I Need to Tell the Truth
Why will no one let me do my job?
Hamline University keeps breaking my heart. My union keeps breaking my heart. My time in academia has taught me a lot of things, but the most significant of those things are that the truth matters and organizations and hierarchies prevent me from telling it. If I want to teach my students that the truth matters, I have to do it myself because structures won’t.
Why am I so scared to do it? Why do I keep waiting for permission?
Upon receiving the initial contract offering from the university, realizing awkwardly that I know nothing about labor organizing, and being once again, stupidly, shocked at how little respect the university has for its instructors, I began making signs to put on my office door.
But now I’m hesitant. Will my union local be angry with me? I have to consider the potential impact on my colleagues as well. I don’t think it will affect them in the least, but what if it does? Why is it so hard to be truthful?
Hamline students are constantly bombarded with the words of John Wesley. When I was a student, I kind of thought university leaders believed them, and I now marvel at my naiveté:
Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.
Weirdly, I agree with the long-dead old White man.
So, assuming my courage holds, I will be putting the following signs up on Monday. And then have a panic attack.
