Emergency Alerts on Campus

Tools for Emergency Alerts on Campus -

From Ted J. Broussard, M.A., Interim Associate Vice President of Student Affairs, Dean of Student Success & Retention at Clark College in VAncouver, WA:

Clark College has implemented the Flash Alert system to communicate information about closings due to inclement weather or other emergencies. FlashAlert.net is a Web site where the public, including students, parents, employees, and others may self-register up to five e-mail and cell phone text message addresses. Those who register will receive the college’s information at the same time as the news media. There is no charge to the public for this service. Although messages are launched immediately, an individual cellphone carrier or ISP may delay or even delete e-mails or text messages due to spam filtering or for other technical reasons.

This system is basically the same one used by radio and TV stations in our area to share emergency information. We have used it to date for school closings due to weather and we have over 1,200 subscribers to the Clark system.

And http://www.nixle.com/
Nixle is a free service that allows you to receive trusted, up-to-the-minute, neighborhood information for where you live, work, visit - or for where your family and friends are located throughout the country.

Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools

Here is everything you could every want in the way of Web 2.0 tools for you and your students. Created originally for K-12, it has lots of tools that were made for adults - most are free.

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/

All About Online Student Services

Here is a BEAUTIFUL website http://www.onlinestudentsupport.org/Monograph/ - all about online student services - a best practices monograph, the site offers all of these topic areas:

Introduction
ADA Support
Admissions
Advising
Career Planning
Communication Center
Counseling
First Generation
Freshman Orientation
Health & Wellness
Library
Online Orientation
Rural Students
Student Center
Student News
Student Readiness
Technical Support
Testing
Website Planning

Have lots of fun. Rich and Juicy.

We Need Them and They Need Us

THIS WAS DELIVERED TO MY EMAIL THIS AFTERNOON - Do you know what a "gold mine" this info is....??

"The ten most widely read articles from last year’s online edition of EDUCAUSE Review focused on open education, Web 2.0, virtual worlds, e-books, digital libraries, analytics, and the top issues facing higher education IT.

In case you missed them in 2008:

Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0
JOHN SEELY BROWN AND RICHARD P. ADLER

Top-Ten IT Issues, 2008
DEBRA H. ALLISON, PETER B. DEBLOIS, AND THE 2008 EDUCAUSE CURRENT ISSUES COMMITTEE

Web 2.0 Storytelling: Emergence of a New Genre
BRYAN ALEXANDER AND ALAN LEVINE

Virtual Worlds? "Outlook Good"
AJ KELTON ("AJ BROOKS")

E-Books in Higher Education: Nearing the End of the Era of Hype?
MARK R. NELSON

Architectures for Collaboration: Roles and Expectations for Digital Libraries
PETER BRANTLEY

A Seismic Shift in Epistemology
CHRIS DEDE

Action Analytics: Measuring and Improving Performance That Matters in Higher Education
DONALD NORRIS, LINDA BAER, JOAN LEONARD, LOUIS PUGLIESE, AND PAUL LEFRERE

Facebook 2.0
TRACY MITRANO

Higher Education as Virtual Conversation
SARAH ROBBINS-BELL ("INTELLAGIRL TULLY")"

These folks are some of the top in their respective fields and their telling us what the most read topics are/were for 2008. I think Student Services folks need to pay attention to these topics as a part of the integrating schema that will be or is affecting your campuses and will or is affect your campus student services. We are no longer in an economy where can we participate in just "our" area of expertise - student services. The business is changing. We need them and they need us - as in the IT folks, the virtual learning folks, the open source folks, the open textbook folks, the web 2.0 faculty, the web analytics assessment folks. That's the future.

Watch Change to Learn, Learn to Change. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHiby3m_RyM

Student Leadership for Global Citizenship

I have been in Multicultural Student Services jobs, a ba-zillion diversity trainings and institutional budget wars over what was the "right" thing to do, etc., etc. for a very, very long time. I have raised 3 Native American children in a diverse world and in ethnically homogeneous communities. So what I am about to say made even me question some basic social justice hallowed thought about how we teach students about who they are and the history of where they come. Social justice ideas that we have been holding onto in this country since the civil rights movement.

