Conference Time: Day 3

Today’s sessions were pretty good. I went to a couple related to doctoral students, and even though the Vanderbilt program is designed for the development of practitioners, I’m still not ruling out the possibility of making the jump to some sort of faculty position later in my career. One session today actually inspired me to make some preparations for that while I am still in the Ed.D. program over the next 14 months.

If anyone has been reading my posts over the past two days hanging on my every word related to my conference experience, I want to leave you with one solid fact: the area surrounding National Harbor, MD, where this conference took place is a culinary black hole. Aside from my first meal here (possibly the best Mexican fare this side of SATCO), the food seemed to get progressively worse. You know it is a bad conference when the second and third best meals of the trip were from a sandwich shoppe and a hot dog from the hotel vending cart. I had fried chicken tonight at the hotel sports bar, which consisted of 4 wings, two thighs, and two pieces of questionable origin. It was like the chicken was brought in from the coop next to Chernobyl. I’m not exactly sure which one of my usual spots in Nashville will on the receiving end of a Lando-Chow-Down tomorrow night, but any place near the West End area better be ready, because Nashville is a gastronomical Mecca compared to D.C.

-Landon C. Clark

Trigger Finger Triggers Confusion

Someone at UCSD got a little trigger happy with the send button! All of the applicants for this coming school year were sent a congratulatory and welcoming email. Unfortunately, about 29,000 of those people should never have received that email. For the full story, click here.

Being rejected is bad enough. Being rejected after being accepted is awful. I have actually experienced that problem in my life. I auditioned for a music group. I got accepted, and then later, they found someone they liked better, so they sacked me. (Thus ended my music ambitions.) When Peabody accepted me, I was certain they had made a mistake. After all, Peabody was my “dreaming” school, you know, the one they talk about in the GRE prep book under “How to get into grad school”. Up until the first day of class, I kept waiting for the “I”m so sorry. We were actually expecting a McCray. Sorry about that. Buh-bye now.” Fortunately, such was not the case.

Hopefully all of these hopefuls have an alternative plan. Hopefully someone at UCSD will learn two skills I am still working on: 1) Get to know and use the draft box of your email. This allows you to write it out, inspect it later, and send it even later. 2) Always double-check the recipient field. In today’s fast-paced society, we are firing off emails as flippantly as off-the-cuff remarks. If we don’t learn to think first (refer to hint #1), we have to learn to check who we are talking to.

-Ted Murcray

Conference Time: Day Two

The second day of ACPA was pretty good. I started the day by getting up at 5:30am God’s time (CST) to attend a session at 7:30am (EST). I picked this session on purpose (why else would someone get up that early at a conference) because I thought it would be beneficial for me when I move into a position where I am asked to create some major administrative changes. What I found out was that I should have slept in and just gone back and reviewed some articles from Dr. Crowson’s class in Fall 2007. We did a small group for two case studies at the 7:30 session, and I can proudly proclaim that the Vanderbilt doctorate program has prepared me well for such tasks. There was another person in the group that is near the end of her/his doctoral program at an institution I shall not name, and I felt that my education at Vandy put me way ahead of this person in terms of looking at a case study from the lens of a practitioner. Kudos, Vanderbilt profs, for you have prepared us well!

The second session I attended was focused on the growing number of veterans that will be coming into higher education in the next few years as part of the new GI Bill. It was interesting, and I think that I got Teresa some good information for her upcoming paper for Dr. Loss’ class. The veteran stuff interests me, and I think it will continue to be a hot topic in the study of higher education.

I’ve decided to attend a couple of sessions tomorrow related to doctoral students, which I can now feel better about attending since this is the first conference I’ve attended since starting the Ed.D. program. I am especially looking forward to one session related to moving from practitioner to faculty, as I hope to someday teach in a Masters program somewhere.

The quest for affordable meals continues on, and after really trying to eat $23 worth of pasta for lunch at the hotel buffet and becoming sick all afternoon, I was happy to find an $8 sandwich at a local shoppe this evening. Sadly, the only two meals that I have had at the conference that were under $20 were also the two best meals that I’ve had.

-Landon C. Clark

Conference Time: Day 1

I am writing this from the 2009 ACPA Conference at the Gaylord National Resort in Washington, D.C. From my vantage point, I have a lovely view from my room of the top of some interior building with grass growing on the top of it. The conference hasn’t really started just yet, but my travelling group has found entertainment by setting out on a never-ending quest to find a restaurant within walking distance with quality entrees under $20. Thus far, we are failing miserably. Two members of my group are presenting tomorrow in the 11:45am-1:00 pm time slot, which is where “good presentations go to die” according to my director. I’m proud of them anyway, although I’ll probably be eating lunch at that time…for over $20.

Vanderbilt’s own Dr. John Braxton was on my flight to D.C. Since he’s one of the most well-known figures in student affairs and higher education, I take great pride in the fact that he is my adviser in the Ed.D. program at Vanderbilt. I was hoping that he might tell me the three questions that will be on our comps in May, but that didn’t work out. I still think it’s pretty cool that one of the most highly cited higher education authors knows who I am and says hello every time I see him. This kind of personal interaction is reason #167 why I love being in the Vanderbilt Ed.D. program.

I’ll try and give some more updates over the next couple of days regarding the educational sessions at the conference, as well as whether or not we find some reasonably priced food.

