Author Archives: debrasanborn

It’s nine o’clock on a Saturday, the regular crowd shuffles in…

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It’s the last full day of APTi 2009, the conference for all things MBTI related. I have an early flight tomorrow and even with my clear preference for extraversion and love for all things social related, I am exhausted and focused on my auxiliary introverted intuiting (read: quiet down time).

Preparing for a travel day, I headed for the hotel gift shop to stock up on granola bars. Not wishing to navigate the crowded lobby again, I snuck up the back way through the conference floor to my elevator. Navigating the now deserted hallways of the conference area I was startled by the loud music I hadn’t noticed earlier over the din of our crowded meetings. Turning the corner to the elevator I discovered it was not some lame recording but rather a fellow conference attendee, playing his heart out on the grand piano tucked into the corner. I could not tell who it was or read the name tag as I peeked into the room. Not wanting to disturb this impromptu concert I quietly crept back toward the elevator. Piano Man continued his performance, a contemporary piece, something akin to Handel’s Water Music, but with more emotion, more oomph. I sat quietly by the elevator and listened for at least 20 minutes.

Who was this Piano Man? Another ENTJ like me or perhaps an ENFJ, finding balance in their auxiliary function from the extraverted thinking of the day? Or maybe someone with an introverted preference, spending some much needed processing time away from the crowd. Regardless of Type, it was a delightful surprise ending to my day.

Well we’re all in the mood for a melody, and you’ve got us feelin’ alright…


Higher Education Dialogue on Race

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A conference on race and ethnicity has become a hallmark program at our midwest research university. For the past decade, the Iowa State Conference and Race Ethnicity, or ISCORE project, has been our flagship program on all things affecting diversity, inclusion, and persons of color in higher education. Based upon the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE), ISCORE celebrated it’s 10th anniversary in March. It has become a model program for other campus CORE programs. I wrote here about about this year’s keynote, Michele Norris.

The Iowa State project sponsors a team of students, staff and faculty to travel and participate at NCORE each summer. Information gathered from that experience is reviewed throughout a fall semester course: Forum on United States Race and Ethnicity. Students then submit individual and group presentation proposals for ISCORE. Hundreds of Iowa State students and staff have been the beneficiary of this project grant. Thousands of students, faculty, staff, and community members have attended the campus conferences. Through lean financial times in higher education, ISCORE has continued to thrive.

Washington Post columnist and editor, Eugene Robinson, suggested in an MSNBC segment this morning that recent discussion on race in America is good for the country, but we rarely see it happen in the classroom. His comments were in reference to the arrest of an African-American Harvard professor by a white police officer that made national news. Robinson’s column this week highlighted the incident and questioned the still very common racial double standard.

For at least one university, the discussion and dialogue on race and ethnicity is alive and well, and continuing.

What is your campus dialogue on diversity, race and ethnicity?

For many of the great, great successes of the world…

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For many of the great, great successes of the world, the background they came from was their great challenge. I’m trying to find those people. Those who may not have the highest grade point or a perfect family background, but who can be successful. These are the ones who will lend the helping hands in the future. ~ Christina Hixson

The Hixson Opportunity Awards began at our university in 1995. Since that time, I have read thousands of scholarship applications, hoping to identify the student who is most deserving and most needs our support. The student who will become that helping hand of the future.

I have instructed our students as they muddled through the first college year. We have spent endless hours counseling students struggling with a class, roommate, finances or the multitude of challenges faced by first-generation college students in the quest for a degree. Most importantly, we have helped to develop leaders and scholars through connections, resources, and occasional 3 a.m. phone calls. Our program focus of community, challenge and support has become a model for retention and graduation success duplicated at other universities.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first Hixson Scholars graduating from Iowa State, my good friend Steve Sullivan revisited many of the students he featured in stories over the years. Our students, and now our alumni, are the backbone of the Hixson Program. Take a peek at his Visions magazine feature.


Media Wisdom of 15-year olds

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Morgan Stanley’s European media folks asked their 15-year old intern, Matthew Robson, to share his perspective on the media consumption of his peers and published the resulting paper. Although not data driven or full of new insights, the report does confirm a lot about the listening, viewing, and reading habits of the teenage audience. Texting wins out over Twitter, Facebook is still tops, and no one ever picks up a newspaper. Ever.


Read about it here: How Teenagers Consumer Media


Facebook is not rocket science?