Here it is - "I DON'T THINK WE ARE DOING ANY STUDENTS ANY FAVORS BY TEACHING THEM ABOUT THEIR HISTORY IN THIS COUNTRY IF ALL IT DOES IS MAKE THEM ANGRY AND ONCE ANGRY THEY END UP GOING TO JAIL OR END UP DEAD!" We have to give them options past the "your people have been messed with dude" to "I can truly show you how to make a real difference in this world for YOUR people (including yourself, your family and your communities) and for all others!"

And that is what I saw visiting Bellevue Community College Student Leadership Programs. Faisal Jaswal, Assistant Dean of Student Programs, has an amazing thing going on over there. They are training real leaders in real business leadership principles of competition, communication, and compassion for world citizenship through their student clubs processes and project management. He's got the faculty on board. The president asked him to come up with it, so supports it. And he has all kinds of student ENGAGED.

Watch this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUdy7ADZd9E Bellevue has figured out how to make it possible that all of their students can visit another country regardless of ability to pay. And all students need to understand how to interact in a global world because of pervasive technology and because tribal corporations, Black businesses, Hispanic 500s now have investments all over the world.

Here are just a few of the fantastic things I see Bellevue doing:

Students recognize that the world is dynamic, fragmented, and saturated with ever-shifting information, capital, social and environmental struggles,

Students have the ability to apply knowledge and multiple skills to complex problems faced by individuals and groups in an interdependent world community.

Bellevue's Student Leadership programming really does do the following...


Developing Global Learning by Doing through Projects that the Students Create:
The capacity for individual empathy, civic and ethical responsibility,
The ability to live well among complexity,
The ability to identity and solve complex problems,
An understanding of social structures and systems in the US and elsewhere from differing points of view,
An appreciation, understanding and engagement of the values of world-based, participatory democracy.

ALL Students Clubs offer comprehensive:
Leadership training for students is cohesive and centralized, with over-arching mission and values towards global citizenship,

Clubs partner to assist and learn from each other about global citizenship,

Clubs partner provide service learning to the entire student body to assist global understanding,

Student leadership prepares students for project management in a global economy.

And finally, Bellevue CC Student Leadership even put out quarterly reports - see http://bellevuecollege.edu/stupro/pdf_doc/asg_offical_summer_quater_report_executive_summary_2007-2008.doc

Why Millennials Matter??

By now we have all heard about the new Generation Y'sters born roughly between 1977 and 1995 and affectionately called Millennials. (Addtionally names Gen Y, Generation Why, Adultolescents, Echo Boomers, Generation Next, Gen I (Generation Internet), Generation Tech.) So what...we all know them and can site the know facts about them. Like our pop stats (based on figures from the U.S. Census Bureau) are # Baby boomers at 73 million, # of Gen X at 49 million and # Millennials a whopping 80 million. So they do have power just by their sheer numbers. And if you are a boomer you saw how that worked...to change the entire culture of a country and then a world.

From BNET - BUsiness Network http://www.bnet.com/2403-13059_23-201716.html
with my embellishments

The generation of workers born roughly between 1977 and 1995, known as Millennials or Generation Y, represents the biggest shift in the U.S. workforce since the baby boomers came of age. Eighty-million strong, they will soon account for the majority of American workers, especially as boomers start to retire.

Workplace experts say they’re unlike previous generations, and that’s forcing a cultural shift on companies and managers. According to Stan Smith, a national director for human resources at accounting giant Deloitte, Millennials are team-oriented, eager to tackle huge challenges, and quite particular about their leaders. “They won’t do something just because you say, ‘I’m the manager,’” Smith says. “On the other hand, they’ll work hard for someone who truly mentors them.”

Why Millennials Matter Now

We’re on the brink of a pronounced talent shortage as the baby boom generation nears retirement. (According to the Conference Board, 64 million skilled workers will be eligible to hang up their gloves by the end of this decade.) In the coming years, both Gen Xers and Millennials will be called upon to help fill the big shoes left by exiting boomers.

