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In my capacity as an academic advisor I interact with about 50 students a week on average. Of those 50 about 48 have the exact same question every time they come see me. "How fast can I get the hell out of here?"

I sometimes feel like the one skill they really learned in college was finding the minimum requirements and learning how to do just enough to meet them. Your deftness at plumbing the depths of mediocrity is not something that looks good on a resume under the special skills section.

But time and time again students sit down and ask me for the quickest route out of college. It is the stupidest thing you can say to me. I would rather have you come in, pick your nose, and flick the booger in my eye.

Here is the honest truth...there isn't a single employer in the world that will care how fast you completed your degree. They will never ask that question. They want to know what you did in school, not how fast you got through it.

So if your educational goal is to get hired then college should be a time set aside for doing the things that will get you hired. And taking 21 credits and doing the bare minimum in all of them will never get you hired. You will have a piece of paper that says you went to school, but trust me, you didn't get educated.

The culture in Utah encourages young people to get married soon and to start making babies almost immediately. Consequently we have one of the youngest populations in the country. I am OK with that...babies and marriage are great things, and they are an educational experience unlike any you will find in college. But this tendency towards young families usually means that the vast majority of my students work, and many of them work full time.

This busy schedule of work and family infuses education in Utah with a sense of urgency..."I have to get done with school as fast as possible so I can start making the big bucks." This mentality sometimes causes us to make poor decisions when it comes to planning our education. There is a tendency to bite off more than we can chew...and in the end our education suffers.

So when the average student comes in to my office and they see the picture of my daughter on my desk and they start talking about the two little ones they have at home, and then they talk about the full-time job they have, and then they talk about taking 18 credits this upcoming semester...I usually cringe. You just can't do it. One of those roles is going to suffer, and when it comes to kids and keeping a roof over their heads...well, let's face it, it is school that is always going to get the short end of the stick.

My advice to these students is almost always the same: Take it easy. Be realistic. Your semester plan should allow plenty of room for you to succeed. Instead of having to ask profs for special accommodations for your busy schedule you should be asking them what extra work they can give you.

Television and the movies have spent the past century perpetrating the myth that college is something you do for four years. That model is based on some pretty outdated assumptions. Our expectations of college are grounded in old paradigms that were built around a student body that was rich, white, male, single, not working while in school, and lived on campus all four years. College was an inherited privilege that few enjoyed. Those assumptions haven't been the reality for the last 60 years. Today's student body is as diverse as the country itself. Yet we still hang onto the baggage of the college ideal of yesteryear. Nowadays the average student completes college in six years. In Utah that number is more like seven.

The GIs returning from Word War II and the civil rights movement that followed effectively ended the university's perpetual privilege machine and threw the doors wide open so that everyone could get an education. But a relic of the ancient university is this notion that school should be completed in four years. Do not fall for this myth. Take your time. Look for opportunities to get experience while you are here. 

Twelve credits a semester...that is just fine. 

This post goes out to all the UVU comm students out there who are finishing up their Fall semester this week. Some of you have some finals next week, but for the most part your semester is over and the next one won't start until January 9th. That means you have one month, 30 days, stretched out in front of you. What are you going to do with that time?

If you are interested in getting the most out of this whole college thing I have some ideas for making the most out of this month:

1. BUILD THAT RESUME Take some time over the break to investigate the types of jobs you are interested in. Look at job descriptions, minimum qualifications, and preferred skills sets. If you feel like you are coming up short on the job of your dreams start making concrete plans to remedy the situation. Maybe there is a class you can add or an internship you can complete before graduation. Don't start the job search when you are about to graduate, start getting the lay of the land now when the stakes are lower...and then become the employee they would want to hire. UVU has a variety of services to help you explore careers. 

2. ADD A NEW SKILL Thirty days is plenty of time to add another line to your list of skills. Adobe has this great "Classroom in a Book" series that could easily teach you some Photoshop (or other design program) basics in 30 days. There are plenty of online tutorials where you could learn things like HTML or other technical skills. Companies like Google and Microsoft offer a variety of certification programs that can be completed online. PR students should check out Google's AdWords training...it is free and very applicable to folks interested in online marketing.

