*2010 NASPA Case Study: A Dangerous Outlet

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Darcy Clarke
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1 1 Graduate Student Setting * Institutional characteristics Name: Whitney College Type institution: Private Woman s College; Master s granting Enrollment: Undergraduate: 785 Graduate: 261 Location: Rural Selectivity: Selective Student characteristics Age (average): Undergraduate: 20 Graduate: 35 SES (%): Low: 15 Middle: 60 High: 25 Resident Students (%): 89 Race/Ethnicity (%): African American 7.6 Latino/a 2.6 Asian American 2.2 European American 84.1 Native American 0.6 International 2.8 Gender (undergraduate %): Undergraduate Male 0 Female 100 Graduate Male 40 Female 60

2 2 Characters: Ellie is a first-year at Whitney College. She is a student in Dr. Johnson s class and is also a research assistant for him. Furthermore, Ellie is a star athlete for the volleyball team. Mr. Dell is Whitney College s volleyball coach. He is known for a tough love coaching philosophy and for drastically improving women s sports programs across the nation. He demands excellence on and off the court. Bobby is Ellie s ex-boyfriend from high school. He broke Ellie s heart when he went away to college and fell in love with someone else. He broke up with her by sending her a Dear John Letter. Dr. Johnson is currently an assistant professor of English 101 at Whitney College. He is the youngest professor at the college and was the youngest student to receive his doctorate from a prestigious Ivy League School. This is his first experience teaching at a women s college. All of the students at Whitney College love Dr. J and find him easy to talk to and connect with outside the classroom setting. Dr. Johnson is also a faculty partner at Whitney College. As a faculty partner, Dr. Johnson resides in on-campus faculty housing, and has regular meals with students at the on-campus dining facilities. He has been described as every young girls dream. Amanda is Ellie s resident assistant. She and Ellie do not particularly feel comfortable in each other s company; they really do not like each other. Mr. Tucker is the Coordinator of the residence hall where Amanda works and Ellie lives. He and Dr. Johnson are close colleagues and good friends. He often sees Dr. Johnson hanging out and has joked with Dr. Johnson about his young lady followers. Mrs. Williams is the Director of Housing. Dr. Sbarro is the current Dean of Students.

3 3 Case Study: A Dangerous Outlet Case Narrative First-year Adjustments Ellie, a freshman undergraduate at Whitney College, uses Facebook as a means to communicate with her friends and relatives as well as update her blog. Updates from the blog are posted to her Facebook where students can read her entries. She has met quite a lot of people since she arrived to the college through resident meetings and freshman events; and since the college is a smaller student population, most of the people she sees on campus can be matched to a name she has heard of. By her second semester of her first-year, Ellie accumulated about 250 Facebook friends who were affiliated with the college. In addition, Ellie plays volleyball. She is an exceptional player who has spent years dedicated to the sport. Her parents have invested time and money into the development of Ellie s athletic abilities. When Ellie applied to Whitney College, she had no interest in playing volleyball. However, if she did not pursue volleyball at Whitney College, Ellie s parents said that they would no longer support her financially. Mr. Dell has been coaching the women s volleyball team at Whitney College for the past fifteen years. He has helped the program grow from a small club sport to a NCAA-division sport. For the past three years, the volleyball team has placed among the top twenty teams in the conference. However, he has persistently recruited the top high school volleyball players in efforts to be among the top five teams in the conference. Ellie was approached by Mr. Dell the summer before her first-year. Mr. Dell promised Ellie a full ride to college if she accepted to play for him. With the pressure from her parents, Ellie accepted. For the most part Ellie has enjoyed the experience playing for the team but sometimes feels overwhelmed by the intense level of commitment required. She has expressed her feelings and anxieties to her teammates, only to be reminded by upper class teammates about stories of former volleyball players who couldn t handle it. When players did not make at least a 3.0 or the coach learned that players sought counseling, the players were suspended from the team. Although the coach said they could return when they got their acts together, most players did not return to play, consequently, losing their scholarships. Ellie has been using her blog as an emotional outlet. The summer before Ellie came to Whitney College, her boyfriend of three years, Bobby, broke up with her. Bobby told Ellie that he did not want to be in a long distance relationship, however Ellie learned that he had a friend on campus. To deal with her emotions, Ellie writes on her blog when she misses Bobby or feels depressed.

