Tag Archives: Students

My first solo data sort, and a foray into #saass

I did it. I doubted myself, I doubted my abilities, and my brain to be able to complete it. But I did it. And I only broke out into nervous hives once over it.

Ready for it? I completed my first solo qualitative data sort. I know this may seem elementary for a lot of people, but its a pretty big deal for me. I have participated before, but never done it on my own. I used a method that involved a lot of index cards, but I am very happy with my results. If you have not fallen asleep from boredom, allow me to elaborate. But I must first start with some background.

I am currently serving as the Director of the North Engagement Center at Michigan State. In it, I am a part of the Neighborhoods initiative (check out some background information here), which is focused on increasing Retention, Persistence, and Academic Success for our student population. One of our major roles is to work with first year students that end up on academic probation after their first semester (receive less than a 2.0 overall grade point average). My role is to coordinate our outreach and intervention strategy, and work with our campus partners to reach students.

Still with me? Anyone falling asleep yet?

Our first step was to make sure students on probation were seeing their academic advisor prior to the deadline to complete a success plan. In order to do that, we mobilized our live-in student staff to reach out to students and make sure they were aware of their status, and then try to determine what factors caused them to end up on academic probation in the first place. We could not have done this process without our student staff members, and they got us some great information.

What we ended up with was a spreadsheet with lots of information on it, and I wasn’t really sure what to do with it from there. Then I remembered a data sort method I used at Texas A&M involving ideas on index cards, and then grouping them by common themes to develop categories. I figured this was as good a method as any I could think of right now, and started organizing myself. We ended up having 66 respondents, so I took their reasons, and put them on cards. Some students had more than one reason they attributed their academic performance to, so I split them up and each unique idea got a separate card. When the cards settled, I ended up with 98 reasons this cohort of students ended up on probation.

At this point, I think it is important to know that my statistics class in graduate school was based mostly around how to manipulate SPSS, and involved a professor who wore cargo shorts and shiny shirts. The shorts and shirt are the most that I remember from that class, so even getting to this step was a major step for me.

From there, I read each reason (again), and started grouping them together by theme. After reading each one, I ended up with this:

18 different stacks of cards. Some of them were light, some were heavy. I decided to take a second look, and ended up combining some, and sorting a few more out. At the end, I finished with 14 different themes. From there, I labeled each one, and counted the frequency of each response. From the back of my mind, I seemed to remember something from my statistics class involving frequency, and showing it, and then the term histogram popped into my head.

“YES, I NEED A HISTOGRAM!! I WILL HISTOGRAM THE CRAP OUT OF THIS DATA!!!”

So that is what I did. I found some great information, and I will speculate about what it means, and what it can tell us in a later post, but wanted to share the process before the analysis afterwards today while it was still fresh in my mind. At the end, was it super involved, not really, but I do have to admit, I am pretty proud of getting this far. Now, the big step is what we do with it.

What methods are effective for you in sorting qualitative data? What would this data suggest to you?

PS: @lmendersby, I thought about writing the post, and then I did

It is “We Are”, not “He Is”

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I woke up this morning as I usually do, turned on my TV, and flipped between my news anchor girlfriend Robin Meade and Sports Center. When I got to the update of what happened in Happy Valley last night, I was appalled to see how a few students chose to express their unhappiness about Joe Pa’s treatment. The reporters in State College had the chance to talk to a few students, and their words upset me greatly. As I was in the shower, a phrase kept popping into my head, over and over again:

Being the face of an institution doesn’t give you more leniency, it holds you to a higher standard.

A few students were saying things like, “he did what he was legally required to do”, “we owe him more than this”, or the one that I will address specifically, “he made a mistake”. Joe Pa didn’t make a mistake; he made a decision to only do what was legally required of him, and left it at that. For a person that constantly demanded as close to perfection from his players, and challenged them to live ethical lives on and off the field, he did not follow that in this decision. He has himself admitted that he should have done more, and could have done more. And that decision led to a predator being able to walk free for an additional 8 years. That is the saddest part about this entire tragedy. As my friend Nikki Rudolph said in this post, that is the real issue here, that we cannot forget about.

Joe Pa is the face of Penn State, not just its sports, but to a large degree the entire institution. He is an ambassador to the institution every time he is shown on a Saturday afternoon leading his team on the field, or makes a statement to the press, or talks to a potential athlete. When people think of Joe Paterno, they think of Penn State, not just its Football team, and because of that, he needs to be someone that the institution would be proud to be associated with. I can say that if anyone worked for me that witnessed these horrendous acts, saw that nothing was being done, and was able to look at himself or herself in the mirror saying “I don’t know what happened, but I did what was legally required of me”, they would not be working for me for long.

In my opinion, the Board of Trustees made a tough decision, but they made the right one, and I would challenge people that are upset and outraged by this to ask yourself this question; Would you be as upset about this decision if it was any other person? I will not argue that Joe Pa did not do excellent things for the institution, I don’t think anyone will. However, the fact remains that as the public face of an institution, you are (or should be) held to a higher standard. You took on that responsibility when you became that face. I am reminded of the argument that Charles Barkley used to make saying that he didn’t ask to be a role model, and his behavior should not be held up on a pedestal, he is just a regular person. I don’t think that argument held water then, and I do not think it holds water now.

