Category: Volume 4, Issue 2

Every year the ACPA Convention offers a number of programs presented by current doctoral students offering their insights on successfully completing a doctoral program. Over the years I have attended several of these sessions hoping to glean knowledge that would help me when I made the transition back to the classroom. The advice has been helpful, but as I wrap up my first year as a full time doctoral student I have taken some time to reflect on my decision to begin this journey. Although I am happy with this path some of the choices I have had to make along the way have been difficult, and I wish I had learned a few things beforehand that might have made the road a bit smoother.

One of the toughest decisions for me was whether I would resign from my full time student affairs position at a mid-size public institution or attend school as a part-time student while remaining employed. I had really found my ideal job with great colleagues, wonderful students, and a location that had already been home to my family for the previous three years. Having only been in the position for two and a half years I felt that I still had much more to contribute. However, I also knew that balancing a full time job, a family, and coursework would put too much of a strain on me and those I care about. Therefore, I made the very difficult decision to be a full time student and say goodbye to the students, colleagues, and job I really enjoyed. Fortunately, I am able to maintain the relationships with my former colleagues since I continue to live in the area.

Remaining in the same community means that I commute about 75 minutes each way to school. Fortunately I have family near my institution and spend two nights a week in the area. I never realized how much I would miss my partner and son the three days a week I am away from them. Nothing could have prepared me for this, however, I am able to give them much more of my attention the four days a week I am at home. When faced with the prospect of relocating our entire family, or spending three days a week from home the latter seemed to be the best alternative for all of us. So far, with the support of an understanding partner, family, and child care providers these arrangements have worked out much better than expected.

Most of my first year has been about adjusting to a new way of life. At this year’s ACPA Convention two colleagues and I discussed how much our lives have changed since the last time we were all together one year earlier. In less than a month one colleague went from being an entry-level housing professional at large public institution to being the chief housing officer at a smaller university. The other colleague recently became the chief housing officer at a mid size private school after working as an independent consultant. Of course, I went from having a full time position with an office, an administrative assistant, student workers, and responsibilities to just having lots of responsibility without no staff or an office of my own.

Many responsibilities that come with being a doctoral student are part and parcel of the experience. However, looking back I wish I had known to say no far more often as some responsibilities come by choice. Saying no to those opportunities that are unappealing may be fairly easy, but when all of the opportunities seem attractive it is easy to believe you must do everything. Some of my fellow doctoral students would suggest that balance is the key to managing multiple priorities. Instead, I recommend tipping the scales with far more free, flexible, and open.

At the same time, being a student is about stretching beyond one’s comfort zone. Taking risks, and trying something that is unfamiliar can be so worthwhile when it pushes you to develop new skills instead of simply relying on old ones. I suggest seeking mentorship from faculty and/or other students who can help you acquire new skill sets that will serve your future goals. Doing this has been instrumental to my own growth. There will always be opportunities to maintain those competencies you already have, and to collaborate with fellow students and faculty in ways that will build old and foster new competencies.

The most consistent pre-doctoral advice I received was to connect with my fellow students. This has been key to the support I have received and been able to give throughout my first year. My cohort has been instrumental in my success, and I am glad I received lots of good advice prior to beginning my program about how important this group of people would be to my experience.

Our common group experience allows us to encourage and empathize with one another. We also help each other figure out what classes we will take each semester, and stay on top of the administrative deadlines that come with the program. While we all may travel in various social circles, we definitely share a common bound that transcends everything else and makes our experience unique.

I have found that one aspect of being successful as a doctoral student involved giving consistent effort and letting go of perfectionism. This is a lesson that I am still trying to learn. Sometimes it is easy to focus on being perfect since usually in a full time position you have already mastered all or most of what your job requires. As a professional your ability to balance tasks and urgent matters may often be rewarded, but it is the quality and thoroughness of your work that is important as a doctoral student.

Through my course work and involvement with a research team my own research interests have become much more clear. I learned early the value of gaining clarity about my interests, but at the same time being open and flexible to other ideas and opportunities that may come along. While there is no need to begin your doctoral program with a dissertation topic and title in hand, it is important to spend time cultivating your interests. Share your curiosity with your advisor and seek faculty members, even those outside your program and department, whose interests may be similar.

Being open to new experiences also means taking classes outside your program and department. Some of my most insightful classes have been outside of my department. I did not know this going into the program, but have been pleasantly surprised. An added bonus has been the supportive relationships I have formed with students and faculty in other departments.

