BY RICHARD J. REDDICK AND LISA L. MOORE
“Have you gotten the shot?” It’s springtime, and those of us in higher education are beginning to cautiously imagine some kind of return to campus later this year. Many are calling not for a return to “normal” but to a revisioning of our habits, assumptions, and structures—many of which were unsustainable and oppressive.
For the two of us, our last restaurant meal before the lockdown was with a small group of colleagues, the inaugural cohort of a new initiative at the University of Texas called the Distinguished Service Academy. Among the five of us are Ashinaabe, African American, and white scholars; one of us is queer, one of us is non-tenure-track, and four of us are women. The Distinguished Service Academy was envisioned by our feminist senior vice-provost for academic affairs as a way to recognize the often-invisible labor of academic service and mentoring, and to acknowledge that service demands (as opposed to well-compensated administrative posts) often fall most heavily on those from underrepresented communities. Further, the five of us were chosen to demonstrate and share the possibility that extraordinary service can be part of a balanced portfolio that also includes outstanding teaching and research.
A mysterious alchemy happened when we met each other, though, that could not have been predicted or planned. At our first meeting, at which some of us were seeing each other for the first time and others greeting familiar faces, cross talk and laughter were happening almost immediately. As we began to imagine the work that we could do together to redefine service from tedious, unglamorous labor to the way we had all experienced it—as activism, as relationship, sometimes even as joy—the VP burst out, “Y’all are FIERCE.” We are, we agreed. We still address each other and introduce ourselves as the FIERCE cohort.
As academics, we tend to be wired to achieve beyond expectations, and our profession rewards us for doing so. As members of underrepresented groups who have excelled in this competitive atmosphere, we have often internalized going farther, doing more, and making it all look easy to our majority-community colleagues. But this quality can be corrosive, especially at a time when we are all grappling with unexpected challenges in our families, relationships, and our scholarly and professional endeavors.
Our peer relationships in the FIERCE cohort, as well as our ongoing work as mentors to junior colleagues, have affirmed what we already knew: mentoring relationships are more important than ever at a time when so many of our colleagues are both dedicating energies to support others and may themselves be in need of critical, nurturing support that is reciprocal from senior members of the academy.
It may seem obvious that students and early-career faculty and staff benefit from strong, supportive relationships with experienced teachers and colleagues. But research shows that the benefits flow both ways. Mentoring expert Kathy Kram has found that mentoring helps both participants when it combines the instrumental aspects of development—helping a colleague learn a process or reach a goal—and the psychosocial, which is the deep, meaningful connection that can occur when you share dreams and aspirations, aspects of life beyond work. When we’re physically apart and unable to sit in the same room, and the events surrounding us create turmoil and anguish, it’s even more challenging to build those strong bonds that are so necessary for both mentor and mentee to navigate our work and life circumstances. As mentors, we are compelled to ask, even in the best of times, “So, what else is going on in your world?” The pain, loss, and fear of the present moment simply mean that the answer is, “A whole lot. Can we talk about it?” Or even, “So much, and I’m not ready to process it—but I’m glad you’re here for me when I am.”
To mentor fiercely, those of us who serve in senior roles must use our positions to advocate for grace and understanding as we are privy to what our mentees are enduring. Many of these stories will not emerge on promotion statements. Mentees should understand that the need to share and express concerns (and victories) is even more significant now, but prioritizing self-care is paramount. Our standards for success must change, as high research productivity means little if it diminishes our relationships, our health, and ultimately our lives.
We applaud all the members of the academic community—students, staff, faculty, administrators—for surviving the last year, and mourn those we have lost. As we feel our way into the next year, let’s be fierce in our demands that the “new normal” must reward and recognize self-care and collective care, radical empathy, and seeing one another in all our humanity.
Guest blogger Richard J. Reddick is professor and associate dean for equity, community engagement, and outreach for the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also holds courtesy appointments in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis, and the Warfield Center for African and African American Studies.
Guest blogger Lisa L. Moore is Archibald A. Hill Professor of English, professor of women’s and gender studies, and director of the LGBTQ Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin.
