Two weeks ago I took part in the Global Climate Strike on my campus. The event was pretty well attended, I guess. We started out in our town square and marched through the town and the campus to the library where we struck.
Overall, I enjoyed taking part in this important moment. Enjoy? Who could enjoy a climate strike? The whole reason we have climate strikes should make the entire situation not enjoyable, sure. But for me, someone who struggles with his own dose of climate anxiety, it was therapeutic to be a part of the moment surrounded by people with similar passions as mine. Yet, something struck me as odd as I marched around campus, through and all-over the quad, and up to the library with my fellow protestors. This oddness brought on a couple of questions about our academic institutions’ role(s) in this moment as our world faces a potential extinction event brought on by the climate crisis. My institution makes a place for those who are concerned with the climate crisis, and, if they wouldn’t make a place for us, we would make our own place. But, making this space, providing recycling options across campus, and working within the regional infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions, etc. is not enough. So, what else can the academy do? What else can our institutions do to aid the resistance, to combat the climate crisis? I have a thought: What if academic institutions restructured their tenure and promotion protocols to privilege open-access digital publications? Am I the first person with this idea? No. I imagine the good folks at places within my discipline, places like the WAC Clearinghouse and the CCDP, have thought about this idea. I can’t be sure, though. Tenure is already one of the most problematic aspects of high education. For most it’s a gatekeeping device, much like comp. exams in graduate school (cc: me in the middle of a comp. exam); for others, it’s a dream to work towards; and, yet still for others, a reality never reached. The growing global acknowledgement of the climate crisis is a grassroots movement, one which requires economic restructuring which begins in your own bank account. At the Global Climate Strike, speakers mentioned removing our funds from corporate banks and to opt for local banks and credit unions. So, how do we marry the problems with tenure in the western academy with the global climate crisis in our current moment? What I am proposing is for academic institutions to put their money where their mouth is concerning the climate crisis. Stop glorifying tenured professors who continue to sneeze a publication into existence in leading journals who still maintain a print audience. Privilege journals who have ceased print publication, opting instead for digital publications. And eliminate the difference between an open-access publication and one behind a pay wall. Is this a perfect answer? No. Do I know all the ins and outs of tenure and the climate crisis? Not yet. Is this a start? Yes. Is it a contribution to the conversation? Yes. What is yours?
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Charles WoodsPhD student focusing on Rhetoric, Composition, and Technical Communication at Illinois State University. Archives
October 2019
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