Movie Review Monday: The Hunting Ground

Welcome to another edition of Movie Review Monday!

In honor of April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month, this week's film is the 2015 documentary, The Hunting Ground, which explores the college administrative culture that has existed for years and propagated an epidemic of sexual assaults between students.

I've heard a lot about this film, and have seen that many campuses have shown it to their staff and students. I think this is required viewing for both groups. It thoroughly examines both the experience of students and what context created a system that would make administrators want to blame the victim and side with perpetrators. Pressure from donating alumni, fraternities, athletics, and others to maintain the pristine image of the institution make the "logical" conclusion to sweep sexual assault cases under the rug. The result of this though is students on campuses across the country getting away with a serious crime. Also, the survivors of these assaults feel let down and overlooked by the institutions they've spent valuable time and money to go to, and perhaps have become a passionate member of the community. Often being under served makes these students not want to persist at their institutions simply because they are not the priority. Obviously they should be but this documentary highlights this ugly consequence of a deeper issue at higher ed institutions; that the student experience is hardly the priority for decision makers. It frustrates me seeing this confirm problems I had feared but I hoped weren't true.

This problem is deeply human, it comes from us and it can be solved by us, We can do better helping each other and we can focus on doing the right thing by putting our priorities in check. I see a lot of campuses striving to do better and making good progress. I think the stories of this film and the hard work students and staff have done leading up to now are helping us move in the right direction, but there is still much work to do in helping prevent these horrible acts from happening in the first place. This is raw, powerful, genuine, emotional, important film that I am glad I was able to watch.

You can watch The Hunting Ground right now on Netflix.

Thanks for stopping by.

Weekly Geek Outs - 04/01/16

Greetings!

Here's what is going on in my world this week:

• April Fool's

I'm not a big fan of April Fool's Day. Especially within the geek/nerd community, sites often play with our emotions by posting fake trailers and announcements for things we would actually want to happen. Also, I'm just not one for pranks most of the time. I feel like I have to stay off the Internet all day on April 1 because nothing I see can be taken seriously. I know it is all in good fun, but some sites just annoy me. Maybe I need to loosen up, but that's just how I feel right now. Don't play with my emotions, Internet!

• Friends

I'm not talking about the popular '90s sitcom here. I'm talking about my actual friends. Since I became recently engaged to my partner, I felt inspired to reach out to friends and call them to catch up and share the good news. It's been nice to connect with the people I care about who have since moved all across the country. It's important to make time for the people in our lives that we care about! Actually talking to people on the phone or via video chat really helps keep connections thriving even if you can't hang out in person. I miss all my friends and I hope to see them all again very soon.

• TV

All my shows have been a mixed bag lately. Flash has been coming on and off with new episodes for no understandable reason. Arrow is okay, SHIELD has been losing me a bit, and I've been enjoying the more robust lineup of Comedy Central shows lately (Broad City, Workaholics, Not Safe, @midnight). There is so much good TV out there either to watch through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, or elsewhere. I think I may need to invest myself to a new series. I also need to catch up on Orphan Black and watch all of Supergirl (only watched the pilot). I take my entertainment seriously, it's important for me to have good stories to watch to unwind and I like to share a lot of this entertainment with my partner too. I'll be sure to keep you all updated with my thoughts as I explore some new potential TV series.

Thanks for stopping by!

Combining High Tech and High Touch

I’ve been reading some excellent articles lately by folks such as Patrick Love and Joe Sabado. They're talking about technology integration into student affairs work. It has me thinking about what the value of incorporating more technology into our high touch work. We’re currently experiencing a time where these new inventions are changing modern campus life. Also, with these tools there is so much potential for augmenting the work we do making sure learning and engagement happens. No longer will it be guesswork or estimations. We can have hard numbers for what our students are doing (or not doing). With more of this data, and better access to it, we can be poised for success in making sure we’re doing all that we can to support all our students, each day.

