If I told you to care about something, would you?

Savvy administrators now realize that placing all of the responsibility and accountability around retention on the academic offices was unfair.  For too long we told students what to connect to (academics, programs, instructors, etc), instead of allowing them choices by which to connect to things that mattered to them.

Jeff Borden on stage

Connectedness

He then showed a US map of social media sites trolling for young inductees which ranged from racist to anarchist.  How were they finding new participants?  Connection.  They were working to connect these teens via social media to fallacious arguments that “felt good” to young, manipulable minds.  They would find connection points with family, friends, religion, justice, and the list goes on.  But the strategy was the same.  Connect.  Because once connected, it was very hard to disconnect.