Transcript Now Trending: #OMA Social Media for the Office of Multicultural Affairs Bowling Green State University Lauren Luffy, Katie Seamands, and Anna Lehnen.

Now Trending: #OMA
Social Media for the
Office of Multicultural Affairs
Bowling Green State University
Lauren Luffy, Katie Seamands, and Anna Lehnen
Social Media: media for social interaction, using highly
accessible and scalable communication techniques
Social media is a powerful tool for connecting with students.
It can be used by students as a way to express their feelings freely,
anonymously, and safely
Studies have show that students engaged with online social networking are
more likely to have better health, affective development, and academic
success
Use of social media is also related to self esteem development, satisfaction
with university life, and performance proficiency (Yu, Tian, Vogel, &
Kwok, 2010)
Mission: an official statement of the aims and objectives of
a business or other organization
Mission Statement
The Office of Multicultural Affairs provides comprehensive academic,
personal, social, and cultural support and education to students,
faculty, and staff at Bowling Green State University. The services and
programs offered by Multicultural Affairs foster an environment of
diversity and inclusion with the ultimate goal of retaining students
and enhancing personal and intercultural growth. We assist the
campus community with gaining a greater appreciation of the value
of commonalities and differences, and provide them with the needed
skills to thrive in a global society.
Goals: the result or achievement toward which effort is
directed; aim or end
Based upon the mission statement, we have outlined the following
goals of the Office of Multicultural Affairs:
To provide:
Support for students who use OMA services
Education and resources for students
An inclusive community where everyone is recognized and embraced
To Increase:
Awareness of programs and services
Attendance at programs
Conversations around issues of diversity using social media
Outcomes: a final product or end result; consequence
Desired outcomes of the tools put forth in this presentation:
Students will be able to identify resources for multicultural support and
identity development
Students will have a basic understanding of issues of various social
identities with the goal of creating a more inclusive university community
Students can access an online community that promotes multicultural
education
Theory: A set of statements or principles devised to explain
a group of facts or phenomena
Hierarchy of Learning Environment Purposes
Level 3: Community
Level 2: Involvement
Level 1: Safety and Inclusion
(Strange & Banning, 2001)
Theory: A set of statements or principles devised to explain
a group of facts or phenomena
Identity Development Theories
Cross and Fhagen-Smith’s Model of Black Identity Development
Torres, Howard-Hamiliton, and Cooper’s Model of Hispanic Identity
Development
Cass’s Model of Sexual Orientation Identity Formation
Chavez, Guido-DiBrito, and Mallory’s Framework of Individual Diversity
Development
Limitations: We present these theories not as an inclusive list of all social
identities, but as those we feel are most appropriate to the students at our
university
App: a program that can be downloaded to mobile devices.
ex. games, activities, and social networking
SafeZone App
SafeZone is an LGBT information and awareness training offered by OMA
to help educate the campus community and prevent instances of harassment.
This app would be available to download after a student, faculty, or staff
member had completed the training and would provide:
The ability to connect to BGSU’s ReportIt harassment and assault
hotline directly from your mobile device, allowing students to appear to
be texting while actually connecting to campus police
The ability to anonymously search for and find other SafeZone app
participants within your area and find allies - creating a literal safe zone
and allowing students to feel comfortable
This app is geared towards students looking for support.
Foursquare: location-based social networking for mobile
devices; users check-in at venues and earn points per check-in
Check-ins, Points, and Badges
Students regularly check-in on Foursquare at locations across campus and
this social media would take advantage of that pre-existing culture to
educate the entire campus.
When students check-in at each location, there will be a new fact or
interesting question related to issues of identity, social justice, or power and
privilege released to their mobile device.
To encourage students to check-in, after a number of points were received,
Foursquare would unlock special offers for restaurants or stores in the area
and receive badges.
Foursquare would educate all students and reach out to the entire
community to increase students’ awareness and understanding of other
identities.
YouTube: a video-sharing website on which users upload,
share and view videos.
YouTube Channel
Youtube will be used to upload video to showcase past events.
OMA would have an entire channel on YouTube to post videos of past
lectures, speakers, and workshops accessible for all at anytime.
