Job Hunt: Infinity

Today was a day (but not the first) that I realized I will not stay at my institution for the long-term. I might not even stay in higher ed. Today showed me the two very different sides of retention, of risk factors, of student process. Today I was reminded of how powerless I am in the machine of higher ed. This afternoon I attended a training session focused on student retention and one of our efforts to reduce student loss. It was framed in a very interesting way: get students back on campus for Spring term. Take specific steps for a specific group of students: reach out, get in contact, work on a plan to get them back on campus for the Spring. There was no discussion about student success. No mention of student goals. We talked about process, numbers, data, and enrollment. Later in the day I attended a student veteran group meeting. One student veteran, after a discussion about being on campus, said "I would rather be back in Iraq". Yes. A student would rather be I...

I haven't written in a while, and I'm not sure why. Back in September I read a great blog post by Lee Skallerup  on why she hasn't been blogging at the same rate as before. I agree with many of her points: I'm still learning a new position, I'm not as angry or frustrated any more, and I'm generally content with my new job. I still have a lot of thoughts about higher ed, and I think there are some great things out there in the higher ed and student affairs world. I'm just tired of the noise of the mainstream higher ed world. I haven't visited Inside Higher Ed in weeks (with the exception of finding Lee's post). I haven't been to the Chronicle longer than that. One of the reasons is that I'm bored. I'm bored with the focus on professors. Of them being "over worked" and "under worked" and the "horrors" of the tenure track and the public beatings of adjuncts. I'm tired of the bickering, of research vs teac...

Tweets in bold  are the beginning of a session. Tweets in italics  are thoughts, quotes, etc, from a session. After NASPA I realized I probably should have used quotes around stuff from the presenters to differentiate between their thoughts and my own.  2014-03-16 18:04:24 +0000 All checked in and wandering around! #NASPA14 2014-03-16 18:55:55 +0000 Time for first time attendee orientation #NASPA14 2014-03-17 02:04:23 +0000 Getting warm in my hotel room... 2014-03-17 12:01:41 +0000 Ah, people watching at breakfast before walking to the convention center #NASPA14 2014-03-17 12:38:50 +0000 Research on infantry vets transitioning to career in higher ed #NASPA14­­­­ 2014-03-17 12:41:39 +0000 Not much research on student veterans, mostly from 2008 to 2010 #NASPA14 2014-03-17 12:49:30 +0000 Infantry vets experience personal and profession...