Among the best things about being an academic – and especially a tenured professor – is the flexibility, autonomy and having no real boss. Sometimes I am very aware of this when my husband who works at the Wolfsonian, also a PhD in Russian History, has to be at work at a particular time, meet with his boss, and punch a clock (or really enter the hours into FIU’s online time management system) for vacation. We, professors, by and large, do not have to do that. We have to show up for class, be prepared, sit in on some meetings, write letters, meet with students, answer emails, read, calculate, create, do research and write. So, we do a lot each day, many of us work all hours of the night and morning and weekends, but we are unaccustomed to being told what to do and when to do it and we absolutely resent being given direction from the man, whoever he (or she) is. In fact, the collective self-governance and control over our time and our work is so fundamental that when anything threatens to alter or challenge that sense, we begin to assume our collective defensive stance.

And then along comes our very own five-year plan: BeyondPossible2020. Regardless of its purpose or the projects that reside within, it represents, at least at first glance, some form of control over faculty’s time, some type of intrusion by the administration, the legislature, the state into the day to day routines of teaching and research. Initial curiosity turns to skepticism, which then turns to antagonism …

I am guessing most of us have spent our entire academic and professional careers unaware of – or consciously avoiding – edicts from above and their slogans, catch phrases, and the like. Yet, at FIU we have moved from turning the impossible into the inevitable to achieving what is beyond possible, all the while remaining world’s ahead. Many of us snicker at tag lines and ask ourselves: how can we stick to a plan that is, by definition, beyond possible?

Alas, this is not the case at FIU and certainly not on the fifth floor of PC. Here, Beyondpossible2020 means that we have to strengthen our university, make it more efficient, better serve our students, produce more research, and meet the demands of the Legislature and Governor…and all in 5 years (I think it is Stalin who said that we will do in 10 years what Great Britain did in 100, or something like that). Well, that is where we are. And, in a sense, no one is happy about the pressures from above. But, what should we do? Of course most of us will go about our days, grumbling a little, others will declare the sky is falling and others yet will fall in line.

I would suggest that before we decide which of these reactions to have, we first should try at least to get to know a little bit about our very own current 5-year plan. It is easy to be derisive, to complain and to reject, and maybe that is where we will end our journey, but first – at least it seems to me – we should try to listen and learn. As far as I can tell, from where I stand, there is room for that.

Allow me to walk you through a bit of what I have learned: there are six overarching committees, including Grow Strategically, Advance Student Success and Career Integration, Identify and Support Preeminent Programs, Accelerate Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Build Financial Base and Operational Efficiencies, and Actuate Next Horizon Campaign. Each of these committees has subcommittees peopled by students, faculty, chairs, deans, staff, VPs and the like; and then there is the overall Steering Committee. While perhaps we could ask that there be additional faculty representation or more humanist colleagues on the Carnegie Very High Research committee, by and large, there is a significant amount of participation across the university (on the Student Success group alone I have worked with colleges from Global Learning, SIPA, CAS, College of Education, CARTA, CAT, OFGA and the newly established AWED [Office for the Advancement of Women, Equity and Diversity]). Committees and Sub-Committees have been meeting for months and months to prioritize, strategize and recommend. We are at the end of the beginning of the process; members of senior leadership will be reading and thinking about all of the recommendations and making initial decisions about where to put resources and how to move forward over the next couple of months.

So, while we may bristle at the thought of central coordination, it is coupled with local deployment, and there is a lot of room for suggestions, opinions and input. There is certainly room for each of us to learn, to listen and to get involved. The best thing we can do is to talk with colleagues who are dedicating their time and ask them questions.

Why? Why bother? Well, perhaps this is where many of us spend the majority of our time, and, it is here, at FIU, that we are able to come to work, not punch a clock and do what we love. Most of us trade in cultural capital; while some get more in our paychecks than others every other week, most of us get less than colleagues in industries outside of the university. Just like our medical faculty could make more money in private practice and our biologists might do better financially for themselves if they worked in private industry and our political scientists could likely get pretty good paying gigs in the world of consulting, we are all here because we have chosen, in some way or other, a life of the mind (a favorite FIUism of mine). We would rather be here. That is a trade-off each of has made; that is the price we are willing to pay for our autonomy and our control over our time and our work lives, and our feeling of being able to share knowledge and do good (or at least not harm….) in the world. So, anything that appears to threaten that will be met with a fair amount of skepticism and sometimes derision. I get that.

And so I ask you, and myself, to look more closely and try to be open to the idea that Beyondpossible2020 might indeed get this university where it needs to be to survive and thrive amidst all of the pressures on Higher Education in this twenty-first century of ours. Maybe, just maybe, those on the fifth floor of PC are working hard to be able to preserve our autonomy (or as much of it as is beyond possible) and ultimately, our jobs…Either way, all we can do is engage and participate and try to control the process, at least a little. Otherwise, we are stuck in the all too comfortable place of sarcasm and naysaying (fun for the moment, but ultimately unsatisfying in the end).

What do you think?

Rebecca