Joe Sabado – Higher Education & Technology Leadership

courtesy of http://www.mediaite.com

The UC Davis incidents which included a campus police casually pepper-spraying a group of student protesters and students using silent protest as a response to the UC Davis Chancellor illustrates the need for campuses to formally adopt social media to communicate. More importantly,  social media is needed to provide a venue for their communities to express and process their emotions and thoughts when events so shocking as this event requires communities to come together, to have dialogues.

I  was shocked, upset and disappointed at what had happened and as an employee of the University of California system, I was embarrassed and thoughts of “those could have been one of the students I know” and questions like “How can we avoid that from happening at UCSB?” and “What are our campus administrators doing to prevent this from happening?” came to my mind.  I also wanted to know what students are thinking and how they are reacting to the events. I couldn’t wait for campus assemblies few days later to process what I was feeling and to hear what others are thinking. I needed to find and share information and I needed to connect with people that could relate to my perspectives, those who work in higher education, in the UC system, in student affairs, those who work with students.

Throughout the weekend, I had short exchanges with folks I have met online via twitter and facebook.  I found information from blogs, videos from youtube by those who were at the event and who witnessed them firsthand. I found out about UC President Yudof’s response and his plan to meet with every UC Chancellors to discuss how to implement system-wide policies on how to properly respond to these types of incidents. I also found via twitter from a former UC employee that this was not the first time pepper-spray had been used at student protests and that at UC Davis, one student wrote about “administrators, students and police have been coordinating an under-the-radar response team to infiltrate student protest groups, relay information to administrators and police leadership and control peaceful gatherings in response to tuition spikes and budget cuts.”

What I had wished during the weekend was more connections with my  fellow UCSB colleagues, students and those that can relate to me. Believe me, those like me who have the need to connect online will use social media, with or without university approval.  In these times of crisis, universities really need to understand the need for two-way communication and to have avenues for their communities to be able to process their thoughts and provide outlets for dialogues. For those still seeking some kind of  quantifiable metrics to justify the use of social media, how about the fact that sometimes, it’s not all about ROI.

Whether we appreciate or complain about things/events in our lives could just be a matter of perspective. I was at the dentist this morning getting my teeth cleaned and   it was a somewhat painful even with the topical gel they placed to numb my mouth and it took awhile. I would rather have been somewhere else but the dentist’s office. On the other hand, I can appreciate the fact that I have insurance to pay for it, which I am grateful for. It got me thinking what I and what I hear other complain about including the items below:

• It’s a chore having to vacuum and clean our homes, but on the other hand, there are those who are homeless  who would gladly take any shelter over their heads.
• We complain about our kids waking us up early in the morning to play, but on the other hand, there are those who are not able to have kids who would do anything to have even just one.
• We complain about the amount of work we do, but on the other hand, there are millions of people who are unemployed looking for jobs who would take any wage to feed their families.
• We complain about paying too much for gas, but on the other hand, there are those who have to walk miles to get to work.
• We complain about too much school work, but on the other hand, there are those who can’t even afford to go to school and would work many jobs to be able to have the opportunity.
• We complain about how old-fashioned and over-bearing our parents are, but on the other hand, there are those who would give the world to have their parents alive.
• We complain about how hard our marriage is but on the other hand, there are those who are not allowed to get married.
• We complain about our physical shortcomings. Just watch this:

Nick Vujicic – I Love Living Life. I Am Happy. (youtube video).

By no means am I being Pollyana-ish but I do find myself taking things for granted sometimes and I have to remind myself of how blessed I am.  As I read somewhere “When we’re complaining, we’re not appreciating.”

Photo courtesy of the Kingskidd Report

I read a blog  ago that talked about how women should be supporting each other, not tearing each other down in the workplace. The blog post talked about “crab mentality”, the metaphor of crabs pulling those that are about to escape a pot.  It reminded me of my past experiences when instead of others expressing support for my career/personal accomplishments, there were those who felt resentment and expressed jealousy. I was having a conversation about this topic with a friend of mine and the fact that I never see myself as a competition to anyone. He tells me that while I don’t see myself involved in any competition, the fact that I spend a lot of hours working, getting things done than could be seen as a competition in itself. I can understand that perspective, but I just don’t consciously think about it in that way. I work because I like what I do, I need to take care of my family and I do not have the need to prove myself against anyone. I have seen my father work three or more jobs at the same time consistently throughout my life and he did it with no complaints. I have admired him for his work ethic and I guess I just never saw anyway to progress through life than working long and hard.

