June 2, 2025

Dr. Rue: Hello, David. How've you been?

Dave: Good. I think our last session was quite helpful.  So, what's the plan for today? We staying in my career infancy days?

Dr. Rue: We don't have to. I have a couple of things in my notes that we should talk about at some point.

Dave: Like what?

Dr. Rue: Well, your reaction to my joke about teacher evaluations seemed to strike a nerve.

Dave: I remember.

{Awkward silence}

Dr. Rue: So, I will avoid a more clinically-phrased question, and instead go with -- what's up with that?

Dave: Honestly, do we have to go into that? Let's pick something more interesting.

Dr. Rue: Like what?

Dave: Annoying colleagues. Unappreciative employees. Drying paint.

Dr. Rue: Hmm. I'll make a note of a couple of those, but why are we avoiding the topic of evaluations, David?

Dave: That's another thing. Only my mother consistently called me David. Most call me Dave.

Dr. Rue: So you want to talk about your mother? I thought you hated me getting all Freudian on you.

Dave: Sigh. {with great hesitation} Evaluations are part and parcel of the greater obsession in higher education the last few decades: Measurement.

Dr. Rue: So now it's about size. Really, Dave, can you become even more of the cliché you hate?

Dave: Not everything has to be measured. One can't measure art! You can't use a rubric to measure the beauty of Whitman's "When I Heard The Learn'd Astronomer," beautifully ironic as that statement is.

Dr. Rue: Not all of life is a poem, Dave.

Dave: Don't I freaking know that. Just think how much better it would be.

Dr. Rue: Stick with this, Dave. I think we are getting somewhere, but we need to get past your surface anger. What's the bigger issue here?

Dave: Good God, this is part of the commodification of education. {snidely} "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Fucking Peter Drucker! Now that is a topic for a future session: worthless consultants.

Dr. Rue: Well, the nerve has been struck and a raw flame has been placed on it. Deep breaths, Dave. Let's stick with the topic at hand. How did measurement challenges impact your career?

Dave: Education when I was in school seemed so wonderfully fluid. I spoke to a graduating class of masters and doctoral students at West Virginia University in 2010 and noted how the tools I used in my career developed unexpectedly as I moved along in my career. None of that would have been measurable when I received my degrees. I didn't know yet what I would have to apply from my education. That is an unacceptable approach these days, where everything has become education-should-be-treated-like-a-business replete with strategic plans, data, measures, outcomes and objectives. God, the amount of hours I've lost talking about that crap. Look, some of it works quite well in areas that essentially are training: welding, automotive, construction, medical coding. These fields teach a specific skill set. But the ultimate goal of higher education has always been about something less objective, the abilities honed not only in liberal arts, but also in professional fields, such as medicine or law. The outcomes of those kinds of programs . . .

Dr. Rue: Let me cut off the dissertation for a moment. I understand what you are describing, but where in all of this is the spur that, allow me to review my notes from last time, "keeps you from enjoying retirement."

Dave: {Long hesitation} Assessment became my albatross. 

Dr. Rue: You literary types. A Coleridge reference and alliteration. You hit the daily double! Nevertheless, go on.

Dave: That would be assonance, not alliteration.

Dr. Rue: Assonance and Assessment? Why am I assuming you fit well within that framework, Dr. Fleming. Continue.

Dave: So, back at Davenport University when I fully went administrative, I became --- I believe the title was, Director of Faculty Development. It seemed like the ideal position, as it would allow me to use my creativity to train the trainers, so to speak. At the same time, the University was looking for a Director of Assessment, so the Provost asked me to be part of that search committee.

Dr. Rue: Fascinating, but where is this taking us?

Dave: Patience, Doc. The search ended up fruitless. We found no candidate that we liked. So, the Provost asked me if I would be willing to take on assessment along with the faculty development stuff.

Dr. Rue: I see, and you obviously agreed.

Dave: Never kick shut an open door, doc, that has always been my motto. However, I really had little assessment background or experience, quickly started learning it, found it rather dull, utilizing skill sets that were at the opposite end of the spectrum as faculty development. I think my discomfort with it contributed to the fact that I did the combined job for less than a year before applying for a Vice Presidential position, which luckily I got and took me out of my discomfort zone.

Dr. Rue: So, where's the rub?

Dave: Nice play, doc, going literary with me. Unfortunately, just because it wasn't my specific role anymore, I couldn't escape assessment. Especially once I took on my Provost roles, I was now accountable for the academic assessment at first Davenport, then SMC. In an effort to have a better handle on it, I accepted opportunities with the regional accrediting body to learn more about it, including my voluntary participation as a peer reviewer. Since my CV showed a time as Director of Faculty Development and Assessment, I was assumed to have a better depth of knowledge of the topic than I probably had.

Dr. Rue: Am I seeing the specter of imposter syndrome creeping in?

Dave: Exactly. SMC, especially, was small enough that hiring a full-time person just for assessment was not going to happen, so I had to collaborate with deans to oversee an assessment program that didn't pass the scrutiny of our peer reviewers. It wasn't that big of a deal overall, and allowed me to try and tap into faculty expertise to strengthen the college's assessment. What was even more frustrating was that as I navigated my own role as a peer reviewer for other institution's assessment programs, my determinations were often rebuked by others. What I learned through that, probably a little too late, is that I should have fought harder against the peer assessment review done on SMC's assessment. O.k., I caught that yawn; I would assume this is all really boring. Just trying to explain this decaying feathered thing hanging around my neck.

Dr. Rue: No, I think I get it, even if the details go over my head. I do believe we need to explore the imposter syndrome in greater depth. Did anyone ever blame you directly for sub-par assessment issues?

Dave: Never directly. But the damn bird got heavier and heavier around my neck each year. Not to say anything about the smell.

Dr. Rue: You really have a thing for figures of speech, don't you?

Dave: That's part of getting three degrees in English, doc. How do we want to measure that?

Dr. Rue: Where do we, meaning you, go from here? You escaped all of that by retiring, right?

Dave: True. I guess I haven't quite removed all of the bird.

Dr. Rue: Here's a suggestion. First chance you get, flip off that bird at someone who pisses you off.

Dave: Oh, you would have done so well as an English major, doc.

The Ever-Evolving Full Series of Sessions

Session #2: When I Solemnly Swear