#insidehighered

Professor Mark Bauerlein gave his thoughts on the recent election of Donald Trump as it pertains to higher education.  While guest lecturing, a student told Bauerlein that she was terrified by what might happen under a Trump administration.  When asked why she felt this way, a consensus was reached that the fear projected from the rhetoric Donald Trump used during his campaign.

In an interesting suggestion, Bauerlein tells of the Millennial culture and why so many are afraid of the new political regime.  For Millennials, political correctness is law.  Anyone striking against that is labeled a bad person and punished.  So, "when Trump says the things he says, millennials are darn certain that something awful is going to happen. A sexist remark that gets out in public means catastrophe. Vengeance must follow; the violator must be punished. But Trump hasn’t been punished. He’s committed a hate crime … and he's become the most powerful man in the world."  The difficulty in processing this has led to so much fear and hatred.  

Despite Trump's speeches, he has already tuned away from much of his more extreme campaign promises and is becoming more of a politician than many thought possible.  I believe Trump will be a competent President and we will see him run the country as many men have before him.  Time will tell what President Trump decides to promote and enforce, but everyone should know that in life, you don't always get what you want, or expect.  And that's ok.

Inside Higher Ed

A new collection of scholarly essays provide a glimpse of why diversity is needed in higher education. Scott Jaschik from Inside Higher Ed sat down with Earl Lewis, president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Nancy Cantor, chancellor of Rutgers University at Newark, to discuss the essential reason for diversity in higher ed.

With the recent events in our society and the numerous injustices taken place on college campuses, more and more minorities are feeling unwelcomed.  Here is a glimpse of the Q&A with Scott Jaschik with a few contributors from their scholarly essays:

To begin, I want to commend Colleen Flaherty on the fantastic article at Inside Higher Ed.  If you are a numbers junkie, then definitely head over and check it out.  A ton of interesting statistics on the growth of underrepresented groups and women in Higher education roles including adjunct, tenure, and years within the profession.

For this article, I won't go too indepth when it comes to stats.  The key pieces of information to note are that women have seen an increase in Higher Education jobs, currently holding almost 50% of faculty positions.  Although this is well and good, women are still lacking in higher, more prestigious roles such as tenured jobs.  The same issues can be found with underrepresented groups (African American, Hispanic American, and Native American), as they hold an estimated 13% of faculty positions, yet only 10% of tenured jobs.

“A few months ago, one or more anonymous students wrote a note to their law professor, complaining that she had been spotted at least once on campus wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt. The letter said wearing the shirt was "inappropriate" and "highly offensive." Further, it said "we do not spend three years of our lives and tens of thousands of dollars to be subjected to indoctrination or personal opinions of our professors," and urged the professor to avoid "mindless actions" that might distract students at a law school where not everyone is passing the bar.

This morning I awoke to an article from the lovely Allie Grasgreen in InsideHigherEd. I had not attended Mr. Greto's presentation, but I see his research as a call to action. The NASPA conference was filled with technology sessions that were all fantastic. Eric Stoller and Lisa Endersby did an amazing session on how to bring student affairs into the digital realm by being less punitive and more educational when dealing with electronic misconduct, and the Technology Knowledge Community hosted several social media centered events. So how does Mr. Greto's session fit with the Bold Without Boundaries conference theme? In my opinion, it doesn't.

For this session to be BOLD, it would need to move away from theory and research into practice. The research alone bolsters fear of the unknown, the digital age, the coming storm, change. Yes technology is changing the way we communicate; I have seen many groups out to dinner on their phones instead of interacting with one another. However, this technology allows me to post a blog entry from an Orlando hotel breakfast buffet, while readers all over the world can access my thoughts. Let's not waste our time and energy on the side of fear, and let's do something.

We could join the conversation. Instead of telling students to put away their phones, give them a hashtag so they can discuss the class on twitter. This may even be a great way to engage introverts. Students are already tweeting, now get them to tweet about your classes or services offered on campus. Respond to them on facebook and twitter when they @reply to your social media accounts. Reach out to them, and start conversations online.