Higher Education and the Great Resignation: A Crisis of Compounded Inequities

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Seven
  In Roundtable Session: Racial Realism: COVID-19, State Bans on Critical Race Theory, and the Retention of Racially Minoritized Faculty (Table 2)

Abstract

The Great Resignation is a term that describes the large-scale voluntary employee attrition that began in 2021, as pandemic restrictions were starting to lift in much of the world. This phenomenon is impacting industries in the US and abroad (Gewin, 2022; Kuzior, 2022; Sull et al., 2022) with higher education as one of its latest victims. The wave of resignations is a social justice issue created in part by pre-existing disparities. For instance, women disproportionately carry the burden of caregiving, therefore many female academics had difficulty staying current in their fields during the pandemic (Gewin, 2022). Causes of the Great Resignation in Higher Education include systemic racism and sexism, climate, culture, sense of belonging, pay, workload, and lack of support.

Author

• Yevgeniya Rivers, University of New Haven
  Presenting Author