Joe Sabado – Higher Education & Technology Leadership

I was at a  meeting with the Deans and the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs (VCSA)  at my university a few weeks ago. At that meeting, we talked  about the role of  social media in how we communicate with our students. One of the Deans  noted that, in addition,  we can also use data to communicate the value of our work to the campus. She  specifically spoke about the use of assessment to demonstrate the student service units’ contributions to student learning and success. It was at that moment when I realized the need for student affairs leaders to be “multilingual” in order to be effective in building relationships and in collaborating with the campus  community. I’m not talking about multilingual just in the sense of having the capability to speak multiple languages but rather, the ability to communicate in ways that resonate with who we work with.

(continue reading…)

My wife and I visited Rome and Florence last September.  It was our first trip to Europe. To prepare for our trip, we downloaded iphone apps to learn Italian. We also went to several travel sites to read reviews, watched videos and tried to learn as much about the history of Italy and the sites we planned to visit. I got the impression from reading the reviews of other travelers that Rome was a very dangerous city for travelers. So, I read many articles on how to protect my wife and me from being pick-pocketed. After the anxiety of not knowing Italian and having no clue of what to expect from the locals before our trip, I have to say it was one of the most memorable experience of our lives. The places we visited were even more magnificent than any of the pictures and videos I saw on the internet. The locals were friendly and with some common sense, we were not pick-pocketed. One of the most memorable and unexpected surprise for me was meeting several Filipino-Italians. They were not mentioned in any of the travel sites and the books I had read in preparation for our trip. They are working class Filipinos who formed their community in Rome. One dinner, my wife and I spent several minutes talking with a Filipina mother who had not gone back to the Philippines in more than 20 years. There was sadness in her eyes as she told her story about not having seen her kids in those many years.  She supports her family by sending money back home.

What I learned from that experience is that no amount of reading could have prepared me for the actual experience. To truly learn about the culture, the people and the place, I had to be there myself.

How does my Italy vacation experience relate to my work as a student affairs professional? It is important to read about student affairs theories, higher education general trends and issues, and studies about the populations we serve to get some perspective on how to approach our work.  However, I think it is as important is to spend time, immerse ourselves with the students and customers we serve where they are.  Literature is not enough to provide us with accurate picture of the individual experience of our students. This is particularly more significant for those like me, a mid-level manager and technologist, who may not have the opportunity to have consistent daily interactions with our students and customers.

I try to gain as much perspective about student affairs and higher education from reading books, learning from colleagues I meet via social media and blogs I come across about our work. I read Pew Research Studies and ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology in addition to other studies to get some sense of what our students are generally into nowadays. However, just like the websites and reviews I read to prepare my wife and me for our trip; these studies do not provide the individual stories and experiences. Only through my interactions with students do I get the real sense of the unique lives, the aspirations and struggles,  of the students I serve.

Last quarter, I was a teaching assistant for a First Year Experience (FYE) Intro to University course to freshman international students. Most of the students were Chinese.  I had read admissions applications of international students and that was the extent of my limited knowledge of the population and specifically Chinese students prior to this course.  I had several students visit me for my weekly office hours throughout the quarter. I loved our conversations. Some students shared their difficulties adjusting to the American culture, the language, and the demands of the university and as the quarter progressed, I observed their comfort levels increase.  There was one particular student who visited me in my office several times during the quarter. We really had engaging conversations from his views on American and Chinese politics, literature, and philosophy. Before he left for China, he visited me to say goodbye (he was only here for a quarter as an EAP student) and with him were two books on Buddhism. He asked me to pick one to keep.  We spent several minutes talking about the topics we discussed all quarter and going over his first short story he wrote in English.  Somehow, I think we will cross path again.

One lesson I have learned in my career is that our motivations and perspectives as service providers and student affairs professionals may not even align with our students.  When we stop seeking the perspectives of our students, spending time with them, talking with them about their needs and wants, there is the danger of going down the road of satisfying our needs as oppose to theirs. For example, one general measure of student success for universities is the retention rate. These are generally measured by graduation rates. But this measure of student success is from the institution’s perspective.  If a student leaves our institution without graduating but instead transfers to another institution and completes their degree (or other objectives), would that be considered a student failure?

There are many lessons to be learned from literature. The general theory and studies provide general perspective on how to approach our work in student affairs.  Personally, the greatest lessons about the value of my profession have come from the students I have had the privilege of working with throughout my career.

“Millennials are tech savvy” was a statement mentioned in a training session about working in a multi-generational workplace I attended.  “Prove it to me” attitude was attributed to Gen Xers (1965-1980).  I equate these statements to the model minority myths associated with Asian Americans. They are general statements applied to groups that may or may not be true. One limitation of assigning traits to groups using one variable (generation) in my opinion is that it is too simplistic.There are also implications to these statements in that by accepting these generalities and neglecting to see the  uniqueness of the individuals we deal with, we may just be making inappropriate assumptions. The other limitation of just using generations to assign attributes is that it pigeon holes individuals into categories that may not be accurate or limiting. I took this “How Millennial Are You” quiz and I appear to have many of the characteristics attributed to Millennials. I’ve joked in the past that I am “millennialesque”.

