Collegiality is Alive and Well (For the Most Part)

This week Timothy J. Haney's post in University Affairs called for the abolition of collegiality as one of the modes of evaluating tenure applications. The main argument Haney makes it that collegiality should be abolished for there is no one definition of collegiality and that collegiality is one of those concepts that is highly influenced by cultural norms.

The article really made me think because as an academic I value that sense of community that should come with being part of a post-secondary institution. I am not so deluded to believe that all departments and institutions are sunshine and lollipop places where everyone gets along and sits over coffee, talks about their research, and strategizes about where their departments/institutions are headed.  I have seen how this is certainly not the case in many places. This Xtranormal video pretty much highlights the tensions that are innate in most places.

However, call me an idealist but I do believe that collegiality can be and is alive and well (for the most part). I started this week with an example of what you should not do in order to foster collegiality. I have an assigned work desk in a shared office space at my college. There are a total of 5 desks in this office.  On Tuesday after 5pm I was the only one working in the office when a “colleague” (the scare quotes will become apparent soon) walked in and asked to sit exactly where I was sitting. In fact asking is a nice way of putting it. He hovered over me asking me “are you almost done?” for a good few minutes.  Keep in mind there were 4 free desks in the office. I pointed that out to him, he ignored my words, stood there saying “you have a laptop you can move easily”.  You can see where this is going. Needless to say this is probably the antithesis of collegiality. I also have to mention here that is probably the one and only time that I have had such a negative experience at the college where I teach, so this was clearly some sort of blip in the system.

Then Thursday rolled around and I was reminded why collegiality still exist and is so very important to what we do as academics and instructors.  I saw on my Twitter feed, reference to two very interesting articles on social media use in relation to Victorian literature. I did not have ready access to these articles because the periodicals that my college subscribes to are limited. I was immediately contacted via Twitter by one of the authors who asked if I would like her to send me a copy of her article. I have never met this person before and yet she found the time out of her busy day to contact me and create that sense of community and collegiality which is so very important. 

What I choose to take out of these two very different experiences of collegiality is that collegiality is very important for the work that we do. My Tuesday experience actually took an opportunity for doing work away, whereas my Thursday experience reinforced a network where research and dialogue are valued.

If we are going to try to combat the stereotype of academics as awkward and incapable of maintaining conversations outside the walls of academe, theory and literature, we need to work towards maintaining conversations within the walls we actually inhabit. If we cannot speak and act civilly around each other within academe how are we going to maintain dialogue with those not connected to post-secondary institutions? Collegiality should be maintained not simply as part of tenure evaluations, but as an everyday necessity within post-secondary institutions and departments because it is essential to living and being civil in society at large.