Sabbatical for Student Affairs

I recently viewed a TEDTalk about the power of taking time off and it got me thinking….

How often do we take time off in Student Affairs? What is the role of sabbatical in our field? Is there room or need for a sabbatical?

In these hard economic times in California and throughout the country, we (Student Affairs Professionals) are wearing many, many “hats”. There’s already a high turnover rate for new professionals and I can’t imagine what the morale of student affairs professionals is now with the impact of budget cuts, more responsibility and less pay. I’m sure it’s hard to imagine legitimizing a sabbatical or significant time off outside of our typically scheduled holidays and vacations. But I do wonder what would happen if we challenged the idea of “not having enough time” and instead committed to taking time off for ourselves and exploring our own individual creativity and finding out what could happen. Now, I’m not suggesting taking a full year every seven years as the speaker suggests in this TEDTalk. What I am suggesting is finding something that can serve as that sabbatical for you so that you can reinvent your work, and connect back to your work more as a calling than as a job. While it may seem a like great feat, it never hurts to ask and see what you might be able to get. Check out the video and let me know what you think: http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html

What would you do if you had a sabbatical?

How long would you need or want?

How can you incorporate mini-sabbaticals currently?

-Keegan Mills
CCPA President