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An interesting conversation unfolded on Twitter between two distinguished members of our university. It followed the announcement of a Facebook workshop for faculty and staff that seemed less than timely considering the declining trends of high school and college aged Facebook users, our primary market.


I captured this conversation between a director in the IT academic technology unit and a professor with expertise on K-12 school technology leadership, because it demonstrates the conflict many of us confront when introducing new media and technology in higher education.

[This was a ridiculous blog exercise and there must be an easier way to do this than with screenshots and I am now suffering from carpal tunnel from too much point and click, but I didn’t want to lose such great dialogue!]

What are your thoughts?























Use of abacus and slide rule encouraged

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As a reminder that I work for a university of science and technology, the following workshop was announced in a faculty/staff newsletter delivered to campus email accounts this evening.

After piquing people’s curiosity about social networks in last month’s IT seminar, we received requests for a session on how to use Facebook, one of the largest social networking sites. If you’d like to get started on Facebook (or want to know more), this session is for you.

In addition to a Facebook tour, this seminar will present how to register, establish your profile, and find your way around Facebook as well as information on its many features (the wall, groups, fan clubs, settings, photo options, finding friends, third-party applications, etc.). As time permits, you’ll also learn about mobile use and its potential in an academic setting.

Attendees do not need to pre-register. Just bring yourself and your questions.

Dr. Scott McLeod, a professor in our Educational Administration program, summed up my response quite efficiently.





If you can read this, thank a teacher.

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Time for the quarterly weeding of my Google Reader. Separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. I currently subscribe to 177 feeds, 53 of which are classified as higher education. My other reading weaknesses are anything on Social Networks, Workplace Issues, Leadership, and Psychology. Yeah, I know. TMI. I suffer from what Breanne over at the mbti blog would refer to as FOMO or Fear of Missing Out.


If you have a favorite blog or column that you follow and simply could not live without, will you share it with me? I’m looking for some new voices. What’s yours?

Celebrating Independence

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Happy Birthday America! Don your red, white and blue and grab your sparklers (with parental supervision, of course.) Enjoy these quotes on the patriotism of education (plus movie bonus!)

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. ~John Adams

In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. “Mankind.” That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom… Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution… but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: “We will not go quietly into the night!” We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on! We’re going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day! ~President Thomas Whitmore, Independence Day

Come for fun, stay for love…

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The fun thing about being enrolled again as a student at my institution is that you receive all of the specialty student email blasts and announcements from student organizations. Like this one.

SUMMER Speed Date Event
Find your summer love at our next Speed Dating Event! Instant Dating will again be hosting a 3-Minute Dating Event. You will go on up to 50 dates in one night!

Who: All Iowa State students

What: 3-Minute Dating hosted by Instant-Dating

When: Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Time: Starts at 7pm (you may come late or leave early as needed)

Where: 136 UDCC; First Floor Conference Room in the UDCC (below the dining services, down the hallway from the UDA hall desk)

Admission: $7

How it works: Everyone is assigned a “number-nametag” after signing in. You will then rotate every 3 minutes as you go on ‘mini’blind-dates (It’s like you’re on your very own reality Bachelor or Bachelorette show!). At the end of the event, you can choose the “numbers” of people you would be interested in seeing again on a second date. Then within 48 hours of the event, an email will be sent to you containing all of your mutual matches with their name and email address. Good Luck! (NO pre-registration is required)

Take a break from studying! Come for fun, stay for love…
Sounds like a new theme for our first-year seminar and university retention efforts.
Come for fun, stay for love…

Declining access to higher education?

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I am fortunate to administer an endowed scholarship that flourishes even in these financial times thanks to careful foundation oversight and recent gifts from our generous donor. It is a partial tuition scholarship and most students also receive significant institutional and federal aid. So, I have concerns when I read that many scholarship providers are pulling back support.

Full cost of attendance at my university this fall (tuition, fees, room, board, books/supplies, personal expenses) is $18,370. The average financial need (cost of attendance minus expected family contribution) of my new class of 100 scholarship recipients is greater than $15,500. More than half of the students have need within 1% of the full cost of attendance.

With less money thrown off by endowments and contributed by donors, scholarship providers must make difficult choices. Should current scholarship recipients have their awards renewed, at the expense of new applicants? Should scholarship amounts be reduced so that the same number of students can benefit? Should the size of awards be protected, but their number cut? ~Jonathan D. Glater

Access to higher education becomes even more important in challenging economic times. Here’s hoping that scholarship providers can keep their focus on priorities.