The most frustrating thing about being someone interested in too many things is that I am always struggling to record and post updates on all of the millions of developments that arise each week. This problem was never more pronounced than in 2023. This year, I was not only completing my second year as the Faculty Senate Chair of RIT, traveling to the GDC (again), co-leading a Global Campus summit, speaking at the Day of Understanding and Solidarity and continuing to develop and refine my digital preservation project, which included being showcased in the Wehrheim Gallery, bringing on collaborators, applying for funding and working with a career coach to develop my skills as a leader and creator.
Oh, and I decided I was also going to have a personal life, so from May onwards, I worked out 3 times a week, cooked my own food, went on a lovely family trip to the UK and developed some sort of weird inflammatory response from the Canadian wildfires that forced Rochesterians to stay indoors to avoid the horrible smoke. This led me to a bunch of doctors who decided that I had a deviated septum and recommended an operation, which I got done two days before Christmas.
Needless to say, it was a sleepy New Year for me!
Okay, on to our updates: 2023 was the year of internal growth.
Research
After my presentation at the GDC in 2022, I was pleasantly surprised (and overjoyed) to learn that my talk was one of the highest-ranked presentations of the year. This earned me a spot in the much-vaunted GDC card-deck, a commemoration of the best talks of the year.
Boosted by this knowledge, I applied to the Ambassador’s Cultural Preservation Fund with the US Embassy in Pakistan, building connections and moving past the first round for consideration. Unfortunately, this process was stalled when the Pakistan government was overthrown in a coup and by the time I got a response for my application, all funding had ceased.
Instead, I decided to continue the work I had started in the Fall semester of 2022 (I just realized, I haven’t posted about this yet…) and to refine the test export of the building I and my students had scanned. As I did that, I also asked for user feedback from a couple of Architecture and Museum courses to see how the different audiences experience the scanned world.
This project gets more exciting every time I get to present it to different audiences. I will put up a post specifically to discuss recent strategies and goals that I and my collaborators are cooking up!
Leadership
Besides my research, this was also a banner year for me as a leader. Not only was I elected to Faculty Senate Chair for a second year, but we were able to put a whole set of my ideas into practice. Starting last year, the Senate established a full-on calendar, which was amplified by our Newsletter (which I set up the year prior). The Executive Committee visited every single college and unit, and discussed in person the policies and issues with our faculty. Keeping names and populations unnamed, we honed in on some key issues plaguing our faculty and began to actively work with different administrative offices to begin to address the concerns. The COACHE survey also came out this year and provided us with even more ammunition to advocate for a better system of governing.
This is the year I realized I had a talent for leadership. Not only was I able to defuse volatile situations and amplify concerns voiced to me, but I realize I am surprisingly good at breaking bad news to my superiors without being insolent or insulting. The fact is, without communication, everyone is working blindly, and it really helps to shed light on different perspectives.
Additionally, my team and I were able to develop a comprehensive set of adjustments that will refine how we build our policies and will make us (the RIT Faculty Senate) much more nimble in how we approach and solve problems in the future. I feel braggy saying this, but I feel like I have a knack for organizational refinement. I attribute this to my skills in 3D rigging, because the job always demands solving problems before they arise, it really gives me the ability to see big things coming down the road.
In retrospect
As much as I’d like to have listed some clear wins for 2023, I realize I hadn’t set up enough small and attainable goals for myself to aim for. Instead, I was forced to slow down and put in the kind of deep work that must be done in order for true progress to be made. Of course, our shallow metrics for measuring academic progress are not equipped for such work, so naturally I received a less than great review for my efforts, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I will never be valuable to my leadership.
Instead, I decided to be flattered by the many invitations I received to apply for leadership roles in other institutions. This is what prompted even more deep thinking as I worked with my coach to explore what types of opportunities excited me. I didn’t end the year with a single goal, nor did I have the kind of clarity I was aiming for, but I did finally get the sense that I was getting unstuck from the quagmire that has been blocking me for years. Living and working in a toxic environment can do that to a person, and getting to detach and interact with real people, active researchers and academics the like of whom I discovered through the Senate was just what I needed. I feel like I found my community and I’m grateful to have at least one more year with them. (Spoiler: I was re-elected to Faculty Senate Chair for a 3rd time in 2024! That’s got to be some sort of a record!?)
Now it’s 2024 and I’m shocked to realize it’s almost August.
It’s already been an insanely busy year, with some key wins (yes, clear wins!) and great strides being made in all areas of my life. As tempted as I am to cram it all into this one update, I will hold off, and give myself homework to write updates in discrete headings so that people can find them more easily.
Till next time!