CULTURE OF "BUSYNESS"

Recently I came across Joseph L. Murray's 2010 article When Involvement Becomes "Busyness" and I can't really get it off my mind. If you can take the time to read it now, please do, but if you cannot, to summarize:

The article discusses college professionals’ support for students to get involved and what repercussions this message has on our students. Student involvement theories have shown that student participation in activities, clubs, and other programs help students adapt to the university lifestyle quickly and often lead them to be more socially successful in the long run. However, Murray questions whether while faculty and staff are continuously encouraging students to get involved, are we overlooking other needs of our students, particularly spiritually? 

Murray’s team found that students increasingly felt the expectation to be successful, and in order to be successful, one must pack their schedules with a multitude of activities. Murray acknowledges that involvement is necessary, but if students are shuffling about from one meeting to the next, are they taking the time to satisfy deeper individual needs? Most importantly, as staff, are we making them aware that this is an important element of their growth and encouraging it? 

In his research, Murray found universities such as Harvard and Bucknell that had specific co-curricular activities to help create and facilitate conversations between students about deeper life questions they are contemplating. Murray also studied campuses to see what physical spaces had been carved out to allow and encourage students to meditate and reflect (some universities had created gardens, labyrinths, and other quiet havens for their students.)

I would concede that many of us involved in student affairs quite enjoy the "buzz" of the students, but every so often when the campus empties out, I find a certain inexplainable peace: a calmness of body and mind that allows me to recenter and refocus. For me, this article really has me evaluating my practices as a young student affairs professional. 

Personally speaking, I identified with the student in the article who felt there is an expectation to get involved. I am all for involvement, but I like to pace myself, balancing my time between myself and time with others – however, I often feel there is a pressure to join professional organizations and spend time with colleagues outside of the classroom or workspace. Of course I believe that building these relationships and support systems is important, but at the same time I struggle with sacrificing my own personal time and overcommitting to things I'm not fully invested in. At the center of it all, 24 hours is 24 hours - it can only be divided so many ways and once it's gone, it's gone.

If you do not already, I encourage you to think more critically about how you spend your time and the factors and influences that affect those decisions. Even while writing this I think "this is so common sense, how come I haven't thought about it before?" and I think it is precisely because I've allowed myself to get caught up in "busyness."

Going forward, I want to try to be more cognizant of the implicit or explicit pressures I may be placing on colleagues and student staff to become involved in certain organizations or attend certain events. I plan to analyze what opportunities I offer my staff: where can I build-in reflection time both for themselves and in a community setting? This article really set a light in me to support a culture that actively promotes a balance of action and reflection.

xoxo e

In 500 Words or Less: Review & Application

I got a class assignment to write a paper over either my graduate assistantship, a case study of a movie/book about higher education, or exploring a topic of interest in greater depth.

In researching possible films to watch, I stumbled upon a documentary I had never heard of: In 500 Words or Less. The sleeve reads

Going to college is a rite of passage for many American high school students, but the process can be overwhelming: college fairs, tours, SATs, applications. And then there's the personal essay. How does a seventeen-year-old define herself to total strangers when she's only beginning to discover who she really is? [...] In 500 Words or Less serves as a portrait of four of the nearly 1.5 million families who go through this process each year. While race, geography, and socio-economic status affected how they got here, their stories converge as they all juggle acceptance, rejection, decision-making, and letting go. 

During my undergrad work with first-year students, I focused on the struggles they would face when they got to the University. Maybe they would be homesick. Maybe they wouldn't be making as many new friends as they'd like, or maybe they wouldn't be getting as involved as they thought. Maybe school would be a little tougher (or easier) than they expected.

I hadn't really thought about how all these things could be the result of a decision in the college application process. I hadn't thought much about how many of them wind up at our metaphorical doorstep with lingering hesitation of 'was this the right choice?'.

Maybe for those who went through a similarly grueling process, these thoughts are more obvious. For me, they weren't. When it came to applying for college, I kind of just chose a school and applied to it, and to that one school only. Luckily I got in. I didn't grow up with a "dream school." I didn't have a dream major either. Because I was fortunate enough to get accepted, I never felt the sting of a rejection from a school and I never knew the discomfort of being wait-listed.

As a to-be student affairs professional, I think it is incredibly important to know where someone has been to know where they are going. In 500 Words or Less made me much more aware of a multitude of things freshmen face before they ever step foot on campus. The film is just a glimpse into four students' lives and the college process, and there are many other stories out there waiting to be heard.