Stumbling across this blog was stepping into a pool of nostalgia for a time that was more recent than it feels. Scrolling through the old posts of homemade gifs, random youtube videos, pics, graphics, and updates from around the community was an enjoyable trek down memory lane. It gave me a chance to smirk at our little endeavor of creating a digital community three years ago.
I’m glad that’s still here for random strangers, or residents, to stumble across. Hopefully it is a nice little break for those one or two sporadic digital tourists speckled throughout the stats board. I apologize to any residents of Auguste Rodin who were looking for something more substantial regarding our hall (psst, checkout the AAU Housing twitter/facebook accounts).
Technology and social media has been an odd realm for those in student affairs and higher education. The students are enmeshed in it with all but a few who are able to go on about their days without engaging in some portal or another. Many are carrying their multiple connections with them and squeeze checks-ins whenever they can with a quick glance at their phone. SA pros want to utilize these platforms to engage with the students, build a digital community, and help share information. The edge of the sword comes down when despite the vast interconnectedness of their online world, they do not want to be connected with, well, their school.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are programs and departments that are able to connect and build rapport with the current class. Some of them are quite successful at and they are the models we hold up to demonstrate that it can be done. The difficulty is climbing the hill to get there. It takes a group effort with a driver who knows where they are going with the social media bus and has then been able to acquire buy in from the team. They are the who the drive needs support from to help post, engage, and outreach online. After the twitter and facebook how-to trainings for the professional are complete, that is.
To add one last metaphor, it is pushing a rock up a hill but if you have the right people in place it is doable. In the case of this blog, we had a student staff and hall council who gave me their buy-in and started to create and post their own content for residents to view and consume. We never had overwhelming visitor stats but the residents knew it was there, non-staff members contributed to it, and overall it was a good bonding experience for those involved.
And maybe, just maybe, a student at one time or another possibly learned about the move-out date for the spring 2011 semester. A man can dream, can’t he?
Now if you found that less than thrilling here is my favorite youtube video.
Thanks for reading and if you actually did make it this far, come say hello @AAU_HousingAC
-Cullen, former Auguste Rodin Resident Director
p.s. I also really did like the theme and layout of this thing.
1055pine.wordpress.com 