Academy’s Potential Needs, Especially for Leadership
CAO stated that the inconsistencies in overseeing policy and ensuring fair treatment for all
faculty is an issue of leadership. When the leadership understands the importance and the value of
people coming into the community and makes sure that there is space for them, show that they’re
valued, that they’re supported and that they’re heard, then it benefits the community as a whole.
I have heard of some universities [that] really believe this idea that if you bring someone
in, you truly believe that they should do well, and you’re going to do everything; [are
going to] give them the resources to do well. This practice shows that you believe in the
people that you hire. You invest in them, you bring them [along] and [then] they actually
are successful.
CAO proposed that faculty not forget who they are in the process:
A system where we check on those things. My problem was that I was getting evaluated
every year [and] they were just bad evaluations. [However, later] I found out from other
people that they weren’t getting evaluated. Retroactively, somebody was putting their
evaluation letters together. Someone can lead you and not necessarily be this dictatorial
person. But you can lead, you can direct, you can support, you can do all kinds of things
and still recognize this person as an individual. [Moreover] it is important for us to see
each other with personal lives. People get so entrenched with what they know, how many
publications they have, and they think that’s who they are. [Yet] it’s what you do but it’s
not who you are.