3. WRITE, WRITE, WRITE If you are a communication student, regardless of your concentration, and you don't have a blog that you update regularly then you are doing it wrong. Written communication skills are some of the most valuable assets you can develop, and they only come from practice. For PR students a blog is an absolute must. Pick an issue or an industry (the more specific the better) that you are passionate about and set your sights on becoming the resident expert on that topic. Running a blog gives you license to e-mail top thought leaders and pick their brains. Use your blog to network and to learn. The goal should be to one day sit down in an interview and have an employer already be familiar with your work because they follow your blog. It could happen, but you have to make it happen. Start right now.

4. FIND A MENTOR You can't really know what is possible until you meet someone who has already taken the journey. Be bold and ask for assistance in finding your way. The right guru can find opportunities for you, help correct your mistakes, and reveal possibilities you never knew existed. Shop around, and find someone who has the time and the passion. Make it worth their commitment by being committed yourself. 

5. INVEST IN YOUR BRAND Do you have enough pieces in your wardrobe where you could dress smartly for a series of interviews? Does your online identity project professionalism? Is your laptop up to date? Is your resume ready to be sent out at a moment's notice? Do you have an online portfolio of work that you are proud to show off? Do you feel healthy and ready to work long hours? We could all use a little more polish on our appearance, both in reality and in the digital world. The goal is to project an aura of confidence and professionalism. You never know what tomorrow will bring so be ready. If you need a new suit then buy one, or make a budget to buy one soon. If you need to curate your Facebook pictures take then do it. You have 30 days to make some new habits and get things in order.

I hope this list has inspired you to take some actions before all the New Year's Resolutions talk starts. You have some time...make the most of it.

At the end of my appointments on Monday I was feeling a little burned out. For the past month the majority of students I have been meeting haven't been taking college very seriously. Most of them are just getting started or just tranferring from another school or just getting back from an LDS mission. Registration for the fall semester (which starts next Monday by the way) has been open since April 6th. Which means everyone and their dog has registered for classes already, and at a school like UVU (headcount 34,000+), classes fill very fast.

So it has been a long month of talking with a lot of students who have made it clear to me that they have better things to do than worry about school. Now I should point out that I have had, during this same time, many wonderful appoinments with seniors who will be finishing up their final semester or two. But for the most part I have been talking to...well, for lack of a better word, idiots.

But at the end of my day I had an appointment, who for FERPA's sake I will call Jordan, that changed my negative outlook considerably. Jordan had done his homework, he had taken the iniative and registered for classes months ago. He was well dressed, polite, and respectful of my time. He had also printed out several internship job listings from local television station websites. He wanted to know if the direction he was taking was preparing him for the minimum qualifications these postings were asking for. We talked about courses, opportunities outside of the classroom, and how internships could serve as a stepping stone toward a career. He walked out of the appointment not just ready for next week but for the next couple of years. Sure, we will want to continue to meet each semester to check on things. But Jordan has a clear plan and the drive to follow it. And after the month I have been having it was just what I needed. 

Last Friday I had the privilege of attending Utah Valley University’s graduation ceremonies, in particular the convocation for the College of Humanities & Social Sciences. Nobody goes into public education to make the big bucks, so it is days like last Friday that makes my job as an academic advisor worth all the long hours.

For all my students that walked this Spring (and it was well over 100 of you by the way) I want to congratulate each of you for all of your hard work and dedication. It was great to see you in your caps and gowns…every single one of you had the exact same giant grin on your face as you walked off that little sloped podium. It is a fun thing to watch. Thank you.

You have done something that a lot of people start but few finish. I hope you continue to learn new things, continue to challenge yourself, and all that other shit I am supposed to say as an advisor.

But most of all I hope you listened to the speech of your valedictorian Jorgen Hansen. Earlier that day the University held Commencement, which is a graduation ceremony for the entire school. Most of you didn't go. The speaker who was invited to address the UVU Graduating Class of 2011 was Robert Gay, a wealthy businessman who the university is hoping will throw some cash our way.

