Every Tuesday in OnCampus the Deputy Provost shares two informative articles with a read time of 10 minutes.

We heard at Faculty Senate this week that our students are feeling under pressure as we “return to normal.” They find themselves questioning the way that normal felt/feels, and they ask specifically for more “grace” from us, their faculty. I’ve been hearing a similar thing from faculty friends and colleagues—a sense of already feeling exhausted (and it’s barely mid-term!), stressed, and overwhelmed.

I’m not going to ask that we pretend that we’re not living through exceptional times, and I’m certainly not going to ask that we pretend we’re not stressed and exhausted and occasionally frayed.  But, I will suggest that we will better serve our students (and ourselves) if we take some time to recenter and ground, to breathe and relax, to remember our purpose as faculty and staff committed to higher education.

To those ends, I’ve found these two resources helpful and share them in the hopes that you’ll find a bit of time to engage with one or both, and feel a bit more settled, and less stressed.

First, this article from FacultyFocus, offers some great suggestions.

Second, this video of an address by Joshua Eyler made the rounds at the beginning of summer. Revisiting it now offers a powerful and poignant reminder not to lose track of ourselves, or our students, during the transition back to “normal times.”

In November, I’m setting aside development time to talk together about the lessons we’ve learned in the past 18 months (both the practical/pragmatic/pedagogical, and the more ephemeral), as well as finding ways to extend grace to our students when we are feeling decidedly …. clumsy (not graceful).  Please consider joining, as well, for the book group on BurnOut in November, and The Slow Professor in December (details to follow, next week).

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost