From Rachel Toor
Because I teach creative nonfiction and specialize in the personal essay, I think I know a fair amount about the intimate, often awful, details of my students’ lives. But my view is limited compared to that of those on the front lines: student affairs people.
Last week I went to Vegas, baby, for a "State of the Profession" conference hosted by ACUHO-I for a selective group.
There, upper-level housing folks heard from experts about the usual big picture problems in higher ed, the ones many of us can list as easily as singing our ABCs.
Leadership must look up to focus on those issues, while many toiling away on campuses—faculty and staff—are sinking under daily burdens. They often don’t have the luxury to pay attention to problems facing our industry, let alone think of higher ed as an “industry.”
They see stuff the rest of us may miss. At the conference we heard that something like 20 percent of students say they've used financial aid for online sports betting, and 30 percent of those have opted not to buy food at some point so they could use the money to bet.
We heard about problems caused by AI (deepfakes) and got confirmation that higher ed has been a late adopter in terms of harnessing its power. People: there's a big honking wave coming for us all.
I tried to get out of the invitation to speak because I'm better on the page than I am in person, and I didn’t think I had anything of value to offer. When I said this to a former president, he reflected back to me the things I’d been learning—and writing about—for The Sandbox and said he thought it could be helpful for others on campus to hear, especially if they want to support their leaders.
Instead of standing at a podium playing my guitar at them pontificating, I suggested I come with a comms person and we have an informal chat about what we each hear from presidents. She gives tough love and tells leaders how to solve problems; I mostly listen and say, yep, yep, yep, and it's not just you.
Even though the session was at the end of a long couple of days, people were interested. They asked questions about how to talk to a president about a direct report who is mismanaging their team, and how administrators can partner with the president to educate boards. (It seems everyone knows they need help.) This group is kind, earnest, and reflexively supportive.
When we asked how many wanted to pursue a presidency, one person out of a hundred raised her hand. Many don't even want VP roles. Burnout among students affairs staff is a real and serious problem, as you no doubt know.
We see how hard the presidency is these days. The truth is, for most of us in higher ed, our jobs have never been more challenging.
If you need a little bright spot, if a happy-cry would provide some balm in Gilead, you can spend one minute watching and listening to the numinous Tracy Chapman being worshipped by country singer Luke Combs in this clip from the Grammys.