Future of Work, Policies, Technologies
Colleagues who telecommute from northern California and Oregon are in town for a two-day visit starting today. I only see them in person two or three times a year now, though through technology, I can...
View ArticleDean of Student Affairs Technology – A Proposed Role
How come there are Dean of Academic Technology positions but not a Dean of Student Affairs Technology? This is a question that crosses my mind from time to time. According to Kevin Guidry’s research on...
View ArticleVictims, Villains and Helpless – The Stories We Tell Ourselves
We generate stories from things that happen to us which in turn drive our emotions. We than act based on our emotions. This is one of the lessons learned in a training I attended on “crucial...
View ArticleOne Small Step At a Time – Career Advice
It is quite daunting sometimes to think about how to accomplish our major personal and professional goals. I’ve fallen into the trap of thinking I could and should be able to reach goals that take...
View ArticleCompetency-Based Student Affairs Master’s Degree
What if there’s another way to earn a Student Affairs Master’s Degree not based on class time or credit but rather through demonstrated knowledge and skills? How about a combination of both? The...
View ArticlePreparing for a Career Yet to Be Invented
Even the most skilled and brightest futurists in the 1990′s could not have predicted the upcoming massive changes in the first decade of 2000 in higher education brought upon by consumer technologies...
View ArticleStudent Employees in IT and Learning Outcomes
Higher education IT departments’ indirectly support student learning, development outcomes, and student success by providing technical support to the departments. In addition, by employing students,...
View ArticleLearning Student Affairs Through IT
One of the benefits of working for a central student affairs IT department is that I get to work and learn about the different business processes of the different units within student affairs. I also...
View ArticleSelf-Reliance and Career Development
I have had several mentors and sponsors who have guided and advocated for me throughout my career. For this, I am very grateful. There is no way I would have advanced in my career without the help of...
View ArticleYear in Review – Professional/Memorable Moments of 2013-2014
Academic year 2013-2014 was a year filled with accomplishments and memorable events that impacted me professionally and personally. It was a year of connecting and working with new students, UCSB...
View ArticleTaking Some Time to Reflect and Dream
I have heard other folks say good ideas come when they’re in the shower. Could it be because that’s one of the few minutes within our busy days we actually get to think freely and not get distracted...
View ArticleLearning to Let Go – A Career Lesson on Over-Committing
One of the important lessons I have learned in my career is the value of sharing my responsibilities (and accolades) with others and being careful about taking on more duties than I am able to handle....
View ArticleUCSB STEP Program – Nourishment for My Soul
There’s not a week I look forward to in my job more than STEP Program, a summer bridge program for incoming first year, first generation, and under-represented students at UCSB. I have served as a...
View ArticleThe Power of Empathy In Student Affairs – My Personal Experience
The ability to understand and share the perspective of our students plays a very important role in how effective we are as student affairs professionals and educators in building relationships and...
View ArticleLack of Asian American Mentors/Advocates in Student Affairs
I’ve been fortunate to have mentors and advocates throughout my career in student affairs at UCSB. This post, by no means, diminishes my appreciation of those who have helped me along my career. There...
View ArticleMaking the Best Out of Opportunities
In my career, I have been told a few times that I wasn’t the first choice for a seat in a committee or for a role in my organization. I’ve been told I was given the position because there was either an...
View ArticleThe Significance of Possibility/Role Models
I attended a campus event to celebrate the retirement of UCSB Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Dr. Michael Young yesterday, January 23, 2015. Dr. Young will retire at the end of this month after 25...
View ArticleChanging Oneself Before Others
One important lesson I have learned in life, lesson learned from moments of frustrations, is that it’s probably easier for to me to change myself rather than changing others. As I wrote on this blog...
View ArticleNowhere I’d Rather Be Than in Student Affairs
It is during the most challenging times of my job when I find myself thinking how blessed I am to have my job in student affairs, specifically as an IT leader within student affairs. The sometimes...
View ArticleWhat Do You Want For Your Staff?
As managers, how often do we ask ourselves this question “what do I want for my staff?” Sometimes we focus so much on getting deadlines met and tasks to be completed that we fail to ask and consider...
View ArticleDon’t Forget the Big Picture
How we view our work may just make a difference in how engaged and motivated we are. There are portions of our jobs that we don’t particularly enjoy. Some are mundane and not very exciting at all....
View ArticleWhat Defines Student Affairs Professionals?
This question of “what defines student affairs professionals?” probably has an obvious answer and maybe I’m over-thinking it? This is what happens in the middle of late night when my mind wanders and...
View ArticleSix Ways to Build Confidence In the Workplace
I believe that as a manager/leader, one of our most important responsibilities is to build leaders and to build productive colleagues by providing them the environment to think for themselves and grow....
View ArticleOrganizational Health
Consider organizations as organisms consisting of living beings whose level of effectiveness and productivity rely on the health of those beings that are part of them. That organizations, specifically...
View ArticlePersonal Recap of Western Regional Career in Student Affairs Day (WRCSAD) 2015
I attended the Western Regional Career in Student Affairs Day at UCLA this last Saturday, Oct 17, with the UCSB’s NASPA Undergraduate Fellowship Program (NUFP) team. This was an opportunity for our...
View ArticleBe Mindful About “Conventional” Career Advice
I was speaking with a recent graduate who, after two years in the workforce, is exploring the possibility of going back to pursuing a Masters in Student Affairs and Higher Education. She was very...
View ArticleTechnology Responsibilities & Qualifications for Senior Student Affairs Officers
If technology is an essential component of today’s student affairs organizations, how is it that out of the 21 Chief Student Affairs Officers (CSAO) and Senior Student Affairs Officers (SSAO) positions...
View ArticleMy Professional Reading List 2015
Another year of professional growth and learning. As a significant of my time went to my MBA (IT Mgmt Specialization) course work in 2015, I was not able to devote as many hours to reading about other...
View ArticleBig Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG)
Setting big dreams is fun, isn’t it? My wife and I commute to work together and there are days when we talk about all the possibilities ahead of us. We figure it doesn’t cost us anything and if we’re...
View ArticleProductivity Ideas for Busy Managers
One of the difficulties for managers is how to simultaneously meet their responsibilities to 1) manage others, 2) attend seemingly endless meetings and 3) taking care of the work they must also do for...
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