One Small Degree for Man, One Giant Perk for Mankind

My high school tried to talk me into going to college by telling me how much more money I could make with a degree. The report that proves them right has updated and released. Education Pays 2007 (pdf) emphasizes the benefits of higher education to both the individual and society. Pages 9 through 20 will show you that college graduates are still earning more money and have better benefits. Unfortunately minorities and women are still not getting paid what they deserve, but that is another topic.

What I think we should talk about more is pages 21 through 28. These are the benefits that are not associated with money. For example, people with higher education are more likely to vote, donate blood, and volunteer their time. The children of graduates are more likely to be able to count to 20 and write their name by the age of 5. They are also more likely to participate in after school activities. Not just the mathletes, sports and religious activities are more likely as well.

If the money is what you really want to focus on, things are still pretty good. College graduates have lower unemployment rates, and since their are getting paid more, they are paying more taxes. Having more successful college graduates is just smart economically. That's why we need to start investing more time, energy, and money to making degrees affordable and attainable. In 2004 graduates were taking an average of 11 years to pay off their debt, and the cost of college has done nothing but rise since then. I realize that it costs more for everyone that is contributing, but we can let the students pick up this much slack.

"It has nothing to do with homophobia."

The alumni news letter of American University printed the announcement that Ross Weil and Brett Royce have gotten married and that Ross has been named chief operating officer of the Gay Rights Brigade. Unfortunately, it is not true and was submitted to the magazine as a prank. Now the university is facing a $1.5 million lawsuit for defamation. I'll admit that the 'gay rights brigade' is pretty suspect and should have raised some warning flags, but to claim that the university was being malicious seems over the top. As an active member of my alumni association, I can sympathize with American Magazine. We are constantly seeking updates and contact information for alumni, and regularly trusting that the information we have been given is accurate. However, libel and poor fact checking are two different issues.

It seems to me that in order to call this defamation (even unintentional) you have to prove that being called homosexual can tarnish your reputation. How can you do that and at the same time claim that, "It has nothing to do with homophobia?" It may not be about the clients homophobia, but if it isn't then it is about their fear of homophobs. Somebody's homophobia has to be a factor. Reputation is a finicky thing that can't be destroyed by one person. That person needs an audience. So the question becomes, what kind of power do the alumni of American University have over Ross Weil and Brett Royce that the perception of the two of them as gay causes $1.5 million dollars in damage.

I have to start somewhere

My first assignment in Budgeting is to develop the budget for the financial aid office of the fictional Smith University. I thought it was not too daunting of an assignment. I've made budgets before and I think I generally understand the goals and purposes of budgets. Then I was told that I was not allowed to do any research. When I say I've made budgets, I am of course talking about personal budgets for myself. The only bills I had were my car payment and my cell phone. It wasn't so much a budget as it was determining how much I could spend at Barnes and Noble every month. I have no idea what expenditures a university office has, or how much those things cost. There were two results from my assignment. First, it showed my professor how much I knew. In the process, it showed me how much I didn't know.

Here it is, my first budget:

Smith University
Financial Aid Office
2008 Budget
			Amount
Salaries		70%	$507,500
	Classified
	NonClassified
	Student Help
Staff Development		8%	$58,000
	Training
	Travel
Equipment		8%	$58,000
	Maintenance
	Software
	Upgrades
Supplies		6%	$43,500
Telephone		1%	$7,250
	Long Distance Charges
	Cellular Phones
Promotion		7%	$50,750
	Printing
	Mailing
Total			$725,000

I failed to budget for any fringe benefits for my employees. I suppose I'll have a high turnover rate when they all realize that they don't have any health insurance. I made some other mistakes too, but that is really the one I feel the worst about. Fortunately, I will turn in a revised budget after I do some research, and meet with my campus' financial aid director.

The Clothes Don't Make the Man

I've already commented on my peers and how they act at work, and I can assure you that putting them in khakis and a polo shirt doesn't make them professional. Personally I find it very easy to act lady-like when I am wearing the rib crunching, spine straightening apparatus that is often required for lady-like attire. When I am in a skirt I feel more presentable, and I am more conscious of how I am carrying myself. My professional clothes act as a regular reminder of who I am representing and how I am acting. This is because I like jeans, t-shirts, sports bras, and tennis shoes. I'm not always or necessarily uncomfortable in my professional clothes, but they are different. That difference is what works as a reminder.

I don't think nice clothes work as a reminder for our people the same way they do for me. Students are now dressing like this. If I was regularly in a mini skirt, my work slacks would be extremely comfortable. I think that if I was teaching, I wouldn't mind students showing up to class in their pajamas. Of course I'd want them to be attentive, but that is something I care about no matter what they are wearing. Pajama pants with pink flying elephants on them are novel and would probably get attention when they enter the class room, but a mini skirt and a low cut top is sexual and can be distracting for the entire period. I would rather they be in pajamas and learning instead of dressed nice and hooking up. This isn't meant to be a defense of all pajama pant wearers on all campuses. If you are unshowered and half asleep, that is disrespectful. If you focus better when you are comfortable, that is fine by me.

Despite my personal willingness to let students dress casual for class, I really like Paul Quinn College's new dress code policy. Having a university wide (or even program wide in the case of my Masters program) dress code means much more than a personal pet peeve of of pajamaed students. The change in clothes isn't going to bring about a magical change in student behavior. If it is enforced, it will become a physical representation of college's values and mission. It will be an indicator of what their goals are for their students and campus visitors will be able to see what they prioritize. Eventually, it would ideally work to only attract students and staff who have similar goals and values, but it wouldn't work to 'weed out' people. I think the dress code will do a great job of showing outsiders what this campus promotes. Clothes don't make the man, but they do make first impressions.

