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.