Caterpillars and Career Fair

Hal writes:

I have decided to take a new approach to the posts. Pictures and other visual images are very easy to share, so why explain something I can show you? Anna has had a digital camera from before we were married, but I have not really used it much until this summer when I started taking some photos. So, I'm going to try carrying it around more often and see what randomness comes from it.

Today I have two pictures to share. The first is the caterpillar below. (S)he was looking up at the camera when I pressed the button, but there is a couple of seconds in delay before the photo gets taken. Looks like I may need to take more posed shots than action shots. I'm not sure, but I think this furry little guy winked at me.

In my FTS (First Term Seminar) at Gustavus, Culture and Society in Africa, I read the story about a young man who was taken from his family as a boy and raised by catholic missionaries. When he was in his mid-twenties, he returned to his tribe and eventually went through initiation, something that was typically of boys 10 years younger than him. One of the comments he made about being initiated was that afterwards he was much more in tune with nature and saw small bugs and creatures in a magnified way that he had not previously. When I come across small creatures, I tend to think about his story. Although I have lived in Platteville for over a year, this is the first time that I have seen multiple caterpillars like the one pictured above. This is the dirt trail (that we hope some day to be paved) that goes from SW Hall to the rest of campus.

Below is a photo of the 41st annual Fall Career Fair at UWP. Most of the employers pictured below are looking for different types of engineers (UWP is the engineering school of the UW system) but there were also employers for Law Enforcement and other majors.

I think I would enjoy being a recruiter. But the businesses represented in the picture all deal in the area of science, not my strong suit, so I wasn't able to do much more than walk around and encourage my students who were dressed pretty for the event. The interesting thing is that this is the "small" career fair, with the one in the spring being larger and with more employers (since that is when most of our students are graduating). But this career fair also provided an opportunity for sophomores and juniors to explore potential internships and "co-ops" that are required for a number of majors.

Frustrations

Hal writes:

There are a number of observations and situations that I find myself in on a daily basis, but just can't blog about. With this being a public forum, I can never be sure who is observing my comments. Not to say that there are a lot of people checking in on us, but I need to be cautious because of the confidentiality issues involved in my position. Anna is similar when working with patients, there is only so much information she can provide when speaking about her day.

My frustrations revolve primarily with communication, or more specifically non-communication, between myself and some colleagues. As the RD of a new building, there are apt to be a number of problems associated with it. But when my students have questions about uncompleted tasks, I have no information to give them on progress because I am not given any information from those in the know. My inside voice usually says "don't ask me, I just work here" while my outside voice asks for patience. (Or, as my CSP colleagues understand, "trust the process".)

I don't know if I mentioned this, but I was elected to the Academic Staff Senate last spring. Once at the meeting, there were executive board elections and I became the Vice Chair. One of my duties is to be the liaison to the Faculty Senate, which has been a very interesting experience. I am, of course, not allowed to vote or voice my opinions (I am, after all, only an academic staff member and not a full fledged tenured faculty person) but that gives me opportunities to sit back and observe. Today's discussion revolved around hiring practices and how to increase hiring of faculty of color and retention of said faculty. Something that all schools struggle with as they look to be more "diverse". One of our hindrances is that we are situated in southwest Wisconsin which is not exactly the most ethnically diverse area of our country. Although there was general agreement that there is a goal to attract and retain more non-white faculty members, nobody has figured out how to do it. The UWP plan calls for all faculty and staff to participated in an 8 hour workshop dealing with institutionalized racism. My date is in November, so I'll have to wait a bit before I find out what it is all about.

Anyone follow Dog the Bounty Hunter? Tonight on A&E they had an update with the family as they struggle with whether or not Dog will be deported to Mexico. This is making for a great ethics conversation (was it ok to arrest a rapist in Mexico when bounty hunting is not allowed in Mexico? Is it justified because a rapist is in prison or should it be condemned for breaking Mexican law?). But my heart still goes out to the follow as they worry about the possibility of deportation.

Only a week and a half until Gustavus Homecoming. Attention all former Gustie Greeters: all Greeter reunion at half time of the football game. Huzzah!

