Eric Stoller's Blog

My last day at Oregon State University is going to be September 30th. I’ve been an academic advisor and web coordinator for the College of Health and Human Sciences (HHS) since 2007. It’s been a transformative experience. The advising team, college and university leadership, peer advisors, and my advisees have taught me so much. It has been a terrific adventure!

Speaking of adventures, you may be wondering what I’m going to be doing or where I am going…

When the “Blogger hits the big time” profile came out, I had already been thinking about my career, my future, and what I wanted to do:

During the day, Eric Stoller is busy advising students in the College of Health and Human Sciences and working on web projects for the college. In the evenings and on weekends, he’s juggling everything from consulting projects to blogging to chatting with his 1,900+ Twitter followers.

“Downtime? What’s that?” he laughs.

And these days, he’s added another job to that list of tasks, as a paid blogger for the highly popular academic website, Inside Higher Ed. As one of 13 regular bloggers for the site, Stoller has begun writing at least two blog posts per week, focused on student affairs and technology.

Working as an academic advisor / web coordinator during the day and engaging in numerous consulting / speaking engagements in the evenings and/or during my vacations has made my life feel like a roller coaster — twists, turns, dips, spins, etc…hence, the “Stoller Coaster.”

I have decided that I am going to focus my energies on my consulting/writing/speaking projects.

• I plan on attending Educause in October to promote my new Inside Higher Ed blog: Student Affairs and Technology.
• I will be participating via Skype in a technology and advising session at the NACADA Annual Conference.
• In November, I will be presenting a social media super session sponsored by Sodexo at the NACAS Annual Conference. In addition to my session, I am also going to be hosting small group consultations.

My consulting efforts are going to be focused on student affairs/higher education and technology:

• Social Media and Marketing
• Web Site Statistics
• Communication Plans
• Branding
• Search Engine Optimization
• Web Site Usability/Accessibility
• Higher Education Association Technology Development and Strategy

I am thrilled to start this new adventure. It’s going to be epic!

Credit for the “Stoller Coaster” – Conzen, 2010.

The re-designed AACRAO Consulting (AC) website is now up and running. The site uses WordPress as its content management system (cms). The AC site is set up just like a blog with posts in reverse chronological order and pages for static content.

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The re-designed Albany Visitors Association website is now up and running. The site uses WordPress as its content management system (cms). The homepage is a static WordPress page while the “Blog” link points to another page that functions like a blog (posts in reverse chronological order).

Site search, site map, context-based page titles, and a user-friendly contact form are just a few of the new components on the new site.

I made my first minor (some might call it “major”) Mac mistake last Thursday. I was traveling to Washington, DC for a client meeting/presentation/training via the Portland Airport (PDX). Wednesday night I had packed my MacBook Pro, power brick, headphones, iPod, and wireless mouse.
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