I don’t want to go into much detail into Mr. Gay’s speech (though you can read an excellent response to it here), but let’s just say that some of the overtly religious and political themes rubbed some the wrong way.

Luckily for us we had Jorgen’s speech at our convocation. I know Jorgen, we have a lot of friends in common, we are friends on Facebook…but that is about as far as it goes. He is a nice guy, and he is passionate about his ethical positions, and I respect that. My guess is that some of us might not have caught the entirety of Jorgen’s remarks (and I understand that…2 hours is a long time to sit in those silly gowns). So I asked Jorgen if I could post his speech here. Give it another go and see if it does anything to you:

100 billion is quite an impressive number. Astronomers estimate that the universe has something like 100 billion galaxies contained within it, and that each of these galaxies is home to about 100 billion stars. Moreover, neuroscientists approximate that the human brain is composed of roughly 100 billions neurons, with potential neural connections that far exceed any number that we can meaningfully comprehend… As far as we know, the interconnections between the multitude of stars and galaxies – if any such associations exist – do not give rise to any phenomena nearly as astounding as conscious experience. And yet, the bonds that these 100 billion neurons share with one another do just that… this is how we are able make sense of the universe, how we are capable of experiencing emotions such as love and compassion, and how we as human beings relate to one another with positive connections of our own. And since we are fortunate enough to participate in the miracle that is conscious experience, one would hope that such a gift would not be squandered. Unfortunately, 100 billion also illuminates certain negative relations that humans have with the world. On conservative estimates, America spends about 100 billion dollars per year on war with the Middle East, human beings worldwide slaughter about 100 billion animals per year for food, and economists estimate that Facebook will be worth about 100 billion dollars by the end of 2012… That is to say, far too much of our time and money are spent on methods which distance us from one another, and from other beings on this planet. 

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I am taking a documentary film class from Scott Carrier this semester, and our first assignment was to show that we can cut video and embed audio by basically building a music video using clips of stuff we found online. For some reason I was having a devil of a time coming up with something that would work, and that I would actually like. My original thought was to have scenes of traffic and cut it with Al Di Meola's "Race With The Devil on a Spanish Highway" and do a montage of car chases. Stupid...but I didn't know what else to do. There were two clips I liked but I didn't know how to mesh them. The first is the short movie C'était un Rendez-vous by Claude Lelouch which is about the nuttiest 8 minutes of action ever recorded. Check it out here:

The other clip is from 1905 and it was made by strapping a movie camera to a trolley car as it went down the streets of Old San Francisco. You can check it out here:

I don't know what I was thinking...it was so stupid. So last night I got the idea to take the song Dude From Tomorrow by The Broken Spells and mix it with clips of bums dancing. I think it worked:

Recently danah boyd (not a typo...Ms. boyd is, shall we say, hooksian in her approach to capital letters), of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, tweeted the following question:

So I decided to do an informal survey of my collegiate Twitter followers, and was surprised to find that the majority of people who responded said Chrome was what they used. I recently started using Chrome as the primary browser on my media center. But for my laptop and my work computer I use Firefox almost exclusively. I like Chrome, but I don't yet see the real need to make a switch. Am I now relegated to the older generation of the Internet simply because I don't use the new browser like all the cool kids?

This worried me a bit so I asked my friend Anne, Utah Valley University's Director of Web Resources Services, to give me a breakdown of the browsers used to connect to the public portions of the UVU home page. Here are the results for the last 30 days:

