Have you ever thought about how online students can get the full benefit of their college student experiences? For a very long time, Fort Hays State University has done a great job engaging with our online students \u2013 from very personal advising, to interactive technology that enhances learning, to internships, and even a Virtual Student Senate!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Virtual Student Senate\ncontinues to grow and evolve. Elections are held each fall. Students complete\nan intent-to-run form and attend a required online meeting before they can get\non the ballot and begin campaigning. Candidates can send photos, letters, and\nvideos to all online students \u2013 hosted on a special a campaign website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Current officers are\nSecretary Taylor Pressley, Columbia, S.C., senior majoring in computer science;\nPublic Relations Coordinator Michael Williams, Lake Charles, La., senior\nmajoring in geosciences; and Vice President Jonathan Jett, Prattville, Ala., a\ngraduate student seeking a Master of Professional Studies in organizational\nleadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now in its fourth year, the\nVirtual Senate has five senators for each of our five colleges for a total of\n25. The senate meets online by video conference once a month, September through\nMay. Each senator posts an introductory video so that the entire FHSU community\ncan get to know them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SGA President Brad DeMers\nattends all VSS meetings and gives SGA updates to the virtual senators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year the VSS conducted\na survey to measure the interest among online students in connecting with one\nanother outside of their classes. It might surprise you that 78 percent of the\nrespondents expressed interest in conversing with other FHSU online students!\nThat certainly debunks the myth that online students are too busy to be\ninvolved in our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The virtual senate is also\nplanning to get more involved with the SGA\u2019s annual Big Event in April by\ncoordinating volunteer projects in their home cities. I love to see our\ninstitutional values in action. We care deeply about our neighbors, and for our\nvirtual students to demonstrate the ripple effect of this value throughout the\nworld (we have students in every state in the nation and 53 countries) is\nsimply amazing! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The senators are also a\ngreat resource for advice, pep talks, and listening to the concerns of their\nonline peers. They are quick to get students connected to numerous university\nresources and, ultimately, help each student achieve their educational goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This personal care that\nFort Hays State is known for is making a big difference:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeing a first-generation\nundergraduate student, getting the most out of my college experience was\nimportant to me. I originally thought as an online student that I would not be\nable to be as involved as I would like. I can\u2019t believe how incredibly wrong I\nwas,\u201d said Michael Williams, the VSS public relations coordinator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of the accomplishments\nthat I\u2019m most proud of was increasing awareness to the rest of the online\nstudent body that they have representation that looks out for their interests,\u201d\nhe said. \u201cBeing a member of the student senate is a great way to not only make\nthe most of your experience as a student at Fort Hays State University, but\nalso provides an opportunity to make the experience for those after you even\nbetter!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am looking forward to\nbeing a first-generation college graduate,\u201d said senior Brian Fennessy, an\ninformation networking and telecommunications major from Rancho Cordova,\nCalif., who is majoring in information networking and telecommunications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI found a group of people who I can share my ideas and values within the Virtual Student Senate,\u201d he said. \u201cCurrently, our senate is working on developing a new virtual channel for all FHSU online students, where they can create their own chat rooms to converse, share notes, tutor and even upload their research for future students. The virtual channel will be unique, unlike any other online college experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, behind every\noutstanding initiative is a person who champions an idea and then works\nrelentlessly to ensure its success. For FHSU\u2019s Virtual Student Senate, that\nperson is our very own Kathleen Cook. She has been advising and inspiring these\nstudents since the beginning \u2013 more than seven years ago. So a special public\nshout out to Kathleen for her high energy and the caring manner in which she\ninspires our students to be their best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are one of only five\nuniversities in the nation to hold the rigorous, 120-point quality\ncertification from the United States Distance Learning Association. Our\ntechnical and professional expertise alone could have attained that credential,\nbut the certification committee was also impressed by the initiative and\ndedication of our online faculty, and by the quality of the student experience\nrelayed to them in interviews with our online students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That experience is the result of the kind of personal connection we value so highly at Fort Hays State, the kind represented by the VSS, and it is what raises us to a higher plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you ever thought about how online students can get the full benefit of their college student experiences? For a very long time, Fort Hays… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12323,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mason-Tisa-040A6662.jpg?fit=750%2C1050&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54317,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54316\/revisions\/54317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}