The effects of this imminent brain drain already are apparent across the labor spectrum. California police departments now host boot camps for 12-year-olds in the hopes of grooming future officers, while Deloitte is publishing books and launching interactive websites in attempts to woo high-school-age Millennials. Despite the current recession, college recruiters and HR staffs talk about the “seller’s market” that companies face. Until recently, many Millennials collected multiple job offers before making decisions, and experts see the trend returning when the economy perks up. One Manhattan-based national consulting firm has even sworn off “exploding” job offers, those that squeeze applicants with tight deadlines to either accept or decline a position.

Why Millennials Matter to You in Student Services

Sure, you’re going to need millennials simply to put butts in classroom seats, online or onground. But these folks are also change agents who may force your staff and instructors to rethink and improve your college methods of recruiting, instruction, and college management — the lifeblood elements of your institution. They’re accustomed to working away from their desks, using everything from library computers to smartphones and laptops.

They received intense and individualized mentoring from teachers and coaches, and they were never told that their elders should intimidate them. “The world is a flat hierarchy to these kids,” says Peter Johnson, director of admissions at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. “Whether you think it’s a good or bad thing doesn’t really matter. It’s a market condition.”

Millennials’ Strong Points

According to Lynne Lancaster, a consultant on generational issues in the workplace, Millennials were the first generation to grow up with soccer moms, doting dads, and trophies for participation. All that adult attention gave them confidence and a knack for following directions. In addition, says Lancaster, many Millennials’ lives have been heavily scheduled since childhood, so they understand achievement and heavy workloads. And growing up with PCs has contributed to their comfort with technology and social networking. “There definitely are the speed processors among them,” says David Morrison, who runs Twentysomething, a consulting and marketing firm focusing on young adults. “They’re quick learners and quick to put together information. In that way, they’re an incredible asset to any team.”

Millennials are nicknamed Generation Why for a reason. Experts say they're like living, breathing search engines, asking question after question. This gives company and college mentors a huge opportunity to shape Millennials’ workplace beliefs and attitudes.

Millennials also are motivated by work they find meaningful. For some, that means the chance to give back through a company-sponsored charity. For others, it’s finding value in the daily work you give them. “Philanthropy doesn’t resonate with me,” says 24-year-old Dan Siroker, an associate product manager at Google. “What motivates me is working on products that I think help people’s lives.”

And to me that's why they matter...their mass motivations are already making a real difference in this world. It our job to help them as much much as possible by stepping up and being the best mentors we have ever been.

SRM?CRM - Customer Services and Student Lifecycles Processes Require Tough Business Practice Changes

We have a number of Washington colleges using Customer Relationship Management Tools. They are:

Bellevue College - iModules
Cascadia College - Microsoft Dynamics
Columbia Basin College - AZORUS
Everett Community College - AZORUS
Lower Columia College - AZORUS
Peninsula College - AZORUS
Tacoma Community College - AZORUS

Each college is working hard to use their vendor-based product for increased productivity and increased student relationship information management, as-well-as increased retention and completion rates. But a number of college have found that adding a CRM also causes student services business practices and staffing to be rethought. This can be a massive amount of change all at once, that can seem overwhelming.

Sister colleges are collaborating by sharing experiences of both the installation and ongoing business model reconfigurations that the new software seems to beckon.

For many, it is an entire shift in thinking and some have wondered if the old pen and paper methods aren't easier and less costly...especially for small colleges.

But what happens when a system-wide license might be purchased? And at no additional cost to the colleges except for a one-time installation set-up fee. And how will this come into play with WA State facing a 5.2 deficit in state funding in a state that requires a balanced budget? And how does this push-and-pull work with a high need to serve students better (read more personally) and more efficiently, both in terms of costs and staff time? If it does force us to reconfigure, might that reconfiguration be around all new student-centered business practices that a system-wide CRM would require?

I found 2 articles (below) by Linda Briggs that speak to "Implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) solution can require "difficult or even painful behavioral challenges" for administrators in higher education, according to Nicole Engelbert, a lead analyst with research and analysis firm Datamonitor. "It means re-orienting yourself to your students. That can be tough, so you need to be ready for that.""

I hope that they are helpful to you as you investigate CRM.

10/2/2008, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=68117

11/20/2008, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=69332