Part four of this six-part series on the Principles of Community (PC) puzzle is cooperation. This is defined as recognizing “that the mission of the university is enhanced when we work together to achieve our goals. Therefore, we value each member of the Iowa State University community for their insights and efforts, collective and individual, to enhance the quality of campus life.”
This has been my favorite one in practice because I get to hear stories and perspectives from different members of our community. The undergraduate students have interesting stories from their twenty-first century lives and internships and can apply the lessons they’ve learned to daily life, both inside and outside the classroom. Staff members have varied experiences from their time here as students, working, and the other jobs in-between. Some faculty are excited to share their research in the classroom, including real-life applications.
Dr. Manimaran Govindarasu, Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and Murray J. and Ruth M. Harpole Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, talk about the importance and impact of power systems and microgrids. Dr. Hongwei Zhang discusses using 5G networks to monitor agriculture and provide connections in rural areas. Some use simpler systems that most of us can understand and sometimes replicate on a small scale. If you want to look at fake media, known as deepfakes, or the latest forensics events, then you need to take forensics with Dr. Young Guan. Dr. Doug Jacobson, Sunil & Sujata Gaitonde Professorship in Cybersecurity and Director: ISU Center for Cybersecurity Innovation and Outreach, talks about the fun he has with scammers on systems he keeps just for these random phone calls who are hoping they found a trusting and unsuspecting victim. As students, we could easily replicate these with virtual machines. These are just a few examples of making learning fun and applicable instead of just memorizing for a test. More than that, these are examples of a campus community cooperating for the betterment of our society.
Working together and valuing each other is one of the foundational differences that the Cyclone Community has which separates us from many others. We all need a helping hand sometimes – nobody can do everything themselves, as suggested in the popular poem “No Man is an Island” by John Donne. Linking back to the ‘why questions’ covered in the Freedom from Discrimination article, these stories are more interesting when asking questions to discover the experience of the storyteller and their perspective. Asking questions about others’ stories is one of the major methods I have used to learn about how to think and critically evaluate problems. I have my own perspective, but with the perspective of others, I can more completely evaluate possible alternatives and solutions. We learn better together.
I have come across a small group of people in our community that have made assumptions about me, which turned out to be untrue when paired with the facts of the situation. After discovering these incorrect assumptions, I concluded they could have been avoided if the involved members had stopped to ask me why questions and clarified their interpretation of events. This is in stark contrast to my experience with the student body. Students are full of questions and curiosity. The positive side to this situation was having other staff members who were willing to help me with the information I had and attempt better communication with this group. These staff members who gave the support and counsel to deal with this situation are responsible for the fact that I am still here on campus and on schedule in my degree timeline. Working together to place student needs as the top focus and sometimes above their foundational job responsibilities is unique.
When you have an assumption or a conclusion about someone, please tell them directly and don’t put them in a situation where everyone but them knows some gossiped “fact.” If this were you, would you want to know what gossip was being told about you? You might even be able to learn something about others’ perceptions to improve yourself in the process. Withholding information from the individual is discriminating against them as not being worthy of knowing the “facts” being discussed. This also prevents cooperation since you have closed the communication channel with them.
Communication and cooperation go together to the point where you can’t have one without the other. Asking the why questions is a simple and basic method for building communication and, subsequently, cooperation. These virtues ultimately lead to trust. Show interest in those around you and learn from them by actively listening, which means you don’t just hear what they’re saying but understand what they’re trying to communicate. You never know what you will learn when you take a moment to focus on your teammates and colleagues.