I think we live in such a competitive world and of scarce resources that we forget to appreciate the accomplishments of others instead of appreciating.  I know I’m guilty of it sometimes but I try to be conscious about not taking on the “crab mentality”. Just like compliments, I don’t think we lose anything by appreciating the accomplishments of others, given that these accomplishments were done in ethical manner.

My work involves building technical systems including web, desktop applications and implementing vendor solutions.  I love being able to deliver these systems to our customers. As much as I enjoy this aspect of my job, what I actually enjoy more is being able to help promote the growth and successes of others.  As a leader, I measure my success in terms of how I am able to help others I lead grow and promote. There is nothing more satisfying for me than seeing friends and co-workers, especially those I have seen from the beginning of their career, mature and be successful. Last week, one of my colleagues presented a very critical campus system he just completed to a group of directors.  I could see how proud he was of the system as streams of  compliments came from those in the room. I could not have been prouder watching him throughout his presentation. It was awesome! Three years ago, he joined our organization as a student and seeing him successfully develop a very critical system is amazing.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a world where we don’t view others’ successes as a threat to our own?

I attended the 1st Naspatech Conference in Newport, Rhode Island last week, along with approximately 170 other student affairs professionals and students. If there ever was an ideal conference for me, this conference was it.  It was a conference that discussed technology in the context of student affairs, a topic that interests me professionally and personally.  It was also the chance for me to meet those I have come to known and admire online via social media, in real life, for the first time.  It took me several days to digest the information I was presented at the conference, and there were certainly some ideas that really resonated with me. That emerging technologies like social media, mobile and cloud computing and their applications in student affairs dominated the conference was not really a surprise for me since I have been researching this topic for a few months now and in my professional role as a technology provider at UCSB Student Affairs Division, I have observed this trend for a few months now. I found all the speakers knowledgeable and interesting. However, one speaker that really impacted me was Kenneth Elmore, JD, Dean of Students, Boston University (@deanelmore). In a few words, Dean Elmore articulated what I think as to why I have been very passionate about social media. Dean Elmore talked about the idea of social media aid and the role it plays in the pursuit of community in his speech. What he said intrigued me and sounded familiar but I followed up with him via twitter after the conference and he this:

“I think the concept of community is elusive. The real joy and challenge is in the pursuit of it. Social media aids the pursuit. I also believe the element of the pursuit of community are: making intros; establishing presence; empowering users; keeping it cool; & music”

When I heard him talk about this idea of the pursuit of community, it dawned on me that this is what I had been doing at UCSB for the last 20 years starting when I entered as a freshman in 1991 and I was immediately embraced by other participants/staff of a summer program for first generation students and the Filipino American student community; what I continued to do as I turned professional in 1996; and is now my motivation for my interest in social media. Personally, social media provides me the sense of connection with others that share my interests, and beyond that, it provides me with a sense of purpose in being able to continually share and learn from others.  Because I see so much value of social media for me personally, I feel obligated to promote the use of social media to others and in my organization.

I view social media from multiple perspectives including, but not limited to: 1) as a technology service provider, 2) as a UCSB community member and 3) as a student affairs professional including as an org advisor/mentor to first generation and minority students.

As a technology service provider, I see the value of social media as a communication channel to exchange information with our customers, to market our services, but more than that, I see social media as a way for students to build communities. When students are now able to build relationships with others before they even step foot at UCSB; when they are able to share their fears/concerns/excitement/anticipation as they transition from high school to this unfamiliar world of college life; and when they are able to support each other in their academic and social lives at UCSB, how does anyone measure the value of that? The measurement goes beyond numbers and economics.

A couple of days ago in a conversation about social media, I mentioned that if I wanted to know what events are going on at UCSB, I go to facebook. The value of facebook goes beyond just knowing what events are happening for me as a UCSB community member. I appreciate being able to see some aspects of my colleagues lives  beyond what I know of them from going to meetings, and working with them on projects. I have been really pleasantly surprised to see their interests beyond their professional lives and the additional roles they have as parents, partners, children, etc.

One aspect of my professional experience the last 15 years I really enjoy and find great personal satisfaction is the privilege of being an advisor to student organizations and mentor to some students. While I am not as involved as I used to be in previous years due to the fact that my wife and I now commute limiting my involvement, social media does provide me with a way to connect with students.  For the last two summers, I have been a facilitator for a summer bridge program for incoming freshmen, the same program that provided me the community that helped me in my transition to UCSB. I have been able to maintain my connection with the students enrolled in my class after the program through facebook.

As I think about my wonderful experience at NASPATech conference and meeting folks I had only previously met via social media (#sachat on twitter) as well as those who I met at the conference for the first time, what if I had decided to not create my twitter account on August 9, 2010?

What’s your experience with social media in terms of community building?

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.