July 25, 2025

Dave: Hey, doc. Thanks again for rescheduling this session.

Dr. Rue: No problem, David. Hopefully something good came up in terms of the conflict?

Dave: Yeah. I had a chance to meet a former colleague, another former Chief Academic Officer from Michigan. It was a fun couple of hours.

Dr. Rue: I heard several "formers" in that sentence. Does that mean you have some shared history in terms of departures from positions?

Dave: I suspect all of us who have been Chief Academic Officers for more than a few years end up with shared histories in terms of departures. It's a difficult position to navigate through the politics of college presidencies.

Dr. Rue: Hmm? Does that mean that you two drank and shared in your misery?

Dave: Not at all. In fact, I will give this friend credit. He has navigated himself quite well through his transition, not only maintaining his key role with our regional accrediting body, but even landing a full-time faculty position at one of my former employers. Academia is truly a small world. 

Dr. Rue: How did that make you feel?  

Dave: You mean, how did it feel to see someone else successfully transition after a bad break-up?

Dr. Rue: I would never put it that crudely. Still, given what we are trying to accomplish here in terms of your conflicted feelings about retirement, this interaction could have been bittersweet.

Dave: I felt fine. He's a few years younger than me, thus not ready to go cold turkey as I have.  He certainly understood why I wanted a complete break from the higher education, hell, education overall, industry. Besides, he's now faculty. You can't get better a gig that close to retirement.

Dr. Rue: You sound really at peace with this.

Dave: Of course. And now I have someone else who can give me updates on a former employer. That's always a plus.

Dr. Rue: Hmm? Not so sure I would call that a plus in terms of your psychological health, but I will let it slide for now. Have you thought about seeking out more of these "networking" colleagues to provide some frames of reference for your choices?

Dave: I am not sure who else I would reach out to. This colleague and I had already been meeting a few times before I left SMC. His former boss is someone I know, so when he left his previous CAO position about a year and a half before me, I had already been supporting him, so to speak. However, I think you have hit on another epiphany for me.

Dr. Rue: I love it when you make me job easier for me. Share.

Dave: I put a lot of pride and effort into the work I did outside of SMC and Davenport. I wasn't a big conference presenter or scholarly writer kind of academic, but I felt an obligation to speak up and lead when given opportunities among like-minded colleagues.

Dr. Rue: A few more specifics, please.

Dave: For instance, for 8 years, I was the Secretary for the Michigan Community College Chief Academic Officers Association, then after that, I was the President for 5 years. That provided me plenty of opportunity to fight for the interests of that group. I also was a peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission for 6 years, which provided me opportunity to make a small impact on the quality of education through the accrediting body and through site visits. 

Dr. Rue: It sounds like you would have built up quite a network just through those two opportunities. So, what's the epiphany?

Dave: I think I did some really good work, but I have no idea of any lasting impact. With my Davenport and SMC work, I could see impact, probably even through and after my retirement. However, such understanding of my impact is not available through this outside network.

Dr. Rue: And that is disappointing?

Dave: I suppose. For instance, I put myself out there with a letter from a subgroup of the Michigan CAOs who were frustrated by a partnership with Michigan State University. We sent it to their Provost who promptly handed it off and ignored it . . . and our issues did not go away.

Dr. Rue: That hardly seems "the Spartan way."

Dave: We were all tiny partners. All added up, we probably represented 1/200th of the Provost's enrollment.

Dr. Rue: So you were blown off. Would it have been better to felt threatened than ignored?

Dave: Probably. If you are threatened, you are at least on someone's radar.

Dr. Rue: Alright, maybe we'll come back to this. Now, talk to me about this peer stuff.

Dave: I sweated through several responses for the HLC peer review, trying to capture accurately concerns of the peer review team. In all cases, once all was said and done, our work was submitted with no feedback, or as in one case, our findings were over-ruled by higher ups in the Commission. I had to rewrite my section downplaying the team's concerns.

Dr. Rue: So is this "teamwork" like the dreaded group project in school? Had everyone dumped the hard work on you?

Dave: No, it's not at all like that. Thank God. Without getting too much into the weeds, each team member had a specific criterion to assess. My areas, because of my academic experiences, tended to be the criteria most tenuous for any institution. However, for these peer review teams, each of those scenarios represented shared purpose and goals, which meant we bonded and collaborated intensely for a short period, then went our separate ways, perhaps only to meet again at the annual conference.

Dr. Rue: What I am hearing seems to fit with the larger theme of "missing recognition" that seems to bother you? Does that sound accurate?

Dave: Unfortunately. That sounds really vain, though. Are you saying I am vain?

Dr. Rue: Of course not. For one thing, I have only known you for three months, and you've pooh-poohed any suggestion of us talking about your childhood . . . or your mother, so I have nowhere near the evidence to make that determination.

Dave: Ha! You do sound like a peer reviewer.

Dr. Rue: Watch your words, buddy! However, back to your concern: a little vanity is not a bad thing. Maybe you should have had more. Maybe that is part of why you feel un-valued in retirement.

Dave: I don't know. I got Carly Simon's voice in my head telling me differently about that vanity thing.

Dr. Rue:  Those meetings at the annual conference should have provided some chance to reconnect with review team members. I would think that provided lots of positive reflection on your work.

Dave: That didn't really happen for me. At conferences, I seem to retreat into full-out introversion. I might see these colleagues in sessions, but after sessions, I was more likely to seek out my favorite Irish pub for a solo dinner and drink. 

Dr. Rue: You didn't meet these people for a quick drink? A quick cup of coffee? 

Dave: I did that sometimes with the fellow CAOs, which was always awkwardly fun, 12 to 15 of us crowded around a couple of cocktail tables. That conversation, however, remained mostly professional.

Dr. Rue: So, will you reach out to any of them now? You could try with some strategic one-on-ones.

Dave: Maybe. Fifteen months, which is what it has now been since I retired is a pretty long time. And then's when I last collectively saw my SMC colleagues. It would be a longer period of time for these networking colleagues.  Besides, last time I checked, and trust me there is no easy way to do this, at least 10 of the 30 or so community colleges in Michigan had no CAO or someone I didn't know.

Dr. Rue: Meaning, more of those abrupt departures endemic to the position?

Dave: That's how I would take it. I think there is one "old-timer" left in that group, someone who would have been in the CAO role when I took it on in 2011 for SMC. And some of the ones I best knew from 2011 are long gone, out of academia as far as I can tell. It's hard to network when people choose bypass mode.

Dr. Rue: Look at you with the clever bon mot! Does that help your vanity?

Dave: Not really. The general idea is stolen from Warren Zevon.

Dr. Rue: Again? You probably owe Mr. Zevon a lot.

Dave: Probably everything.

Dr. Rue: Well, just a reminder. You owe me for the last couple of sessions. Make sure you stop and see Becky on the way out.

Dave: You bloodsucker.

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The Ever-Evolving Full Series of Sessions

Session Seven: I/O, I/O, Off From Work We Go