Activism is hardly optional in today’s world. I feel the calling in my bones. My family is deeply Jewish, with both Sephardic and Ashkenazic roots, and taught me the core lessons of tikkun olam (repair the world), tzedakah (create justice), g’milut chasadim (engage in loving kindness), pikuach nefesh (life matters), and ometz lev (courage). These values anchored my identity even as the academy challenged it, trying to make me quieter, smaller, and less effective. It also made me admire the incredible scholar activists who lit the way.
Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab
(1) Put a copy of every file and email you care about on your own computer or cloud. Do not leave anything valuable solely on university computing. (Of course, this doesn’t mean violating intellectual property, university policies, or doing anything illegal with student records, protected data, etc. Follow state laws.)
(2) Gather all written correspondence you have about your employment and put it with those other valuable files.
(3) Connect with your network to find names of local employment attorneys, preferably experienced with your university, and check their references now. Frankly you need that list handy every day you work for a university. Neither university counsel nor HR is there to protect you.
(4) Put all conversations you have with anyone in administration - about anything related to your public voice- in writing. Do not handle any of that by phone or in person without a witness. Write it all down immediately.
(5) No one who works at your university and has any power over your life is a true friend. I don’t care how much you think they are or want them to be. They are not. Try to avoid casual conversations with them, and if you have them document what was said and by whom. Strive to improve boundaries with co-workers; work is not family.