-Landon C. Clark

VU Alerts Helpful

Pittsburgh has blizzards; Nashville has tornado warnings. Yesterday I participated in my fourth real tornado warning in the past three years. Three occurred within the last 13 months, and two of those on the same day. For one I was at work, but the other three I was at home, which is just another college campus. I never actually encountered tornadoes on any of the aforementioned occasions, rest assured.

Last evening as I sat, in one of two chairs in the first-floor hallway, surrounded by freshman guys, I received several alerts on my trusty iPhone. Working, living, and going to school at three different universities provides plenty of tornado warning correspondence. Vanderbilt did an excellent job of not only calling my cell phone to let me know a tornado warning was in effect but also calling me again later after the threat had ended. Vanderbilt also emailed me about the warning and again when our area was out of harm’s way.

I have never actually experienced a tornado, and with the help of campus alert systems, feel more confident that if I ever do I will be in a safe place. The wind, clouds, and rain can paint a scary picture, but  after the warning ended last night, a bright ray of sun beamed into my building like a sign that danger had passed. The residents emerged from the hallway glad to get some fresh air and go back to their pre-warning lives.

-Teresa Bagamery Clark

The RA Boom

My wife sent me this article this morning about the increases in the number of RA applicants many institutions are seeing as a result of the failing economy. As a residence life professional, I’ve seen this firsthand over the last few months, so the article was of little surprise.

My institution just finished up our RA Selection Process this past Monday. We had about 115 applicants for only 25 positions, so it was a long and drawn out ordeal. For the most part, the applicants seemed to be genuinely interested in the RA job for reasons other than the free room, contrary to the students in the article. However, as my director has taught me, never count out someone that wants to be an RA because it helps with the cost of college, as these students can sometimes be more highly motivated to work hard in order to keep the job and benefits.

I’m glad to see residence life getting some good press. Only time will tell how much the current economic climate will impact higher education as a whole, but we are already seeing more and more students looking towards RA positions as a way to help supplement their college payment plans…and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

-Landon C. Clark

Goal 2025

The Lumina Foundation, which funds projects aimed at expanding access and promoting success in higher education, has announced their goal to increase the numberof Americans who have completed either an associate’s or bachelor’s degree from 39% to 60% by 2025. It is amazing to think that only slightly more than one-third of Americans have completed their degree. This reminds of of a topic my class spent a lot of time discussing in Dr. Flores’ course this semester- completion. College is not just about access, although that is a key factor, it is also about completion, or actually graduating with a college degree. By 2025, I hope we can get to at least 60% if not more, after all, that is 16 years from now. Let’s do it!

-Teresa Bagamery Clark

The not-so-scary thesis

I have arrived at the point in grad school where my research idea is now becoming more than an idea and starting to materialize into experimental processes and hypotheses. The idea of writing a thesis while I was in school, working, and working at an internship seemed really overwhelming in the beginning. Peabody sets the process up quite nicely, and the transition from ideas into a working thesis has been surprisingly achievable. I have tons more to do on the project, but the steps are very manageable. If you are considering a thesis as a graduation option, I highly suggest it. Peabody faculty is extremely helpful, and it’s actually a lot of fun.

-Kristina DePue

NCLB Renewed Through Stimulus

For years I have been saying that NCLB, long reviled by one political party, was a bipartisan law that would not be going anywhere, no matter who is elected after President Bush.  Many friends and colleagues in the teacher rank and file insisted that once a democrat was elected as president, we would see the end of No Child Left Behind.

Well, here is the stimulus package.  EdWeek reports that “The stimulus measure’s provision on equitable distribution of teachers is identical to language in the federal No Child Left Behind Act that requires states to put plans in place to ensure that poor and minority students aren’t taught disproportionately by out-of-field, inexperienced, or unqualified teachers.”  Did you see that?  ”Identical to language in the federal No Child Left Behind Act.”

You say, oh, stop, Ted, that’s just one part.  True.  Read on.  ”If the teacher-distribution provision is old news, the language on teacher effectiveness in the stimulus legislation marks the first such requirement for every state.”  Did you just read what I did?  It says that there is an additional requirement to those in No Child Left Behind.  No, my friends, you are not seeing the end of No Child Left Behind.  You are seeing the expansion of its requirements.  

I am not saying this is a bad thing.  I have been a proponent of No Child Left Behind because I think it clarifies expectations for schools and school systems.  Let me note that it has not clarified expectations, simply that it is in the process of clarifying.  We still have a long way to go before we agree on the purposes and measurements of public education.  

However, for the time being, I am simply basking in the glow of being right.  It may be petty, but it feels good.

-Ted Murcray

Audacity of Hope or Expectation

An older post here on Peabloggy caught my attention this weekend.  In her blog, Ms. Oparah talks about how she learned to distinguish hope from expectation through attending AA meetings.  Expectations came out to be specific, well-constructed ideas of what will happen as opposed to the broad-based “letting go” of hope.  Expectations have no wiggle room, she says, whereas hope does.

I bring this up in light of President Obama’s messages of hope spread far and wide during both his campaign and subsequent honeymoon period in office.  In this op-ed piece, Michael Goodwin talks about seeming failures in the White House.  He mentions that Warren Buffet called the Obama administration’s message on the economy “muddled” along with other concerns.  

It occurs to me that during the campaign and up to today, many members of our great country could have spent good time reading Peabloggy.  After all, it appears that while Obama was talking about “hope”, quite a few of us were hearing “expectations”.

-Ted Murcray