Faculty Wellness: Issues of Culture and Context

“It’s no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society” – attributed to J. Krishnamurti

You’re not crazy for feeling crazy in a crazy situation. And faculty shouldn’t be surprised to experience symptoms of burnout, including exhaustion, depersonalization, or reduced effectiveness in a culture of higher education that runs them ragged, undermines their expertise, and forces them to prove their worth over and over again.

I’ve written elsewhere about boundaries and the responsibility that faculty have for setting and maintaining professional boundaries to protect themselves from burnout. What’s missing from my previous advice is an honest assessment of what is happening to force faculty to enact those boundaries in the first place.

The culture of higher education wasn’t in a great place before the COVID-19 pandemic. And things just seem to have gotten worse since March 2020. Let’s have a look:

First, it is no secret that the higher education system is built on the labor of part-time/adjunct/contingent faculty members who are not compensated or respected in equal measure to their full-time and tenured colleagues. The situation has been described as a “equity crisis” by Zitco and Schultz and “cruel” by Bradner.

I would also characterize reliance on adjunct faculty as “ineffective”: how can instructors who can’t meet their own needs meet the needs of their students? If you don’t know where your next paycheck might come from, it cannot be possible to pay full attention to supporting student learning and success.

In reality, equitable treatment for part-time faculty is feasible and beneficial, contrary to what institutions tell unions and faculty. Let’s add “gaslighting” to the list of injustices facing part-time faculty: it is possible to compensate part-time faculty: institutions just don’t want to. It’s not difficult to draw a line from the lack of compensation, benefits, stability, office space, and respect to increased levels of burnout and low levels of motivation, energy and joy.

Second, faculty in higher education face reduced income and prestige, coupled with increased responsibilities. For many faculty members, wages have dropped in relation to inflation and the job they signed up for has shifted dramatically. For example, instructors where I teach cannot afford to buy houses anywhere near the college and expectations for teaching and learning have changed in response to the pandemic and new initiatives. Designing classes for online delivery, for example, costs more time and energy, along with different skills, than teaching in a classroom. Devaluing and under compensating professional skills certainly contributes to faculty burnout.

Of course, racial injustice also plays a part in burnout for faculty and for students in higher education. Social justice activists, especially those from marginalized groups, frequently experience “battle fatigue”. The increased energy required to fight to be seen, heard, and respected every day, over time, most certainly leads to exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced ability to perform one’s role.

The focus on culture wars and identity politics designed to distract us from economic inequities also reduces faculty wellbeing in other ways. Some faculty members feel pressured to subscribe to progressive ideology without question or risk facing public backlash. This limiting of academic freedom of expression can be stressful; this isn’t what many of us signed up for when we chose to dedicate our careers to furthering knowledge and helping students learn to think for themselves.

Too many faculty members I know report feeling too fearful of repercussions (yes, “fear”; we’re not talking “discomfort” here) to express any dissent to popular narratives about the path to equity or, on the other hand, to express dissent about prevailing interpretations of academic freedom. Feeling fearful about expressing a position is a sure path to cynicism for academics who thought they signed up to debate ideas and come to new conclusions about the world.

There are other cultural issues that lead to a lack of wellbeing in higher education: faculty based in research-focused institutions contend with the pressures of an unhelpful “publish or perish” culture that can distort research and lead to burnout. Departments face shrinking budgets and enrollments. Institutional cultures can be sexist or otherwise toxic; while managerial bloat diverts resources from the core purpose of academic institutions: creating and sharing knowledge (i.e. research and teaching). And what about the vast amounts of unpaid labor that go into writing, reviewing, and editing academic publications?

Of course, the identities and personalities of faculty members come into play: we might have come this far into academia by being good performers who want to meet the expectations of authority figures. We might be perfectionists; we might seek external validation. We might be motivated by a higher calling to serve students. We are a complex group with our own egos and idiosyncrasies…but we are not crazy for feeling crazy in a system designed to exploit our labor and goodwill toward students and knowledge creation.

“I'm tellin' y'all, it's a sabotage” – Beastie Boys

What might we do about a culture and context that doesn’t value faculty wellness? Here are some suggestions for action:

• Get involved in advocacy for change. Join your union or faculty association so that you can stay informed about efforts to improve working conditions. Consider helping where you can.
  

• Set and maintain healthy individual boundaries. For example, don’t work for free or for less than you are worth. And stop grading papers on weekends! (Unless you like grading on weekends to free up your weekdays for other personal tasks.)
  

• Support your colleagues when they set and maintain boundaries. Break the cycle of martyr culture, poor compensation, and lack of respect.
  

• If you see something, say something. When it’s safe and appropriate, compassionately call attention to behaviors and processes that lead to faculty burnout and the resulting effects on student learning. Consider offering suggestions for a better approach.

I'm looking forward to healthy debate on some of these issues! What have I missed? What's happening in your institutional culture? Are things better than I think?

Let me know what's on your mind!