There was a way for higher ed to reinvent itself to be resilient, student-focused, and mission-driven both through and after this crisis, but it just isn't going to happen. I don't know why I even entertained the possibility.

The story now is just an intensified version of before, individual instructors working themselves beyond what's sensible in order to prop up the work of the institution while the institution reorganizes around the additional immiseration of those individuals.

It's so depressing to see the incredible heavy lift that instructors and students are pulling off this fall, juxtaposed against the institutional sclerosis that cannot envision anything other than a steadily worsening status quo.

Three + years ago I illustrated the ways it was clear that institution were not holding up their end of the bargain when assessed according to their purported values. It's only worse now. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/admitting-we-might-not-be-doing-job-anymore

We could be doing the work of positioning institutions to be the rescuers, rather than another in a long line of those needing rescuing, but that ship is rapidly sailing. Maybe it's already sailed. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/using-research-build-resilient-student-focused-institutions

I really I wish I could mentally and emotionally wash my hands of it all because it's like watching a slow motion train wreck that could've been prevented day after day.