Why Care for Faculty and Staff is Critical in Higher Education
Tracie Addy reflects on what she's learned as a Center for Teaching & Learning Director
During my time in academia in both faculty and staff roles, my most transformational moments have involved acts of care. In a sense, I am a beneficiary of care and endeavor to enact care. Seeing an opportunity to advance local and national discourse on care in higher education, I enthusiastically joined the Care in the Academy project.
Conceptualizations of care in professional spaces can sometimes seem vague, narrowly defined, or misconstrued. Care in the academy is distinct and focuses on supporting the people in the work environment, through their interactions with one another, and the structures put in place to help them consider each other’s needs within those spaces to thrive. The antithesis of care is operating in silos and being inattentive to the circumstances and humanity of our colleagues.
I can recall many occasions where I benefited from care as a faculty member. Such was demonstrated when colleagues stepped in to teach my classes when I needed to be with family because someone was in the hospital or had passed away. Care was when supervisors acted as mentors or sponsors, recognized my potential, and connected me with career opportunities. For example, I will never forget the actions of a previous department chair who encouraged me to further my education in teaching and learning. To this day I remember our conversations and her investment in me, a female-identifying, person of color, one of the only in my professional circles at the time. When I held an adjunct faculty position, care was exhibited when a full-time departmental colleague who taught a different section of the course took time to meet me in the evening to make sure I was all set with my night section. Care was when colleagues shared their course materials with me when I taught a class for the first time.
In my current role as a center for teaching and learning director I continue to witness acts of care. Care is when a colleague reaches out to say that they appreciate the programs or initiatives that my center facilitates. Other examples are when members of my college community invite me for coffee or offer helpful, solicited advice that advances my work. The lovely handwritten notes in my office from students, faculty, and staff members within and outside of my institution all demonstrate care. Care is also when a colleague checks in on me amidst the busyness of the semester.
What care looks like to me might differ from someone else. Most important is that in academia we develop an understanding within our institutional contexts of what care means to those around us as well as focus on our overarching needs as humans who operate in academic circles.
Care is the lens through which I view my work at my center for teaching and learning, rooted in center experiences during my formative years. At one point in my career journey I worked in a center known by the commonly used acronym TLC, short for Teaching and Learning Center. A staff member at the TLC commented on how much they appreciated that the center name was also the abbreviation for “tender, loving, care,” and aligned with their core values in educational development. Similarly, at my center, I focus on ways that we can demonstrate professional care to our faculty. My role is not punitive but one of support and partnership, recognizing that faculty juggle a number of responsibilities, challenges, and exciting opportunities.
Because of my values, I have engaged in professional care work even prior to participating in the Care in the Academy project. For example, each year my center spends a considerable amount of time orienting and welcoming the new faculty to our college. We aim to demonstrate care through the simple act of helping new instructors find the building where they are to pick up their office keys, to growing their understanding of the College, to helping them navigate the college, to supporting their teaching development. We’ve created communities for instructors such as VITAL faculty (visitors, instructors, teaching assistants, adjuncts, and lecturers) who might not always have access to needed support to support their professional success. Our prioritization of care has led us to facilitate networking events, pedagogical development opportunities, and spaces for VITAL faculty to connect. We host Thank a Professor or Staff Member initiatives to provide a venue for our colleagues to receive the recognition they deserve. We continue to demonstrate care at the individual instructor level during consultations and other interactions. The center is a confidential space where faculty can share their experiences and concerns with us. These conversations can have downstream effects and help us advocate for structural change at our institutions which collectively only makes our college stronger.
Last semester my institutional Care in the Academy team, consisting of Dr. Melissa Garrison, Director of Counseling Services, and Dr. Rev. Alex Hendrickson, College Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life, teamed up to conduct an anonymous survey of our staff and seek confidential input from several of our faculty members on how they have been cared for at the college, and what improvements could be made. Such data-gathering was a helpful exercise and confirmed some areas of focus and revealed new ones. We have shared some of this information with a few offices on campus to brainstorm more possibilities for further infusing care into our college, and have plans to share this information with other units on campus.
In the meantime we are also enacting change within our institutional domains. For example, for the first time this year my center will hold an Instructor Appreciation Week during finals week. We recognized that students often are supported at this time of the semester in a variety of ways –late night snacks, therapy dogs, games, and more. Many instructors devote time supporting students during office hours, administering final exams, grading, and calculating and posting final grades. Outside of interacting with their students in the capacities previously described, Finals Week can be a solitary and tiring time for many instructors. We aim to disrupt this dynamic by organizing rejuvenating and life-giving activities to give our professors some respite. This is the least we can do to show our appreciation.
Through the Care in the Academy project my team members and I continue to engage in ongoing enriching conversations on the culture of care and how we can improve it on our campus. This grant-funded initiative has led me to grapple with so many questions, such as what it would look like if care was explicitly embedded in our:
Shared governance systems and faculty handbooks,
Hiring practices and support for faculty and staff of diverse backgrounds and appointment types,
Tenure and promotion policies for faculty,
Faculty service obligations,
Management and performance review processes for staff,
Office or departmental norms,
Meeting formats, and
Leadership and professional development opportunities for faculty and staff?
Care work is not easy. There are challenges. Some might not value the work. Others might not want to devote the time, or large-scale change may be difficult to implement when managing burnout due to understaffing or other workload concerns. There are often past hurts to reconcile as well as mistrust for people and systems. Yet, during this time of change in higher education we need care more than ever.
I am glad that care discussions and change initiatives are at the forefront of this Care in the Academy think tank. I look forward to how our work propagates within higher education. Let’s create systems where care is at the center of the work we do.