Does visibility equal influence with college students?

Not necessarily.

But given the pace of life most college students live at, visibility makes a HUGE difference.

If you don’t work on campus — meaning you are employed by the institution — you obviously start at a bit of a disadvantage.

You need to make extra effort to get yourself in the path of students.

You need to be on campus consistently. You should be on campus multiple day a week, for multiple hours at a time. You need to become a “known” entity on campus — even though you don’t have an office there.

You need to be on campus strategically. There are key times during the day, during the week, and throughout the year that you need to be at. Know the campus calendar!

You need to be on campus intentionally. If presence is the first step, being prepared for those”Divine appointment” is the second. As we become more known on campus, we should be prepared for opportunities to hear students’ stories, ask good questions, and offer prayer.

If you work on campus, as a part of the institution, you have a significant advantage — BUT it’s only an advantage if we’re willing to make use of it.

We need to get out of our offices. If we spend our days tucked away in our office, then we might as well be working 20 miles down the road — because most students are too busy to come looking for you.

We need to protect our schedules. If calendars are filled with non-stop meetings, then we’re of little value to students. We need to be strategic about when we’re in meetings, how many repeating meetings we take on, and how we use our unscheduled times.

We need to be at other people’s events. We’re often overly focused on our own events — what’s next on our own schedule — and what we still have to do  to prepare for it. However, if we can create space in our days to be at other people’s events — where we’re not leading, or tending to details, but simply present and available to students — you never know what might happen.

So, although there are several factors that can play into our level of influence with others, our visibility has got to be near the top of the list.

Out of sight may very well equal a lack of influence.