Recently my institution shifted from what they called ‘silos’ of campuses, competing for enrollment, students, resources and improvements for facilities to a One College model. I’m not speaking in any official capacity here, let’s get that straight - however, as an educator and someone who has felt the negative effects of this competitive model (as have my colleagues and students) - It’s important to me that I acknowledge the tremendous shift and trust that is now required of myself and my peers in order to work together and play nice when many of us have been working in environments that have had different working-cultures and communities. As with many large institutional decisions - very few of the folks who are directly affected have the time or the resources to be at the table and those who can, often do not represent the ones most impacted. So we’re left to figure out how to go from mostly dysfunctional and resource-hoarding - a finite scenario to one where working together, we trust and respect one another and enjoy the success of others without diminishing our own joy and our own success…. this is a huge ask, I realize this.
To acknowledge my privilege at my institution is essential here because when issues such as job security and speaking up for myself, my students, others came with the weight of whether or not I’d be considered a ‘trouble maker’ and too much to earn tenure - that’s too much of a risk for most of us who are professors. It is a responsibility that those of us - especially those of us who started out as Part-tIme and Adjunct Faculty to speak up and use the bubble-wrap cushion of tenure as a way to safely advocate for everyone who works with us and not just ourselves. That is what got me thinking about plowing ahead with adding a discussion of what I see as some of the basic issues based in human behavior, cognitive and behavior as well as social science to this blog.
Through the pandemic I’ve been running, hiking and walking my way through a ton of podcasts, many that address the root causes of both the problems as well as potential solutions to this situation myself and my colleagues now find ourselves in. I plan to keep posting episodes that I have found helpful.
For now - I acknowledge not only has the institution I work for asked us all to get in our little groups to participate in ‘trust fall’ activities - but they’ve abdicated their role as facilitator - camp counselor, if you will. Rivalries between ‘cabins’ have been allowed to fester too long and the counselors have sent us out to play ‘capture the flag’ without actually defining what the boundaries are. So yeah - no one feels safe to let go and trust that the same folks who bullied them on the field of play are going to behave any differently as they let gravity do her thing and fall off that rock into … what? Waiting arms? The dirt below? Everyone is wondering if it’s worth it. The accountability is missing and responsibility has been passed along the line until the folks being targeted, feeling betrayed, attacked and minimized are being asked to pull themselves up and trust one another.
I love a good chance to believe things will work out - it’s an annoying defense mechanism of mine. The other, is that I make connections between seemingly disparate issues or ideas in my life. One of the richest sources this past year of those connections have been the podcasts I have listened to as I’ve taken my daily outside time.
Hidden Brain is a great podcast and without listening to all of them (yet) I can recommend the following - because I trust that they are all going to be good….
One of the questions that I ask and perhaps could assist folks dealing with similar issues in their workplaces - how do the discussions or topics of each particular podcast relate to how you could improve your classroom or your work community? These podcasts give me hope and help me understand my own reactions and hopefully help me navigate these relationships with work, life and myself better.
So, that’s all for now. Thank you for reading.