Universities have been around for over a thousand years. They've persisted through war, famine, plague, natural disasters, vast shifts in people's beliefs about them and what they are for.

That's because universities are self-preserving. They adapt.

Look right now at how your university is adapting. Are they partnering with you to solve problems? Are they saying "keep your heads down and pivot"? Are they saying "don't worry we've got this" but aren't actually in conversation with you about how? Are they placing the burden of adapting squarely on YOUR shoulders?

In 2025, you need to think carefully about your relationship to your institution and DECIDE what it is going to be.

Here are some questions to help you get started:

1. What is my responsibility to my institution, and what is its responsibility to me?

2. What are my values? What are my institution's values (the ones it is showing you right now, not the ones in the strategic plan)? How are these aligned or misaligned?

3. If your institution is not bending over backwards to save you, how much energy should you be using to save it?

There is no one "right" way to relate to your university. YOU get to decide. The university and your position in it is just one container through which to do the work. YOU get to decide your relationship to the container.

We're receiving applications for our next cohort of Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap®! Check out the program details and start your application process here.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:

1. Our 12-week Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap® program helps tenure-track womxn and nonbinary professors to publish their backlog of papers so that their voice can have the impact they know is possible. Apply here!

2. Cathy's book, Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing is available in print! Learn how to build your career around your writing practice while shattering the myths of writing every day, accountability, and motivation, doing mindset work that's going to reshape your writing,and changing academic culture one womxn and nonbinary professor at a time. Get your print copy today or order it for a friend here!

3. If you would like to hear more from Cathy for free, please subscribe to the weekly newsletter, In the Pipeline, at scholarsvoice.org. It's a newsletter that she personally writes that goes out once a week with writing and publication tips, strategies, inspiration, book reviews and more.

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