Great Expectations

The start of a new and exciting year is upon us! Within the week college campuses throughout the country will begin to fill with thousands of eager and some not-so-eager minds. Students will begin moving into residence halls or apartments, will be buying books, going to class, attending parties, joining organizations, and so many other activities that are the fabric of a campus culture.

There is no cute way to lay this blog out. As faculty, staff, and administrators of a college campus, we should EXPECT a great deal from our students. We should EXPECT that they come to class and that we hold them to that standard. We should EXPECT that they are learning both inside and out of the classroom through the lectures, in-class discussions, activities, and other avenues of involvement a student may seek. We should EXPECT they are doing papers, reading, and studying to succeed in each class. This is what is EXPECTED out of students in college.

Students should also have their own set of expectations. Students should EXPECT that you are going to hold them to a standard of excellence. They should EXPECT that as faculty, staff, and administrators that we will not talk down to them but will include them in the learning opportunities at hand. Students should EXPECT that the guidelines toward success in a course are clear. The student should not feel unprepared for a quiz, test, or paper because they have learned so much in the classroom. Students should EXPECT that faculty, staff, and administrators care about their success.

The EXPECTATION of the college experience is what can make the college experience so rewarding. If a student doesn’t have to work hard to find success and EXPECTATIONS are lowered for them to find that success, the reward in the end is far less meaningful. Aim high with your students and their learning and they will receive a reward far greater than any “A” or “B” will provide them-they will actually learn the material!

Good luck as you all start out your new years. Work hard and start the path toward graduation today!

Anticipation of a New Start

One month ago I moved from Bowling Green, KY to Glen Carbon/Edwardsville, IL. It seems extremely crazy that was just a month ago. Time flies when you are learning tons of new information at work and learning a completely new area for your home as well. This Saturday, however, life in this area truly begins and it can become home. My wife, Toni, and my son, Braden, will FINALLY be joining me in Glen Carbon. I cannot wait. I miss them both so much. It will finally be a new start in our new home!

If you don’t know yet, I am a Twitter fool (kevinthomas226) and I stay up on all my info of the world through Tweets by various agencies and people. It is a great tool. Within work, it is a great way to view the pulse of a college campus. Students of SIUE are pumped that we are about 8 days from move-in and just 11 days from classes beginning. That is a wonderful excitement.

The start of a new year allows for a lot of things to be considered. How will this year be different from previous years? So I have some tips for the various populations of students returning to college this fall.

FIRST YEAR STUDENTS:

1. Attend Class: I know this seems simple but for some reason it seems to always be an issue. Within the first week of class many faculty will test you by saying, “I don’t take attendance so if you are here, you are here.” As a student, this is what you hear, “I don’t have attendance policy and class just isn’t important, please don’t attend this very unimportant part of your education that you pay TONS of money to attend.” The education you have received to this point in your life has gotten you to college, choosing to ignore the education you are paying to receive is just dumb. Go to class, sit up front in the class, ask questions, and get to know your professors so you may be success.
2. Get Involved: The transition from high school to college is not as easy as it may seem. If you are coming to college and know people from your high school or other ways, that always helps in the transition but this is a great time to get involved in areas of interest. I look back at my freshmen year and while I don’t regret the path I took, I do look back at the missed opportunities. I always thought it would be fun to write for a school newspaper or help with a college sports team. I never asked. I never tried. I waited until my junior year to start writing for the school paper. Why? Just because I didn’t take the initiative to do it. Don’t be that person. There are thousands of way to get involved and take advantage of those from day one.
3. Students are Responsible for Students: It is time to take responsibility for yourself. Many students are more independent in high school and that is great. College changes the game and you must step up and be responsible for everything. You are responsible to make sure you monitor your emails for important information from the university. You are responsible to make sure you get to class, participate in class, study outside of class, and LEARN the material. You are responsible for balancing the educational, work, and social aspects of your life. Start to plan out your weeks, hour by hour, in hopes you can stick to a schedule and find success through planning.

