Spring Rush

In some contexts, spring rush might refer to fraternities and sororities. Here, it refers to the ways calendars fill for April and early May.

As the last couple of months of the academic year—summer is its own thing—these are when the “annual” deadlines tend to converge. This is awards season, events season, annual advisory board meeting season, faculty candidate interview season and conference season, all at the same time. This is also when student academic issues—dishonesty and/or possibility of failure—come to the surface.

I don’t mean that as a complaint, exactly, though a slightly more even pace across the year wouldn’t be a bad thing. The key is pacing.

This year I can see three sides of it. TB is applying to medical school. He has been accepted at one and is waiting on word from two others, any of which would involve moving this summer. TG is graduating next month and already has a few awards ceremonies as well as departmental and university graduation ceremonies. And, of course, Westmoreland has its share. That means a double dose on the parenting side, along with my first full spring at Westmoreland.

It’s a bit more intense than the late November–early December rush. That one involves the same academic issues, but typically less travel and fewer annual events. As long as snow days don’t coincide with final exams, it’s relatively manageable. Snow days are less of a threat now, but everything else ramps up.

That’s the reverse of how it worked in my faculty days. Then, the late November–early December rush was the worst by a long shot. I think that was a function of higher fall semester enrollments—and therefore more grading—along with the preholidays rush on the personal side. In administration, lower spring enrollments don’t have the same offsetting effect. And where a faculty member may have one advisory board to attend, admins have them all.

Admittedly, it’s much easier now than it was, say, 10 years ago, when the kids lived at home and spring was a never-ending series of rides to Little League baseball or CYO basketball. The empty nest makes certain kinds of logistics easier. I miss having TB and TG around, but I don’t miss the nightly logic puzzle of who gets which kid where in time for what. It’s one of the worst aspects of suburban life.

Zoom makes certain things easier. It lends itself to industry advisory boards, since the industry folks would have to travel otherwise. For the ones that meet in the evening, there’s a chance to grab a quick dinner before it starts. That helps.

For all the changes, though, the basic fact still holds that the next month and a half or so are probably the most taxing time of year in administration. If you catch me reading The Onion or quoting silly ’80s comedies, I ask only for some grace. We all have our coping mechanisms.