October 2020 WACUBO News

President’s Message: Ruth’s Ruminations

Welcome to the Fall, fellow WACUBO colleagues.

I hope your term is going well as can be expected, whether your institution has initiated face-to-face classrooms, on-line only classes or a hybrid model. What a strange 2020 we are having.  With Covid-19, enrollment and budget reductions, continued systemic racism and injustices, devastating fires and the death of some of our greatest Americans (RBG for one), we are all challenged in new ways, often to the core of our being. Living in this new adaptive way, wearing masks and socially distancing, working remotely much of the time, and not travelling for work, family or pleasure is simply hard. 

As leaders in higher education, we have a mission to educate our students, support our faculty and staff, and be strong in the face of adversity. It’s not easy, and our resilience is imperative.  There’s no playbook for this except to stay strong and do good things for yourself and your family including exercise, sleep, eating well, and continual learning. In addition, I encourage all of us to educate ourselves about racism and structural inequality. 

We held our third virtual WACUBO board meeting on September 14, focusing on our strategic plan and how we can best support and bring value to you, our members.  Be on the lookout for new professional development opportunities later this Fall. The Workshops Committee is planning new learning opportunities to meet the needs you indicated you want in the recent member survey, and ones that were popular from our virtual Business Management Institute held in August. That learning environment proved highly successful – 93% indicated they’d return next year virtually, although Santa Barbara in person would be best.

We are working hard on our program for the 2021 Annual Conference. More news on that and the Women’s Leadership Forum will be coming later this Fall. 

Please do join our monthly Happy Hours, hosted by me. It’s fun to see each other, talk about current happenings, and share our experiences. The next one is October 22, 2020 at 5:00 PM PT. Learn more about it here. 

Finally, we are still collecting donations for the 2020 Service Project via the WACUBO home page. Nestled within the UNLV campus, Paradise Professional Development School is a public elementary school that is home to 492 students in grades Pre-K to 5th. All of the students receive free breakfast and lunch and come from high poverty homes. Paradise PDS is 49.9% transient with 100% of the students living in low income housing—an important factor that impacts the students’ schooling as many of the students will attend two or more schools per year.

Thanks to each of you for your contribution to your institution and WACUBO. We need to stick together in support of our students and our missions. Stay safe, stay strong and be kind.

Ruth

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