Penn State will continue to be a great institution of higher learning. Their football team will continue to have winning seasons. The chant will continue to be “We are… PENN STATE”, and I applaud the decision of the Board of Trustees. In this decision, they said that the reputation and respect of all of our current students, alumni, and fans all across the world is more important to us than any single person.

And please, throughout all of this, do not forget what the real tragedy is, and who the real villain is. It is not the Board of Trustees and their decision to get rid of Joe Pa, it is Jerry Sandusky and his immoral and illegal actions.

You want to conceal and carry what on campus?

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For those of you that don’t know, I am currently employed by Texas A&M University, which is, of course, in Texas. What some of you may not know is that Texas is one of a few states that is currently looking at a law allowing residents to carry concealed weapons, including handguns. It is being debated in the legislature as we speak. This will potentially mean that all residents over the age of 21 are eligible to go through a background check, qualify on a range, and go through a safety course which concludes with their ability to carry a weapon in college buildings. This is different from the current law, which allows students to carry them on the campus but not indoors. The new law would prevent them from being carried in bars and at sporting events (at least in its current iteration). There has been some interest in addressing the issue of guns being stored in residence hall rooms, but the final details of the bill are still being worked on.

A lot of people are talking about the safety of our students and what happens if there is an active shooter situation, in which the emergency responders are looking for anyone not in a uniform with a weapon. I understand all of these points, but for this post, I want to focus in a different direction. I want to talk about teaching civility, education, and discourse in a land where students carry guns.

First off, I am not the type of person who believes that if this bill passes, students are going to start shooting them into the air to celebrate getting an A on a test or resolve roommate conflicts by shooting one another in the foot. I do, however, think that adding a weapon into an equation changes the dynamic of a lot of things. For instance, do you think that the same level of disagreement will happen over one roommate being a night owl and the other being an early riser if one roommate has a gun on the desk? Violence isn’t inevitable, but can act as a deterrent to certain disagreements. What about heated issues in a classroom? Will those be able to happen with the hidden wonder if a student is armed? I would hope so, but am not positive.

The other thing that is worth considering is what about our student staff that has to confront situations? I am thinking about my RA staff, when they are on duty, they are often asked to address situations of alcohol, noise, or general shenanigans that occur in the building. How do we support them if they are walking into a room that may or may not have armed and drunk residents in it? Do we have police come in for all confrontations now, or do we train and arm the RA’s?

Overall, I think my main concern with this bill is the number of questions it leaves un-answered and the challenges it presents to student affairs administrators in writing policy and doing our job in an environment with armed students. Maybe we should be taking some extra time and exploring these questions before we jump in and try to learn on the fly, because in my opinion, trying to figure it out when the cost of a mistake is a student life is not worth it. If we do explore and come back to the same law, then at least we have taken the time to figure it out.

I would love to get some discourse going on this topic in the comments section. What are your opinions on the topic, and how do you think student affairs divisions should be responding to this?

It is My Honor…

One Quote to Define Us?

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“Dreams are what students are made of. If you want to predict the future, ask what students are dreaming” – Melvene Hardee

So the title of this blog may be a little strange, until you know the context. I think I shall dedicate this first blog to explaining that context.

Why is it that we seem like everything we do, our philosophy on life, work, love, etc., needs to boil down to one quote? When you do ice breakers in a group, one of the questions that is inevitably asked is, “What quote/lyrics/motto do you feel describes you and why?” With that mindset upon entering graduate school, I decided I had to pick one quote that summed up not only me, but my philosophy in working with students.

I was attending Florida State University (Go Noles), and the Higher Education Program there was founded by a woman named Melvene Hardee. For most of my first year, I simply looked at her as a person who had their picture in the office that the faculty used, and started this thing called the LifeNet, a way for alumni to stay informed about the program and the current students.

It wasn’t until the beginning of my second year when I heard the quote that would go on to define my professional work, which is seen at the beginning of this post. It was read simply, and could have been forgotten had something on that day touched me with it, and I realized that all I hope to inspire in students is dreams. Dreams of what their involvement can look like, of what their community will accomplish, of how their programs and initiatives can be bigger and better.

And then it hit me… I am in the business of making dreams come true (maybe I was Walt Disney in a prior life). My ability to directly affect the University I work at is limited to the number of students I can inspire to dream bigger. Be that in small groups, 1 on 1 meetings, advising, supervising, or just remembering a student’s name, every interaction is an opportunity to make a life better than it was prior to your involvement.

So while I have left the program and the institution that has direct connection to Dr. Hardee, I can take her message of inspiration to a new group. I guess you can say that I am trying to live through that, and create an environment where student dreams really do shape our future. While I never had the chance to meet Dr. Hardee face to face, I like to think she would approve of her message going to anyone who gets an e-mail from me.

So what are your students dreaming, and how can you help them be better than they think is possible?