1. Internet Explorer / Windows 365,962  44.36% 
2.  Firefox / Windows 217,124  26.32% 
3.  Safari / Macintosh 108,676  13.17% 
4.  Chrome / Windows 62,047  7.52% 
5.  Firefox / Macintosh 40,370  4.89% 
6.  Safari / iPhone 5,984  0.73% 
7.  Chrome / Macintosh 5,525  0.67% 
8.  Safari / Windows 4,741  0.57% 
9.  Safari / Android 2,924  0.35% 
10.  Firefox / Linux 2,776  0.34% 
11.  Safari / iPod 2,577  0.31% 
12.  Safari / iPad 2,310  0.28% 
13.  Mozilla / Windows 697  0.08% 
14.  Chrome / Linux 587  0.07% 
15.  Opera / Windows 434  0.05% 
16.  Mozilla / Linux 420  0.05% 
17.  Safari / (not set) 410  0.05% 
18.  Firefox / SunOS 216  0.03% 
19.  Mozilla Compatible Agent / iPhone 128  0.02% 
20.  BlackBerry9530 / BlackBerry  89  0.01%

The first thing that I was struck with right away was how many damn people still use Internet Explorer. No wonder there are so many complaints of worms and viruses on our network! Because so many employees use the uvu.edu website everyday it is hard to to tell exactly from these numbers how many students are using IE. But even so, close to 50% of UVU users are experiencing the internet on one of the lamest browsers known to man.

Now compare the UVU numbers to the overall browser market share numbers:

That means that everywhere else the numbers for the top two browsers are eerily inverse (IE in all its versions at 31%, and Firefox at 46.6%). Weird!

So getting back to the results of my informal Twitter survey (in which I simply asked "What Browser do you use?"), 71% of students who responded said they used Chrome. Since I generally regard my Twitter Friends as the most savvy of all my social media groups I can only conclude that Chrome is the new black and that soon the masses shall follow.

So which browser do you use? Why? And does it really matter?

But money isn't everything, and sometimes the attainment of material wealth comes with an unequal portion of entanglements and responsibilities. When money is our sole motivation for attending college we really narrow not only our experience but also our expectations. This often sets us up for disappointment when we don't immediately get that expected salary right after graduation. Often students with this attitude get frustrated when they don't see "real world" applications for what they are learning. They tend to think that the only thing that matters in the "real world" is dollars and cents.

The current mess in this country's financial sector is a direct result of college-educated criminals who have infiltrated corporations, regulatory bodies, and elected offices. But it isn't just Wall Street, as Utah (and Utah Valley in particular) leads the nation white-collar crime. Again, you get the feeling that these folks went to school for the sole purpose of making more money. When greed is our motivation it becomes our occupation.

There are other, shall we say nonmonetary, reasons to get an education, and while sometimes they aren't as easy to quantify, they do provide tangible improvements throughout our lifetime. There is plenty of research out there that shows that college graduates tend to contribute more positively to society. College grads tend to vote and volunteer more often. They also live longer and happier lives (and not just because they make more money and thus have better access to health care).

But what I hope you get out of your time in school is a healthy respect for the complexity of the modern world and its issues. Political parties, advertisers, and the media love to put things in simple, black-and-white terms. It makes for a handy narrative when you can paint your side as good and the other side as evil. Couching issues in such stark relief makes the masses so much easier to market to, and ultimately control. Do you want to be so predictable that any politician or product can count on your unblinking devotion?

I hope the time you spend in the classroom provides you with a more nuanced outlook. Your views should be challenged. Your understanding should be more complex. Your actions should reflect your values while recognizing a vast diversity of thought. College is more meaningful when it isn't all about money.

First of all, last month’s graduation reminded me that I couldn't ask for a better work environment or a more rewarding job. Seriously, it was a great moment to shake your hands and give you hugs as you came off the podium with your "diplomas" in hand. Congrats!

Now comes the scary part: what do you do next? I have been there myself of course. It took three years of iffy part-time employment before I finally landed this job. Once the classes end you get anxious to start making that green. You want 40 hours a week, health benefits, and a 401k. It would also be nice to be using your newly acquired skills in an industry you enjoy. But you may have noticed that no one is knocking down your door and clamoring for your communication knowledge just yet.

Some of you have prepared for this eventuality and took the time during school to really investigate possible careers. A few of you even started building the network and the skill set that would make your dreams possible. Bravo.

But a sizable chunk of our graduates (and I would say all graduates) just barely squeaked through college. I have a sign in my office that says, “Feel free to do the absolute minimum. See how far that takes you.” If the absolute minimum was what you gave you might be feeling that the time you spent in college was a waste.

