To serve a college or university as a dean or provost is a special honor and responsibility. I had the pleasure to be in such offices—from department chair, to division head, to dean, to vice president for academic affairs, to provost, to interim president, and (finally!) to senior vice president for a total of 45 years in the same liberal arts college. But I decided to retire in 2015 to let others take the lead in our shared academic enterprise and to devote more time to other academic pursuits. My administrative colleagues have been kind and supportive, even allowing me to retain my fine office suite and providing clerical support for ongoing projects.
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Creating an Academic Culture of Working to Live
I’m often asked how I succeed at managing work-life balance—or as I call it, “life-work balance”— and it stems from my childhood. My parents both worked as educators, and