I don’t think I was quite prepared for the heavy shift on August 1st as the serious ramp up point for beginning fall. I can’t quite tell whether this is a #WPAlife thing (is it just the fact that I am now THE Senior Director, instead of my former Associate Director position) or is it the result of COVID19 and the increase in support faculty, especially are incoming new graduate student teachers, need this year. My guess is it’s a little bit of both.
Because of COVID19, this summer required more work of most academic administrators. However, I had definitely felt a difference, a drop in meetings and work from May to June. And I just recently felt the uptick in meetings and required work start again on August 1st. I’m already looking forward to the second week of classes when the administrative work pauses just for a second (students are in classes, instructors have started teaching, first batch of papers aren’t due yet…).
It will be interesting to see in future years how much remains similar (is the norm, or becomes the new norm) or how much is primarily about dealing with COVID19.