If you feel that way then I am sorry…perhaps we could have been more inspiring. We should have done a better job preparing you for the realities of a job market that is downright hostile right now. We should have done more to connect you with your industry. This department is relatively new and we have a lot of room for improvement. If you feel you didn’t get what you paid for I apologize.

But then I think about those students that really tried during their time here, even if they weren’t “Straight A” students. They got involved at the UVU Review or PRSSA. They sacrificed time and money to take an unpaid internship with a high-profile company. They volunteered to be part of the Bateman Case Study team or they held a position in the Wolverine PR Club. They took classes in Digital Media or Graphic Design, not for the credit, but because they knew they needed technical skills in order to compete in the modern workforce.

The students who did these things are better prepared for what is next. They have contacts in the industry. They have people who are looking out for them. They have professors that will write them beautiful letters of recommendation at a moment’s notice. The job market will be tough for them too, but I have a feeling that their next step will be a step up.

What is your next step?

Last night I found myself at a meeting of the Social Media Club's Utah Valley chapter (http://smcuv.org/). For those who know me that probably seems a little out of the ordinary. I am not usually the guy who goes to these types of things, mostly for the fear that a MLM pitch might break out. But last night I picked up a couple tidbits, and had some tasty buffalo-chicken stuffed French bread.

For me the real benefit of these kinds of events comes in the thinking that I get done afterward. Same goes for when I read a good article in Wired, or stumble upon some cool little nugget online. Call it "expanding my paradigm" if you want to be a tool about it, but basically these kind of experiences get me out of my rut.

So social media was on my brain while at a meeting this morning. I work for a college and the last 6 months I have been on a committee that puts on an annual symposium concerning Civil Rights and Martin Luther King. It is a good cause so I volunteer my time and my talents (mostly graphic design stuff). This morning we had our postmortem where we talked about what we did right and what we did wrong. As so often happens when you get a bunch of old guard academics together they started talking about Facebook and Twitter and how we should have used social media to drum up interest in the symposium. Academics know that these tools are powerful for two reasons: 1. They can't keep their students off of it during class. 2. Everything they read tells them that "this is important...this means something". But they don't know what it is and they sure as hell don't know how to use it.

So when clueless people get around to confronting the whole Facebook/Twitter thing they tend to treat it like traditional media. After spending 10 minutes saying that posters and flyers get lost in the noise, they suggest doing things like blast e-mails and fan pages and spam tweets. It is like they want a whole new way to have their message ignored.

I explained briefly that the power of social media is not in how it approaches mass communication, but in how it approaches interpersonal communication. If social media is treated like traditional mass media it becomes noise. Messages need to be personalized.

So let's look at our case, where the problem is getting students and faculty interested enough in our symposium to actually participate. In the past our attempts at solutions have been flyers, printed invitations, posters and the campus LCD screen network. These physical manifestations of our message are important and they do get noticed. To eliminate them completely would be a mistake. But the main problem with these messages is that they are not personalized. And because the nature of how they are produced they can never be personalized.

Attempts at PR or advertising using social media often fall into a similar trap. An impersonal message gets spammed out to everyone on a friend list and somehow we feel all Web 2.0. Our friend list becomes a junk mailing list, and the message gets treated the same way, maybe even worse because this crap has come from a "friend".

If we consider these people friends we should treat them as such. When we are looking for participation, for someone to buy into our idea, we need to make that invitation about them. What are they going to get out of it? In the example of our symposium, imagine a student getting a Facebook message from a professor that personally invites them to join the event. As a friend we know what they are interested in (and if not their profile pretty much spells it out) and we can tailor our message to them. "I thought you might be interested in this session...I know you are looking for vita material for grad school...I think this is a great way to share your unique perspective."

This means more work, more interaction, and more willingness to accept the fact that some people you know and like simply won't give a rat's ass about what you are doing. These messages shouldn't go out to everyone. Be selective, be personal. And damn it...be social.