After the whirlwind week in Florida, I then had the privilege of attending the AAC&U conference on “General Education for the 21st Century,” where academic minds from the nation come together to advance what & why we teach this curriculum to college students. The venue was stunning, at the stylish Westin St. Francis, in lovely San Francisco, CA, & I flew out only roughly 4 days after the Florida trip. From Sunshine to Golden State, I traveled from one sunny locale to the next, avoiding two mammoth snowstorms in Utah. Oh, happy day!
The clerk who checked me in at the hotel let me know there’d been an upgrade to a king, & that shortly I’d see a well-appointed room with a spectacular sweeping view. She didn’t disappoint. A room that typically cost $780 a night instead was reduced to $199, thanks to the AAC&U & the block rate! The view was stunning!
Mind you, my last visits to San Francisco were for the American Literature Association (ALA) conference over a decade ago & stopping through to Hawaii, where an 8-day cruise would disembark from Honolulu to Kauai. The former a stay on an air mattress with family, and the latter a layover that the airport. This visit would be a short stay, really only two days, but the views and surrounding areas so lovely they were enough to impress upon my memory most indelibly.
One of the best parts of the trip the realization I had a travel buddy from WGU to make the perturbing aspects of being jostled & corralled about less tiresome. Never underestimate the value of a congenial travel companion.
The topics covered at the AAC&U conference were quite apropos given my latest strategic work, & travel allowed for more ruminating on things like new program development, plotting two levels of X-matrices, & refining an ever-evolving proforma. The work remains exciting, & it struck me how many colleges & universities consider it sacrosanct to mention the “business” of running an institution not at financial risk of closure. Gainful employment, reducing time and cost of degrees or credentials for students, & providing relevant training for the future of work…
These are critical aspects of the higher ed world that tie to our purpose, our mission.
How strange to hear administrators carefully speak of the finances of higher ed with palpable trepidation, testing the waters with the faculty attendees, clearly feeling as if they were matadors waving flags in front of bulls ready to charge. The typical politics of higher ed has shifted monumentally in my current circles, & so I can often forget the tension that still remains in the face of that sea tide of change at more staid institutions, in more traditional settings, as we adapt to an increasingly more digital world.
My mind remained abuzz during the conference, thinking all day, my hand constantly taking notes, attending panels & plenary sessions.
Meals provided great opportunities for connecting with the team, but I certainly felt drained at the end of two weeks of trips & large rooms of people, despite how engaging the content & exchanges. Again, I need to underscore my gratitude for having these experiences & for the wonderful people with whom I get to work & travel. I’m so blessed. I truly am. Which makes me feel even more brutish for even feeling the tiniest amount of exhaustion.
One of the critical strategies for maintaining sanity & an amiable nature as an introvert required scheduled breaks of solitude & quiet for recharging. Thankfully, I’ve become better at creating those spaces for self-care as a necessity, not an indulgence.
