In Higher Education, there is a highly complicated system of unwritten rules that have governed organizational behavior and administrative practices for quite some time. At the top of that list is the notion that we need to "stay in our lane". Anyone who has worked at a college or university has heard this before, and has probably had it said to them at some point. It's stunting innovation and effectiveness.
Much has been written about the rise in administrative bloat in higher education. More and more professionals with more specialized titles being asked to do more specific tasks have led to tangled web of administrative function. Colleges and universities are continuing to add services and amenities to the college experience as competition for dwindling numbers of students increases. The landscape is changing as student needs and expectations shift, and the engagement of professionals rushes to keep pace.
When I began my career in higher education and student affairs, it was the era of generalists. The career pathway was relatively clear and the primary pathway was obtaining a masters degree in higher education and student affairs. New professionals had their pick of offices depending on their interest, and they could shape their career from there. Today, those educational expectations are changing, and the necessary qualifications are expanding into other disciplines and skillsets. This may be the result of student affairs programs inability to keep pace with the increasing hiring needs. However, I would venture that it's also the result of a recognition that there are many pathways to success in working with students.
With these shifting dynamics in mind, it's no wonder that the tasks being required of higher education professionals are expanding, and the waters are getting muddied. New professionals are coming in with more expansive skillsets that cannot possibly be optimized within a narrow subset of requirements. They have more to offer students and more to offer their colleagues, and we do higher education a disservice when we insist folks "stay in their lane".
Mind you, I'm not advocating for a free for all where everyone simply does what they want when they want. We aren't going to stop hiring people to do specific jobs in favor of some generalist on-call student affairs corps (although that presents an interesting thought experiment). However, I think we need to recognize that folks have more to offer than the set of bullet points listed on their position description, and we need to support that interdisciplinarity.
Students rarely make distinctions between departments. Everyone is a university employee and their interactions are with the university. We would do well to take that approach ourselves more often in the work we do. When programs, initiatives, or ideas intersect with work happening in other units, we should lean into it and not ask folx to dial back their work. We can reach out to those colleagues in other units and share our ideas, and open a dialogue around how that work might intersect with work they are already doing.
What's more, we can think more creatively about how we get the work done. We are currently embarking on a new academic year, which means a rush to welcome, train, orient, and prepare for the semester ahead. Many folx are incredibly busy, but often at different times. I challenge anyone to find an office team that doesn't agree that one more staff member wouldn't be beneficial. Can we do more to equitably distribute work and responsibilities? Yes. Can we more creatively utilize the diverse talent we employ? Yes. Does it mean we have to worry less about staying in our lane and worry more about how we are best serving students, faculty, and staff? Absolutely.
I know full well that there are numerous other factors at play, from supervision questions to responsibility and liability questions. However, if we worried less about staying in our lane, and worried more about thinking collectively about how to accomplish our goals and where individuals could best contribute to that work, I'm fairly certain everyone would be happier in the end. We know the value of collaboration and maximizing human potential. We teach it to our students and share its importance in leadership seminars. Perhaps its time we started taking our own advice.
