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Study shows nearly no universities ready to deal with social media crisis
LAWRENCE — A new study by the University of Kansas dean of the School of Education reports that although higher education professionals realize the importance and potential of social media, few have figured out how to harness its strengths and guard against its weaknesses. The authors recommend strengthening policies, but more importantly, providing ongoing training and professional development for researchers, faculty and staff in its use.
Study shows African immigrants in US do well, despite differences among them
LAWRENCE – In a new scholarly paper, University of Kansas researchers write that Americans should “reconsider the treatment of African immigrants as a collective group, as this obscures differences between immigrants from different African countries and the ways they adjust to life in the U.S.” To do so, the researchers compare the integration and employment prospects of immigrants from Nigeria and Somalia, whose respective education levels and English language proficiency differ greatly.
KU law school ranks among top third in the nation for employment success
LAWRENCE – More than 86% of graduates in the Class of 2019 at the University of Kansas School of Law landed positions considered “best jobs,” according to data recently released by the American Bar Association. KU Law is among the top third of law schools nationwide in the best jobs category – defined as full-time, long-term positions that require passing a bar exam or where a law degree offers an advantage. Overall employment was more than 93% and exceeded 90% for the sixth consecutive year. The school also ranks in the top third nationally for overall employment.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
Study shows nearly no universities ready to deal with social media crisis
LAWRENCE — Not so long ago, social media was a novel way for professionals in higher education to communicate about their institution. Now it’s ubiquitous, and a generation of students are on campus who have never known life without it. Yet, a University of Kansas study shows nearly no institution is ready to deal with a social media-fueled crisis, even if they have policies in place to do so.
The study surveyed deans at research institutions across the country and found a varying landscape of policies, support and preparedness for social media use, with negative incidents stemming from it as a common occurrence. The growing number of crises and faculty members being targeted via social media shows a need for better policies, but more importantly, ongoing training and professional support in its use, the authors wrote, as well as a need to be savvy with its use to reach today’s students.
Rick Ginsberg, dean of KU’s School of Education, co-wrote the study that grew out of a presentation he was asked to give to the Council of Academic Deans from Research Education Institutions on social media use in higher education. With co-authors Kathryn Chval of the University of Missouri and Donald Easton-Brooks of the University of Nevada-Reno, he surveyed deans at 100 research institutions. The study, published in the Journal of Higher Education Management, won the Jerome L. Neuner Award for Excellence in Professional Publication from the American Association of University Administrators.
“What I learned is no campus is ready for a social media crisis,” Ginsberg said. “Everybody knows they have to be on social media, but what they don’t know is how to handle the fallout if something bad happens. It’s a great way to get the word out and share good news, but it’s so ubiquitous, and there’s a very blurry line between what works and what doesn’t.”
The survey focused on six areas:
- Whether institutions had social media policies in place
- If their institution had policies to deal with social media crises
- If they had policies or practices for recognizing social media responses to scholarly work in promotion and tenure processes
- If they used social media to promote research
- If they had social media incidents involving students, faculty, research or staff members
- If their institution provided professional development for handling social media incidents.
Just over half, 54.4%, of respondents said their institution had a policy to cover social media, and only 35.4% had established procedures to deal with related crises. Knowing that, the majority of respondents fell into two of four categories the researchers created for level of preparedness: no policy or minimal guidance. The other two were expanded guidance and guidance and support. A surprising number of the policies were created to protect the university’s brand and did not consider assisting the university’s employees, Ginsberg said.
More than 80% of respondents said their institution uses social media to promote research, but more than 80% also said it does not factor into promotion and tenure processes or annual performance reviews. Just over 38% said their school has experienced a negative incident due to social media, and 34.4% said their institution offers professional development to equip employees to handle such situations.
