Student Success
A decade or so ago I thought that this phrase was the tip of a discursive iceberg that had the capacity to bring faculty and administrators together around an actually shared interest: helping our students learn.

I still want to believe this.  It still could be.  But I wonder as it has begun to sound more hallow, in the same way that once robust resources for resistance get commodified.  Think Led Zepplin music for Cadillac commercials, for a trivial illustration.

Anyway, in politics it is important to enact the goal, to be the change, especially when the competing interests are struggling to find that common language I had hoped this buzzword might have become.

To me, this means doing two things at once.

Call those...diminishing the idea by treating is as a free-floating signifier without empirical referent...on their bullshit.  Do it powerfully and honestly, but also working just as powerfully and honestly to articulate it in ways designed to stand the best chance of being heard.  And redesigning as needed, based on listening and learning.

And...

Call ourselves out.  We can actually accomplish a lot more when we focus on what we can do, on pushing our allies reject dualistic thinking or demonizing sound bites.  And instead, enact and be, live in a way that advances the success of our students.

And we cannot help our students if we ignore the rising cost of education to them and their families or the dwindling prospects for many of them upon graduation.  We need to build bridges between our classrooms and their questions, challenges, and aspirations.