Beginning a doctoral program is a risk itself. I have learned to not be shy about meeting with someone who I do not know, but may want to work with in the future. The best advice I have received so far has come from a seasoned faculty member who in 20 minutes shared insights that I will carry forever. I was invited to a meeting with two other colleagues who were unable to attend. Since I was already there this faculty member and I just talked about current events, my research interests, and a wide range of other topics. Ordinarily our paths would seldom cross, but because of chance meeting we were able to make a connection that will continue. To date it has been the best hour of time spent this entire year.

Few doctoral students complain of boredom or an over abundance of free time when in a doctoral program. However, one of the most poignant lessons that I have learned over the past year is the importance of holding onto those simple pleasures I enjoy. Being a doctoral student does not mean giving up time with one’s family, friends, and outside interests. While it is true that being a doctoral student is a time intensive experience, it does not need to consume all of your time. This is a recent insight for me and I look forward to implementing it next fall.

Never being one to rush a degree I took five years to complete my bachelors and four years to finish my masters. Though I always had the intention of beginning a doctoral program I thought I needed to wait at least five years before applying. There have been times over the past year when I wished I had started my program a year or two earlier. Nonetheless, I am happy to with my decision to start now. Having a few more years of working and living have made my courses much more relevant than they may have been without six years of post masters professional experience. When to start your own program is personal decision, and does not necessarily need to be contingent on external factors.

As I go into my second year of doctoral study, equipped with all that I have learned about myself and what I want out of my program, I know I will continue making some of the same choices and some different ones as well. One of the benefits of working in higher education is the cycle of the academic calendar. A new year provides new opportunities where old lessons are incorporated into daily practice, and new lessons are discovered along the way. I look forward to the journey continuing.

Jason E. Lane
Assistant Professor
University of North Dakota

You walk out of your office to grab a file and notice your student worker quickly minimize a screen on his computer.  Curious, you ask him about it and he simply replies that he is “facebooking.”  Curiosity piqued, you inquire more.  Looking over his shoulder he describes to you a website that allows students to connect with each over the internet.  Interesting, but it sounds like only a new iteration of e-mail and instant messaging.  Later that day on the way to a meeting, you observe that students in the lounge, computer labs, coffee shop are all “facebooking.”  Research about Facebook is very limited; however, it should come as no surprise that a recent study by two students at MIT on Facebook usage reported that 60% of users in the study log into the site at least four times a week (Jones & Solten, 2005). (In fact, many of the undergraduates with whom I have discussed Facebook indicate that they log on to the site several times a day).  The study reported that usage was so prevalent that on campuses such as Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University the percentage of students possessing a Facebook.com account surpassed 90%.

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) belongs to a cadre of new internet ventures known as social networking sites.  The sites exist for a range of purposes.  Consider this: by exploring the profile of other members, one can quickly find out such personal information as dating status (i.e., “single”, “in a relationship”, “in an open relationship”, “engaged”, “married”, or “its complicated”), sexual preferences, political views, movie and music interests, and favorite quotes.  Assuredly, some of the information available is quite provocative and a bit disturbing. While shocking to some, these reported behaviors are not new (although, some may argue that the structure of the site works to promote such activities or at least normalize them).  The site makes publicly available information about what college students have been doing in private for years.  This public access to traditionally private information is raising a number of questions regarding the relationship between postsecondary institutions and their students.

Toward the beginning of this semester while toying with writing this column, I was chatting with my graduate assistant about Facebook and she convinced me that the only way to understand the phenomenon was to log on to the site and explore.  After some trepidation about joining this group of mostly undergrads, I consented. With a few clicks and the entry of minimal personal information, I joined the community of 12.4 million college students, alumni, and a few faculty and staff.  Within two days of joining, I reconnected with friends from both my undergraduate and graduate institutions, read about the current trends in music and movies both on my campus and nationally, and discovered more about my undergraduate and graduate students and their friends than I either wanted or needed.  From the six people who I added to my “friends” list in those first few days, the site let me know that I was then connected to 289 other people.  I could investigate my friends’ friends to see if there were any who I want to list as my friends and add them to my list.