The findings show that, while nearly everyone realizes the importance and potential of social media, few in higher education have figured out how to harness its strengths and guard against its weaknesses. The authors recommend strengthening policies, but more importantly, providing ongoing training and professional development for researchers, faculty and staff in its use. While very few institutions recognize social media use and response to faculty sharing and promoting their work through such channels, doing so will only become more important as it becomes more commonplace, the authors write.
“The point is, none of us have completely figured this out yet, but it’s something we all will have to figure out,” Ginsberg said. “No higher education leader should go in naïve. To say you don’t like it or want to deal with it, you do so at your own peril.”
Not only is the potential there for negative headlines, campus unrest fueled by social media and harassment of students and employees, the scholars wrote, but social media savvy is more important than ever. Today’s students have never known a world without it, and in the era of COVID-19 and teaching remotely, using social media as both a teaching tool and way to connect with students is vital, Ginsberg said, adding students also need to learn how to discern between credible and invalid information found online, and higher educators are in a unique position to teach those lessons but must be informed themselves to do so.
“If we’re not on top of social media, how do we connect with this generation of students?” Ginsberg said. “If we’re going to attract students to our institutions, how do we do that if we can’t connect with them?”
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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
Study shows African immigrants in US do well, despite differences among them
LAWRENCE – Current government policies may have nearly ended the flow of refugees and other African immigrants to the United States, but a new study shows that at least those from Nigeria are well-educated, hardworking and contribute more to society than they cost the American social security system. The paper contrasts Nigerian newcomers with those from Somalia, whose work ethic is similarly strong, but whose lack of education hurts their employment prospects here.
The authors argue that Americans should “reconsider the treatment of African immigrants as a collective group, as this obscures differences between immigrants from different African countries and the ways they adjust to life in the U.S.”
Abel Chikanda, assistant professor of African & African American studies and geography, and a KU doctoral student, Julie Morris, are the co-authors of a paper published this spring in the journal African Geographical Review. In it, they compare and contrast the incorporation (they prefer that term to “integration”) of immigrants from two African nations – Nigeria and Somalia – using data from the 2017 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Chikanda, who was born in Zimbabwe, said he had long noted that those outside Africa tend to regard all African immigrants as part of the same group, ignoring the fact that there are 55 countries on the continent.
“I wanted to challenge this notion of treating African immigrants as one unified entity,” Chikanda said, “so I purposefully chose two groups — the Nigerians, who have a long immigration history, and then the other group from Somalia. They are coming from a war-torn country as refugees. They don’t have high levels of education, and they have another handicap of being Muslim. So I wanted to see how these two distinct African groups are formed when they enter into U.S. society.”
Since 1980, immigrants from Africa have formed an ever-larger percentage of immigrants to the United States, at least through 2017, when the president’s travel ban from mostly Muslim countries took effect. Today, Africans comprise 5.1% of all immigrants to the United States.
And while there are differences among people from various African countries, when considered as a whole, the authors write, “Compared to the U.S. population, the African-born immigrant population is generally more youthful with 81.3% falling in the 18-64 age group, compared to 61.8% for the national population.”
Their relative youth is one reason why these immigrants are net contributors to American society, the authors wrote. They are “likely to exert less pressure on the country’s pension and social security system. In the absence of significant barriers to employment opportunities, African-born immigrants are strategically positioned to make a net positive contribution to the country’s social security system.”
And while relatively lower levels of development in Africa lead Americans to assume that African immigrants are less well-educated, “Data from the ACS shows that African-born immigrants aged 25 and over possess high levels of education comparable to, if not better than, the average American population.”
Refugees who flee to the country are expected to be self-sufficient within six months of arriving – when government benefits run out, Chikanda said. Thus, perhaps it should not be surprising that data from the ACS show that “the labor force participation rates of African-born immigrants are higher than that of the foreign-born population and the general U.S. population,” the authors wrote.
The “participation rate” is the number of employed and unemployed-but-looking as a percentage of the population ages 16 years and over.
The rate for African immigrants, the study found, was roughly 73%, or about 10 percentage points greater than for native-born Americans. This makes sense because the immigrants almost never have the generational family wealth or high-earning spouse that permits some Americans to avoid working.
