I'm a professor at a HBCU & sometime I regret taking on a job that has mountains of work, below market pay, and a sort of academic invisibility.
The saving grace is that throughout our seasons of turmoil (and there have been multiple in my 4 years), I have seen people do amazing things with students with little to no resources. Seventy percent of our students do independent research, present at conferences, are selected as ideal interns, or represent academic excellence at the White House. But because many of those at the helm of this ship are many years absent from the classroom, these accomplishments are dismissed or ignored.
This!! This is what we do WELL! This is why we need THESE safe spaces for the intellectual development of students of color.
Today, I got pulled from my 4th class of the day by a member of the old guard. He said a past chair had brought someone up to the school to discuss her T-test analysis. I knew when I saw him this was another way I was going to be pimped for my skill set. I went anyway thinking I'd get to see the old chair (who I admire). Anyway, there was jolly an online PhD student waiting in his office that he'd sent to the school.
I sighed inwardly as the Faculty member introduced me as a SPSS specialist. Really?!! I just sat down and walked her through the analysis, explained the findings, printed her output, and put it in her flash drive for about an hour (during my class). She was grateful and pulled out a check book...I told her not to worry about it. Then I looked at her and said, "Donate to Paine...but not just in money. Please help us tell the story of our greatness, our good work, our excellence." She stared at me...probably because I had gotten so intense. But I told her about the amazing student research, the work faculty were doing on campus and she was in awe.
She scribbled a check for $100 to the school and laid on his desk. I kept thinking, "Now this manipulative faculty member will take this down to the offices on the 1st floor and not mention that he bartered my gifts for it" and that "no one will know my sacrifice, again."
I packed up my laptop, handed her a stack of output, and headed back to my class where my colleague was wrapping up. My heart was heavy...sad. Maybe the spirit of Paine College feels the same...like her great work and sacrifice will never be acknowleged in this era because the hearts of those at the table only want to exploit the remainder of her gifts and talents, to cash out her value, & never tell the truth of who she was/is.