Facebook for President

June 11 2009, 1:44pm

Several years ago I noticed if you wanted to run for student government, there was a new requirement - a Facebook group.  After discovering this, I wondered if the number of members who joined the group was an indicator and predictor of success; and to my surprise, I found the results to be only a few percentage points off. Recently, I saw a new Facebook group at my Alma Mater, Howard Payne University (HPU), rallying support for my former literature professor as the next university president. This is the first time I have ever seen a Facebook group used to rally support for a potential university president. (There are a lot of groups about university presidents, but not for positive reasons).  And as a person with ties to HPU, higher education, and social media, I am intrigued by this use of Facebook. As I begin writing this post, I am a little nervous, especially since this is about someone who once graded my writing.  (I hope she doesn’t send me corrections or grade this!)  Dr. Romig is a great professor; she challenges and expects the most out of her students.  After finishing her PHD at Rice University in 1978, she started teaching at HPU and has been there ever since.  Audree Johnson, an HPU alumni, described Dr. Romig’s classes as “life changing.”  As Audree talked about her experience at HPU and Dr. Romig’s class, I thought she purposely giving me cliché answers, but the more she spoke, I realized that she genuinely enjoyed and had an amazing learning experience in Dr. Romig’s classes that really changed her life.  (Did I mention that Audree, or Ms. Johnson is a high school English teacher?) Dr. Romig literally changed Audree’s life, which is why when Audree heard her former professor was interested in applying for the vacant president position, Audree created a Facebook group to rally her support. Dr. Romig thought only a few people would join but it quickly grew to 447 members! Not bad for a school with a population of 1200 student!

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