{"id":1299,"date":"2024-11-18T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/?p=1299"},"modified":"2024-11-12T11:35:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T17:35:27","slug":"i-am-butter-spread-over-too-much-bread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/i-am-butter-spread-over-too-much-bread\/","title":{"rendered":"I am butter spread over too much bread"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

J.R.R.Tolkien famously wrote in The Lord of the Rings<\/em> \u201cI feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you feeling that way?  I hear from faculty these days that they are feeling tired, burned out, and overworked.  I continue to hear about a post-COVID malaise or weariness that, for some, isn\u2019t getting better. I hear faculty and staff express concerns about work\/life balance.  Are you feeling as if you are butter spread over too much bread?  Are you feeling a bit like a rubber band that\u2019s stretched to its limit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent ACC climate survey tells us that, across the college, 30.4% of employees feel that ACC departments aren\u2019t adequately staffed. In the world of Instruction (faculty and staff combined), only  32.5% feel that departments are adequately staffed.  The climate survey also tells us that only half of our full-time faculty (52.6%) feel as if the workload of their department is evenly distributed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"bread<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo credit:  freefoodphotos.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stories and the data worry me. And I don\u2019t quite know how to help.  I know that when I moved into the role of the Vice Chancellor of Instruction (VCI) I was working 70 hours a week and wearing myself out.  I also know that I was trying to learn a new job, fill in on my old job until a replacement was hired, then fill in on a second role when someone retired, and move forward on completing the instructional leadership team.  All of that took 18 months, and I can feel the difference in my energy and in my focus now that I have a collaborative and collegial leadership team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are feeling like a rubber band that\u2019s about to break, or like Tolkein\u2019s thinly spread butter – if you are feeling overworked or overwhelmed – I ask you to reach out to friends, family, colleagues, or professionals for help. And if you think I can help in some way, please let me know.  If you have suggestions for how we can encourage an evenly distributed workload in your department, let me know.  If you have other ideas for how we might help with the burnout, let me know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We work for a vibrant, well-regarded, thriving, well-resourced community college.  We have booming enrollments.  We are piloting free tuition for area high school grads and GED\u00ae completers.  We have an energetic new chancellor who has told us he has been tasked with building a collaborative and empowered culture, improving student outcomes, and providing direction and clarity on our work.  We have a collaborative instructional leadership team, effective and collegial deans, and hard-working department chairs all contributing to the stellar work of Instruction.  We have a unifying Theory of Change to guide us in the next few years:  If we help students start strong, come closer to full-time course-taking, get help meeting their basic needs, and feel a sense of connection and belonging, then they will be more likely to succeed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have work to do.  But we have always had work to do.  Colleges don\u2019t stand still, and teaching and learning is an ongoing process of experimentation and renewal.  We are not the college I was introduced to when I started teaching as an adjunct faculty member in the Fall of 1987 or when I became a full-time faculty member in January 1993.  We are not the college I supported when I became a department chair in May 2001 or a dean in October 2005.  We are not the college I committed to in my new role as Associate Vice Chancellor in December 2016.  We are not the college we were when I moved into the VCI role in January 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are a college that changes and grows and stumbles and succeeds and keeps moving forward.  We are a college that is committed to our mission, our vision, and our values.  I hope that soon we no longer find Tolkein\u2019s words resonant.  I hope that you can find balance and joy in your work if that\u2019s not the case today.  Please let me know if I can help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

J.R.R.Tolkien famously wrote in The Lord of the Rings \u201cI feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.\u201d Are you feeling that way?  I hear from faculty these days that they are feeling tired, burned out, and overworked.  I continue to hear about a post-COVID malaise or weariness that, for some, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}