I remain open to the idea that given the experience and events that shaped the different generations, there are general differences/similarities I need to be cognizant.  For example, while I do not believe that all Millennials are tech savvy, they are exposed to technologies  that were not available in previous generations. These technologies then influence how the generation conduct their lives, per Marshall McLuhan’s quote – “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us”.

Going back to my point of the uniqueness of individuals, should I attribute my “prove it to me” attitude to the fact that I am a member of Gen X or is my cynicism borne out of my negative experiences growing up as an immigrant in the United States and/or my experience in the workplace? Is it part of my Filipino culture?   Is it just my personality? I took a DISC personality test recently in which I scored high Dominance/Influence.  Apparently, some of my attributes include: demanding, strong-willed, determined and ambitious. I also like to challenge status quo.

Fact of the matter is that human beings are multidimensional shaped by our own unique experiences and backgrounds.  In my case, my world view was/is shaped by many things including my immigration experience (I came here as 11 years old in 1984), my religion,  my socio-economic status, educational experience,  gender, and the values my parents instilled in me.

As student affairs professionals, we deal with many student populations and while we may assign students into categories (first generations, international students, …), it is important that we go beyond the generalities and respect the uniqueness of each student, shaped by their own backgrounds and experiences.

Ideas to solve real-life business issues  can come from anyone in the organization. These ideas need to be heard.  Many blogs and  social business books  discuss the benefits from tapping in the collective knowledge of employees within an organization. Books like The Social Organization: How to Use Social Media to Tap the Collective Genius of Your Customers and Employees and Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization emphasize the idea of  learning, adaptive organization built on collaboration and communities to promote innovations.  The diverse work that we do and the collaborative culture we promote in student affairs leads me to believe I think we should/need look for opportunities to involve all staff in finding ways to improve how we serve students towards their learning and personal development.

One opportunity that comes to mind is to have friendly competitions called “innovathon”. By no means is this idea new or unique. Companies such as Facebook and Google have hackathons designed for fun and social purpose but also with the goal of producing usable products. Universities like UCSB have contests for budding entrepreneurs to build new products/services.  While not a novel idea, I think it does provide some tangible benefits Here are some initial thoughts on this concept:

Goal:

To promote sharing of ideas from any/all student affairs employees (staff, students) with the end goal of solving actual business problems.

Participants:

• Coaches/Mentors   – These could be Senior Student Affairs Officers (SSAO) or those familiar with university processes. Their role is primarily to guide the individuals/teams and serve as resources. They should have minimal input on the ideas themselves.  The ideas need to come from fresh or different set of perspectives.
• Teams  – These teams shall consist of student workers and professional staff (number of team members can vary).
• Selection Panel  – A panel consisting of students/staff responsible for the initial and final selection of ideas/products  to be implemented.
• Executive Project Sponsor – Vice Chancellor or a SSAO.

Benefits:

• Development of innovative but implementable products & services
• Provide students and staff insight on how the university process works as part of their professional development.
• Opportunity to work with other employees/students  in the division beyond the scope of their job responsibilities.
• Opportunity to work with senior executives and managers (coaches) which could lead to mentor/mentee relationships.
• Morale booster for the organization and those involved.

Required Resources:

• Funding to implement selected ideas.
• Department’s approval for employees to work on their projects.

Process/Rules:

• Invitation to the competition will be communicated to the organization  (email, social media, posters). Invitation will include rules and guidelines.
• Teams submit a proposal (general description) of their ideas and submit it via email to the selection panel.
• Selection panel reviews and choose ideas to be considered for further evaluation phase.
• Selected teams and their proposals are assigned coaches. The teams will be provided some time (tbd) to work on their ideas and prepare for a presentation.
• Selected teams will present their proposals to the selection panel and the Executive Project Sponsor.

I hope the general concept  shared in this post can spur some creative opportunities for your organization.  I would love to know if you have done a similar concept in your organization or if you could add more details to the ideas in this post.

I have only attended one student affairs related conference (NASPATech – Nov 2011) in my career and so my experience when it comes to regional and national conferences is very limited.   Blog posts by Joe Ginese and Eric Stoller and others about the need to improve the quality of student affairs conferences and the presentations themselves provide me some glimpse of what it would be like if I was to attend them.  If I read the blog posts correctly, one of the intent is to provide suggestions on how to improve the quality of the conferences/presentations leading to a more productive experience for the attendees who took their time out of their busy schedules and spent their institution’s money or their own.

(continue reading…)