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Eric Stoller's Thought Basket

Sometimes a blog is like a giant basket of thoughts. Today's post is really a combination of thoughts and ideas that have been bouncing around in my head (and onto Twitter). First and foremost, I need to share Chris Schmidt's lovely thought from Twitter. With so many negative tweets being shared across the 140 character-sphere, it's nice to see Chris' positivity shining through. I wish more senior student affairs officers would post stuff like this. No actual agenda or strategy...just a great thought to start the day:

Additionally, if you're in need of some positive tweets from students, look no further than the ones that are tagged with #iheartcoop from students at Northeastern University.

In my never-ending quest to know as much as I can about student affairs graduate program course offerings (so that I can write about them and share them with you, my awesome readers!), I tweeted this question:

I'm still waiting patiently for the community to answer this one... I'm hopeful that there are a lot of required technology courses in student affairs graduate programs. However, they seem to be mostly-optional / not given the same standing as the usual, core class requirements. It's cool...keep training Student Affairs graduate students for the jobs of 1997... And, in all fairness, I realize that some programs integrate technology as something woven throughout their curricula...or at least they say that they do.

Some of the PR pitches that I receive are just atrocious. Perhaps it is time for me to write another primer for PR folk about what this blog is all about in terms of audience, scope, topic, etc. I'm all about having a great conversation with a new vendor or an energetic startup. However, that first impression means a lot. Speaking of first impressions...

When I was working with staff at the University of Delaware last week, I spoke about the new paradigm that we work within when it comes to how we represent ourselves via social media. The traditional split between being "professional" and sharing our personal selves has largely evaporated during the past decade. On Facebook, college vice presidents can be engaging on the same status update as our parents, co-workers, students, neighbors, and high school classmates. It's a brand new world for blending what it means to be professional with some of the more personal aspects of our lives. Note that most of the time, the personal updates revolve around banal topics like the weather, our cats, going to the movies, and the number of chocolate chip cookies that we may or may not have consumed today.

Social media didn't create the attitudes, but it definitely created a space to amplify some horrid commentary from some members of the UIUC Community. If you haven't read Chancellor Wise's response, you should. Her essay is a great example of how to be a leader in the face of hateful, social media driven rhetoric.

The photograph at the beginning of this post was taken by yours truly at the Boston Public Library...while it's not a basket, it is a ring of lightbulbs. Maybe they are a metaphor for ideas, thoughts, ruminations... What's in your #thoughtbasket?

[Photo Credit]

 

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