Tag: employees

A Quick Guide for Difficult Situations

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Most of us have experienced tense situations in classrooms. A discussion gets out of hand, a student is experiencing some sort of trauma, or, in extreme situations you think someone might be a threat to themselves or others. Whether you are on Zoom or in a classroom, it is tough to know what to do in real-time. In recognition of this difficult circumstance and the sometimes complicated nature of University support structures, we have developed an easy reference guide for faculty, a “one-door” system for you to “knock” on when you need help. You may have also seen the guide as the Canvas pop-up last week and we are working on placing it in physical classrooms.

We are trying to simplify the process of getting help for students by directing most traffic and alerts to the Campus Assessment Response and Evaluation (CARE) team. This is a group of professionals on campus at the intersection of mental health, physical health, and overall well-being. 

Associate Vice President Juanita Mottley shared this additional context with me for the message this week. 

Thank you for your continued commitment to the well-being of our campus community. We appreciate your diligence in submitting a CARE Report when you have concerns about a student.

Please be aware that we take every report seriously and cannot disclose specific information regarding the actions or outcomes related to the student in question. Rest assured, once a concern is submitted, our multidisciplinary team promptly connects with the student to offer the appropriate support and resources. The student’s participation in these support efforts is voluntary.

Thanks again for your understanding and continued support.

Keep a copy of the guide (PDF) handy. We all have a role to play in supporting our students. Let’s take care of each other and our students. If you need help with a situation in your own life don’t hesitate to contact the Employee Assistance Program.

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.

You Can Listen

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I have been struggling with what to share this week. This is an exciting and stressful time of the year under typical circumstances with commencement and finals just days away. The budget situation combined with the tension on campuses throughout the nation has many of us trying to find the right words. Faculty are often the face of the institution for students. You are the person they ask questions of and look to for guidance. This is incredibly challenging especially since very few of us are trained in international politics, budget projections, or de-escalation. These issues are making their way into our classrooms and offices whether we want them to or not. 

There are resources on campus to help you and your students navigate challenging situations. The Counseling Center exists as does the Employee Assistance Program. However, the thing we can all do regardless of our professional background is the simplest–we can all listen. You can listen to your students who feel alarmed by what is happening in Israel, Gaza and/or campus. You can listen to students who have been subjected to antisemitic or anti-Muslim bigotry. You can listen to your student who does not want this to be the focus of the end of their semester as they try to finish the term or graduate. You can listen to your colleague who is anxious about the budget and what that will mean for their job. You may hear something you need to share with your Department Chair or a different office on campus–cross that bridge when you get to it.

Listening does not mean agreeing and it almost always helps. It can help you understand and it can help someone else feel heard. This is not the first time I have shared this advice in a fraught moment. I want to borrow the closing line I used in 2016. 

No one ever looks back on a decision and says to themselves “I wish I would have understood people less before proceeding.” So ask students how they are doing, let them know your office student hours are open to them, and listen.

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

Rekindling Faculty’s Passion

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Dearest faculty,

I don’t know about you, but the first 2-3 weeks have been… weird. There, I said it. I am on campus, I enjoy the FDEV office space and team dynamic, I am energized by the colleagues I see, and yet, most of my meetings are still in Zoom, so I feel I am living in a limbo between limited in-person interactions and the ever-present virtual world. 

In doing some reading in preparation for this Tuesday Tip, I came across an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Great Disillusionment (Ellis, 2021). The author presents a fairly grim look at academia, from the perspective of both faculty and staff, and she explores how, while “employees’ dedication to higher education’s mission has fueled colleges for many years […], the pandemic has caused many people to renegotiate this dynamic.” More specifically, Ellis shares how “the graciousness, the compassion, the ‘we do it for the students, we do it for the work’ — that’s gone.”

This year I would like to commit, as Faculty Development Director, to rekindle some of that graciousness, compassion, and passion and to focus on faculty’s needs more closely. Let me be clear, though: my commitment does not involve glorifying practices that justify working overtime and prioritizing work over health and wellness. I am not looking for faculty to embrace compassion at the expense of their well-being. I want to commit to rekindling faculty’s passion by offering resources, programs, and events that can help faculty thrive in all areas of their professional growth.

Last year, FDEV was inevitably very “reactive” to the pandemic, the switch to online instruction, and the need for supplemental training in digital pedagogy and academic technologies. For this, we have received very good feedback and we are grateful that our efforts could respond to and serve your needs. But looking at the low number of applications for FDEV programs in Fall 2021, I started wondering if we are truly responding to your current needs. This is certainly not a criticism towards the low number of applications we are receiving: on the contrary, I see this is a clear call for the Director of Faculty Development to stop for a minute, listen to “her” faculty, and re-think what faculty truly need to thrive. 

For this reason, we had a long and important conversation last Friday with the FDEV Advisory Board to discuss how, whether we are reacting to the pandemic, climate change, the wildfires, or social and racial injustice, the burnout is palpable, and we are now constantly in “survival mode.” 

Good job, Sherlock, you might think: did you really need an Advisory Board meeting for that??
Well, no, I did not need an Advisory Board meeting to know faculty are burned out. I needed that conversation to discuss how to better respond to and address the exhaustion I feel so present, though.

In this spirit, we have extended the deadline for the open calls of all FDEV Fall 2021 programs, and we have designed THIS SURVEY to collect feedback so that we can plan the rest of the year with your needs in mind. 

I hope that you will be willing to take a few minutes out of your day to fill out this survey, knowing that the Advisory Board and I will read your feedback carefully and we will use it to guide our efforts. 

Faculty, you are my priority, now and always, and I am here to support you in every way I can.