Anna health watch

Hal writes:

Since the picture in the last post was taken, Anna's checks doubled in size and they are now on the decline. She wasn't able to get to class today, but hopes to get back into a normal routine tomorrow. And she wants everyone to know that she misses real food. Her diet the past few days has been ice cream, popsicles, soup, and pasta that doesn't require chewing. She wouldn't let me take a picture for the blog, but her cheeks remind us of her Grandpa J.C. :)

Wisdom lost

Hal writes:

Anna had her wisdom teeth removed this morning. As you can see from the picture below, she isn't the happiest about it, but she did a wonderful job and we'll never have to worry about her wisdom teeth again. I took the day off to help take care of her, but a special thank you to RDs Kelly and Jen for their wonderful assistance this morning. Our supervisors say we are to be coworkers first and friends second, but this was one of those days where it was definately the other way around.

A suggestion from Anna's mom was to photograph the teeth next to some coins. The three in tact ones have been classified using the Scottish classification system: "wee, not so wee, and really huge!" The fourth one had to be taken out in pieces, but it makes for an interesting 3D puzzle. I'm still amazed that all of this was hidden inside my wife's head.
What does one do with the teeth? I originally thought a necklace would be nice. If we have more, we could have create a rosery. Anna is hoping that the tooth fairy will make four separate trips this week if she puts them under her pillow. Or perhaps someone reading this blog might get one for Christmas, but only if they've been a good boy or girl.

Of course, I couldn't talk about Anna's wisdom teeth without letting you know about mine. A few years ago my siblings (who all had braces growing up, but I did not) started to have their wisdom teeth removed. Dr. Dan thought it would be good to x-ray mine and find out how they were doing. After the x-rays he gave me the wonderful news that I did not have any wisdom teeth. He went on to tell me that I further along the evolutionary chain than most people (insert my wife's eye roll here), but I think God knew I wouldn't be able to handle having them removed, so He put a special order in for me not to have them to begin with. Also, thank you to the great benefits provided by the state of Wisconsin that allowed my state employee health plan to cover what could have been a very expensive procedure for us. So, if you need anything removed, I'll adopt you so you can some cheap surgery. (Offer only valid as long as I am employeed by Wisconsin.)

Hall Council

Hal writes:

Tonight I had my first hall council of the year. Each residence hall at UWP has a hall council. The big difference for me is that since this is a new hall, I have the opportunity to start from scratch. No constitution, no expectations, no returning students, and no traditions. I have thought a lot about it this summer and focused on wanting this to be a student lead initiative.

At colleges today we find two groups of students. The 10% who are involved in everything and do everything, and the other 90% who are apathetic and don't want to get involved. Perhaps not all are apathy related, but with cable TV, internet, and cell phones, there is little desire for students to move past high school friends and meet new people at college.

Not surprisingly, I had just as many residents as RAs at my meeting. Having less than 20 people is not a good turnout for a building of 380. But if you look at the Bible to see how good things happened, it usually starts with a small, purposeful group and blossoms into something great. So I am glad that I had the students I did show up as opposed to having twice as many that would show no interest.

After giving a talk about how I want this group to be whatever the students want it to be, I had the students self-select one of three groups: Activities (Homecoming and creating an all-hall program for spring), Facilities (a group dedicated to finding out what students want to do with SW Hall and a way to convey information to them), and Governance (the initial stages of creating a constitution and leadership structure). After the groups met for 15 minutes, they reported back to the group. Then we had a large group discussion. Next week we are meeting at a later time (when people are more likely to be in the building) and I made everyone promise to bring two friends with them.

Needless to say, it is an exhausting process to create something new, but I enjoy the boundless process of creative ideas forming and the ownership it gives the students to create.

Longest Week Ever

Hal writes:

For those of you who watch "The Simpsons", read the title to this blog in the style of Comic Book Guy and you'll catch the meaning behind it. This week I met with around 30 of my students for conduct related matters. I have probably set both personal and UWP records for conduct for the first two weeks of school. Most of the situations dealt with alcohol, but there were a handful of Copywrite Violations as well (students downloading things they should not). All in all I was pretty tired by the end of the week. This weekend was spent mostly on the couch watching the DVDs of LOST (season 2). Last night Anna had some friends from the DPT program over for dinner (see photo below) and then we went to see comedians Hard and Phirm at the student center.