The site does not belong to the university nor is it a formal official extension of the campus environment.  Unlike many of the online social networking sites, Facebook is based on its members participating in a shared setting: a college campus (whether they area taking classes on campus or are distance learners).  For the most part, users can only access a particular college or university Facebook site if they possess the corresponding institution.edu e-mail address. Thus, the members of each individual site are also members of a broader campus community tied together through common courses, academic programs, cultural norms and values, and daily events that take place on and around campus.  In some ways, this sense of a quasi-exclusive community creates a sense of privacy and safety for many users who post pictures and stories about illegal and ethically-questionable activities.

One of the most egregious examples of the boasting of illegal activity centers on the recent burning of nine churches in Alabama.  Newsweek (Skip & Kim, 2006) reported that the culprits, three college students, chronicled some of their other criminal activity on Facebook. The magazine revealed that the students used Facebook to exchange messages about “alcohol, drunken driving, illegal hunts, guns, and vandalism and feckless law-enforcement officers” (p. 8).  While little data exists about the extent to which students reveal criminal activity on the site, significant anecdotal evidence suggests that students often willingly share information about such behaviors as sexual activity and alcohol and drug use.  For example, when a New York Times reporter was working on a story about abuse of the drug Adderall at Columbia University, he interviewed more than 20 students because of their membership in the Facebook group, “Adderall, You’re Breaking My Heart”.

With all of this information available, college and university officials in public safety and judicial affairs offices are increasingly turning to the site to gather evidence about violations of the law and the institution’s code of conduct.   At Penn State, campus officials used pictures on the Facebook group I rushed the Field After the OSU Game (And Lived!) to identify and discipline more than 50 students who had rushed the football field after PSU defeated Ohio State last fall.  In November 2005, The Northerner reported that Northern Kentucky University fined four students for posting pictures of a drinking party in a residence hall on Facebook. In another example, according to Ohio University’s student newspaper, The Post, a student Resident Assistant was terminated for posting photographs of underage drinking in the residence halls.

Unsurprisingly, such actions by college and university administrators cause a great deal of consternation among college students who repeatedly claim violations of privacy.  While efforts to collect evidence via Facebook may be viewed as an invasion of private space, there is nothing illegal about college officials using the site to collect evidence about student behavior.  A judicial affairs officer has the same opportunity and access as a fraternity brother to browse the site, peruse pictures, and read postings. In many ways, posting information to Facebook is no different than posting the information on a public bulletin board.  Once posted, there exists no expectation of privacy — who reads the information cannot be controlled.  This situation raises questions about a university’s obligation to provide students with a certain level of internet literacy.

As universities venture into the regulation of online behavior, they do need to be cautious of their own activities.  Some campuses no longer simply use Facebook to collect evidence about reported code violations, but actually assign a student or public safety officer to monitor activity on the site.  When an institution begins actively monitoring the site, it may begin to assume a responsibility (and legal liability) for activities that occur on Facebook.  (Some readers may recall a similar issue in the late 1990s when the National Panhellenic Conference asked the institutional Panhellenic Councils to stop actively monitoring sorority social events because of the potential liability involved with assuming responsibility for monitoring student behavior).  On Facebook, institutions may create an expectation that the university is obligated to provide them with a safe and harassment free environment – when in fact the university is really only looking for alcohol violations such as underage drinking or drinking in a “dry” residence hall.

Keep in mind that collecting evidence may be legal, but the evidence collected may not always be legitimate. Pictures do not always prove action or intent.  Merely holding a red plastic cup does not mean alcohol was being consumed.  Further, what if after punishing a student for drinking in his residence hall room you discover on Facebook a picture of the same student clearly drinking in the hall?  One should be cautious of such evidence. Is this a picture of the same event, for which the student was already sanctioned, or a different violation? If a student posts a caption suggesting a student with a funny look in the picture is stoned in a residence hall, does this mean the student was smoking marijuana on campus? Not necessarily, the person may never have smoked pot and the caption may only be an attempt at humor.

As a still emerging phenomenon, the legal concerns of Facebook and other social networking sites remain ambiguous.  Issues such as harassment and the posting of threatening speech are likely to be some of the major legal issues to arise in the future; particularly when both public and private universities seek to manage the speech of their students and other community members on Facebook.

With millions of college students now using the Facebook site, student affairs administrators need to be aware of the site and understand its role on college campuses.  In many ways, the site serves a very valuable function of creating a campus community (albeit a mostly unregulated one).  However, it can also be a useful tool for campus administrators to investigate potential violations of the law or student code of conduct.  These administrators need to remember, however, that the same protections and freedoms granted students in the physical world also apply in the virtual one.

