August 1

On starting before you are ready, and staying long enough to understand how institutions end

Walking around a campus on August 1 requires a bit of internal recalibration. We know that the world off campus is still in summer mode, but for us, it is time to ramp up. The sounds of construction projects are in full and urgent volume, and more faces begin to show up returning from summer holidays and getaways. In my lifetime in HigherEd, I have had multiple start dates that landed on August 1 - truly the most terrible of days to start an academic administrative job.

August 1 means that there is not a sufficient number of people around to show a new staffer the ropes, but enough people around to assure that the new face is in full imposter syndrome mode. For this reason, I loathe the August 1 start date as a hiring manager and have done my damndest to avoid it whenever possible.

In 2008 I had moved into my on-campus housing at Mount Ida College the final week of July. My daughter was just turning 18 months, and as a new mother with a new job I had a great deal of stress landing on my shoulders. My interview for the Director of Residence Life role was interesting, and by that I mean that there were several oddities that arose during my final day of on-campus interviews. The first was a mention that there as an internal candidate who was also going to be interviewing me (weird), and the second was that I was subjected to the always awkward ‘community interview’.