Another great day for football, but I didn't get to see any of it. Never mind that the Vikings are in overtime, the Fox station I pick up has to show the Packers game until the end. That's what I get for living in Wisconsin. Similar to when I lived in Illinois, I never knew if the Vikings game would be the one played or if I would have to sit at the computer watching the play by play via text through the NFL web site. I was enjoying the Colts game (and watching P. Manning get me some fantasy points) but after the Colts got ahead, they switched to another AFC game, so that wasn't appealing. At least when the Vikings play the evening games, I will be able to see them play (or when they play the Packers). Jim, the Packers did look good for the first quarter, I'll be curious to see if they can get the fans into the game when the weather turns cold and other teams wimp out as they play on the frozen tundra. Brett has the fire, Donald catches passes, and AJ was the surest thing in the draft, but that's not enough to win games.

I have been invited to be a guest lecturer in one of Anna's classes in the near future. Should she address me as "Mr. D" or "Mr. Sweetheart" when I go teach her class? ;) I will talking about learning styles and tying it to the PT profession. It's a subject I enjoy talking about so it should be fun. No honorarium though, I'm just doing this out of the goodness of my heart.

Two more photos

Here is a picture of the Adolphson House I spoke about in my previous post:


Here is a picture of a dentist sign in Westby, WI. There are a number of fun towns and photo ops when Anna and I travel between Platteville and other places, but what's funny about this sign is that my dentist in Two Harbors, MN is "Dr. Daniel J. Iverson".

My Trip to Gustavus

Hal writes:

Every fall I have returned to my alma mater for Leadership Day (previously known as Class Agents Day). My friend Cassie and I represent the Class of 2001 and each fall we are invited back to campus for alumni related meetings. This year Cassie was unable to attend, but we will both be back in October for our 5-year reunion.

During my time on campus I found myself to be very reflective. The first couple of times that I returned, I would run into friends in the classes below me that still attended school. But as the years went on, I knew less and less of the students. Even the faculty and staff have changed during my absence and I do not know as many people. I spent time walking across campus conjuring up memories of my four years at Gustavus. Here is a picture that I took of the entrance of campus.

Here is a photo of the Adolphson House. I lived here my junior year with other FCA friends. Mookie and I lasted the year, but Karena, Ali, Luke, Candi, Signe, and Katie all lived with us at some point during the year. The window on the far right was my bedroom window second semester. There are lots of memories that I have from that house, but the one that stood out when I saw the window is when I finished my Political Science thesis on my 21st birthday. I took a lot of breaks staring out the window looking at Old Main for some inspiration.

(Sorry, for some reason this photo won't load...)

When I arrived on campus Friday afternoon, I stopped by to see Charlie (Director of Res Life), Patti (Asst. Dean of Students), Mark (Dir. of Admissions), and Brian (Chaplain) to find out that nobody was around. On a whim I walked over to the fine arts building and was suprised to find two of my profs, Terry and Lea, in the Communication Studies office. I had a great time catching up with both of them. Terry is running to be a representative in the next Minnesota legislature session and Lea is now chair of the department.

I was also able to spend some time at Brenda and Scott's house. They have a daughter that is two years old. Anna and I met her last year when she was newly adopted from China. Since that time, her vocabulary has dramatically increased and it was fun to play games and sing songs with her. I didn't get any pictures this time, but perhaps when Anna and I stay with the family in October we will get some.

Go Vikes!

Hal writes:

An enjoyable weekend of football. I wish I could have watched more of the Viking victory, but having a Monday night staff meeting only allowed me to see the fourth quarter.

In other news, my fantasy football team, "Hal's Angels", won their first game this week. I had notible performances from the Bears defense, P. Manning as QB, and Tony "Craig Killer" Gonzolas as my tight end.

Pictures from RA Training

Hal writes:

Just got back from Gustavus (more on that later) but I wanted to share a couple photos from RA Training.

Here is my staff and I at the bowling social. I got a 157 for my high score. No turkies, but quite a few spares in that game.

Here I am showing some sweet bowling form. Like the shirt? My dad wore it in the 80s when he was in a bowling league. I like to carry on the tradition. And my staff tells me that the shoes matched.

Here I am getting ready to officiate the relay races. I'm nothing if not fair and impartial when it comes to competitions.