Summary Points for Administrative Consideration

• Even though each Facebook site restricts access to members based on their .edu web address, the information provided on the site is available for public consumption.  College and university administrators can use the site to collect evidence about possible violations to the student code of conduct or the law.
• There is a difference between using the site to collect evidence and actively monitoring the site for potential code violations. When universities actively monitor student activity on Facebook they may begin to assume responsibility (and thus liability) for activities conducted on the site.
• Public institutions must respect student’s freedom of speech rights. So long as students not in engage in unprotected speech such as that which is libelous or threatens the health and safety of another, students have a right to say (or post) whatever they choose – even if an institution does not like it.
• Institutions must be judicious in how they use evidence collected on Facebook.  Simply holding a red cup does not prove alcohol consumption by a minor.  Sometimes it may be best to simply use the evidence to have a conversation with the student about appropriate behavior, rather than trying to use it to determine responsibility for a code violation.

References

• Jones, H. & Soltren, J. H. (2005). Facebook: Threats to privacy.  Unpublished
  Manuscript, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.
• Skip C. & Kim, T. (2006, March 20).  Church burnings: What we did last night.
  Newsweek, p. 8.

Greetings from One Dupont Circle!

This spring has been a very busy and as you might suspect in the nation’s capital the activity on the “Hill” has been swift:

• No Higher Education Reauthorization Bill. As of this writing, Congress has returned from break and the discussion continues.  It is highly unlikely that any action will be taken on the bill this session.

• Budget cuts proposed for next year in the Department of Education (in committee). Secretary Spellings addressed a group of us earlier this spring about the pending budget cuts for education and higher education in specific.  The Trio programs are once again on the “table” for cuts in 2007 and the reallocation of those dollars would be redirected to the “No Child Left Behind” agenda.

• Gasoline prices through the roof and Presidential intervention in the works. This needs no explanation.  The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the District is around $3.15.  Campuses will be looking carefully at athletic team and professional travel and motor pool necessities.

• Senate debates immigration legislation. This issue continues to heat up as a national agenda and I would encourage each of you to ensure that you understand the facts of the multiple bills being presented on this topic.  Please research the impacts on your local community and the nation.   This discussion is just beginning.

• Recording and motion picture industries launch new anti-piracy effort targeting colleges and universities. Forty universities in 25 states have been targeted by a new anti-piracy campaign launched by the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA).  Campuses are alerted to curtail piracy activity or face serious consequences.

• New Orleans colleges ask for additional federal help in recovery efforts. The Presidents of Tulane and Dillard Universities called on Congress to “establish a loan program to help Gulf coast hurricane –damaged institutions with ongoing expenses while they wait for disaster-relief checks and insurance money.” (ACE, 2006)

• The American Council on Education’s “Solutions for Our Future” campaign. ACE and 400 colleges and universities launched a national public outreach campaign designed to raise awareness about higher education’s critical role in the future of our country.  “Solutions for Our Future is a multi-year effort aimed at establishing a dialogue with local communities and policy makers about the broad societal benefits of higher education.  The campaign will utilize national television, radio and newspaper advertisements, an interactive web site and grassroots participation of member campuses and local stakeholders to convey how America’s colleges and universities teach the people who solve our problems and change our world”. (ACE, 2006)

In addition to the federal governments’ activities, the higher education community in Washington, DC, hosted a delegation of academic leaders from Poland for a three-day session on higher education with a focus on governance, institutional management, accreditation, and instruction.  ACPA was represented at this event.

At the state level, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) settled out of court on the Shin case (an MIT student whose death in 2000 was ruled a suicide).  This case had national implication for colleges and universities in allowing legal action against individual campus staff and not the institution.

ACPA will host two delegates from South Africa in mid-June representing the two leading student affairs associations from South Africa.  I will travel to South Africa in October to address their student affairs association’s annual convention on student issues in the United States and to further our relationship as collaborating partners in the two year retention study sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation.

The most critical issues facing our campuses and higher education must be addressed by active participation in the midterm elections.  We must register ourselves and our students and educate ourselves on the issues and what candidates would serve the best interest of higher education in this country at this particular time.  Difficult times lie ahead for education in general in this country and each citizen must be knowledgeable of the issues and exercise their voice. Vote!

Until next time,

Greg