Plan Strategically UD, IT's Your Future

The University of Delaware's new president Patrick Harker wants to make a splash. He also wants to make a difference, hopefully. Through his administration's strategic planning, he is encouraging his entire student body, his entire university staff, his own office to suggest ideas for the future of the campus and curriculum. I say, start with your administration itself for its strategic planning.

Currently working with the university's First Year Experience, I've dealt directly with the administration too much, too recently and have come to realize, many of them are sticks in the mud, ready to appease the next man up the ladder, ready in turn to smash creativty.


The First Year Experience's LIFE Program employs over eighty of the most creative, most over involved, outgoing students as their Peer Mentors. It was these elite students who dreamed up a new, creative way to end their first semester with they clusters of freshmen. It was then the administration, five steps up the ladder who smashed the idea, slammed it back into my face (the pitch man to the boss' boss' boss, who tossed the idea in honor and on behalf of those amazing eighty something students).

Frustration brewed over my long last week. I heard nothing from above aside from excuses and "board agendas" injected into this outstanding new idea. So, what's the problem with Delaware? Too many people are too quick to assume their roles behind the scenes and continue to pull the curtain cords. Instead, I choose to step onto the stage and speak out. The idea the Peer Mentors developed had nothing to do with challenging the university's mission, its values, or its general public relations. However, it was smashed because its agenda, its own, personal, program specific agenda was too creative.

Mind you, the fight is not over. In fact, our idea might still float. It was the initial rejection without question that bugged me. Thus, I urge you, as I will do, to speak out, step onto the stage, make your own splash. If you have a problem, this is your chance. Send your own ideas to our own strategic plan and let that administration know if you want that mud to get watery and a bit more flexible or even harder.

The University of Delaware's Strategic Planning

Google Tony Measley

If you're bored at work on Monday, Google the name "Tony Measley". In fact, let me do it for you. "Google"

What you'll find will include a complete, retired career in elementary education. You'll see projects, programs and agendas from his home area, Lower Dauphin School District.

What you might not see, until later this week, is his named next to USA Triathlon's page, compliments of his finish in the September 29th, 2007 Lewes Triathlon. He swam. He biked. He ran. It was this former teacher's latest brush with IT and new technology as every race competitor was required to wear an anklet to track their course.

As the race was begun, their anklets beepd as they passed the starting line. When they came back to the transition area to hop their bikes, it beeped again. Before the race was over, the tracking devise would tick four times, including the finish line, a mark Tony would hit in just under two hours.

And though his time of 1:55:00 (one hour, fifty five minutes) might not make the leader board on the USA Triathlon's website, making his name no more "Google'able", I'm typing this quick blog in hopes someone checks it out, Google's Tony Measley and sees how proud I am as his son and teammate for his next Triathlon, hopefully soon.

Forget IT... Society's Regressin'

On the occasional weekday I pick up a Wilmington News Journal. On the other occasion of a weekday, I'll grab a USA Today. I do this for a few reasons. One, I look way cool sitting at Dunkin' Donuts with a newspaper instead of nothing. And two, I like to sometimes catch up on the world and explore humanity at its best and most recently innovative state. But, was I shocked today when the two news media outlets I chose to skim (ESPN.com, and Larry King Live), had nothing but stories of old, of race riots and divides! Didn't we, a long time ago, decide all men were created equal? Was it this country or another that has over the past century deemed everyone, leprechauns, aliens, women, men, gays, straights, blacks, whites, purples, and greens the right to vote? Pretty sure it was. It was shocking for me to learn of the Jena 6 via the news feed from Larry King's desk, and even scarier to see the exact same thing happening here, in our small wonder, our home of tax free shopping.

I encourage any and all to check out these two articles as they relate. My stance on them should be clear by now. I just needed my own media outlet to state it!

University Versus State; Delaware's Racial Divide


The Jena Six

The Pew Research Center

The Pew Research Center, as reviewed for the UAPP 677 course stands as a central resource for anyone interested in numbers surrounding current public issues. The Pew website is full of numbers, facts, and information to inform any surfer of the trends of the day. Over the past week, I reviewed two articles from the site, one dealing directly with numbers of people using streaming videos every day a second about the belief of religious zeal of political candidates and its impact on elections.

Check out your own articles, survey results, and numbers at The Pew Research Center Online.

The first article I reviewed dealt directly with the numbers of people who, throughout a normal day use streaming video. The article, "Online Video", touches on trends in people using and gaining access to online videos. Here, I see a personal trend towards more and more people abandoning televisions all together. My apologies to Comcast and Verizon, but, the future is the internet. One can stream live feeds from news networks, comedy stations, and educational videos right from the internet. Why add another cable to the household and another dollar on a monthly statement?

Secondly, I looked at the "Religion in Campaign '08" Article. Apparently, times and numbers have changed in the past few years, showing now that religion is no longer as big a factor as it was only a short time period earlier. The two presidential candidates now who lead the democratic and republican parties' races respectively, Hillary Clinton and Rudy Guiliani, are both seen as having the lowest affiliation to political ties as well.

To me, a younger generation liberally viewed individual, religion does not stand in the way of someones ability or inability to accomplish their goals and tasks they set forth. Equally, I think our generation of young, budding professionals will in a short time see higher trends in apathy towards candidates based on race, sexual preference, or gender.

LIFE As Unusual

The University of Delaware's LIFE Program has a tradition of success, success measured of course in ability to see each Blue Hen freshman class through their first semester and set a base for a rewarding education in Newark or other branch location. Traditionally, at the end of every first semester of the school year, the LIFE Program, with the backing from the university's First Year Experience and Center for Teaching Effectiveness hosts LIFE Fest, a comprehensive first semester review of freshman made projects and presentations, at the Big Bob. But, this year, forget tradition. A change is needed and we at the LIFE Office are in charge of making it work.

Instead of an over glorified high school science fair, as LIFE Fest had become in the past, we, as the staff of the program needed something more interactive, more professional, and more rewarding for the hoards of bored first year students. Thus, enter the LIFE Fest Conference.

LIFE Fest as it was was long, boring, and difficult to attend for all freshmen, as it was held all the way over the bridge, past the farm, in "The Bob". But, this year, with a more professional undertone, and as scary as this may sound, me and the rest of the staff running the show, it will be my hope that the LIFE Fest Conference becomes not only a comprehensive end-of-the-semester event for all freshmen to advocate, but the entire university community as well. Cross your fingers.

The Big Hit

Being a well rounded, sometimes overly involved person, it will be my goal during the semester to keep all readers of this blog updated on all of my activity, as varied as it sometimes becomes.

Activity has always found me, or should I say, followed me throughout my young life. Throughout grade school I took part in a wide array of sports and other extra curriculars to simply, keep me on the move. As I've developed as a young professional, taken part in an array of internships and graduate level course work, all in hopes of shaping my persona, activity has conitnually kept close. This past summer, I had the unique opportunity to combine eighty five percent of my interests in one grad level internship with Ripken Baseball. I held a position with their Management and Design team, dealing directly with private investors, public entities, politicians, and baseball fans alike, all in hopes of constructing and upkeeing quality baseball facilities around the country and beyond. So much work goes into the construction of just one of these facilities. Add on to my activity list of the summer a part time gig as on field MC for Ripken Baseball's minor league team the Aberdeen IronBirds, and my personal acitivity level, including all things fun, away from work, reach all time highs, even for me.

Unfortunately, for me, and my car, on the way to another activity ridden day, one of my last of my internship, another driver on the road decided to test the integrity of my Saturn Ion. Long story short, the other car won.

At this point, it's been five weeks since the big hit adn I'm full on my way to recovery and more and more activity.