First Day of Class

Hal writes:

The new hall that I am overseeing is truly isolated for the rest of campus. Unless you are at the top floor (6th floor), there is not much to see of the rest of campus. I first began to sense how separated we were during move-in this weekend. I knew that my fellow RDs were also having students move-in, but it was different not to be able to physically see them. Today my realization came during the lunch hour. As per our usual routine, the RDs meet for lunch in the student center around noon. The campus was swarming with people and the first-years have discovered the student center as a lunch option which slows things down until they get to know the routine. I enjoyed, yet took pity, on those first-years who were looking for places to eat by themselves. Too shy to ask to sit with anyone or go to eat with someone on their wing, they made eye contact around the room that seemed to call out that they wanted a friend to say, "Hey, come sit here." The stereotype with the individuals I see wondering with hope for a friend are males with the facial hair that just doesn't quite reach "full" status and are wearing a graphic t-shirt portraying an ill-fated attempt at humor. (i.e.: "Psycho Ward" or "Alcatraz Swim Team") My hope is that they do find their niche, that group that they feel comfortable with, so they do stay in school. The first six weeks of a first-year student is very telling of their potential success rate and one of my duties is to help students find those connections.

Today my friend Jim shared stories of memories of first days of classes. In a similar fashion, let me tell you my story of the first day of school at Gustavus. But my story surrounds itself around food. On the first day of classes, I had an hour between my FTS (First Term Seminar) class and Calculus (aka: the last math class I took, fall 1997). I went to go to lunch at the dining hall to find that the lined stretched from the dining hall, across the sky walk, through the student union, all the way to the doors by the library. I thought that there was no way I could eat lunch and make it to Calc. I instead went back to my room (Co-Ed 209C) and ate triskets dipped in peanut butter that my mom had left with me at move in. I called my dad that night (the first time I called home after being on campus for four days, pre-cell phone era 5 cents a minute) and told him about my concerns about not being able to eat lunch during the semester. Now keep in mind that my dad was concerned for me because the summer prior to my senior year of high school I went to a basketball camp alone and did not make any friends, so he was most likely concerned that I was not fitting well at GAC and it was more than just the food. But he encouraged me to try again the next day and wait in line to see what happens. Same drill the next day, long line for dining hall, but this time I waited. 5 minutes later I was in the dining hall, and 20 minutes after that I was finished with my meal, a full 30 minutes prior to my next class.

I share this story as a way to talk to first-year students and their anxieties. I look back on this situation and laugh, but at the time I thought that I would not be able to eat lunch and that was anxiety producing for me. It may seem strange that "the little things" make students want to leave school their first-year, but to those students "the little things" might seem a lot bigger to them. I was fortunate to get through many anxiety producing experiences (mostly living at the FCA house) and feel that I am a better person for it.

Other tidbits to share:
* Ryan Hoag was released from the Vikings. I hope that someone picks him up.
* I am playing fantasy football with some RAs at UWP. I'll let you know how I do.
* My dad came out of retirement (a la Michael Jordan?) to teach until a new teacher can be hired.
* Check out the Beloit College Mindset list to learn more about this year's new college students.
* I'll be at Gustavus this weekend for Leadership Day. My 5-year reunion is this October and I am part of the planning committee.
* My new office has more wall space than my previous office. Please send me a post card, random poster, flyer, or anything fun for me to stick on the wall. I enjoy covering my office walls with fun things. I'll post pictures on the blog of the walls when I get some more items up.

Move-in complete (almost)

Hal writes:

*whew* Over the last three days, 380 students joined Anna and I in Southwest Hall. Around the building we have a small (12 car) parking lot and a fire lane that runs around the building. We mapped out a plan to get people moved in and it was as effecient as possible. I had great Welcome Crew members assisting my RAs moving people in. We have some people flustered (parents who wanted everything to stop so their child can move in) but when people realized that all they had to do was pull up and my staff unloaded everything into WalMart carts and brought it up the elevator (so they didn't have to lift a thing), their mood shifted to the better (90% of the time). With the dissatisfied parents, I simply asked if they could see a better way, and that usually kept them from talking because nobody had any ideas to more faster than we could.

It's a little sad to see the newness of the building wearing away. The building had a "new car" smell (which I would tell people is the "new hall" smell) that is no gone and will not return. The past two days it has been raining, so the carpets are full of mud and grass from students ignoring the sidewalks and taking more of a direct path. Along the way there has been garbage left in the halls and a few marks on the walls, but it still is a nice building.

And, in what was to be anticipated, the alcohol violations began last evening. My building led the way with five incidents, one of them involving 15 people. The suite style arrangement allows for more people to fit comfortably in the room. Unfortunately for the students, that also means it is easier to hear when they are making noise. So, after one night my conduct case load is set for about the next two weeks.

I'm excited to send them off to class tomorrow...