“My experience at Cortland was the best experience of my life. I made lifelong friends and really felt like I was @ “home” during my 4 years. I made great connections with my teachers as well. I am continuing my education @ cortland as a graduate student.”

-Class of 2007 Graduate

“Positive Connections” is a series of short features highlighting examples of ways students have felt connected to SUNY Cortland. Many of the posts will come directly from recent graduates, though any source is welcome!

“Playing football for Cortland for 5 years was the greatest experience of my life. Being a part of that tradition and stepping onto the field and winning the Cortaca Jug 3 out of my 5 years was an experience like no other. The friendships and relationships I formed with friends, coaches, professors, and others I will take with me forever.”

-Class of 2007 Graduate

“Positive Connections” is a series of short features highlighting examples of ways students have felt connected to SUNY Cortland. Many of the posts will come directly from recent graduates, though any source is welcome!

Post written and contributed by: Amanda Anderson, Cheri Skipworth, and Steven Canals

An Introduction to Technologies Commonly Used by College Students (Junco & Cole-Avent, 2008) provides us with an overview of the media students use to communicate and how student affairs practitioners are integrating or should be integrating those methods.Student Affairs and technology are not always two terms you hear in the same sentence. Many functional areas include high degrees of confidentiality that make integrating newer technologies into everyday practice very challenging. How, for example, does Disability Support Services set up a group on Facebook without compromising the identities of the students who use those services? Additionally, student affairs is all about the personal touch; it’s our face-to-face interactions with students that distinguish us from other professions.On the other hand, technology is becoming increasingly important on our campuses. Moneta (as cited in Junco & Cole-Avent, 2008) describes the clear delineation between the technology proficiency of students and student affairs professionals. One must wonder if this difference in proficiency is related to a generational difference, unfamiliarity with what is available, inability to use based on office policies, or all of the above.Technology can be a fantastic way to connect with students in other functional areas. Facebook has provided Residence Life and Student Activities a great conduit for advertising and creating groups specific to real life events. The chapter also discusses student affairs trend towards reacting to an inappropriate use of new technology in students rather than proactively addressing it. In general there are great uses for a professional Facebook account; however, there are also some cautions. I for one generally do not initiate the contact with students on Facebook. I have a professional page but I do not seek out students to be “friends” with. We must also avoid the “creepy tree house” effect that was raised as a concern during our recent article discussion. This is the idea that we are encroaching on “student” space. Some students may wonder why the staff and faculty of the institution are lurking around on Facebook.I believe in the end there is some way to use new technology in a positive way for our students. Those offices which have confidentiality to contend with could reach out in more passive ways. Perhaps Disability Support Services could create a blog about a day in the life of a counselor; a Residence Hall Director could do the same. It’s possible that in the end our passive efforts will assist those students who are not so comfortable with the face-to-face interactions we thrive upon.

“One thing I know that positively influenced me was the interaction with faculty and the family environment that the communication department had. It was just a generally positive atmosphere where all the students and teachers know one another. Everybody shared a bond and respect for each other.”

-Class of 2007 Graduate

“Positive Connections” is a series of short features highlighting examples of ways students have felt connected to SUNY Cortland. Many of the posts will come directly from recent graduates, though any source is welcome!

I had a great student teaching experience and made some great connections with people that I will continue to keep in touch with.  The fact that many of my classmates were in the same classes througout my block classes was great.  It made a great opportunity to make connections and some lifelong friends.

-Class of 2007 Graduate

“Positive Connections” is a series of short features highlighting examples of ways students have felt connected to SUNY Cortland. Many of the posts will come directly from recent graduates, though any source is welcome!

“After returning from a study abroad program to the World Health Organization in Switzerland, I sought out faculty/staff to oversee a health-related project I wanted to implement. These people were extremely supportive and the experience helped to develop my leadership skills and to ease my transition transferring to Cortland.  Getting to know the faculty in my department made me feel better about my decision to transfer to Cortland- my department became more of a community and not just a place I went to take classes.”

-Class of 2007 Graduate

“Positive Connections” is a series of short features highlighting examples of ways students have felt connected to SUNY Cortland. Many of the posts will come directly from recent graduates, though any source is welcome!

Post written by guest author:
Jennifer Drake, Academic Support and Achievement Program

Here at the Academic Support and Achievement Program, we have the opportunity to connect with students on a one-on-one basis every day. Tutors working face-to-face with students ask them questions which help to clarify their writing or their thinking about particular courses or assignments; such meetings are also opportunities for tutors to really listen and get a sense of how their students are thinking and feeling in a more general sense.

When we began considering adding online support to our in-person peer and professional tutoring services, we wanted to do so in a way that would allow tutors to maintain this sort of connection with students, and we didn’t feel that, from what we’d seen of programs at other schools, an email based system would support that. Fortunately, after some searching, we chose a technology which allows tutors and students to work together online in real time, using a combined whiteboard and chat interface from WorldWideWhiteboard. This way, tutors can still use the Socratic questioning techniques that are at the heart of our face-to-face tutoring services, and can still maintain those vital connections with students, even when the tutors and/or students are away from the campus environment.

We encourage students to try this new way of connecting to academic support services by trying NightOWL, our late evening online tutoring service currently offering writing help for CPN 100/102 and 101/103 students. This service is open Monday through Thursday, from 9 to 11.30 pm on a drop-in, first-come, first-served basis. Additionally, students might check to see if their professors are offering online office hours, as some have indicated interest in using WWWb technology for that. We hope that these new electronic options will make it easier and more accessible for students to connect with the support professionals and faculty that they need to be successful and feel at home here at Cortland.