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Monday April 2 came and went. I was completely blown away by the response. According to the analytics I took on Tuesday morning, 460 academics took part, contributing 1495 tweets and sharing 255 links. The numbers l linked to here are a little different as it is still collecting tweets. When I looked at the archive of the tweets themselves, I noticed something, however: I was missing Tweets.
Because the response was larger than I had anticipated (and because I’m still getting the hang of archiving tweets), I was missing between 150-200 tweets, which I ended up archiving here on Storify. I chronicled my day on my blog, while others left a description of their day on my original post, Dean Dad’s post, and my post from Monday. I imagine that the contribution from a Huffington Post College blogger boosted our profile (or at least eyeballs on my original post),
The most touching post, for me, was the mention of the day (and this blog) on Remaking the University. I have long admired the writing and work they have done, particularly in California, advocating for public higher education. As I was watching the number of #dayofhighered tweets explode in my Twitter timeline, I read this post, and it hit me: the day was going to be a success.
I am sorry that I haven’t gone through and read everyone’s posts, and I invite everyone to browse the archives and read at least one. We have examples from graduate students, adjuncts, librarians, #altac, administrators, and everyone in between. Many of the tweets basically read, I’m too busy to tweet my #dayofhighered! Which is fine. I appreciate that those who did tweet that took 30 seconds to do it anyway.
Now, the criticism. Anastasia Salter does a great job going through the critical tweets and comments. It is a bit of slacktivism and preaching to the choir. And it will only make a difference if we, collectively and as individuals, do something with this. I have to find some time to think about what it is I’m going to do with this. I’ve been so busy…I have two book manuscript deadlines looming, my teaching is winding down, as is the mentoring, but I’m also gearing up for a busy summer of conferences and professional development.
I have to find time to figure out what to do with it. I think that it is a part of my job, of all of our jobs, to advocate for the role that higher education plays, how important it is, and that we do provide “value-added” services. It isn’t just a selfish drive, either. I want to do this for my children, so that they will have the option and the access to attend college. I also think of the kids in our service area. They deserve affordable quality higher education, not the automated, depersonalized, but cheap and efficient substitute being promoted.
So, I spend my nights thinking about what I can do. I hope you take a few minutes a day to think about it, too. Because if Monday showed us anything, we are a large and powerful voice, waiting and wanting to be heard.