RETURNING STUDENTS:

1. Keep the behaviors that worked, get rid of those that didn’t. You are returning for another year of college. Something you did worked and you should hold onto and enhance those skills to be even more successful this year. If there are things you are weak in academically, seek out help. Many institutions have study skills tutoring available and tutoring in many other courses. Take advantage of those resources and strengthen areas you might consider to be a weakness.
2. It is going to get harder. Many times students who are successful after the first year believe they will move right on to graduation a few years later. With the average freshmen to sophomore retention rate of 71% and the average six-year graduation rate around 40%, obviously that is not the case. Start to figure out your path toward success. What will your major be? How many classes will you take next semester? Do you need to consider taking a summer class or two to ensure timely graduation? Work for your success! You have to do it, no one else is going to work harder for you than you.
3. It is never to early for career planning. While I would suggest that first year students have a resume and consider internships and practicums, many do not. After your first year, however, you cannot afford to not have a resume, internship experience, practicum experience, and even study abroad experience. In today’s job market the degree will only get you so far. Realize your EXPERIENCE aids in your job potential in the future and your can start to grow your experience now. Do it. It can only help and it really can aid in making sure you are choosing the right career for you.

A new year is upon us and I am excited for this new adventure at a new campus. I hope someone (other than my parents-HA) is reading this and that these tips can be helpful to your success. Any other tips for students out there? Feel free to share.

Home Through The Years

I always think it is fun to listen to people’s response when asked, “where are you from?” I don’t have a great answer for it and still is always the start of a fun conversation.
I grew up in Sparta, Illinois. If you have never heard of Sparta you are right on par with most of the world. Sparta is a small town that used to be home to a booming print industry and now is home to the World Shooting and Recreational Complex-I have no idea what that means. I just know it is now headquartered in Sparta.
Sparta was a great place to grow up. Played sports throughout my childhood, made some really great friends, and still have family in the area but I don’t call Sparta home. I grew up there but other than the bachelor party of one of my best friends Casey Schwartz, I haven’t been there in almost three years.

I spent a great six years completing my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Murray, Kentucky at Murray State University. I love Murray. There are still lots of good folks in the Murray area that I love to see when I get back to my Alma Mater. Love it there and the memories of Hester College, Alpha Sigma Phi, meeting, proposing, and marrying my wife, and ultimately beginning my professional life on the campus of MSU. All that being said, I don’t refer to Murray as my home.

After a pit-stop in Muncie, Indiana, which by the way I will also not EVER call my home, I settled with my wife Toni in Bowling Green, Kentucky for six years. Bowling Green has been our home and this past Saturday night some of our best friends gathered to say farewell to us. It was an awesome gathering. Gatherings in Bowling Green were always good. Food, drink, cornhole but overall the experience of socializing with such a great group of friends and family is what made Bowling Green our home.

As we moved into our house in Illinois it felt like a house but I have every faith that it will grow to be our home. We will make more friends and have wonderful family in the area as well. So as our house turns into our home, you could say I am a bit homeless with regard to the, “what is your hometown” question.

It is the goal of each college and university to make the institution a student chooses to attend feel like home. No the cooking probably won’t ever be as good and there will be things each student misses about being close to family and friends they great up with the first eighteen years of their life. For the college or university to be home to a student should be a source of comfort for parents who are sending their child away. Colleges want to be your students home. We want them to feel comfortable to learn, to grow, to become the men and women you have groomed them to be. We want them to love to be here and enjoy ever moment of their time in the educational setting, just as you hope they have experienced that in your home.

As orientations, welcome week activities, and other things begin to occur in the coming weeks, remember when working with students, you are helping them make this new place their home. That is a pretty awesome responsibility and one that can impact a student’s success at the institution. Do you have any special techniques for making your campus more of a home to your students? Please feel free to share!

American Idol Judging and Higher Education Expectations

As I sat at home with my mother, son, and friends from Murray, I mentioned that I had started a new blog. My friends from Murray, Casey and Kristen, asked if it was interesting. I told them that it focused on higher education overall. Mom stated at that time I was not talking about American Idol judges or anything. That brings today’s blog topic.

