Where's The Support? Where's The Leadership?
On April 1, President Trump told the nation, “I’m a cheerleader for the country.” As the COVID-19 pandemic approached its peak in many parts of the US, President Trump expressed that he sought to provide hope to the people. Universities, too, have sought to cheerlead students through this crisis. With due respect to cheerleaders (it’s a physically demanding sport, to be sure), universities need a full team of diverse players. While some leadership analysts have called for quarterbacks, I suggest that universities ought to let our best players become our coaches in this unprecedented time.
All faculty are leaders. Faculty members are naturals at leading students. We manage both large and small classes, and guide students through undergraduate and graduate programs. And now more than ever, we are providing emotional support and mentoring. COVID-19 has cast its shadow upon students. It has robbed them of a live graduation, hindered their ability to complete the semester, and wrecked their chances to obtain jobs this summer and after graduation.
Polls show that Americans trust the CDC and governors more than the President. It is likely that the perception of expertise impacts trust. Similarly, we ought to trust and seek guidance from our peers who have expertise in developing online or blended learning. We ought to trust: faculty who have previously adapted courses online; teaching and learning centres, and; students when they tell us what they need and how they have been helped or hindered. This is true leadership. It is collaborative and recognizes those who are doing creative and fun work in course design. It’s inspirational, not boastful.
All faculty are leaders. Faculty members are naturals at leading students. We manage both large and small classes, and guide students through undergraduate and graduate programs. And now more than ever, we are providing emotional support and mentoring. COVID-19 has cast its shadow upon students. It has robbed them of a live graduation, hindered their ability to complete the semester, and wrecked their chances to obtain jobs this summer and after graduation.
Polls show that Americans trust the CDC and governors more than the President. It is likely that the perception of expertise impacts trust. Similarly, we ought to trust and seek guidance from our peers who have expertise in developing online or blended learning. We ought to trust: faculty who have previously adapted courses online; teaching and learning centres, and; students when they tell us what they need and how they have been helped or hindered. This is true leadership. It is collaborative and recognizes those who are doing creative and fun work in course design. It’s inspirational, not boastful.
Academic leadership during this pandemic pandemonium ought to be…academic. Scholars are used to knowing many things, and if we don’t know answers, we know how to get them. In this situation, we don’t know a lot. Yet we can take inspiration from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Consider the facts. Gather statistics. Show us the data. Make decisions based on the data and explain to whomever you lead – students, faculty, or staff – what decisions are made and why. Demonstrate how each of these decisions infer care for everyone at or in the university. How can you care for students? How can you honour their struggles and challenges while getting them through “emergency remote learning”?
Some universities have expressed beaming pride that within just one day, they “pivoted” to taking their education remote and online. Yet other universities pressed pause and allocated a week for faculty to rethink their courses, read up on online best practices (okay, binge and panic reading, but still), and seek assistance from the creative and empowering staff at teaching and learning centres on campus. This pause also allowed students to leave campus, get settled, and start the complicated grieving process of losing important parts of the face-to-face undergraduate experience (read: friends, independence, campus jobs, and a seemingly endless list of ways in which college and university lifestyle has been lost). A quick pivot is not necessarily a good one.
Some universities have expressed beaming pride that within just one day, they “pivoted” to taking their education remote and online. Yet other universities pressed pause and allocated a week for faculty to rethink their courses, read up on online best practices (okay, binge and panic reading, but still), and seek assistance from the creative and empowering staff at teaching and learning centres on campus. This pause also allowed students to leave campus, get settled, and start the complicated grieving process of losing important parts of the face-to-face undergraduate experience (read: friends, independence, campus jobs, and a seemingly endless list of ways in which college and university lifestyle has been lost). A quick pivot is not necessarily a good one.
Universities have shared feel-good stories of how students have adapted to online life, and social media leaders in higher education have shared sound advice on how to support students and create an environment of trust in this abrupt shift to living and learning online. But really, student safety and wellness is of prime importance not only now but always. And especially, now is not the time to engage in noxious promotion of your university. Promotion and braggadoccio at this difficult time smacks of propaganda. Rather, it is time to reflect, examine best practices, and share via social media, university news/webpages, or announcements to students if appropriate, so that we can all get through this together.
Leading in a tragedy is a special kind of leadership. In a press conference on 20 April, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked how this crisis has affected his leadership. He responded that Canadians want to trust the government and come together to get through this uncertain time. Similarly, students want to trust their professors. They want to know that their transcripts will not suffer (their short term job prospects are suffering enough). It’s no time to boast about how fast you or your university “pivoted” or use faculty’s hard work as a promotional poster.
Trudeau also remarked that even if we have a better story than some other countries, let’s not kid ourselves: this is a tragedy. Reframing this tragedy as a positive success story is premature, and we ought to conduct ourselves accordingly. We are all grieving, and grief is not the time for arrogance. Boasting about the “pivot” is like putting lipstick on a pig, and promoting one’s own decisions, whether good or bad, is both untimely and misplaced.
Leadership looks forward. It is understandable that protecting universities from falling enrolment and curbing the general griping about the “pivot” online is part of academic leadership. As we look to faculty as leaders, we have the opportunity to consider what we can learn and how much better we can make our university and student experiences. So we can recast questions to: how can I make a better way of communicating with students? How can I make better use of technology? How can I ensure more social equity, and ways to get students to know one another? How can I adapt ways of seeing students as humans? Stop focusing on cheating and boasting; focus more on trust.
You don’t earn trust by telling people how well you did. You earn trust by doing the hard stuff.
Leading in a tragedy is a special kind of leadership. In a press conference on 20 April, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked how this crisis has affected his leadership. He responded that Canadians want to trust the government and come together to get through this uncertain time. Similarly, students want to trust their professors. They want to know that their transcripts will not suffer (their short term job prospects are suffering enough). It’s no time to boast about how fast you or your university “pivoted” or use faculty’s hard work as a promotional poster.
Trudeau also remarked that even if we have a better story than some other countries, let’s not kid ourselves: this is a tragedy. Reframing this tragedy as a positive success story is premature, and we ought to conduct ourselves accordingly. We are all grieving, and grief is not the time for arrogance. Boasting about the “pivot” is like putting lipstick on a pig, and promoting one’s own decisions, whether good or bad, is both untimely and misplaced.
Leadership looks forward. It is understandable that protecting universities from falling enrolment and curbing the general griping about the “pivot” online is part of academic leadership. As we look to faculty as leaders, we have the opportunity to consider what we can learn and how much better we can make our university and student experiences. So we can recast questions to: how can I make a better way of communicating with students? How can I make better use of technology? How can I ensure more social equity, and ways to get students to know one another? How can I adapt ways of seeing students as humans? Stop focusing on cheating and boasting; focus more on trust.
You don’t earn trust by telling people how well you did. You earn trust by doing the hard stuff.
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