This and the following two blog posts are for a 40-minute presentation at the "Vulnerability at Work and Beyond: How are We Managing?" themed 2026 LACUNY Institute.
In the next two posts, I'll share two of my interventions, and then we'll add yours to this post!
But first...here are some of the reasons I began regular downloads of my Google account and took medical leave:
- I was called into the provost's office without an explanation, with my boss clearly on the provost's side, not mine
- 77 of my coworkers were laid off on last day of the month and were immediately cut off from their health insurance. If they signed a promise not to sue, they were given two months free COBRA. Meanwhile, how many executive positions have been added since then?
- I got a call from HR saying that my part-time coworker was fired. That ended up not being true, but COME ON.
- One of my student zine librarians was suspended from school for a year for having participated in what was meant to be a no-risk protest that was escalated by campus security and the NYPD surrounded and trapping the protestors
- A coworker of mine was fired for participating in the same protest
- Constant campus surveillance via swipe access and having attendance taken at our staff holiday party
- The violence of the Hinds Hall raid in 2024
- Being forced to remove all DEI references from our website because discrimination against white people? What even is higher ed???
- Approval being required for all purchases, web, and social media posts
- Non-librarian hired as interim dean
- Librarians banned from faculty meetings
- The most beloved member of HR being manipulated and fired
- A hit piece about my special collection in the Washington Free Beacon, a deeply unserious web news outlet that lead to judgment against the zine library and me. Could maybe anyone have thought to offer me a delete.me account or ask how I was doing???
- My department getting defunded/told to rely on endowments, rather than operational money
- Staff across the college being treated with fear and loathing, like the time right after the layoffs when a senior staffer told us she was sorry we were all suffering from group think
All of that took a toll on my mental health ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.