Professional Development Resources (Week 4): Tweets on Student Affairs/Higher Education

For those web-savvy student affairs graduate students/practioners/administrators/faculty, try twitter! Twitter gives users second-to-second updates of 140 characters or less on their friends' updates and/or current issues.

A quick search for "student affairs" resulted in over 200 daily results. Look at the current results in the window below:

Do any of you use twitter?

Professional Development Resources (Week 3): Low-Cost/No-Cost Alternatives

The current state of the economy is causing many universities and colleges to decrease travel budgets. As a result, many graduate students and student affairs practitioners think their professional development opportunities are over! However, this is not the case! Here are some low-cost, no-cost ideas for professional development at the university/state level.

Create an Institution-Based Conference 

Every institution of higher education has an incredible resource...their personnel! Everyone has something to contribute - graduate students, entry-level/mid-level/senior personnel, faculty, and chief student affairs officers! Utilize your resources to create a half-day/full-day conference for your student services department. This is also an opportunity for participants to build their resumes and improve their presentation skills.

Do Not Order Books - Borrow Them for Free! 

If you found a great book on higher education/student affairs, do not order it! Check it out from your college or university library. If the library does not have the publication, ask them to order it or request the item through interlibrary loan. If a local library has the item, request a TexShare card through your university library. This card enables users to check out five or more books from almost any community or higher education library in Texas.

Attend the Fall TACUSPA Conference 

You do not have to attend NASPA or ACPA to gain access to great speakers and researchers. As TACUSPA members, you have low-cost access to the annual TACUSPA conference. For $250.00 or less, your registration fee covers almost all conference meals, great speakers, wonderful networking opportunities, and access to higher education researchers (i.e. - George Kuh, Laura L. Rendon, etc.). In fact, here is the 2009 schedule - http://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=60276. Try the TACUSPA conference!

Sponsor a Lunch and Learn Opportunity (A Webinar)

Usually held at lunch or in the afternoon, these webinars provide attendees with power point slides before the presentation date. Attendees can usually ask questions via a chat window or by calling into a central number. Here are some upcoming opportunities:

• ACPA Webinars - http://www.myacpa.org/pd/webinars/
• ACUHO-I - http://www.acuho-i.org/Default.aspx?tabid=643
• National Center for Higher Education Risk Management - http://www.ncherm.org/webinars.html
• National Survey of Student Engagement - http://nsse.iub.edu/webinars/TuesdaysWithNSSE.cfm (2009)
  
• National Survey of Student Engagement - http://nsse.iub.edu/webinars/schedule.cfm (2010)
• Paper Clip Communications - http://www.paper-clip.com/ME2/Default.asp
• Student Voice - http://www.studentvoice.com/app/training
  

*Sometimes the sponsoring organizations post free recordings or documents after the webinar.



If you have any additional ideas for low-cost or non-cost professional development alternatives, please post the ideas in the comment section below!

The Graduate Education and Research Committee

Professional Development Resources (Week 2): The Student Affairs Collaborative Blog & Forum

The Student Affairs Collaborative is an interesting website that enables readers to interact with over 17 authors in the student affairs field. Equipped with polls and a discussion board, this website focuses on interactivity between bloggers and readers. Some of the posts are:


"programming idea" pieces (i.e. - Old Prom Dress Drive - Student Activites Event Idea, Sexual Responsibility Week - Student Activites Event Idea, Random Acts of Kindness Week on College Campuses Feb 11th - 17th),  

others are "news updates" (Integrating Public Service into the College Experience, Student Affairs and Campus Crises- A View from New Orleans)

and others are "how to" pieces" (Higher Tweducation, Pre-order Your School's Unique Facebook Username).


Explore the website and post your opinion on the TACUSPA blog! 


The Graduate Education and Research Committee

July 2009 - Student Affairs: Professional Development Resources (Weeks 1-4)

This month, we will highlight several professional development resources for student affairs practitioners and graduate students. Despite having a meager travel budget, student affairs practitioners and graduate students can utilize the internet as a professional development resource. Stay tuned!


The Graduate Education and Research Commission