Reflections on Our Work as Educators

A mini-manifesto

I haven’t included an image with today’s post, because there is no way to adequately capture the turmoil that has unfolded in higher ed over the last few weeks. Student protesters (and faculty trying to protect them) have been arrested, tear-gassed, and injured as they tried to exercise their first-amendment rights on campuses across the country. Many of these completely avoidable consequences were caused by college presidents calling in police on their own students, the vast majority of whom were committing peaceful acts of protest.

Whether or not we agree with the reason for the protests and counter-protests is, at this moment, immaterial. As educators, and as educational institutions, we simply must have a better enactment of our mission.

College is a place to cultivate the growth and development of our students. Sometimes this work is messy and difficult. We may disagree with their ideas and their approaches. But it is still our responsibility to help them on their learning journeys by providing them with frameworks and models for developing new ideas, for checking their old assumptions and biases, for trying out different ways of thinking that may or may not stick. They need time and space to do this work, and they need to trust that we will give them that even as we guide them through feedback and mentorship.

It’s tough to be a young person in 2024, to do the work I’ve just outlined. That work is made impossible, though, when the very institutions that are entrusted with helping students instead turn against them, weaponizing policies and law enforcement in the process.

I admit to being shocked by the kinds of decisions many college presidents are making at the moment (there are some key exceptions here—Michigan State, for example). If presidents care more about their job, salary, or board than they do about students and education, they never should have been hired in the first place. Seriously. There are folks out there who can do this job meaningfully and in a way that both provides for the financial stability of the institution *and also* protects the importance of the educational mission.

This is rock bottom for higher ed. We need to find a way forward. I don’t know what that is right now, but I know the answer won’t be found by marching in riot gear. We will need community, care, collaboration, and trust if we are going to be able to turn this around.

Until next time…