Working (Too?) Hard

Ever heard one of your peers tell you how many hours they are working? How 'bout a student? Does someone you know, peer or student, view NOT taking vacation as a badge of honour? John Ibbitson's We work hard, they enjoy life may provide some insight into this phenomenon and I wonder if it contributes to the mental health trends we see as student affairs professionals.

Ibbitson profiles the time people take off, in the form of government mandated vacation days and statutory holidays, from several countries around the world. Here are countries he profiles and the number of days off citizens typically receive in that country:

• Brazil - 41
• Lithuania -41
• Ireland - 29
• Australia - 28
• USA - 25
• Canada - 19
• China - 21
• France - 40

This data, along with a listing many other countries, comes from the Employee statutory and public holiday entitlements - global comparisons, produced by the consulting firm Mercer.

Interestingly, Canada and the US are the lowest in the list of more than 40 countries around the world. I'm left wondering the impact this has on our health. Is it possible that our vacation ethic could partially explain the increasing number of mental health issues we face in our society? My instinct says yes. Do you agree? Either way making change won't be easy as this quote from Mercer's press release explains " “Public holidays tend to be rooted in local tradition or religious beliefs, so it can be difficult to change practices."

Many of us are now in the middle of student leader training or welcoming a new crop of students to our campus. This typically involves working long hours and forgoing time off like weekends. After reading this article, hopefully, you realize its ok to take a little time away. Others around the world do ;-)

Returning for more

'tis the season for student staff training. Last week I had a chance to spend an hour with the returning residence student staff on their first day of training. The returning student staff experience is different. These staff have experience, more advanced skills and they expect more. Harnessing these factors can kick start community development and enhance the experience of other students, especially new student staff.

To help guide the session I created this presentation using Prezi. My approach was to expand the traditional view of education to include a more holistic view. From their past involvement returners can appreciate that education is more than books and classrooms. Acknowledging this at the outset formed a foundation for our hour together and identifies what the returners already know or feel.

Making meaning of their past experience and outlining future actions was the goal in the second part.  The seven skills identified by Tilling & Fadel in 21st Century Skills, which they call the seven C's, provides this structure. Using some reflection and discussion time gave the returners an opportunity to map their experience to the 7 C's model so the returners could recognize areas of strength and areas needing development.

This year marks 20 years since I started university. To help relate to the returners I shared some pictures and yearbooks from my time as a student staff member in the session. Fortunately, I did not hear too many chuckles ;-)  Weaving my story into the session gave me a chance to apply personal examples to the model and show how one path, of a former returner, has played out. 

Students Going International

Student seeking out international study opportunities has grown steadily for more than three decades and signs would seem to indicate that the trend will continue for years to come.

Education at a Glance 2010, produced by OECD, contains two charts which show the steady upward trend of students from around the world seeking out opportunities to study outside of their native country. One chart shows that in 1975 about 800,000 students studied abroad and as of 2008 that number had grown to 3.3 million.

The next chart shows which countries attract the greatest number of international students. The USA, United Kingdom and Germany topped the list in both 2000 and in 2008.

It is interesting to note that the share of international students in the USA, United Kingdom and Germany is shrinking as more countries and institutions get into international student recruitment.  Ontario is one region that has taken an aggressive approach, as I noted in two earlier posts: Ontario Gov't Takes Action for International Students and The Competition for International Students Begins.

Life Changing Moments

You usually don't realize when a life changing moment is happening until well after the fact. In Milwaukee Wisconsin in the summer of 2005 I had one of those moments. It was at the ACUHO-I Annual Conference & Exposition (ACE), and Tracey Mason-Innes, who was the Canadian District Representative on the ACUHO-I executive board at the time, stopped to talk with me. She was one year into her two year term and she suggested I should consider running to succeed her.

At the time I was only a few weeks into being the OACUHO President and it had never occurred to me to serve on the ACUHO-I executive board. Fortunately, the seed Tracey planted with me began to grow and a year later I was the Canadian District Rep. Serving on the board has, without a doubt, been one of the most powerful professional experiences I have encountered in my career. Not only did I greatly expand my knowledge of student housing and my network of colleagues considerably, but I was able to participate in the tremendous growth that ACUHO-I has undergone recently.  In a little over five years ACUHO-I has been transformed into an association that has become a model for others.

Being actively involved in this transformation has made me a more effective professional.  The benefits have far outweighed any costs in time, energy and resources. To be recognized by my peers on top of what I have already received has been humbling. Last month at ACE in New Orleans I was fortunate to receive the Global Initiatives Award. Its quite an honour to be recognized by one's peers. Thanks Kate, Chad, Dima and Tracey for nominating me.

One common piece of advice we offer to students is to get involved. Join a club, a choir, a team or anything that will allow you to develop and get more out of going to college or university. I believe the same advice applies to being a professional, especially those who are newer professionals. Join a committee, run for a board, present at a conference or anything to develop and maximize your potential as a professional.

Lastly, for those of you who follow my blog I apologize for the gap since my last post. A wonderful new addition to my family has meant the time usually devoted to blogging has instead been spent changing diapers, making funny faces and melting at each and every smile :-)

Wepps' Weekly Wreads - March 5, 2011

Interview with CACUSS Executive Director - Jennifer Hamilton - studentaffairs.ca 

AACSB Urges B-Schools to Adapt to a Global World - Bloomberg BusinessWeek

The importance of student support services - Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance

Today's Students Need Leadership Training Like Never Before - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Parental education key determinant of who pursues higher education - Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario 

Wepps' Weekly Wreads - February 19, 2011

Inspired by Break Drink's Daily Dose I thought each week I would share some of my readings from the past week that are related to student affairs, student life and (Canadian) higher education. Here goes week one:

For profit residence to be built at U of T

Universities on the Brink

Canadian Klout. Top 10 Influential Canadian Schools

The Most Influential Colleges on Twitter (in the US)

An intriguing idea to improve access in Niagara

How to: Keep Up with Social Media News

"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers." - Harry S. Truman

Technology Enables Sharing with those Nearby

A few months back as I was wrestling with ways to better inform students about services available to them when I had an idea. No plan for how to make it happen mind you, but the idea seemed pretty cool.

Different thoughts were converging as I recall: The rise of mobile (smart) phones, students walking by services as they moved around campus and images of Minority Report. The vision that resulted from these random thoughts converging was that of messages popping up on a student's mobile phone as they walked by an office designed to support students. It was somewhat like the futuristic stores in Minority Report welcoming customer's by name after scanning their eyes... but less intrusive ;-)

Eric Stoller highlights in his latest blog post that this vision could become reality through emerging technology called Near Field Communication (NFC). Stoller highlights that "Information is exchanged/retrieved when an NFC-enabled device is placed next to another NFC-enabled object." Thankfully, their is no mention of eye scans! Check out his blog to find out more about NFC including ways the technology will directly support student affairs.

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