Big Data to Big Insights

Student affairs professionals are well positioned to gather a lot of information about their students. Whether it is related to events with an ID card-swiping and student engagement technology like Check I’m Here, or online class analytics from platforms like Canvas. We can know a lot about what our students are doing. Also, we can convey this data in a clear way and contour it to our needs. Need to know the split of program attendance between residential and commuter students? Need to know how first-year students are getting involved versus upper-class students? These tools can pull specific information like that for you. This can provide insights that will optimize your efforts by focusing on what’s working well. You can also trim the fat and cut away services that aren't needed to make room for what you need to stat doing. Combine these tools with the robust communication functionality of something like Cranium Café. It allows for professionals to take advantage of face-to-face interactions even if your students are around the world and has its own data and analytics. All these tools together will create an ecosystem that will allow for your team to give the best support to your students each day.

Predictive Analytics

An awesome aspect of software that has strong, positive implications for student support services is predictive analytics. This means that if certain behavior occurs, a trigger kicks into action to alert you that a student needs help. An example of this could be that a student hasn’t gone to the dining hall for a week. Once the alert comes up, professionals can jump into action to support the student. Students can even be provided with personal alarms to increase security. Even if the student doesn’t want or need help, they’ll know that the institution cares about their success. Any good tool for managing student information should have this feature since it takes the guess work out of figuring out who may be at risk. It allows for the high touch, soft skills to be utilized where they’re needed most.

Global Information Access

Just to clarify here, I mean to say “global” as your entire team, not the entire world. I have seen too many times that necessary information is only accessible in limited ways. It could be that an app only works from a wired desktop computer in your office. It is inexcusable to not allow your team, especially on-call administrators, to be able to access information no matter where they are. This allows for seamless support to occur since information is always just a few clicks away. You can go one step further too, and work to create an optimized mobile app for your team. As opposed to having them pull up information through a web browser on their tablet or smartphone, which can be less than ideal. Work with your campus partners to build something that serves everyone's interests.

Life moves pretty fast nowadays, but we now have the tools at our disposal to better keep up with it. With more insights, predictive alerts, and easier access to information, professionals can use high tech tools to augment their high touch efforts. Invest in these tools so that you can invest more of your time on the students who need your support the most. The return of a more engaged, supported, and persistent campus will be well worth the cost.

Now go out there and do good for your students!

Movie Review Monday: Batman v Superman - Dawn of Justice

Welcome to another edition of Movie Review Monday!

This week's film is the recently released Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Jesse Eisenburg, Gal Gadot, and strong (and large) supporting cast.

I talked about some of my initial impressions of this movie in my geek out last week, and I just wanted to go a bit more in depth with my thoughts here with this highly contentious movie. The critics have not been kind to this one, and many comic book purists are having issue with it as well. I will say that I think it is not as bad as some people are making it out to be, but it is not a great movie by any means. It is confusing, unfocused, and needlessly boring for the subject matter. While I don't need a MCU clone, I would have hoped for a more fun movie.

To balance things out, there were some things I enjoyed about the movie, and it seems are pretty universally appreciated. Ben Affleck did well as both Bruce Wayne and Batman where other actors seemed to do well as one or the other. He portrayal was his own and he succeeded where many thought he would fail. Gal Gadot makes the most of her (very) limited screen time as Wonder Woman, especially in the final fight sequence. I will admit to getting chills when she hit the screen and her music kicked in. It was really well done and I look forward to what is to come in her solo movie next year. Jesse Eisenburg did pretty well as the manic, eccentric, egotistical manipulative, genius Lex Luthor. While some of the confusion comes from his character's motivations, some of the plot holes could just be explained away by his paranoia and/or hubris.

While I appreciate the attempts of this movie to play catch up to the MCU, I felt like the nods to other Justice League members to be underwhelming and sort of forced. It leaves me wondering how it will all work in a bit of a bad way, but we are getting Justice League, Part 1 next year so maybe it will all be a bit of rush job. Looking back it was nice to have a movie to get to know each of the members of the Avengers before bringing them together. Part of what holds Dawn of Justice back is that we don't get to know Wonder Woman or Batman as well as we could have to have their big team-up really resonate. Wonder Woman will at least get her own movie before Justice League, but other than Superman with Man of Steel, she is the only one.

