Blogs

My current fascination is the nature of online reading communities, which I hope will be the subject of my next sabbatical, assuming my proposal is accepted. So the sale of Goodreads to Amazon is naturally fascinating to me.

An embedded startup consists of a dedicated team working on a new business within a larger organization. The dedicated team is formed in a conscious effort to avoid mimicking the culture, organizational structure, norms, and assumptions of the larger organization.

As I was cleaning out the refrigerator the other day, I was reminded of Arlie Hochschild’s The Second Shift, which describes the extra burden of work that falls to women once they are at home. Then, it occurred to me that, because I was cleaning out the office refrigerator (who leaves vanilla frosting and a stick of margarine in a communal refrigerator anyway?), this work was a part of my first shift, even though it appears nowhere in my job description. This made me wonder whether women face not only extra work at home but also hidden tasks throughout their workday.

At the last meeting of my local school board, the chief topic of conversation was the proposal to become an International Baccalaureate diploma school which is a high school level program. The presentation was led by our high school principal and he was an articulate passionate advocate for moving in this direction. The community was very invested in this discussion focusing, as they should on both the benefits as well as the marginal cost of adding IB to the curriculum.

Creativity and innovation are in increasing demand as an engine for economic growth and solving major problems, including (preventing and) winning wars, curing disease, feeding a growing population, and finding sources of clean water. With new technologies, rising costs, uneven access and outdated business models, higher education is in need of a big dose of creative thinking.

When I agreed to speak about the "Future of Student Affairs" at Higher Ed Open Mic, I knew that I wanted to talk about three distinct topics: student affairs graduate programs, online-only students, and digital identity development. Those three areas are constantly pinging around my head. Attending multiple student affairs conferences and voraciously reading everything and anything that is related to higher education gives me ample cerebral material to digest and ponder.

Last week, I successfully defended my dissertation. (Yay!) It’s a huge milestone, and I am exhausted and happy and proud. But my degree isn’t quite finished yet. As much as I would like to just bask in good feelings and watch some cartoons, there are a number of tiny details to finish, from submitting the final dissertation to signing the right forms.

People who know me will have a hard time picturing this, but it’s true.