Monthly Archives: August 2011

A Small School Boy, Living in a Big School World

This Friday is College Colors Day, which is a day where people all across the world are encouraged to support their school by wearing the colors no matter where they are. It tends to be bigger at schools that have strong athletic programs, and I don’t think it is a coincidence that it falls on the kickoff weekend for College Football. Regardless, it is cool to think about the potential of having every single former and current student around the world showing support for their school.

Like many people in student affairs, I have different schools that I could potentially support on Friday. My MS is from Florida State University, and I currently work at Texas A&M University, both schools with strong athletic programs, easily recognizable colors, and enrollments of over 40,000. However, this Friday, I will be wearing a different set of colors; Blue and Gold. My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT, enrollment of about 5,000 undergraduates when I was there.

Now, I am prepared to answer several questions about the colors I am wearing on Friday, or not even be recognized as wearing my school colors, but that will not stop me. I was raised in a small school. Being at a small school allowed me to be involved in several different organizations, and get to know my administrators and professors better. I was invited over to my economics professor’s house after graduating, and was able to develop a strong relationship with several of them. Those administrators assisted me in some of my darker times in school; when my fraternity brother was killed, when I lost my scholarship, break ups, make ups, etc. I know have the fortune of calling those administrators my friends and enjoy interacting with them as professionals at conferences or online. I wouldn’t change my experience for anything, and often can’t imagine my four years of undergraduate at a larger school.

I will proudly be sporting the Bobcat Blue and Gold this Friday because being a small school boy in a big school world allows me a unique opportunity; I get to serve as an ambassador for Quinnipiac University to most of those who ask me. I get to tell them about our new medical school that has state of the art facilities. I get to tell them about our world famous polling institute that gets mentioned almost daily during election years. I get to tell them about our Albert Schweitzer institute, which has several Nobel laureates on its Board of Directors and created an immensely strong partnership between a small private school in the Northeast and a poor community in Nicaragua that adds value to both places. But most importantly, I get to use those lessons I learned on a daily basis in the shadow of Sleeping Giant Mountain when serving my own students in this “big school world”.

Throughout my career, I will work at many different institutions. Some may be big, others may be small. Some public, others private. But the one thing that I will always remember is that I was raised in that small school in Southern Connecticut, and that I should always work to let others know the amazing experience I had there. Some people are big school people, others are small school people. After working or attending three, I can say that at this point, I am just a school person. Its not the number of students, its the number of caring professionals that those students get to interact with. That is what will make the difference in their lives, and maybe a few years down the road, they will write a blog post about how much those interactions had meant to him.

So if you are like I am, and went to a small school for undergraduate, but a bigger school for your Master’s degree or work at a bigger school, I challenge you to wear your small school colors this Friday, and take the chance to be an ambassador for your school.

Are you a big school or small school person, and how has either shaped who you are today?

Things I’ve Learned This Past Week

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I love learning. I have learning in my top five strengths. I try to look for the learning opportunity in all things. This past week, I feel that I have learned a lot, some useful, some just comical, and thought I would share it with all of you. So read on to see what I have learned this past week.

Rice is grown. I was always aware of rice, and enjoyed it. However, I thought it was one of those things that just appeared, and never really considered that there are rice plants out there.
Most conflicts between students can be resolved with the proper time. Parents, on the other hand, are sometimes too set in their ways to be able to be moderated, which sometimes results in me getting yelled at.
The tree that I park my car under is where giant condors are hiding, and have decided to use my car to practice their aim with their bird bombs.
Along the same lines, its amazing what a difference a good car wash makes.
Turntable.fm is a great website that people can have a lot of fun with.
Campus is a lot quieter without students, but I love them being back. They have such an energy that makes me excited to serve them for another year.
Being recognized by campus celebrities is pretty cool. I got to work with the Texas Aggie Yell Leaders a few months ago on social media, which they have embraced very well. I saw them at an event yesterday and they recognized me and I felt slightly important at the moment.
Rearranging your office can change your whole outlook.
Creating a space where you can talk to students with your back to the computer and no desk between the two of you creates more open communication and better connection.
Don’t go to Target or Walmart on opening weekend in a college town.
@EricStoller has a sweet retro microphone, and I kind of want one, even though I have no use for it right now.
Getting into my office before I am actually supposed to start makes me more productive during the day.
I need a new desk chair. I think this one is causing my back to hurt.

I think that’s it for now. Happy opening to all of my #sachat colleagues, and remember, September is right around the corner.

So what have you learned this week?

Social Media and the RA Role: Social Media Dashboards

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This past week I had the great opportunity to present during the Texas A&M Resident Adviser Training on Social Media and the RA Role. It was a session at 8:30 in the morning after three full days of training. On top of that, the power for all of campus went off that morning, so a lot of the RAs in the session had been attending to broken fire panels, showering in the dark, and all sorts of other protocol things surrounding a campus wide power outage. I wasn’t sure how effective it would be, but I was hopeful that this would at least get people thinking about how social media could help them build community in their building.