Dawn of Justice is a movie that has a lot riding on it. I would liken it to Amazing Spider-Man 2 in how it must have been viewed by the production people. They both wanted so bad to set up their own movie universes, that, especially with Spider-Man, they suffer under their own weight. We can see where Dawn of Justice falters with that weight at times, but it holds steady, despite many issues (like the ending, was not a fan! And all the dream sequences?!).

I am very curious to hear other people's thoughts, so leave them in the comments below.

You can check out Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice at a theater near you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Weekly Geek Outs - 03/25/16

Greetings!

I come to you recovered (mostly) from my wisdom teeth extraction last weekend. All went well, but I took some well deserved time to rest, hence why there was no posts.

Nevertheless, I am here now with some stuff that has been going on in my world:

• House of Cards, Season 4

I watched this latest season recently, and I must say it was an improvement over the past season (which I was more of a fan of than others, but I can understand others complaints). We follow the continued complexities of Frank Underwood's presidency, and his difficulties on the campaign trail. We see more deception and plotting by both of the Underwoods, which was return to form for the series. The set up for season 5 also has me excited, and this season was an enjoyable one with a lot of tension as well as good twists and turns. As one of the early hallmark shows of Netflix's original series, House of Cards continues to impress, and I can't wait to see how it ends (whenever it does).

• Daredevil, Season 2

While I was recovering over last weekend, I spent the majority of that time watching the newest season Daredevil on Netflix. This season mostly continued the positive momentum of the previous season, and continued the universe building within its sibling shows on Netflix. We were introduced to Elektra, Punisher (my favorite new addition) and further explored the Hand, as well as the introduction of some other neat plot threads. While this season was uneven for me in some parts, the action is still top-notch, and the character work is great, especially with the new antiheroes we met in Elektra and Punisher. I'm stoked for Luke Cage to get his due in September, and for Iron Fist to get introduced too!

• Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice

I saw this highly anticipated movie last night, and my initial (spoiler-free) reactions are...it's complicated. I read some reviews before going and seeing BvS, and the general consensus is lukewarm. I agree with the gripes most people have been having with the film; it can be unfocused, overblown, and sometimes dull but is not a terrible movie. Wonder Woman stole the show for me, and as simple as it was, her theme music was awesome. I think she has the best potential for this new DC movie universe to be a standout and fan favorite character, especially with her imminent solo movie next year. I will say also that some problems with this movie are the...unique interpretations of Superman and Batman. The director Zack Snyder puts them into a dark, gritty modern day world and they fit, but they are very loose interpretations from the source material. Not to say they're bad interpretations, just that purists will probably have (have had) issues with their depictions here. I'll go into some more detail on Monday for my full thoughts and feelings after a weekend of processing.

Thanks for stopping by!

Board Games and Self-Care

On your average night, my friends and I get together after work, homework, and all of the stressful things that come with being a Student Affairs graduate student to blow off steam by playing board games. It’s not the type of fun that you’d typically think of young twenty-somethings would have, but it’s exactly what I need to practice self-care.

I first was introduced to the whole world of cooperative board games by my good friend Maverick. He has an entire closet filled with board games—not your simple games like Monopoly, Sorry, or Boggle, but an immense variety of intricate, story driven, collaborative games that require strategy, communication, and skill. At first I played to humor him because of how excited he was to introduce his friends to his world, but the more we played, and the more people we convinced to play with us, the more I truly enjoyed the nights that we spend playing our favorite games.

Each game is different, but the premises are the same—to work together using strategy and skill in order to defeat an end mission. It’s often difficult, and uses a lot of mental power, but it’s truly energizing. The games require strategy to play, and we have to find the exact way to take the necessary steps in order to defeat the mission and avoid having negative consequences happen in the meantime. It is so satisfying to win, knowing that the decisions I might have made helped get us there. I love that these games bring my best friends together and forces us to communicate without the use of technology. I try my hardest to put my phone out of arm’s reach while I’m playing to give myself a digital break.

