Last Wednesday was my one year anniversary at Menlo College, and in working in higher education. I’ve come a super long way, people! I started out part-time, and I kid you not, only a few hours into the job I took a deep breath and wondered if I was going to do horribly. It seems laughable now, but then again, when the Director overviewed the process for advising students on seeking out internships today, I definitely had a few moments where I thought “How am I going to do this??”
(This is why I have to be reminded to breathe sometimes…)
So. What are some things that I’ve learned about higher ed in the last year? Here are a few reflections:
Higher education is a beast. Granted, this is my first job where I’ve been able to attend conferences and really get the full scoop on what’s happening behind the curtain. So maybe every industry is a beast.
Here’s the beast of higher ed: You’ve got a public service that needs to market itself like a for-profit industry because the public investment isn’t meeting the public demand, which means that the prices are rising even higher and the public can’t, or doesn’t want to, invest that much, but with any public support comes public auditing, so it’s this weird mix of regulations being set by the government while it tries to balance the independence of the institution, but institutions need to be held more accountable…*
Ok, breathe again.
Basically, it’s a whole system, my friends. It doesn’t exist alone. Higher education has flaws in the way it’s built, but it would be incorrect to blame just the higher education institutions themselves. There are many more pieces of the system that fit into their place to make the US system of higher education as complicated as it is. There’s never enough money. I have a hunch this applies anywhere, in all (or at least most) industries.
There’s never enough money. I have a hunch this applies anywhere, in all (or at least most) industries.
Administrators (definitely most) want to help students. I don’t think I’ve met a single colleague in Study Abroad or Career Services, or in any other part of the beast, who didn’t want to help students, or at least people. We’re not in it to make money, trust me.
Understanding the complexity brings light to what I did not know as a student; but that doesn’t mean I would take back speaking out, critically, about my university when I was a student. I was a student activist, and I would never take back any of the sit-ins I participated in, the protests I shouted out, the couple of rules I broke. Even with the curtain drawn back, I still don’t rescind anything I did or said as a student activist. Now, I’ll ask myself this again once I’ve worked at an institution with high levels of student activism, but I’ll be surprised if my opinion changes much. College is the best time to try out activism, the best time to exercise one’s right to protest. And I think students should be able to understand that the power of voice belongs to them as people.**
There you have it, folks. My brain is muddled with tasks I did not need to tackle a year ago this time around – I’ve been doing some marketing work for study abroad. It is… something else.
In signing off, a shout-out to my boss, who also remembered it was my work anniversary, and who got me my first globe, pictured below.
*Disclaimer: These are my observations based on talking with many colleagues from many institutions, and reading many articles. To take this as an image of Menlo College would be very wrong.
**Not to mention, I think it actually helps you develop great career skills.
