The "no" normal

That was a great event last week, a colleague told me; It made things feel almost--normal.

And she's right. For a few brief hours on a Friday afternoon, a group of faculty and a few administrators gathered in a big meeting room to nosh, sip, chat, and hear interesting presentations about two colleagues' sabbatical adventures. This was an attempt to revive an earlier tradition: twice each semester, we would meet at some nice off-campus venue for an hour of socializing (with finger foods and an open bar) and an hour of hearing reports about colleagues' research or creative projects. 

That tradition was derailed a few years ago, first by Covid lockdowns and then by budget limitations. This semester, though, one of my committees was tasked with bringing back the practice on a smaller scale: staying on campus, using our campus food service, relying on the Powers That Be to donate a few bottles of wine. But despite the limitations, the event was a success--and, yes, it felt normal, or as normal as we can manage under the circumstances.

Now we're back to wondering how long this new normal will last. We've been in a state of budget crisis for so long that crisis no longer seems like the right word; inadequacy of resources is just part of the furniture, a bad odor in the air we breathe. When some new bad news comes down the pike, as it did this week, we just shrug and carry on as if it's just what we'd expected. But once in a while I see signs that the crisis has reached an unprecedented state; yesterday, for instance, I learned that no one has applied for a sabbatical for the 2025/26 academic year. That's right: not one faculty member is taking advantage of the opportunity for a semester away from teaching at full pay. Not one.

What does this mean? Are we so beaten down under the burden of our straitened circumstances that we just can't manage the energy to apply for a sabbatical, or is staffing so tight that departments don't feel capable of covering classes? Or maybe the faculty who have viable research and creative projects are are the job market or don't want to commit to two more years of teaching after the sabbatical? We have to consider the fact that we've replaced so many tenure lines with contingent faculty that we no longer have many faculty eligible for sabbaticals, but even so--nobody?

Whatever the reasons, this situation makes me really sad. My committee fought to get approval to seek sabbatical applications and the PTBs agreed to fund a limited number of sabbaticals, but somehow, nobody bothered. Maybe we've adjusted so thoroughly to being told what we can't do that the word no has come to feel normal. Maybe we just can't imagine a clear path back to yes.

But for a few brief hours on a Friday afternoon, we enjoyed a room full of yes. How can we nurture that feeling so that the default no no longer feels normal?