{"id":4846,"date":"2025-07-17T23:26:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T17:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ksrini.life\/29035f-co-nz\/journal\/?p=4846"},"modified":"2025-07-17T23:25:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T17:55:27","slug":"recognizing-our-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ksrini.life\/29035f-co-nz\/journal\/recognizing-our-humanity\/4846\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognizing Our Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As academic institutions navigate the pandemic\u2019s everchanging phases, college and university employees are often asked how work in higher education has changed in a positive way. When considering this question, we\u2014a group of academic leaders from two universities in the Midwest\u2014focused on how the pandemic caused administrators, faculty, staff, and students to remove the professional armor we had so deftly donned to keep our many personas hidden from view. The pandemic forced everyone from classrooms and offices into private spaces as we met online from our bedrooms, porches, and cars. In doing so, our personal realities of children, pets, multigenerational households\u2014the proverbial \u201csecond shift\u201d\u2014took center stage while we tried to find a balance for continuing our work. What we witnessed was a necessary letting down of our guards combined with genuine honesty about shared and unique struggles. Aspects of our personal selves, including how we were coping and paying attention to\u00a0mental health<\/a>,<\/u>\u00a0bubbled to the surface.<\/p>\n

So how do college and university employees not lose sight of the gains made to see each other as complete humans? How do we continue to recognize the humanity of ourselves and others? How do we fight the pressure to return to \u201cnormal\u201d and a rigid divide between the personal and professional? How can we value each other as fully dimensional human beings?<\/p>\n

First, we propose a working definition of recognizing humanity. We characterize this as:<\/p>\n

Displaying genuine empathy, grace, and compassion toward ourselves and others; realizing that we\u2019re complete, complex human beings and letting go of expectations to check our personal lives and obligations at the door when we\u2019re \u201cat work\u201d; acknowledging that we need to be flexible and generous with one another as life happens to us all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Second, we suggest that college and university employees must consider why holding firm to recognizing humanity matters in our society. As higher education professionals, we\u2019re supposed to be preparing citizens to think critically and engage in the world. That means modeling a world we want to see. Particularly in the current moment, when academic leaders witness how inhumanely people can treat each other, higher education institutions must reprioritize recognizing humanity as part of their educational mission. Academic institutions need to put humanity back into the humanistic endeavor of higher education. Doing so allows us to share our whole selves, enabling us to build shared trust and mutual respect. We can thereby be more engaged with colleagues and students, develop deeper connections that foster belonging, and cultivate loyalty to our people and institutions.<\/p>\n

When we in higher education recognize the humanity of our colleagues and students, we simultaneously engage in both self-care and community care, making explicit that we all face challenges and that these challenges are normal. This includes helping each other navigate work and life as an integration and not separate domains. At the same time, by recognizing our humanity, we effectively dismantle the myth that anyone has (or can have) everything under control at all times. The reality is that we\u2019re humans with good intentions who are making the best choices we can with the information and resources available.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Writing this article has itself been an exercise in recognizing our humanity. The three of us authors met through participation in a yearlong, multi-institutional academic leadership development program prior to the pandemic. During the writing period, we experienced increased caregiving responsibilities for chronically ill family members, an unexpected parental death, mental health concerns, and personal bouts with COVID-19. Through words and actions, we offered empathy, grace, and compassion by showing up to listen, continuing to check in, shifting responsibilities, and anticipating our peers\u2019 needs. We extended deadlines, shared meals, and checked in on the young children who had cameos in our Zoom meetings. We were able to do this, in part, because we took the time to see each other beyond our academic roles and prioritized getting to know each other as whole people, providing a sense of community.<\/p>\n

We argue that when difficult circumstances arise, college and university leaders must extend a similar sense of grace, curiosity, generosity, and empathy to all colleagues. Administrators must work from a place of shared mission and purpose. To do that, we as authors propose the following principles and practices as essential to effective, humanistic leadership in higher education.<\/p>\n

Principles<\/h2>\n