What I wish for HigherEd in 2023

I spent this morning finishing up the grading for the term and inputting the numbers into the system as one does this time of year. Then reviewing my syllabus for next term and sending that off because that is also what one does this time of year.

So as my supper cooks I decided to sit down and write this last blog of 2022, and reflect on the year and all the things that I am still processing. Which is also a thing that folk do this time of year I suppose.

I have so many things I am still processing. Things that hurt. Things that make me cry. Things that make me really angry. So I want to start a wish list for 2023, of things that I would like to see in HigherEd. Because I am worried, I mean a lot of us have always been worried because how could spaces created out power inequities and continued by power inequities ever be a place of inclusion. But I am even more worried than usual, and I hope the bit of a break I get starting the middle of next week helps me work through all the worry I have. So here is the start of a list of things I deeply deeply wish for HigherEd in 2023:

• That people don't have to avoid submitting an abstract to a conference because the conference organizers have not thought about accessibility, or just holistic inclusion in their conference planning. That conferences stop with their gatekeeping garbage and we find and support real inclusive ways to conference that bankrupt all academic professional organizations (honestly this is what I want because that is all they deserve for not reacting to what folk need and have said for decades)
• That equity, diversity, and inclusion stops being an acronym that institutions use to pretend they care about any of those things, and that discussions of equity and inclusion include disability and accessibility, as it always should have, and that programs, policies, or practices around equity and inclusion support learners in HigherEd spaces, instead of lining the same people with no praxis' pocketbooks and CVs
• That we have more places where we can critique and self-reflect as disciplines or practitioners (I'm looking at you fac dev/ed dev) and not assume we are so great or above the need for this reflection work because the folk in high profile CTLs have told us we are awesome, look at how awesome we are (rolls eyes)
• That there is real respect for staff members in HigherEd. Staff staff, not "tenured faculty as staff." I am talking the people who have made things keep running since the pandemic and have always kept things running before then. Staff are not a monolith, they do so many things in institutions that folk never or rarely acknowledge. We build communities, we do outreach to other institutions and communities, we do research. I hope 2023 is the year that all the work that staff does is highlighted especially those whose portfolio is to support equity work and are expected to do it without any resources or support or institutional commitment to equity work  
• That we don't have to be tethered to books only produced by Stylus or WVU Press or CAST and that we realize that great work is being shared outside of these monoliths, these books, these peer reviewed articles, and that maybe just maybe we take an overview of who is being published in those spaces time and again and remember that there are other countries besides the United States where education and pedagogy research and praxis (more importantly) is happening (shocking I know)
• That we find a place to share ideas and be together like the blue bird used to be (acknowledging that this place was super not great for a lot of people but also a foundational connection space for a lot of others)
• That we never, not once, ever see again a thread that goes something like: tech bans are the only way to get students to engage, kids these days and their phones, who cares about disabled students, they can use their computers if they want I guess I have to cause it's the law, I don't care if I am outing them, they need to figure it out. (Honestly folks never again do I want to see a thread like this)

I am sure I will come up with others as I reflect further over the holiday break. I am sure you have others you want to add to this list too. 2022 was hard, difficult, difficult, hard. It was filled with folk gaslighting, forgetting how much so many have lost- because capitalism, and closing off spaces of support and resources. I want all those things listed above and more, but I also know that since we live in a world where more than 10K people read that post I wrote in June about how inaccessible, harmful, and exclusionary conferences are, that we have so so much work to do. I have never had that kind of click rate on this blog and it says a lot about where we are at with inequities of knowledge sharing. 

I wish all of you a good 2023, one filled with kindness, one that could be a place of hope. May we all get some rest.