socialization

Last summer I posted an article about a short presentation I developed for first year students about the “keys to academic success.” This week I used the guide for the first time at SJSU, but revised it. Here is the new structure of advice to students:

1. Study Smarter: How you study changes; it’s all about quality, not quantity.
2. Time Management: There is a seismic shift from having a schedule planned for you to making your own schedule. Consider The Three T system:
   1. Triage: Determine priority of tasks
   2. Track: System for getting things done [a to-do list process; a great resource is rememberthemilk.com and its apps]
   3. Trace: Establish good habits and patterns
3. Navigation 1: General Networking. University is a bureaucracy, but there is navigation assistance. Talk with classmates. Talk with resident advisors. Use campus services, like the college advising centers.
4. Navigation 2: Professors. Learn how to decipher professors’ demands, and then select the best strategies to meet them. This is about studying smarter (point 1) and also being proactive: go talk to professors!

I also encourage students to read the book College Rules! How to Study, Survive, and Succeed in College [Sherrie Nist-Olejnik and Jodi Patrick Holschuh, authors. Ten Speed Press, 3^rd edition.] I begin to wrap up the presentation by reading the last paragraph in College Rules!:

“While in college, think about gaining the following skills – thinking critically, writing persuasively, problem solving effectively, and speaking convincingly. If you can develop these competencies over the next four (or five) years, you are ready to learn for a lifetime. These are also likely the skills that will help you land (and keep) your dream job.”

I then conclude by telling the students: “college is serious business, but enjoy it too. Have fun!”

Today I spoke with 8th grade students from the Upward Bound program of Tarrant County College (Fort Worth, TX). Thanks to SJSU Professor Wendy Ng for the action shots!

On July 6, 2015 I became Dean of the College of Social Sciences at San José State University. I’m writing this post at the end of my whirlwind first week. I expected many changes, such as having to learn a slew of new acronyms, and struggling to remember new names. Other items were unexpected, such as discovering that SJSU was featured in the San Jose Rose, White, and Blue parade [I learned this towards the end when the SJSU contingent came through, following a banner that announced that SJSU was the theme], and seeing very few African Americans on campus. A further note about diversity: although I love the wonderful mosaic of people here in San José — at the parade I discovered that a troup of Sikh Scouts exists here — it will take some getting used to having so few African Americans in the area; during an hour at today’s San Jose Obon festival, for example, in a crowd of hundreds I saw only three other African Americans. I’ll have to be on the lookout for larger pockets elsewhere…

In a past life I was an engineer. While getting my undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in the late 1980s at Georgia Tech I enjoyed my liberal arts classes much more thoroughly than my engineering classes. I know, that should have told me something back then…I analyzed those years as a component of my memoir. Today, though, I’m thinking about the importance of receiving a well-rounded education given all sorts of calls for a narrower focus on STEM education. Here on the UW-Parkside campus, for example, the building floors are labeled D1 and D2, and L1 – L3. I recently learned that the “D” in the D1 and D2 designation stands for “down.” It seems that while L1 is considered to be the main level with a busy pedestrian walkway, D1 is “down one floor,” and D2 is “down two floors.” That made perfect sense to designers and engineers in the 1960s, but maybe if they had consulted others they would have realized that this system is cumbersome. (“If D2 is down two floors, is L2 up two floors? Up 2 floors from L1? Wait, that would make it L3??”) Or maybe they should have been required to take more liberal arts classes…

This day next week will be my first day as Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Professional Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. While I’m very much looking forward to joining the ranks of full-time administrators, I can’t escape years of socialization about the perils of administration: last week I closed an email to a departing department chair with “enjoy your freedom!” I should have said something like “enjoy your summer break, but in the fall you will be emailing me about wanting your chairship back!” Yes, that’s wishful thinking, I know. Few faculty members fall in love with the processes of administrative life, such as the loss of control of one’s calendar. While I enjoyed going to many meetings as a department chair, they will ramp up exponentially as a dean…27 are already on the books for July (!). Maybe I should be telling myself to enjoy this last week in my primary role as a faculty member? No, I’m ready to get started!

A couple of days ago The Chronicle of Higher Education printed “The Good Goodbye,” an article about gracefully exiting an institution of higher education when one has accepted a job elsewhere. I’ll have to keep author David Perlmutter’s tips in mind when I return to the University of Minnesota next week for the last time to attend meetings. Most especially, I’ll need to remember that “parting shots reflect badly on you. If you have indeed chafed in your position, leaving is the best revenge. No need to add insults to your escape from injury.” While “chafed” is not the right word for my tenure as a department chair, I did have to make unpopular decisions that upset folks. The vast majority of my experiences were positive, however, so it’s easy for me to implement Perlmutter’s closing piece of advice: “whatever you feel about your present institution, you owe it a professional and minimally painful exit.” Indeed!

I am currently living in Charlotte, NC. My wife has a new job here, and I’m using a Spring 2013 release from teaching to work on research projects here before moving to Wisconsin in July to start my new position as a dean. I have been travelling to Minnesota at least once a month to meet with research collaborators and attend meetings for service obligations. On the April 10-12, 2013 trip a neighbor who knew about my Minneapolis-Charlotte dual household arrangement told me about a letter to the editor in the Minneapolis StarTribune, “Minnesota Not So Nice,” in which a recent transplant from Atlanta, GA (my home town!) concludes:

“Minnesota Polite?” Sure.
“Minnesota Reserved?” Definitely.
“Minnesota Standoffish?” Absolutely.
“Minnesota Nice?” Yeah, not so much.

Earlier in the piece the author notes, “I moved up here a year ago from Atlanta, where having a 20-minute conversation with strangers in line at the grocery store, waving at cars driving down your street and making newcomers feel welcome is an everyday occurrence.” He goes on to provide examples of “Minnesota Nice,” where Minnesotans are courteous but reserved, and slow to open up to newcomers.

My family moved to Atlanta from Raleigh, NC when I was two years old, and I lived there until I graduated from college (Georgia Tech) in 1990. From 1990 until 2012 I lived in the Midwest, in Indiana and Minnesota. Since my return to the South in December, 2012 I have discovered just how much of a Minnesotan I have become in 13 years (I moved there in August, 1999). I don’t like it when strangers come up to me in Charlotte stores to chat (for example, an older African American woman once stopped me in a Target: “Where are you from? You look like my godson! What’s your name?”), and when I go to the dry cleaners I pray that I get the surly but efficient cashier, and not the chatty guy who forgets to give me my receipt. The surly one must be from the Midwest.

Of course, “Minnesota Nice” can be used as a stereotype when it goes beyond existing evidence, but there are indeed regional cultural differences that one quickly discovers, as has the writer of the letter to the editor. Learning the nuances of these differences can ease a transition to a new environment. I’m looking forward to going back to the Midwest, and discovering unique aspects of life in Wisconsin. Maybe there is a “Wisconsin Nice”?