Abstract
By the time this issue hits mailboxes, folks will be well into the summer. In Southern Arizona, where I am writing this from, that usually means many are entering a bit of a hibernation period as we try to deal with the increasing heat. Early morning walks, afternoon naps in air conditioning, and shading gardens so plants don’t burn become the practices of the day. It's also a period where we all, regardless of where we live, have the opportunity to take a collective breath ahead of what we know will be a busy ramping up to the next academic year.
Notice the word choices there: we have an opportunity to take a collective breath
As someone who cut her teeth in student affairs doing summer orientation work and who has experience in student activities, I can hear folks talking back to this page as they read it: “but there is not ever a chance for a break, Z.” Trust me, I get this. I used to say the same thing … until I realized that taking a break wasn’t antithetical to the work I was doing; it was a necessary component of furthering student learning, growth, and development. The break I am talking about here is not the capitalistic-driven buy-a-bath-bomb-light-a-candle-and-book-a massage sort of thing. That's good too, but what I am talking about here is breaking from the drive to constantly check things off our To Do Lists and instead … do nothing. Doing nothing seems like a dangerous idea, especially in an era organized by racialized capitalism, exploitative labor practices, and social conditions rooted in necropolitics. And yet, as folks like Jenny Odell, Tricia Hersey, Ashley Neese, and others have noted, taking prolonged moments to stop, rest, reflect, and not do things (read: all those items on our ever-growing work-based To Do Lists) are one of the cornerstones of being well. And we all have an opportunity to forward wellness, don’t we?
Now I know some of you may be thinking, “But if I take a break, if I do nothing, then nothing gets done!” And here is where the word choices above come into play. We all have an opportunity to take a collective breath. We are in this together, with the “we” being all of us, and the “this” being our commitment to enriching student learning environments. So what if we were to harness this by being with each other, covering for each other, and trusting that when I take a break to breathe, other folks have my back. And that my taking a break not only means I am better myself, but that my being well helps others be better, too, and creates the conditions through which I can reenter my work with renewed energy and commitment (because nothing makes me more cynical and jaded than being over-taxed at work).
The pieces in this issue of About Campus provide an important opportunity for us to take that collective breath. Whether we band together to take that opportunity is the big looming question on the table, then. And if we welcome that opportunity together, then we have chances to forward student learning with intention, care, and clear purpose. And the more we practice this, the more we model it alongside students and integrate it into our daily practice so that we do not need to wait for the heat of the summer to remind us to slow down, pause, and reflect on the past.