4 4 Cause for Concern Ellie registered for English 101 her first semester of college. The professor, Dr. Johnson, is in his first academic position, since earning his Ph.D. Dr. Johnson truly cares about his students and wants each of them to succeed and so will assists them whenever he can. Over the fall semester, Dr. Johnson and Ellie become very close. Dr. Johnson believes that Ellie is a bright student with lots of potential. Based on her performance, Dr. Johnson asks Ellie to help him with a research project funded by the college. Ellie loves going to his class and helping Dr. Johnson with the research project. After her break-up with Bobby, working with Dr. Johnson helps Ellie not think about Bobby. In addition, Ellie has felt better than ever and attributes that to Dr. Johnson. She often tells family and friends how much she loves Dr. Johnson and how he makes her feel so special. Following a long weekend, Ellie becomes unsually isolated and withdrawn. She starts to miss class and important deadlines for school. In addition, Ellie has been missing practice. Mr. Dell has warned Ellie that if she continues to miss practice, she could lose her scholarship. By the end of the term, Ellie is placed on academic probation. Furthermore, Ellie turns to her blog more and more to write about her feelings. Ellie s resident assistant, Amanda, is a friend with Ellie on facebook. Amanda usually requests to be friends with all of her residents to develop a closer relationship and maintain contact. One day, Amanda notices some of the statuses that Ellie has been posting and is somewhat disturbed by them. For several weeks, Amanda continues to check Ellie s facebook statuses to see if the postings progress. After a few more weeks, Amanda realizes that Ellie has a blog posted to her facebook. Amanda begins to read the blog and discovers that Ellie s odd postings have been begun since the start of school. However, by the middle of the term, Ellie seemed to be very happy, almost in a euphoric way. Amanda also finds that Ellie writes a lot about her English professor, Dr. Johnson musing about the way he looks at her, gently touches her arm, and laughs at her jokes. She writes of late evenings and he helping her with her work at his office. By the semester s end, Amanda s blog takes on a dark side with Ellie once again becoming depressed. Amanda feels that she can no longer ignore the issue of Ellie s blog. Amanda goes to her supervisor, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Tucker is the coordinator of Amanda s area in the residence hall. Amanda shows Mr. Tucker Ellie s blog. Moreover, Amanda tells Mr. Tucker about Ellie s facebook statuses. The director of housing, Mrs. Williams, calls Mr. Tucker into her office about an urgent issue. The director has become aware of the situation through the Dean of Students, Dr. Sbarro. Dr. Sbarro is very upset and has had many students come into his office complaining that they were uncomfortable about the situation with Ellie and Dr. Johnson. Apparently, the students have been reading Ellie s facebook and blog postings.

5 The Charge: You have to meet with the Campus Committee by next week. The campus committee meets monthly to discuss campus-wide issues that affect several different student affairs offices. There will be representatives from housing, counseling, academic affairs, advising affairs, the health center, and financial aid. In addition, you have requested an athletic representative and Mr. Dell to be present at the meeting. 5 * Appendix: Excerpts from Ellie s Facebook Page and blog Ellie s Statuses: Fall 2009 Ellie Flowers feels as though life can be so pointless at times. August 20 th, :43 P.M. Ellie Flowers hates everything. August 31 st, :12 A.M. Ellie Flowers is tired of being here. September 3 rd, 2:23 P.M. Ellie Flowers thinks things might turn around. September 8 th, 11:08 A.M. Ellie Flowers has found her man. September 17 th, 4:40 P.M.

6 6 Ellie Flowers has to believe in fate. October 11 th, 3:32 P.M. Ellie Flowers has never felt like this before it must be love October 24 th, 12:22 A.M. Ellie Flowers can t believe what a joke she is to people. November 13 th, 9:03 A.M. Ellie Flowers might as well not even be here. November 21 st, 10:10 P.M. Ellie Flowers just wants to crawl up and die. November 29 th, 9:59 P.M. Ellie s Last Blog December 3 rd, :47 P.M. I honestly cannot believe this is happening to me again. I believed in him with all of my heart and again another guy has let me down. First it was Bobby, who somehow could not find the time to be with me even though we would be apart in distance. Then it was Dr. J. I can t believe I saw him with her. I thought he loved me. The research position, the long hours and late nights. I just can t believe it. Dr. J told me I was so bright and had so much potential, and that I was his favorite student. He could have picked tens of other students to be his research assistant, and he chose me. ME. I thought that meant more I don t see the point in even living if every time I put myself out there I get shut down. I might as well give up. I don t want to feel pain anymore. No one would even miss me. It would be so easy for me to disappear. I can t live

Philosophy Paper. same exact philosophy about everything because everyone is different and has grown up in

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