Hey Professors,
As higher education continues to undergo a slew of attacks and there are more and more changes being made to your work environment, what are your non-negotiables in this uncertain time?
Or in other words, what are your core values or principles that you came into the profession with that you refuse to compromise on? And based on this reflection, what are the actions that you want to take that best align with your core values?
This may be a thought exercise that you never imagined having to do. After all, you came into higher ed with the best of intentions and envisioned a life somewhat similar to what your mentors experienced.
But it’s undeniable that the ground underneath you is shifting. And as someone who is now on the outside, but still very much adjacent to higher ed, it seems to me like this may be a good time to at least acknowledge this reality and to gain some clarity on what your non-negotiables are.
In this 58th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I want to talk a little bit about this time of precarity and change in the academy—thinking in particular about shifting expectations and political pressures as they impact faculty, in particular minoritized women faculty.
And I want to introduce several questions that can hopefully help you to determine what your non-negotiables are as you move forward in your work environment.
Okay, Let me back up just a little bit for you.
Helping Women of Color Faculty to Manage the Tenure Track, Navigate Politics, and Take Next Steps to Advance their Careers
When I first started to think about pivoting into coaching and consulting, I knew that I primarily wanted to work with women of color faculty. I thought for a long time about what a possible coaching niche for me could look like and I ultimately decided on: helping women of color faculty manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. That’s the tagline that you can see on my website.
And since I’ve started Rise with Clarity in 2023, I have been helping minoritized women faculty move through their mid-career reviews, strategize on how to reclaim time and articulate their priorities, work on their tenure dossiers, and also consider pivots within and beyond the academy.
One aspect of the coaching engagement tends to include what I’ve called “navigating politics,” which I consider to be a broad category of those issues/problems that often impact women of color faculty and that can run interference with their ability to focus on their career.
Some of the things that could be considered under this broad umbrella include:
• navigating difficult interpersonal relationships in your department.
• dealing with microaggressions or racialized aggressions in your work environment
• not being considered as an authority figure on campus or in your classroom
• along those same lines, being considered incompetent
• experiencing shifting goalposts when it comes to your promotions
• feeling like your scholarly research is marginalized
• being harshly penalized for receiving poor teaching evaluations
• experiencing harassment or bullying
I’ve talked about many of these things on this podcast before, like in
Episode 3 – How to Manage Your First Semester as a WOC Faculty;
Episode 11 – Reframing the ‘Problem’ WOC in the Higher Ed Workplace; and
Episode 15 – What Does it Mean When You Don’t Look Like a Professor?
The Politicization of “Navigating Politics”
It’s only until the past year in the United States, that this category of “navigating politics” has actually become way more politicized—where “navigating politics” now more explicitly deals with state or federal mandates, guidelines, or laws. So, in addition to what I’ve just mentioned, some of you may also be contending with:
• having your course syllabi surveilled by your university or state legislators for any content that may be considered related to “DEI” (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)
• you could be told to pivot or cancel your research agenda because your university administrators are trying to avoid scrutiny
• seeing the sunsetting of centers promoting DEI, affinity groups, LGBTQIA students, or social justice that you may have been heavily involved in.
• having your federally-funded research grants be cancelled because you focused on topics related to race, gender, trans-related issues, diversity, and the Middle East, among many others.
• experiencing complaints from students who challenge or report your course content or your ideological views
• being sanctioned, suspended, or terminated (even from tenured positions) because of speaking openly about Palestine.
• feeling like your course content, your public presentations, and even your social media are being surveilled.
• getting doxxed or experiencing retaliation after speaking critically about the current federal administration
Let’s just acknowledge that navigating these kinds of politics in today’s higher ed environment in the United States is extremely fraught. And while many faculty—irrespective of what identity they hold—may be impacted by this “new normal” where academic inquiry is being monitored and at times shut down, I do suspect that many minoritized women faculty are acutely feeling the stress of this moment.