As Student Affairs Professionals, we spend so much of our time helping other people and extending ourselves beyond what is healthy for us. Playing games with my friends is a way for me to do something for myself that is challenging, fun, and relationship oriented. I’m so grateful that I was introduced to this world and what it’s done for my sanity this year. Board games aren’t the most typical form of fun in the digital age, but the emphasis on relationship building, critical thinking skills, and story driven narrative makes makes them something worth giving a chance.

Here are some of my current favorites:

Dead of Winter: http://www.plaidhatgames.com/games/dead-of-winter

            This game is set in a post-apocalyptic, zombie infested universe. Players work together to complete the end mission (and their own secret mission) before the rounds are over and before morale gets to zero. Each player controls a group of survivors, each with their own special ability. The survivors can go to different locations to search for items or kill zombies, and must work to solve the round specific crisis while working towards this end mission. This is our all time favorite game, and although I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve played it, each time playing through is completely different.

Mysterium: http://www.amazon.com/Asmodee-MYST01ASM-Mysterium/dp/B013TJ5P80

            Mysterium is a crowd favorite, and the best explanation I can give is that it’s like playing adult Clue. Each game has one person playing the role of the ghost, and the rest are investigators. The ghost must silently give each players cards that represent clues in order to help them find their suspect, location, and object. If players guess correctly before the round tracker is at zero, they are able to see the final clues to determine which player guessed the killer/location/object. This one is very easy to teach, and even our friends that aren’t into the intense games love this one!

Eldritch Horror: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/eldritch-horror/

            This game is a new favorite of ours. It’s one of the more intricate and long games that I’ve played, but the story and artwork make it so worth it. Eldritch Horror is based on the novels of H.P. Lovecraft. Players control a character and travel around the world in order to kill monsters, find clues, and complete smaller missions before the doom tracker reaches zero. It’s hard, and we haven’t beaten it yet, but it’s a lot of fun. It requires a lot of strategy and thought, and because of the difficulty, I find myself wanting to play it so often just to get the chance to beat it.

PS: What are some of your favorite games?

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Hannah Torrance is a West Coast native, finishing the last year of the CSPA program at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. She is passionate about Greek Life, Student Activities, Residence life, and facilitating meaningful college experiences. She is a lover of books, social media, Netflix, and dry humor. Check out her blog, and follow her on Twitter: @HannahETorrance

Movie Review Monday: Room

Welcome to another edition of Movie Review Monday!

This week's film is the award season darling, Room (2015), starring Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay.

An intense, emotional drama, the story follows Larson and Tremblay as a mother and her son, Jack, who have been trapped in small room for years. As Jack grows older, Ma (Larson) begins to yearn for more for her son. As they devise a plan to escape, the outside world begins to look more harrowing than their simple existence inside.

Both Larson and Tremblay are incredible in this movie and have to be as they carry most of the story on their shoulders. We are up close and personal with both of them, getting an intimate glimpse into their unique way of life. We see the small joys, the hard moments, and the clever ways they make the most of their space. Something else I like about this movie is how timeless it is. It could happen anywhere at any time. It doesn't date itself in anyway. There is also some neat cinematography, as a lot of the shots inside the room where literally done in the small area itself, versus doing some type of camera wizardry. It helps to really give a raw, real feel and the give a sense of the claustrophobic nature of living in such small space.

I watched this movie with my partner, and we were both immediately invested, getting tense as the story unfolded and feeling everything right alongside the main characters. Watching movies that are award season fodder tends to be hit or miss for me, but I was very pleased with this movie. It is a dark, real look at how an experience would play out on all levels.

I recommend you check out Room, which you can rent from Redbox, or rent/buy from your favorite video on demand provider.

Thanks for stopping by!

Weekly Geek Outs - 03/11/16

Greetings!