I have watched a lot of American Idol. I admit it. I like the show. I loved the show when the judging was actually judging. For those that have watched the show, they used to actually tell people they were awful when they were awful. That is a drastic change from what occurs now where people sing while we sit at home thinking how awful the performance is to our ears. Afterwards the judges give a standing ovation or talk about how that particular singer could sing anything, even the phone book. It is awful. The judging has gotten to the point that most people will just DVR the show and skip their insane comments. I know that I do.

The indirect effect of this type of feedback is that the show is boring and the expectations are lowered. If you sing well, then that is great. If you sing poorly, then that is great too. Thanks for playing and here is your participation ribbon. Providing valuable feedback within the show pushes people to achieve things they didn’t know were possible. It is needed and with new judges on American Idol, hopefully the winners will actually amount to talent like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and others.

How does this relate to higher education? Well, we do the same things. Faculty and staff throughout universities provide ineffective expectations because we think it will be better for the student. As we teach or work with students we are trying to ensure success for the student. What is the best way to teach this student? What is the best services this student needs for success? How can I be a liked administrator or faculty member?

Recently I had the opportunity to hear George Kuh and Joe Cuseo discuss expectations of student success. In the research provided they discussed that faculty were no longer demanding as much from our students. It is as if faculty have deemed the student incapable of learning so as a faculty member I am going to lower the expectation for them. Administrators do it too. Instead of providing the student with a path toward success, we often try to hold their hand through every step of the process.

None of this is helping in student retention. Raise the expectation and let the student earn the success they find by rising to the expectation. In the end the student will find more reward for the work they have done on the task and thus become more engaged within the classroom and the university as a whole. Student success and retention starts with changing the expectation, will you be a part of raising the bar?

What Question Are We Trying to Answer?

Higher education is a funny thing. No really, I am being serious. I think the daily interactions of certain offices on-campus would make a fantastic Aaron Sorkin TV show.

Everyone in higher education has the answer to the problems universities and colleges face. Legislators throughout the country, who typically have not stepped foot in a college classroom since they were in college, will add policies and procedures to try to make higher education more effective and efficient. Administrators will take a look at the landscape of the campus and find fault in all areas, and even in times at their own, at which point solutions are thrown at the faults.

Retention efforts are under scrutiny throughout the country. At many institutions, including my own, student success and/or retention committees have been formed to fix retention of students. Here is what I have come to believe over my time in the field. Assessment and having data available in the MOST important part of retaining students.

Why is that the case you might be asking? We have all looked around a campus and said, well that situation right there is an issue that impacts students. It very well might affect students but it is a generalization. Until you have data to back up the thought, it is essentially throwing rocks at a wall. Often times institutions don’t use data to back up the perceived problems and they just start throwing rocks at the problems.

Until the proper assessment is done, the energy, time, and money invested in solving perceived problems is truly a waste. Without the information of the assessment it is just as possible that the perceived issue that needs fixed is actually a really successful strategy. Without the data you just never know.

Any situations like this you face at your institutions or have gone through before? Hope to get a reply at some point.

Penn State Is A Lesson For All

Penn State University was leveled sanctions today by the NCAA that will not only drastically impact the football program, but other NCAA sports, the University, and the community of State College. Throughout the entire press conference the NCAA repeated that this situation is a cautionary tale. Beyond the legal implications of Sandusky, it really is a tale more universities should direct their attention to within their own institutions.

I love sports. I really do. There is nothing better than March Madness to me. Love it. I went to Murray State University where, like most of Kentucky, basketball is king. Murray has the issue where coaches come and coaches go. Maybe Murray is lucky in that way because in a small town, a coach could move to “icon” status that Penn State football coaches and the program as a whole did in State College.

For many campuses, and probably Murray State too, administrators need look at their campuses. I realize many programs and coaches bring in tons of money to the university each year. It is a true statement of how athletics impact a university. That does not mean, however, that coaches should be the leader of a university. They can be a leader but not THE leader. Win a title at the University of Kentucky in basketball or the University of Alabama in football and that coach can walk on water and do what they want to do. These coaches make far more money than any one employee at a university. Anyone see a problem with that? Hopefully after situations like this people will start to question that more often.

College sports can be a great thing for a college campus but the money, power, and corruption that comes with it are an evil that any university should be prepared to address and handle.

