Five years ago, I wrote an opinion essay that enumerated my experience participating in a faculty retreat amid uncertain times as an untenured associate professor and program coordinator of a higher education administration program. Today, I write from a different perspective as a tenured full professor and interim associate dean of the School of Education (SOE).
Three lessons emerged as I planned aspects of this year’s faculty and staff retreat amidst constant changes in higher education. First, there is a multiplier-effect that happens as a leader charged with designing a retreat for faculty and staff. I strategically selected “Historically Black Colleges and Universities as a Social Equalizer: Implications for Higher Education Research” as the theme with the support of retired Dean Audrey Beard. Based on my re
Second, I am reminded of the mission of the NCCU School of Education, which calls me to prepare candidates for socially responsible positions that advance the general welfare of the people of North Carolina. The mission is rooted in preparing educators who use their knowledge to promote justice and humane conditions in schools and society. That is what it means to be a social equalizer. An equalizer does not simply observe change. An equalizer helps make change possible.
This is an example of making a difference on a greater scale, which is what higher education leadership entails. Every undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral student I get an opportunity to interface with helps to make change possible. So does every faculty, staff, and alumni committed to the mission.
Third, I am reminded of an excerpt from the greetings I brought at the faculty and staff retreat:
“As faculty and staff, we sometimes become consumed with the immediate—courses, assessments, accreditation, publications, grants, meetings, deadlines, and research agendas.
Those things matter.
But our HBCU legacy reminds us that there is a larger purpose behind the work.
Our graduates are not simply completing programs.
They are carrying forward a legacy.
Every teacher we prepare has the potential to influence hundreds, perhaps thousands, of students.
Every counselor can help a young person see possibilities where there once appeared to be limitations.
Every educational leader can influence the culture and direction of an entire school.
Every scholar can challenge assumptions, produce knowledge, and illuminate problems that society has too often ignored.
So, when we talk about HBCUs as social equalizers, we are also talking about our responsibility as faculty and staff.
We have inherited something powerful.
The question is: What will we do with it?
Today gives us an opportunity to think beyond maintaining what we have and to imagine what we might build.
How can we strengthen our impact on schools and communities?
How can we ensure that our scholarship addresses the most pressing educational challenges of our time?
How can we prepare educators who are not only highly competent, but culturally responsive, socially conscious, courageous, and prepared to lead?
And how can we continue to make NCCU a place where students discover not only what they can achieve—but what they can change?”
The lesson I derived from reflecting on this greeting is that thoughtful higher education leadership can help faculty, and staff maintain openness, intellectual curiosity, and a willingness to challenge ourselves. Leadership can also remind us that our history gives us a foundation. Our scholarship gives us knowledge. Our students give us purpose. And our collective imagination gives us the opportunity to shape what comes next. This is vital as we chart out the path forward in our strategic planning process and vision for the School. I also learned that a good dean continues to produce but they also work towards facilitating excellence in our colleagues’ production. One way I’ve began to do this is via a new initiative called the Eagle Educators Monthly Writing Retreats. The focus is three-fold: to create a shared community and culture of active writing/scholarship for faculty of all ranks in addition to graduate students, to work towards collaborating when synergies exist among faculty, and to support one another on our teacher-scholar-mentor journeys. I will write more on this initiative in a future essay.
Finally, I am convinced that the work of asking ourselves what it means—not simply to be a public HBCU, but to remain an equalizer for educational and social transformation is one of the most consequential questions any HBCU or minority serving institution can ask. To answer the question, a cadre of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends will need to come to the table to work towards developing solutions. These lessons are one aspect of what it means to me to be a dean in this sociopolitical environment.
Dr. Tryan L. McMickens is an award-winning full professor of Higher Education and interim Associate Dean of the School of Education at North Carolina Central University.
