The Reason I Left Student Services...

In the past three years, I have heard numerous sources attest to the claim "student services personnel can be sued for negligence while attempting to perform their jobs". THIS CLAIM IS TRUE!

According to the June 13th edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education, "[A] state [Texas] appeals court has ruled that administrators can be sued as individuals, even through they were performing university duties and the doctrine of sovereign immunity protects the university from suits".

In my past life, I was a greek advisor and I spent many sleepless nights hoping that the students would not make the newspaper the next morning. In addition, I advised many other student organization and I took the student to various conferences across the state. During these functions, I dreaded the nightly activities, because I knew that I would be held personally responsible for any bad decision that my students had that night. As a professor, for the first time in my life, I have slept soundly EVERY WEEKEND for the past year! Thank God for academic affairs!

I will continually pray for the individuals in student affairs and that their students make sound decisions and become accountable for their own actions.

Until next time...

MP

She's Back!!!

The summer has finally begun! I am very excited about resting, catching up with my blogging obligations, and the synchronization of my research.

This morning, I read an interesting article about my favorite subject...undergraduate students. This article indicates that rising gas prices are keeping college students on campus (in the residence halls). This will be GREAT for residence life and student activities! Some campuses struggle with retaining students for development programming efforts, sports functions, etc.

Here is the article - http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5813235.html

Let me know what you think!

Millennial Professor

My Minimester Hiatus: More Great Classroom Ideas to Follow!!!

Readers,

I am nearing the END of my minimester and I have lots of interesting ideas that have emerged during the past few weeks. Please subscribe to my blog, because you will receive MANY millennial professor ideas in the next few weeks.

I am excited about having the summer off and I am going to focus on the blog and the scholarly research.

Via Con Dios! I will be back in a few days! Minimester awaits!

Sincerely,

MP

Millennials and Minimesters

The Semester is Complete!

Well...the minimester starts in a few days. I am actually excited about teaching yet another minimester because the students are engaged with the course content for 2 1/2 weeks. They are not taking any other classes and the professor usually forms a strong connection with the students during those weeks.

The past few times that I taught a minimester course, I served as an adjunct at a community college. That course would usually have students from two of the flagship institutions in my state and some local students who attended other community colleges and universities.

The course was one of the most rewarding courses in my career, because the students in the course became very close (both traditional and nontraditional). Since the course lasted 3 1/2 hours, I would have divide the students into groups and I would have the groups of students bring snacks for other students on designated days. This small gesture helped the students look forward to the next class day. Of course, I would bring snacks on the first day to "model the way".

I have to leave all of your with this correlation between millennial students and minimesters. Please remember, millennial undergraduate students usually want to finish their courses and their college career in a short amount of time. The enrollment in the minimester course that I am teaching in a few days reiterates this "millennial" point.

MP