On a side note, the NCAA administration and their stand that this is about returning to a culture of academics first and athletics not the primary focus is laughable. Really? Go to USC, Ohio State, Syracuse, and hundreds of other schools. For coaches and administrators, an education is important but academics are never the primary focus. To believe so just makes the NCAA look dumb. For schools that are successful and have great APR scores, how are they reaching those scores. Many sports recruit bright and smart student athletes and many do not. For those who recruit students who are not college ready, and yet have this outstanding graduation rate, how are they doing it? Look at that NCAA!

Do What You Say You Will Do

Students throughout college campuses always hear about the “real world.” Faculty and staff across the country talk to students about how different the “real world” is from the college campus atmosphere. Is it? Sure there are differences but college has its own responsibilities, just as the “real world” does.

I rant a bit today because we are in the process of closing our house and have run into the slowest and most unreliable (with regard to timeliness) movers on God’s green earth (or in Illinois, God’s brownish dead grass). Our closing in Bowling Green was supposed to be at 2p.m. today. Well, the movers were supposed to be done at noon. They were not-as a matter of fact at that time they were at lunch. Then they were supposed to be done by 2:30p.m., a now furious buyer understood they would be done by then and they stated they would be done by then. It is not 3:13 as I type this and they are still going. Frustrating to no end but it leaves me with one simple message that applies for the “real world” and the REAL college world as well-DO WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE GOING TO DO!

Each fall and spring college students make a commitment to attend a university and the college or university makes a commitment to the student through scholarships, financial aid, classes, support, and various other services. The relationship between the student and the university is a partnership and service where both ends have to do what they set out to do. Often, however, students begin to miss class, choose social activities, work, or other opportunities over their studies and commitment to the academics. Don’t do it. Honor your commitment to succeed and work to reach the goal of graduation. Don’t frustrate yourself and the people you are surrounded by. Do what you say you are going to do and earn your path toward graduation.

Anybody out there have “Do what you say you are going to do” stories? Feel free to share!

When A Problem Comes Along You Must Blog It

Life is full of transitions. One week ago, I began a new adventure at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville as the Director of Retention and Student Success. In starting a new position you forget about the transition period and the excitement and craziness of that process.

The best way to compare it would be to that of the transition from middle school to high school. I remember when I was at Sparta Lincoln Middle School, I thought being an 8th grader was the best thing ever. Then like a ton of bricks hit you, you are at the bottom of the hill as a freshmen in high school. The new job is the same way. One day you are on a campus you have spent many years on and know the ins and outs of the campus, its policies, and how you can ultimately help a student, regardless of the situation. The next, you are the freshmen again.

One week into this position I really am having a good time learning again. After reading the entire SIUE Fact Book, Undergraduate Catalog, and anything else I could get my hands on, I at least have a grasp for some of the knowledge I must be aware of to impact student success on this campus.

So one week into the job I provide the following suggestions for those who are making the scary steps of being a freshmen again:

1. When you move, just MOVE. Living out of a hotel and away from your family sounds doable but it is harder than one might imagine. Having your family nearby to be a part of the transition would be a helpful addition to managing all the change in your life. Since this is my first post, I have a lovely wife, Toni, and a three-year old son, Braden, who are still in Bowling Green, Kentucky as the closing of our home occurs. It will be good to have them here in our new home and being a part of this new journey of our lives.

2. Read everything. Websites are positive but departments handouts and fliers can tell you what the new student is experiencing when attending college. Seeing what they see or knowing what they know provides a good point of reference for when working with students. I doubt many freshmen are going to read the fact books or undergraduate catalogs but they might read the flier from the Transfer Center or Financial Aid. What are those offices telling students? It is good to know.

3. Remember that you have moved, you’re not dead. Call your friends and family and stay connected with them. They were important to your life two weeks ago, make them as important to your life today.

So there it is, my first blog posting. What’s the goal? Post everyday? I doubt it. Post often, I sure do hope so. Regardless, hope someone reads it and if not, it is a good way to at least share what is in my head from time to time. If I get feedback I will be surprised and at least know that someone is reading. Take care!