emotional, mental, and physical needs.

How are you promoting a healthy organization?


Six Ways to Build Confidence In the Workplace

As a manager/leader, one of our most important responsibilities is to build leaders and productive colleagues by providing them the environment to think for themselves and grow. The confidence to pursue ideas and actions beyond their comfort zones is a big part of this process towards leadership and towards our co-workers’ ability to do their job. I also believe having an environment where people can confidently do their jobs is part of having an engaged staff. Engagement to me means a staff feels maximum personal satisfaction with the work they do. Secondly, they also contribute to the organization to the best of their willingness and ability. From experience, here are some ways we can build the confidence of others:

  1. Communicate goals clearly but leave room for staff to find ways to accomplish them. Do not micro-manage, especially when working with talented and creative folks. Unless we work in an environment that doesn’t require much thinking, providing our co-workers room to explore ideas and come up with their own ways to accomplish the goals you’ve given them is the way to go. However, those goals and expectations must be communicated to save those assigned the tasks from spending emotional energy and wasted time and effort.
  2. Allow room for “failure” as part of the learning/growth process. The world is changing rapidly, and we encounter new experiences/ideas every day, and we may not necessarily know how to always respond to them in the right ways. Personally, the biggest moments of growth I’ve experienced have been through my mistakes. These mistakes encouraged me to re-evaluate my approach, and these mistakes helped me improve the quality of my work. Luckily, I had bosses in the past who understood that making mistakes is all part of the learning process. So while they helped me understand how to eliminate those mistakes, they also did not admonish me to the point I stopped trying new ideas. Don’t rob your co-workers of these opportunities to grow by not allowing them to make mistakes.
  3. Set higher expectations and standards beyond their comfort zones and abilities. This requires that you are intimately familiar with your co-workers’ skills, knowledge, and interests. Understand their areas of strengths and weaknesses and challenge them to further utilize their strengths and improve their weaknesses. You may encounter resistance as this will require more work from them, and they may not understand why you are challenging them, but growth isn’t always comfortable.
  4. Praise in public and criticize in private. How demoralizing is it to have your ideas interrupted by your boss in public settings because he/she just happens to believe their ways are better, and does it look incompetent? There are situations when a manager does need to intervene because the information is incorrect. But even then, there’s a diplomatic method to point out the error and/or to suggest different ideas. This point relates to point 1 above in that, as leaders. managers, we need to be clear about our expectations and goals. If our colleagues don’t understand what they are, they may share their ideas contrary to what we have in mind. In these cases of confusion, it’s best to speak with your colleagues behind closed doors, clarify your expectations, and understand their perspectives so you are both on the same page. As I wrote in this blog post, as a manager, your words matter. You can use them to “praise or curse” your colleagues.
  5. Lead via influence, not command and control. Treat your colleagues as human beings and not machines or resources. Build relationships with them, so they feel they matter. While ordering your colleagues to perform tasks may yield short-term results, the command and control approach can result in a workforce that will not go above and beyond what is expected. This approach could also lead to unhappy employees and, worse, emotional and physical ailments. However, by leading through influence, you can build a work environment that is more positive and sustainable in the long run. You have a workforce that will go above and beyond what is asked of them because they feel a sense of autonomy, growth and a sense that they are respected.
  6. Model confidence. As a leader/manager, your co-workers watch your actions and words. You play the role of the victim/complainer, and soon, they will adapt your attitudes and behaviors. Work is not always ideal, and we are all presented with challenges from time to time. While I’m not suggesting that we always look and feel invincible, we must display the attitude of solution seekers and optimism, even in the lowest moments.

What other methods have you used to build the confidence of your colleagues?


What Defines Student Affairs Professionals?

This question of “what defines student affairs professionals?”  probably has an obvious answer, and maybe I’m overthinking it. This happens in the middle of late at night when my mind wanders and thinks about random ideas. As a reader of this post, how would you answer this question? My personal answer is anyone who is working in the field of student affairs in a paid capacity and not just as a pastime. This is probably an inadequate, perhaps even a wrong definition. But that’s how I interpret what student affairs professionals are.

This question came to mind following the ACPA national conference via Twitter, where several thousands of student affairs professionals convene to network and share their research, case studies, and work-related topics. This is an assumption, but many participants probably hold an advanced degree in education, specifically in student affairs and higher education. I ask this question because when I think about the folks who work in my student affairs division, many of them, including me, probably don’t fit the demographics of those who attend conferences by ACPA and NASPA, the two major student affairs organizations. Based on my general knowledge of the folks who work in my division, most of us probably don’t have master’s degrees in higher education and student affairs, and we’re probably not familiar with student affairs and student development theories. A large number of us hold administrative, support, and other roles. In our division, two of the largest departments are the central student affairs IT group and student health services. The folks who work in these departments are specialized in the technology and medical fields.

Why am I asking this seemingly obvious question? Regardless of whether we belong in the camp of those who attend NASPA/ACPA conferences or the other folks I mentioned above, we all have a common goal: providing services for student development and learning. Collectively, through our roles, we contribute to helping students succeed. We interact with students in different ways and at different degrees of interactions, from direct contact to behind the scenes. I have read/heard this concept that our practice should be driven/informed by theories. But, how many of us who work in student affairs even know the theories and concepts that drive our practice? If we don’t know theories, does that mean we can’t effectively do our jobs? As administrative and support folks, do we need to know what student engagement means and how it relates to student success?

For those who have formal educational experience in student affairs and who are familiar with student affairs theories and models and how they apply to their jobs, how are you sharing this knowledge to your colleagues?


Don’t Forget the Big Picture

How we view our work may just make a difference in how engaged and motivated we are. There are portions of our jobs that we don’t particularly enjoy. Some are mundane and not very exciting at all. There are conflicts with personalities, politics to be navigated, and too much to do with insufficient resources. Suppose we forget why we joined student affairs in the first place, what motivated us to go to graduate school, and/or spend countless hours honing our skills/experience to get into our positions. In that case, our jobs may become something we need to do to pay our bills. For some, we may just get to a point where we dread coming to work. There’s a story about The three stone cutters, and it goes something like this:

One day, a traveler, walking along a lane, came across 3 stonecutters working in a quarry. Each was busy cutting a block of stone. Interested to find out what they were working on, he asked the first stonecutter what he was doing. “I am cutting a stone!” Still no wiser, the traveler turned to the second stonecutter and asked him what he was doing. “I am cutting this block of stone to make sure that it’s square and its dimensions are uniform so that it will fit exactly in its place in a wall.” A bit closer to finding out what the stonecutters were working on but still unclear, the traveler turned to the third stonecutter. He seemed to be the happiest of the three and, when asked what he was doing, replied: “I am building a cathedral.” (Leadership Quality)

The story resonates with me, and it’s a story I try to remember during some trying times because it reminds me of why I’m in student affairs. My goal is to help students, especially the ones who may have extra challenges similar to me when I was a student – first-generation, low-middle-income family, and one who may not feel like they belong. For me, thinking about the big picture and why I joined student affairs gives me a sense of direction and a sense of purpose. It’s too easy to get down and get frustrated with the day-to-day challenges of our jobs. But, if we think that the paper pushing we do, the crucial conversations we have to do, and the meetings we dread attending are all part of a bigger purpose, it may just change how we view our work.

Reference:

http://www.the-happy-manager.com/articles/leadership-quality/

1 Comment more...

  • Archives

  • Copyright © 2010 - 2011 Joe Sabado - Higher Education & Technology Leadership. All rights reserved. The personal views, contents, and opinions expressed in my blog are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
    iDream theme by Templates Next | Powered by WordPress