Consenting staff members and students will be interviews about the office
resources.
Facebook: a social network service where users create
profiles, add other users as “friends” and exchange messages
FanPage, Status Updates, Event Invites
Students can subscribe to OMA on Facebook and become a “fan” of them by
simply clicking the “like” button. They can also invite their friends to do the
same.
OMA will have a webpage on Facebook that lists basic information and events
coming up, connects people who “like” the page, has ongoing discussions
about current events, as well as shows pictures from previous events and can
obtain feedback.
OMA can reach students quickly and easily multiple times a day by simply
updating their Facebook status.
Updates will include general facts and information about OMA, as well as
advertise their programs and events.
When hosting programs or events, OMA can send invites out to all students
who are “fans” of their Facebook page quickly and easily, as well as update
them about event details.
Twitter: a social networking and microblogging service
Twitter enables its users to send and read messages called tweets. Tweets
are text-basedposts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user's profile
page. Tweets are publicly visible by default; however, senders can restrict
message delivery to just their followers.
Twitter will allow OMA to Tweet messages to followers.
OMA staff will tweet questions in hopes of getting responses that would
generate a twitter conversation.
OMA staff will also use Twitter to update followers about programs and
resources.
OMA can also check and create trends in the twitter community. Trends are
topics that have been popular and will help students discover the "most
breaking" news stories from across the world.
Blog: a website with regular entries of commentary typically
posted in reverse-chronological order
BGBlogger
OMA will devote part of their website to an ongoing blog with
commentary on current events happening on campus and around the world
from a perspective of inclusion.
It will address issues pertinent to specific groups served, as well as have
videos, graphics, and links to other websites to give students more
information and other points of view on current topics.
After each blog entry, readers will be able to post their own thoughts and
comments, creating a running dialogue on current issues.
This allows students to post their thoughts by name or anonymously from
behind a computer screen, whichever is most comfortable for each of them.
The blog will provide an accessible way for students to find and engage
news and current issues both on and off campus.
Choice: an act or instance of choosing; selection
We chose to shape our presentation around the Office of Multicultural
Affairs for multiple reasons:
Within the Division of Student Affairs, OMA struggles to attract the
attention of the student body, and social media is a great way to help them
do so
The services and educational opportunities offered by OMA are of vital
importance to all students, not just those in marginalized groups that are
often identified as “multicultural”
“To continue to deny that inequality exists and ignore the
voices of oppressed others denies students their full potential”
(Evans et al. p. 251).
Challenges
Possible challenges of using social media to market OMA:
Reaching students of all ages
Access to social media
Privacy and providing a safe on-line environment
Age
Social Media has often been seen as a tool to
reach the Millennial and sequential generations
However, according to a recent PewReserch
study Millennial’s are not the only generations to
utilize social media.
By using social media OMA can still reach many
students, staff, and faculty members.
http://pewresearch.org/millennials/
Access
Social media is increasing being accessed through smart phones, and other
Access
expensive and new devices
However, all students, staff, and faculty have access to campus computers
where they can make use of all four social media outlets we have
considered in this case study.
Privacy
Providing a safe on-line community while protecting privacy is a new
conundrum within higher education
Several recent cases have explored the right to privacy for on-line posters
Suits have been filed regarding the of the validity of posting anonymously
when slander or hateful language is involved.
An example includes the 2008 Yale Law school case:
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2008/07/autoadmit
OMA will set community norms that will hopefully instill respect through
the OMA on-line community
References
Evans, N. J., Forney, D. S., Guido, F. M., Patton, L. D., & Renn, K. A. (2010). Student
development in college: Theory, research, and practice. San Francisco, California:
Jossey-Bass.
Strange, C. C. & Banning, J. H. (2001). Educating by design. San Francisco,
California: Jossey-Bass.
Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. (2011, February 19). FL: Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc. Retrieved February 12, 2011, from http://www.wikipedia.org
Yu, A. Y., Tian, S. W., Vogel, D., & Kwok, R. C. (2010). Can learning be virtually
boosted? An inverstigation of online social networking impacts. Computers &
Education, 55, 1494-1503. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2010.06.015