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| | | | Last summer, we gathered reporters and editors to brainstorm ideas for a survey of higher ed’s work force that forms the backbone of The Chronicle’s new special issue, published online this week.
While planning our survey, we had many questions: Do people working in higher ed feel respected by others on campus? Do they feel connected to their institutions’ mission? What are their greatest sources of stress and satisfaction on the job? More than 4,000 people responded, about equally split among administrators, faculty members, and staff. Some of the news was cheery: Most respondents, no matter their role, said they felt respected by colleagues and students. Most said they contributed to their college’s mission. |
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| | | | But the overwhelming sentiment was weariness. As one respondent told our Adrienne Lu, “Most of us are working seven days a week just to keep up. That's not sustainable at all.”
Readers of The Chronicle know higher ed employees are burdened by workloads, budget cuts, and political interference. And, of course, a survey captures one moment. We fielded ours in the two weeks leading up to and the two weeks following the presidential election; after November 5, the share of people who saw political interference as a major contributor to their stress grew seven percentage points.
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| | | | Over the past couple of weeks, the storm of White House Executive Orders affecting research and other programs has clearly amplified that stress. As Brendan Cantwell, a professor of higher education at Michigan State University, puts it in an essay in this issue: "The entirety of American higher ed is in a stupor, uncertain of where it stands and what will come next."
Meanwhile, as our Megan Zahneis reports, the respect that respondents feel on the job is undermined by perceptions that college leaders don’t have a clear vision of how to deal with difficult circumstances.
Can higher ed’s workforce keep going? If so, how? Contributors to a forum in this issue offer ideas for change – many of them surprising. Kevin R. McClure, a regular contributor to The Chronicle, describes ways to lift morale and encourage employees not to flee.
For now, it’s clear that a sense of purpose is what keeps many people plowing on. “It can be challenging at times,” wrote one respondent, “but I believe in the mission of the university and think this is a worthy cause.”
Sincerely,
Jennifer Ruark
Deputy Managing Editor
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