Here is what I am geeking out about this week:

• Major Life Announcement

So many of you may have already heard through social media, but I proposed to my partner, Jenn, during our trip away (more details on that below). She said yes and we are very excited to start our lives together. We've been together for over two and a half years, and as she graduates and we job search together, I felt inspired to let her know how I felt about her and our future. I was really nervous in the moment when I asked her and forgot a lot of the things I wanted to say, but I eventually got out of my head and laid it all out to her. We're so pleased with everyone's joy about our engagement, and it was nice to hear from so many people from our lives congratulating us and wishing us well. Now, onto figuring out wedding plans!

• Spring Break Retrospective

I had a great time over the past few days with my partner taking our road trip around New England. We stopped at Portland, ME, Portsmouth, NH, and Burlington, VT. We ate good food, visited some breweries, saw five new college campuses (University of Vermont was especially cool!), and toured the Ben & Jerry's and Cabot creameries. It was an awesome time together, and I am happy to relax a bit more before work starts back up in full next week.

• New Captain America: Civil War Trailer

A new trailer dropped this week and it was amazing! We got our first glimpse of Spider-Man (I liked it!) and somewhat of how he will figure into the story. We're less than two months away from this movie coming out, and it is looking to be an intense one, with our heroes going full force at each other. I'm expecting more twists and turns to happen in this movie where anything is possible and the future of the MCU is at stake!

Thanks for stopping by!

Weekly Geek Outs - 03/04/16

Greetings!

Hope all is well with you all! Here are my geek outs for this wonderful week:

• Spring Break

I'm definitely excited for this break to be here. After a busy week, I'm taking some time away with my partner to go on a little road trip around New England to do a bunch of different little things we want to get to while we're still living close by in Maine. We're going to eat a lot of good food, drink some cool beers, and see some awesome stuff. It will be a lot of fun and I always appreciate the quality time and the adventures I get to have with my partner. Stay tuned for a recap next week!

• Fitbit

I finally got a Fitbit Flex for me and my partner last week after much deliberation. They've been working pretty well for us so far. I bought them refurbished and while there have been some hiccups, when they work, it is seamless and they're comfortable to wear all day. I've been getting a baseline of how many steps I take, how well I sleep, etc. While I don't walk around as much as I like right now, it will be nice to see the improvements over time. I definitely recommend getting one to anyone who is interested!

• Podcast Anniversary

Two years ago today, the first episode of The Student Affairs Spectacular Podcast premiered. Now, I've recorded the 100th episode of the show, and we're moving onward to 100 more episodes. It has been an honor and a privilege to be a part of this endeavor, and I am very grateful for all it has given me. We have had so many great guests and talked about a lot of engaging, important, and thought provoking topics. I can't wait for you all to hear the very special 100th episode. We look back at everything more in depth and we flip the script with a super secret guest interviewing me. Thanks to all of you who listen to the episodes. I greatly appreciate it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Book Review: Likeable Social Media

I finishing reading this book over weekend after it was sitting in my Amazon Wish List for the longest time. Likeable Social Media (I read the new, revised edition) is a book by Dave Kerpen, who works with Likeable Media and Likeable Local to help companies of all kinds maximize word-of-mouth marketing as well as inbound marketing via social media (as the title would imply). Kerpen covers an array of tips and stories on this broad topic, and the end result is a pretty easy read with some great actionable ideas.

I read another one of Kerpen's books, Likeable Leadership, which was a collection of his personal and professional blog posts. I liked that book, which turned me onto this other work of his. Some of the stories are the same but their helpful impact was only furthered through their inclusion here where they are put into a more thoughtful context. The body of the book focuses on 18 tips to help utilize social media in a "likeable" fashion. Kerpen includes advice on how to use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and more. The advice can be summed up as being authentic, friendly, responsive, and relevant to your audience. Provide content they enjoy, can get value from, and want to share. This will help them have a positive impression of your business and want to be a paying customer. A lot of this stuff was familiar to me from the education I've gotten recently about inbound marketing from places like Hubspot.

I'd recommend this book to anyone looking to brush up on some baseline tips for social media use. Whether you're a nonprofit, small business, or higher ed institution; you can find something useful here. While to me, it started to get redundant at the end, it served to further emphasize the solid points made earlier.

Thanks for stopping by!