Welcome to the new look JTC Blog!
When I first launched James Terhune Consulting in 2016, I naively took matters into my own hand and built the original JTC website by myself. For a technological neophyte it was a bold step into a vast unknown that was completely foreign to me. To say that it was a little daunting is an understatement of biblical proportions. Either out of self-preservation or the result of weeks of sleep deprivation, I have blocked out most of the details of the entire experience - though I vividly recall what seemed like days of headbanging frustration as I trial-and-errored my way to a working website that, for its time and purpose, seemed adequate to the task.
But since last spring when I returned to JTC full-time after my five-year foray as vice president for student affairs at Swarthmore College, I have understood the website needed a refresh. And I knew I wasn’t up to the task. So, after researching and interviewing a number of web designers, I landed on a wonderful partner in GL Design (thanks, Lauren!) who guided me through the process and produced a terrific new site.
As part of the process of updating the JTC Blog, I was tasked with going through all the old posts and deciding which ones I wanted to carry forward to the new site. It was a little like finding a trove of old college or graduate school papers and reading through them years later. To be sure, there was some content that didn't age particularly well. But on the whole, the topics remain relevant today and most of what I wrote five and six years ago seems to hold up.
So, as a way of honoring the past while stepping into the future, for first JTC Blog installment on the new and improved James Terhune Consulting website I am turning back the clock and sharing a few excepts from and links to a few posts on subjects that are still pertinent. I hope you will take a few minutes to read them over and share your thoughts and comments.
from Inertia and a New Approach to Student Life (July 14, 2017)
“As I think about the challenges facing schools and colleges to provide a broad-based and meaningful student learning experience, the concept of inertia – retained velocity along a determined path unless acted upon by an external force – is especially interesting. The notion of constant forward motion serves as a reminder that educational institutions are products of their own past; often significantly shaped by history and tradition. As such, effecting change is usually a function of influencing evolution rather than wholesale reinvention. But institutions can be steered via intentional actions taken by thoughtful, purpose-driven leaders. In other words, we can provide the external force needed to influence the future paths our schools and colleges will follow.” Read More
from Getting Free Speech Right on Campus (March 14, 2018)
“There are extremists on the left just like there are extremists on the right and no doubt, many of them do subscribe to a defeat-the-powerful philosophy. And those voices tend to be the loudest and to get the most attention.
“There is, however, another whole subset of students who oppose hosting certain kinds of speakers and events on their campuses for entirely different reasons. Smart, thoughtful, caring students who understand, value, and support free speech. They do not condone, nor would they personally participate in shouting down speakers, and they completely reject violence of any kind. They are students who, if forced to choose between limiting the non-violent expression of ideas – no matter how vile or objectionable – or safeguarding the notion of a welcoming, diverse, and emotionally inclusive educational community, would choose to protect freedom of expression. But they reject the idea that such a choice is actually necessary.” Read More
from Perspective, Process, and Time to Think (Feb. 6, 2018)
“There is a unique clarity to the way you engage with and understand the inner workings of schools and colleges as an external partner that provides insight into aspects of the way they work that are harder to recognize for those who are living within and charged with overseeing them on a daily basis. I am not suggesting that outsiders have the depth or breadth of knowledge about institutional issues that campus leaders do. We don’t. But, the combination of experience, topical expertise, and being unburdened by internal politics, bias, and organizational inertia enable external partners to see dimensions of institutional functioning in ways those on the inside can’t.” Read More
From College Student Suicide and the Relentless Chorus of “What-ifs” (May 21, 2018)
“Working with college students—even students in crisis— is at once a great gift and a confounding mystery. They are challenging and charming, brilliant and blockheaded, awesome and awful – frequently all at the same time. The issues and circumstances that inform and contribute to mental health crises for burgeoning adults are incredibly complicated; and constantly shifting and evolving. As such, helping college students with suicidal ideation is an imperfect science and the importance of protecting their privacy while they do the hard work of trying to get better is profoundly important. So, any decision to go outside that privacy must be made with great care. For licensed healthcare providers bound by legal confidentiality the stakes are often higher but the ground rules, while somewhat subjective, are clear – at least in principle. For administrators, the task is quite different and rarely straightforward. While it is tempting to suggest that peripheral issues like civil liability and public relations influence decision-making, in my experience there has only ever been one question that matters: What is the right thing to do for the student? The rest is just noise.” Read More
Thanks for reading, be well, and come back often.