WKU News

Colleagues, 

While the start of a new semester frequently brings a renewed energy and excitement, it is important that we not ignore the feelings of frustration and burnout that might begin to creep in towards the middle and end of the semester. Many of you have expressed concerns about burnout, and in response, the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) will be hosting Dr. Rebecca Pope-Ruark, author of “Agile Faculty” and “Unraveling Faculty Burnout” to visit with our faculty about Connecting as a Way Through Burnout and Building Vitality in Your Faculty Career. I hope that you’ll consider attending one or both of these sessions on Friday, January 27 in Downing Student Union (DSU) 3020. The descriptions and registration links are provided below. Special thanks to Micah Logan and Alicia Pennington for organizing this important event.  

9:30-11:00 - Connecting as a Way Through Burnout Registration  

The last three years have been challenging, to say the very least. Many faculty - and students - were on the edge of burnout before the events of 2020 and since, and the swings between in-person to remote and back again have tested the coping skills of the most engaged of us. But what exactly is burnout and how is it impacting each of us as well as our students and institutions? In this workshop, we will explore what burnout is, how to recognize it, and how to use connection - to yourself, your colleagues, your students, and your outside interests - to enliven your approach to your work. 

1:00 – 2:30 - Building Vitality in Your Faculty Career Registration 

Productivity is often the name of the game in academia - papers published, grant money earned, students taught, service counted. But ecologically, productivity means the capacity, richness, and generative possibilities in a given habitat or area. When we think of productivity in this way, we allow ourselves to focus on what is meaningful and important, the activities that feed our curiosity and our energy, which ripples out into our research, writing, and work with students and the community. We work in a state of vitality. In this workshop, we’ll explore what it means to cultivate vitality in your work with specific strategies for creating joy, boundaries, and balance. 

Sincerely,

Robert "Bud" Fischer