I believe introductions are in order...

Hello there! Sorry if you investigated this link hoping to find explicit images and videos of co-eds engaging in intimate activities with one another. This is not the kind of site; I merely wanted a catchy title which seemed to have worked if you got here looking for pornography. Anyway, welcome to my blog. If you haven't read the disclaimer yet, please do so. Go on; I'll wait. ... ... ... Good? Great! While there is an 'about the author' section over there to the right, it doesn't paint the most complete picture of me. Speaking of which, here's a headshot of me:

Attractive, aren't I?

I'm sure as you've probably figured out by now, I'm using a pseudonym and the above picture is not a true likeness of me. Why am I doing this? I am doing this because I want to maintain a veil of professionalism. While I'd like to think that I'm an affable person and professional, I know that my sense of humor, eclectic as it may be, can sometimes be construed as abrasive or offensive. As such, I don't want my opinions, as humorously as they'll be expressed, to compromise how colleagues and students perceive me as a professional.

I know what you're thinking, "if he's abrasive and offensive, how does he manage to keep employed within the field of higher education?" That's a valid question, one that I'm sure any insightful student affairs professional would ask. To your question, I would respond, "I'm a human being with a fucking personality who happens to work in higher education, so chances are something about who I am or what I think is going to upset someone." Does this mean I'm going out of my way to come across as abrasive, or offend you? Unless you're a 'Trump for President' supporter, probably not.

I'll still wave and say "Heil" though...

I'm sure I just lost some readership after that joke. Which is perfectly fine, because chances are if you are a Trump supporter, you have an adverse reaction to people who make jokes about the candidate you're choosing to back, and I have so little tolerance for people who preach and support hate. In fact, while I may come across as abrasive and offensive, don't lose sight of the fact that I stand for just causes. 

I identify as a feminist. I'm a proponent for diversity and inclusion, not just on college campuses, but extending beyond into the greater social and professional realm. I am an ally for the LGBTQIA community. I am a compassionate person who is eager to help those in need, whether they be a long time friend or student I met for the first time. I'm open-minded and always willing to learn how I can be more welcoming towards others. I'd like to think I use my abrasiveness and offensiveness for good, by being a stern, gruff voice for progress and advancement.

That being said, I am far from perfect. I am going to make mistakes in terms of language I use to identify other people. I'm going to misspeak when it comes to matters I know very little about. Although I will make mistakes, I will never set out to be intentionally, aggressively ignorant. While these errors may seem off-putting at first, know that I will also seek to rectify my errors and grow from them. 

Like an ugly gosling into a beautiful swan. Ugly ducklings grow into ducks, duh.

Now that you have a sense of who I am, let me tell you a little bit about what I am. I'm a heterosexual Caucasian male. In the higher education field, I feel like this is almost equivalent to saying "hi, I'm the enemy." While I do sometimes feel like the enemy (a post for a later day), I am aware that my status comes with a great deal of privilege. However, knowing that I've been afforded a lot of privilege, I try to use it to help others who aren't extended those same privileges. I also know that while I may never be able to fully understand the struggles of those groups to which I do not belong to, I try to educate myself at every opportunity in an attempt to learn how to support those groups more effectively.

This is a more in-depth introduction to me, and by extension, this blog. Although I will be addressing trends in higher education and stories developing on college campuses, I will also have some "just for fun" posts that will examine life in general. Fear not, this will not be your typical student affairs professional blog, if such a thing even exists. I will probably incorporate scholarly references from time to time, but for the most part, this will be a casual, yet hopefully insightful examination of our field.  As I have hopefully conveyed to you by now, I'm not your typical student affairs professional.