Faculty, Staff Work to Ease Relationship

Several roundtable-style meetings throughout this school year have fostered an environment for social interaction and open discussion of issues related to faculty-staff relationships at the Academy. Many employees used the meetings to raise concerns about perceived power differ- entials and mutual respect.The meetings stemmed from a sense of distance identied by some employees in the Equity and Diversity Audit that was taken last year and released to faculty and staff this year. “Exeter is a community that values respect, inclusion and empathy. The conversations among the adults in the community that took place this spring have reinforced those values and echoed that common theme,” Principal Tom Hassan said.Hassan hopes that the meetings will allow for a closer relationship between faculty and staff. “One clear message from our Diversity and Equity discussions is that employees would like more meaningful opportunities for adults on campus to get to know one another.”The conversations have allowed all employees to come together and address issues that are important to them. “Most of the discussions dealt with the misunderstandingsthat can occur in any community, especially one in which there are perceived and real power differences,” science

instructor Townley Chisholm said.Modern languages instructor Ahmed Jebari said that he felt the meetings have allowed for a greater aware-ness of issues affecting the faculty-staff relationship that were not apparent to him before.Jebari said that from his experience, the faculty-staff relationship at Exeter was overwhelmingly positive, but that the meetings have caused him to acknowledge the existence of some tensions. “From what I witness on a daily basis, it seems like a very caring and friendly relationship. I have a very positive relationship with most people I come in contact with whether it’s in the dining hall, the dorm, the gym. We often talk about food, sports, or travel and ask how each other is doing,” he said. “However, once in a while, in these meetings, I hear of issues such as staff members saying that faculty members ignore them or are not the nicest to them. Teachers will complain about staff, and say that they’re just hanging around or wasting time. It’s a very complex issue.” Chisholm echoed Jebari’s sentiments. “I know that many, many faculty treat staff colleagues with great respect and consider them friends and that those feelings are mutual. There appear to be times when staff mem- bers do not feel that they have been treated with respect and I am sorry about those occasions,” Chisholm said.Perceptions of a power gap leading to tensions were discussed in the meetings.“Something that came up [in the meetings] was that in any institution there are going to be different depart- ments, and people doing different jobs. There’s different levels of education and income, which is how success is often measured in our society, and there’s always going to be people who don’t feel included. Some employees may feel intimidated,” Ted*, a staff member, said.However, he stressed that this has not been his own experience. “Personally, I’ve always felt respected,” he said. [Editor’s note: The starred names have been changed in order to keep the anonymity of staff members]Many of the staff members interviewed, like Ted, had positive experiences with faculty.“They treat me very well, and always with respect. Oftentimes they say thank you, or leave me a note expressing their thanks. I’ve received many holiday cards. I continue to work at Exeter because I feel that it’s truly a fun place to work,” Jimmy*, a custodian, said. “Both the students and the teachers are nice, unlike at some other schools I have worked at previously.”However, this has not been the experience of all staff members.Trent*, a staff member, felt that sometimes faculty were not respectful and unreceptive to his concerns. “Sometimes when there’s an issue in the building where I work, I’ll try and discuss it with faculty. Sometimes this works—with some faculty though, I’ve gotten the sense that they don’t respect my judgment or don’t feel that my concerns are important.” He declined to comment on the speci c nature of these concerns.Staff who feel similarly have voiced these concerns in the meetings, Jebari said. “I think the mentality among some people may be that this is a school, so teachers are in the highest position simply because they are teaching, and staff are in some ways on a lower class. When this issue was raised in the discussion many teachers were very upset and immediately jumped in and said ‘no, it shouldn’t be this way at all.’ I try to treat staff like any adult. We do different jobs, but our jobs are both important,” Jebari said.In the meetings, some staff members have expressed a desire for faculty to take a greater role in helping staff to ensure appropriate student behavior in the dining halls. Relationships with dorm faculty were also discussed. Dave*, a custodian, acknowledged that he had heard of this issue among his coworkers. “I’ve had a very good experience with the faculty at the dorms I work at. I think that every dorm is different in terms of dorm heads, and an issue staff have brought up is that in some dorms they feel that faculty don’t cooperate, or don’tcare about what’s going on or resolving issues,” he said.“For instance in some dorms there were cases where students had parties in the common rooms and made

a mess, and when custodians bring it up they don’t feel that they’re listened to. They feel that their hands are tied,