Today, as budgets continue to shrink and expectations continue to rise, we face our own crisis in higher education.  Many advisors are being asked to do more with less: more advisees, more meetings, more technology, more nights and weekends, more data, more assessment, fewer resources, less time.  This kind of environment has the potential to become toxic, leading to a culture of fear, competition, segregation, and blame.  Permaculture offers us insights as to how we can respond to these challenging times in a positive, productive way.

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stress, community relationships, advising environment, Nancy Willow

In our work with students, it is important to recognize our own patterns of thinking and to examine the binaries we take for granted.  How do we label and categorize people?  How does this affect the way we view and interact with others?  How can we break down our own binary thinking while helping students do the same?

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build relationships, communication, cultural differences, Nancy Willow, role of advisor, LGBT