Working in Higher Ed. Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

We are truly living in strange times. COVID 19 has disrupted what we all know as modern education across the board. If you look back at history nothing I remember relates to the devastation it has caused. It has caused huge disruption  and our Higher Ed realm has been hugely impacted.  This is to not say other entities of education have not been affected. This is just where I am the expert and have the most knowledge about. I know these current times have caused for many to be laid off with pay, many businesses and companies possibly going bankrupt.

I am fortunate enough to still have job.  I have friends and family that have financially been burdened because of this.  I will say this these times have helped me save more money except for a few impulse buys on video games. Although our school is closed, and I’ve been working home a little over a month S/o to all the essential workers both at our school and the essential services who have been running the day to day operations during these times and still going to work although they may be putting their families at risk.

Adjustments

Everyone has adjusted and sacrificed during these times. The Staff, Faculty, Administration and Students all have given a lot from their traditional norms. My last day working on Campus was March 16^th. We went into a staff meeting and was told we would have the option to work from home until April 6^th because that’s when the school had given the students off as we started our transition to remote format.  With the initial announcement our School was allowing students to stay on campus. That soon changed as we experienced our first reported COVID 19 Case on campus. The School than gave the students till Sunday to move out and told them to take what they need, and they would store the rest of their belongings until the situation subside. I really felt bad because we had student workers still working because they couldn’t go home when the school first announced the suspension of classes. One of our Student workers lived in Minnesota and another in Toronto.

 I thought about my time in college and how my mom and I use to plan so they could save up to make the drive to get me from school. I know this whole situation has affected the first-generation students the hardest.  There families had to find ways in the middle of the semester to get them back home and in some cases maybe even put their belongings in storage. Shout out to everyone who tried to help where they could. From the companies offered free storage, to the free flights, and bus rides given to students trying to get home. It truly has taken a village.  The faculty members have had to take their classes in some cases lose a 2 to 3 weeks of instruction and put everything online to make sure students could still get their education. Can’t forget the work being done by the school administrators all around the U.S. I’ve heard of some leadership teams meeting daily to discuss. Some great ideas and initiatives have come out of these meetings from offer students refunds for housing and various fees, help grants, sending students laptops and phones to be able to do work, extend the withdraw deadline, and offer students the option of Pass/Fail for this term. You don't realize how busy the school staff are until there is a crisis and you start to see how over worked they are.

The Loss of Graduation

I think one of huge disappointments is what’s going to happen with graduation.  I personally had mentees graduating this year and even a few friends from Law School.  Some schools have moved graduation to a later date, some have opted into virtual ceremonies, and some schools have no plans to hold commencements. My heart goes out to those students who have had these moments taken away from them. Sometimes it isn’t just the graduations it’s the times, experiences, and traditions leading up to the big day that makes it all worth it. It's having your family come together around your big day and give you this happy ending of accomplishing a goal. For my experience some of the best moments in school came within the last month of classes when you are finishing up projects and your saying your final farewells to your favorite teacher, staff member, or friends because you all our going to travel different paths after graduation. Nothing is going to ever fill that void of what was missed. To all of the graduates you have met the goal and you deserve all the praise coming your way. We are proud of you!

Plans for the Future

The future is very uncertain with the current state of the U.S.A., here in Illinois our Shelter in Place order just got extended until the end of May.  From our School’s updates I was already scheduled to be working from home until the end of May. With Most Colleges/Universities being remote after spring break everyone is wondering what’s next? Some Institutions have put in place plans for summer classes to be offered fully remote. Other Colleges/Universities are exploring ideas for maybe running remote for Fall because no one knows when this Pandemic will be over. I expect higher ed to lose both U.S. and International students. I have talked to students from both populations who have opted out the Fall to go home and work to save money or students who refuse to take classes in their major online.

 The significance is I work at a Private Performing Arts School and as many students have said “the thought of doing some classes online is injustice to their education”. I have joked about this to my friends but the good thing that has came out of this whole pandemic has showed us that a lot of our jobs can be done from home. In the future if it’s a slow season for your job I think its appropriate if you can get a remote day or two in. I know it’s becoming more of a thing and I have friends as advisors who are working remote at least one day a week during the summers. Hopefully when things go back to normal or whatever that is, and people get caught back up on bills I encourage everyone to start or put more into their savings account to be prepared if something like this happens again.

What's wrong with Higher Ed

As a current higher education professional, I have come to love the field and the work we are able to do and be a part of.   To address the elephant in the room the issue I have seen in higher education is the over saturation of workers versus jobs available for one to have. I have come to find higher ed from being a part of the Residence Hall Association in undergrad and attending 3 conferences with them. To be exact I went 2 IRHA (Illinois Residence Hall Association) and 1 GLACURH (Great Lakes Affiliate for College and University Residence Halls) conferences. From this I gained the knowledge and love For Higher Ed. The other issue revolves around job hunting and interview fatigue. I know I can speak for many on how stressful and time consuming that can be.

NIU's IRHA 2011 Delegation

As professionals we must be intentional and realistic on those students we recommend for higher ed graduate programs. Sometimes we see a student who was a great student leader or a great student worker and say “Hey you should look into Higher Education”. Not knowing those students may not share the same passion for the field or they want to work with the targeted population of students. I remember as I finished my first year of Grad School I was doing a summer internship on campus in the Diversity Office.  I took time to meet up with one of my mentors as he was transitioning into a new role in the coming month. The conversation we had was nothing short of real. He told me it would be on me to help weed out people from going to grad school looking for an easy grad program. He sympathized his frustration of people passing around saying “go to grad school and study higher ed for an easy degree”.  Whenever I hear people mention they want to apply for a higher ed program. I tend to ask several questions and make sure they fully understand the whole picture of coming into the field.  I loved my graduate program, the professors and staff put around me. I felt like some things just came natural with being in the program. We talked and he assured me he knew I needed to be in the field. Going back to my experiences from undergrad to how I had developed into a professional I needed to be around. Also, over his time he had saw people not too thrilled about Higher Education taking jobs from more passionate people. 

Whats worst?

I know I can speak for the masses on the stressors of interviewing.  There is not really a time-frame you can follow. I’ve heard horror stories of people interviewing for jobs 2 and 3 years before getting a job or never getting one.  I personally have applied to jobs and heard back 6 months to a year later with a rejection. You have to jump through hoops just to get a foot in the door. Sometimes if chosen for an interview pool you must do at least 3 to 5 interviews before chosen as a finalist or to be offered the job.  For my current job I was actively applying for a yeah and half before everything worked itself out. I had a job, so I didn’t have to worry about not having a income coming in but it was an extremely long time to be job searching. There were a lot of applications sent out, some I got no responses, I got several phone interviews, and some second-round interviews.  Most notably I remember I was out of town at a conference for work. I was in a different time zone and everything. My applying had led me to two phone interviews I had to fit into my schedule during the conference. They didn’t lead to offers but it was great experience none to less and it opened my eyes to my switching over form working in trio to going into Academic Advising.

I know a lot of our work revolves around inclusion and social justice issues. We have a long way to go to fixing up our field. We first need to take care of those in the field and make sure they are taken care of.  We must make sure they are treated with the respect they deserve and not given the Higher Education Shuffle. The Higher Education shuffle to me refers to all the hoops one must jump through to get in the field from the interviews, applications, and lack of communication. I know employers be upset when people decide to leave the field or get discouraged from applying. I love the field, but I know there are a lot of changes we can see. I am pro taking care of yourself and sometimes higher ed might not be the move.

Chaperoning some of my students at a conference last year.