Then one of my favorite things happened; students surprised me. Not only were they great listeners, but they also were great participants. They asked great questions, and really wanted to know how to use social media to better the experience of their residents.

Due to time restraints, we couldn’t get into full detail on a lot of the mediums, but were able to discuss some of the basics. I had planned on sending out a note giving them a few of the more “beyond the basics” tools, but decided that others may want to read as well, so it turned into a blog post. This one will focus on social media dashboards, but I hope to add more.

So you have your Twitter account. Your hall has its own Facebook page. You are ready to engage and promote events as soon as residents arrive. All of your links on your bulletin board were made with bit.ly so you can track who is looking and when. Now what?

The first thing I would recommend to you is to set yourself up with a Social Media Dashboard. These websites or programs combine all of your accounts into one place. You can manage your Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, LinkedIn, everything all in one place. Instead of copy and pasting your status updates from facebook.com to twitter.com, you can do it all together. These sites come in all shapes and sizes, and they all offer different things. I personally like either www.hootsuite.com, or if you are using Google Chrome as your main browser, get TweetDeck as an app from the App Store. All of these let you put your multiple accounts up there, and you can also save searches on specific hashtags (I recommend starting with #TAMUResEd and #AggieRAs). Hootsuite limits you to four accounts unless you pay for it, but the TweetDeck application for Google Chrome doesn’t have that limitation. You can also post as a Facebook Page if you are set up as the administrator on your hall page. TweetDeck has a program for Mac users as well that you can use on your MacBook which runs in the same way.

If you are interested in posting on the go, and taking pictures from you smart phone at events and posting them, you can use social media dashboards as well. I use HootSuite on my iPhone and it works great. It allows you to take pictures and post them right away to your Twitter and Facebook pages. I also find that it is very easy to follow hashtags in this app. If you liked TweetDeck for your computer, you can download that for iPhone as well. Seemic tends to work pretty well for posting to Facebook pages as well, I have been using that mostly to post for the Department of Residence Life page.

Try a few, most of them are free in the Apple Store or Android Marketplace. Download a few, use them for a few days, and see if you like them. There are still times that I will use one over the other, and if you ask ten different people, they will give you different reasons why they like or don’t like each one.

Again, I will offer my services if you have questions. You can comment below, message me on Facebook, or find me on Twitter (@tomLfritz).

If you have an idea for a future exploration that could help you in your role, please let me know.

Inclusivity: You are what you eat

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First off, I am feeling slightly guilty that I have so neglected you poor blog (and readers) this summer. I figured I would have the time to write several times a week while I was in the lazy days of summer. Needless to say, my first summer as a full time professional hasn’t really looked like Ferris Bueler’s Day Off. But, I am back, and I am setting the goal of writing at least once every other week once I get through training and opening (aka, through August).

But, I would like to start this new season on tomLfritz.com with a different view on a topic that we talk about a lot; being inclusive.

I was recently asked by my doctor to take this blood test called a Blood Print test. Apparently she thought that some of the issues I have been having recently came from food sensitivities that I had previously not known about. I took it, and, surprise surprise, I am now reactive to over 30 different foods. Among these are baker’s yeast, wheat, cow’s milk, eggs, and most of the other foods that I enjoy on a daily basis (I am also allergic to brewer’s yeast, malt, and barley. Anyone want to guess what those three things help make?). I have been encouraged to follow a gluten-free, lactose-free, and, in my opinion, taste-free, diet. I am trying to ease off on the foods that trigger reactions in me, but find it very difficult to cut it out all together.

I promise you, there is a point coming soon.

As many of us are gearing up for the start of the semester, you may have trainings, kick off meetings, welcome back dinners, and events that are going to have food at them. I am serving on our RA training committee, and have been listening in on the menus for the meals we are providing, see if these sound familiar; box lunches with sandwiches, lasagna, chicken parm, burgers and hot dogs, pizza. Anyone know what these all have in common? They all contain gluten, lactose, and tend to be very high in calories for those of us that are keeping on with the #sa11fit community. Now we are offering students that identify with different dietary needs the option for a separate meal, and I have pushed for these meals to be more than a plate of grilled veggies or the salad that comes with the lasagna.

We tend to look for mass appeal when we pick meals for students and staff, things that are cheap and things that a majority of people like. And I am not saying thats not the best way to go. I just encourage everyone to think about those underrepresented people that maybe have food allergies that are going through training. Providing all gluten free meals and lactose free meals will be very costly, and some people just would not approve. If you are going to provide options to self-disclose dietary needs, make sure they are worthy options.

Finally, I would also say to make sure you take into account things other than dietary restrictions focused around health. For instance, if you have staff or students that practice Islam, during the month of Ramadan, which tends to be over the time of opening and trainings, they are expected to fast during daylight hours, which is when most of us tend to train. Having a staff member that fasted for his faith last year taught me that doing physical activities late in the day could cause him to be lightheaded or weak. There are also students that follow halal, or kosher, or other things that are too numerous to mention.

I don’t mean to seem preachy, just hoping to provide some food for thought (pardon the pun). Remember, when thinking about food for trainings and meetings, being inclusive sometimes means eating outside of the box.