Engagement is more than having lunch with a colleague from another department

Our educational environment is in the midst of big changes... Some would argue we are on the edge of the cliff we don't perceive and we keep doing the same things, recycling the same old arguments and promoting the same practices. We act as though we are insulated from the environment we live in and that we can consider things on our own time cycle... A semester perhaps to contemplate some issue or something we call an "academic year" before a minor change takes effect. We are dinoasuars and move at a glacial pace in a world that moves at a blur.

Frankly, many of us are very insulated. We complain about new duties and roll our eyes at assesments that seem designed to justify our existence and be largely useless exercises (but this is another note). Many practices do seem to be little more than onerous exercises in spreadsheet manipulation that require long weekends and an occasional rhetorical flourish in the attached narrative. And frankly the results and benefits of these exercises seem few.

At the same time I think we seem to be distancing ourselves from our nonacademic neighbors in multiple ways. I worry about the current generation of young colleagues who are likely to be those buffeted most by the winds of change. At Research 1 institutions we talk about protecting new colleagues, mentoring them, cushioning them from the realities of our environments which really are about "doing more with less"... and we do live in an age of limited resources... But that's not surprising and most everyone keeps going about their "normal" business.

That said, we need to break out of these everyday routines and take a serious look at what might be coming for there appears to be a real storm on the horizon... We should prepare and all of us need to examine the work we do, conduct engaged research and demonstrate the utility of our contributions. This is true in the humanities as well as the STEM disciplines.

I'm not a doomsayer... I'm a realist... Someone who strongly feels that we should appreciate the special roles we have been granted, add tangible value to our enterprises and make contributions to society in multiple ways. We do not need to get defensive, or protect our turf, and we do not need to circle the wagons. We should see this as an opportunity to engage.

So move out of the library, put your iPad away and add your voices and your expertise to the national and local conversation. Engage personally in serious interactions with people outside the academy... talk to your neighbors. Frankly, the conversation is likely to be jarring, especially if you've spent most of your time over the last few years talking exclusively to your colleagues, perhaps arguing about the value of one course or another, worrying about how slow your old desktop is or going to the occasion high school soccer game. But don't shy away.

Inaction will not alter what's coming... Big change is here and we need to be prepared to take the opinions of our fellow citizens from outside the academy very seriously. Their attitudes matter... a lot.