Edit: If you are interested, here is a story about the Illinois State Marketing Department and their new Dress Code.

For the Love of Freud...

I've noticed that every time Freud comes up in discussion some one rolls their eyes and comments on how everything with Freud is about sex and your mother. Then he is just negatively dismissed as if that is all there is to say about him. Why is it so cool to be so dismissive of Freud? I don't agree with everything he says, but I do think he deserves more credit than he seems to be getting. If I was going to fit Freud in a nutshell, I probably wouldn't mention his mother or sex. I would probably sum him up with the iceberg. I think Freud got some stuff wrong, but why the lack of respect for what he got right? Columbus didn't land in India, but nobody is holding that against him.

Psychology was not around before Freud. Psychoanalysis did not exist. He was a medical doctor who thought that our dreams could give us insight to our emotional and social problems. His concepts of unconscious and repression are now ingrained in our culture. I think that is pretty impressive. He is not the last person to say that we stop development at an early age. In my opinion if he had spent some time working with and observing children, he would have gotten even more right. Is it because of the penis envy? Is it because we just don't like people focusing on the taboo? Why do we roll our eyes at Freud?

The Fall Lineup

I am excited about this semester. This semester isn't really any more or less exciting than the other semesters of my graduate program, but I have two specific reasons why this semester merits blogging. First, quite simply, I've been trying to blog more. Second, I am expecting several assignments to be blogged from this semester, so I thought you should have a heads up.

Counseling Theories-- I am actually a little giddy about this class. I like theory classes, and I like this professor. This is the first class I've had with him, but he did come with us to Europe so we already have a relationship. He has already read to us from Alice in Wonderland, and if you are ever interested I'll explain to you the Dodo Verdict. This is also the class I expect to be blogging assignments from. We have several guided reflections assigned throughout the semester to help us understand our opinions on psychotherapy. The final reason that I am excited is because when I was looking at graduate programs, psychology and counseling was an area that I was heavily looking into. In the end I felt I wasn't prepared for it. Public Relations has given me information that I have used repeatedly in my program, but I think it would have left me lacking in psychology. Hopefully from this class I can either set aside those regrets, or discover my calling.

Budgeting-- I'll admit it does not actually sound like the most interesting class. There is so much that I am going to learn from it though. Top on my list is understanding the university budget. I think that I already have the basics of budgeting down, and a comfort working with numbers. What I am looking forward to is the from practice advice of my professor and our guest speakers. I can break a budget down to income and expenses, but I don't have a true understanding of how that money flows within education. I will be learning a lot in this class.

Grant Writing-- This class is going to be a little different for me. I work in our university's Sponsored Programs Office, so I will hopefully already know most of what will be presented in the class. I am excited though, because this semester I will be switching roles. At work I search for funding opportunities and try to help proposal writers think about their idea so they can be matched up with what the funders actually want to spend money on. For class, I'll get to pretend that I am passing out the money and critically review proposals. My class project is also exciting. I am working on helping undergraduates get funding to do their research. It is a grant program that I was a part of as an undergrad so hopefully, I can encourage more than normal to apply. I also like the idea of promoting undergraduate research. Far too much of my undergraduate experience was still passive. I went to class and waited for information to be given to me. I hope that promoting undergraduate research on our campus will inspire some more active learning.

Another place that you will be seeing homework from, is my trip to Europe. We had an assignment while we were there to keep a journal. I plan on typing that up and sharing it (with pictures) here.

Personality Pigeonholed

Once a year, everyone in my office takes the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. We then have a counselor come in and talk to us about our results and how our personality types are played out in our work styles and how we work together. I've only taken the Myers-Briggs twice with my office, but I've probably done it more than a dozen times since I've started at UCA. I like the Myers-Briggs. I like people using it as a tool to explore themselves. I like people learning about different personality types, and I like people working to teach themselves how other people think and react differently than they do. I think it is very useful. However, I also think people can take it too much to heart.

I am simply annoyed with people looking at me and saying, "Oh, so you're an ENTJ," as if it explains everything there is to know about me. I just want to tell them, "No, I just happened to be in an ENTJ mood when I took that test." My type indicator has never come back the same. I've always been an E and the other three letters are up in the air. I'm always very balanced on the other sections. My results usually come back saying that I am 50%-50% or 52%-48%. This year my J was 55% on the online test and my P was 55% on the written test, which means within two days I changed from Judging to Perceiving. The counselor always starts by telling us that balance is the goal and that they are scaled. So you can strive to be more Sensing if you are Intuitive and just because your results say you are Intuitive doesn't mean you are strong in that. You may still have traits in the other. Once she explains that, everybody seems to forget it.

I like to make lists because I like to check things off, but I don't loose sleep about the things on my lists not being accomplished. I love to plan out my vacations in advance, but once I get there I am happy to throw those plans out the window. I like to make decisions by weighing all the factors. I consider peoples' feelings to be a factor that needs to be weighed along with all the logical ones. I like to do projects that have detailed instructions and clear goals, but it is also exciting and revitalizing to where I get to be creative and make my own goals. Even when it comes to my Extroversion versus Introversion. I'm becoming more of an introvert every time I take it. Please just understand that ENFP does not define me.