Even if higher rates of labor force participation do not automatically translate to higher rates of employment, the gap between immigrants and the U.S.-born population held true in 2017, the study found.
The authors wrote: “Overall, African-born immigrants aged 16 and over have a higher rate of employment (69.2%) relative to the foreign-born population (63.1%) and the general US population (59.9%).”
The study also notes significant differences between Nigerian immigrants, who mostly come from that country’s south, and Somalis. For one thing, with its history of British colonization, many more Nigerians speak English upon arrival in the U.S. than do Somalis. That makes the Nigerians’ transition easier in almost every respect.
“For the Nigerian-born immigrants, the proportion that possesses at least a bachelor’s degree is 60.5%,” Chikanda said. “But when we look at the Somali-born population … that’s about 15%.”
That higher level of education and English skill has translated into better jobs – a significant percentage of them managerial — for the Nigerian immigrants, Chikanda said.
Social service agencies across the country have found themselves with few refugees to resettle under the Trump administration, resulting in cuts to their funding and staff, Chikanda said. But if there is a bright side to the restrictions on newcomers, he said, it is that resettlement agencies can devote more time to helping those who made it to these shores.
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Contact: Margaret Hair, School of Law, 785-864-9205, [email protected], @kulawschool
KU law school ranks among top third in the nation for employment success
LAWRENCE – More than 86% of graduates in the Class of 2019 at the University of Kansas School of Law landed positions considered “best jobs,” according to data recently released by the American Bar Association.
KU Law is among the top third of law schools nationwide in the best jobs category – defined as full-time, long-term positions that require passing a bar exam or where a law degree offers an advantage. Overall employment was more than 93% and exceeded 90% for the sixth consecutive year. The school also ranks in the top third nationally for overall employment.
Graduates accepted positions with law firms, businesses, government agencies, public interest organizations and judges across the country. In a Law.com analysis of the employment outcomes, KU Law ranked 22nd nationally for placement in government or public interest jobs, with more than 27% of the Class of 2019 working in those areas.
“We are very excited to have reported our strongest employment numbers in ‘best jobs’ since the ABA began collecting this granular data in 2010,” said Heather Spielmaker, assistant dean for career services at KU Law. “We are incredibly proud of the hard work these graduates put into blazing career paths that we hope will bring them great satisfaction in the future.”
Employment highlights for the Class of 2019 include:
- Twelve students secured federal and state judicial clerkships, including two students clerking at a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the Law.com report, KU Law ranked in the top third nationally for placing students in federal clerkships.
- After the Kansas City metro area, the largest number of graduates in the Class of 2019 reported jobs in Washington, D.C. The law school’s 6th Semester in Washington, D.C. program matches students with internships during their final semester.
- PreLaw Magazine ranked KU Law among the top schools in the country for practical training in its spring 2020 issue. The rankings are based on schools’ hands-on learning offerings including clinics, externships, pro bono service hours and moot court participation. KU Law offers nine clinics and field placements and numerous simulation and hybrid courses.
The law school also ranks 26th in the nation for ultimate bar passage, putting it in the top 15% of all ABA-accredited law schools. The ABA collects and compiles information from schools about students who sat for a bar exam within two years of graduation. The most recent data, released in February 2020, is based on graduates from the 2017 calendar year.
All KU Law students have access to the school’s Free Bar Prep Program, launched in 2018. At no cost, students receive a post-graduation Themis Bar Review course, a Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam prep course, a first-year diagnostic exam and access to an on-site bar exam instructor.
“The bar prep program is one example of our efforts to help students succeed after they leave KU Law. Ensuring that all students have access to a clinic or field placement opportunity is another part of that effort,” said Stephen Mazza, dean and professor of law.
Employment data for KU and all ABA-accredited law schools is available on the ABA website. Visit the KU Law website for an infographic with complete Class of 2019 employment data.
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06232020