Is this what you signed up for when you first decided to pursue a career in the academy?
I’m guessing that your answer to that question is a hard no.
If you’re using this summer to recuperate and recalibrate, then I’d like to offer that this can also be a time to reflect on your non-negotiables as well. And if the term “non-negotiables” doesn’t really resonate with you, think about this reflection in terms of what your core values or core principles are, and what you don’t want to compromise on in a time when so many of you are being tested.
Please also have a listen to these podcast episodes: Episode 19: Clarify Your Core Values as They Relate to Work; and Episode 36: How Do You Want to Show Up as a Scholar in This Current Moment?
So let me just give you an example.
During the past year, I’ve learned that there are some universities that are no longer willing to sponsor professional development events or workshops for women of color faculty. Some universities in red states are choosing to steer clear of these kinds of events or publicly announce them for fear of being charged with discrimination by legislators or donors.
Yep, you heard that correctly.
And yes, these are some of the same universities that established and dismantled DEI centers, but still espouse values of equity and inclusion in their mission statements.
So a small business like mine is now impacted by these changing tides. And this is because universities and colleges can decide not to hire an external vendor who offers professional development workshops or individual coaching for women of color faculty.
When I was explaining this situation to someone, I was actually advised to tweak my business tagline and messaging in order to seem more palatable to institutions.
It took me less than 1 minute to consider this well-intentioned piece of advice. While I actually do offer services that are open to any faculty—like my 90-minute Strategy Sessions, individual coaching for academics who are considering major career transitions, and a pilot group coaching program I’m offering this July for faculty caregivers, I’m actually not willing to compromise on the business that I’ve built and who I primarily serve.
I’m not planning on changing my business tagline to make it seem more run-of-the-mill. Even if this comes at the cost of not being approved by certain institutions and losing some potential speaking engagements.
For me, this is a real non-negotiable.
But perhaps for you the thorny issue that you’re encountering is that you are determined to stay in the academy and fight the good fight. But as a well-known scholar of ____ (fill in the blank here), the thing to consider may be the question of what you continue to research and what you decide to pivot on.
What are you willing to compromise on and what is a non-negotiable?
Here are 10 questions to guide you in this reflective exercise. And I’ve kept these questions pretty broad—so that you can tailor them to your own situation.
10 Questions for You to Reflect on What Your Non-Negotiables Are
1. What are your non-negotiables that you can articulate in relation to your current work situation?
2. How are your non-negotiables connected to your core values or core principles?
3. What matters the most to you right now?
4. What areas are you willing to compromise on?
5. What areas are you no longer willing to compromise on?
6. How can you clearly communicate your non-negotiables to others?
7. What opportunities are not a good match for your non-negotiables, even if it looks good on paper?
8. Which non-negotiables are helping you to grow, and which ones are keeping you safe, but stuck?
9. Where are you out of alignment with your core values right now?
10. What are your action steps to honor your non-negotiables?
I hope that some of these reflective questions help to give you some clarity in the months ahead. I’d love to hear if this thought exercise has been productive for you. Feel free to drop me a line at Katherine at risewithclarity.com.
And finally, I just wanted to mention that the “Writing Support for Faculty Caregivers” group coaching program is still open for registration. This is a pilot program designed for faculty who are navigating elder caregiving duties while they’re also trying to make meaningful progress on a specific writing goal this summer.
We start on Thursday, July 2, and meet for 4 other Thursdays in July. Each participant will receive 1 60-minute 1-on-1 coaching session with me in August.
In the program, you can expect to:
-Design a realistic writing routine built around caregiving demands
-Brainstorm strategies to locate caregiving support
-Make meaningful progress on a summer writing goal
-Have some gentle accountability along with some encouragement
-Be in community with other faculty who are navigating similar challenges.
We meet on Zoom and the price of this program is $397. And you can use your professional development funds for this program. To learn more about this, please listen to Episode 57 or check out my website at RisewithClarity.com.