Sarah Hubbard

As universities navigate the complexity of financial pressure and restructuring, more and more responsibility is being carried through informal effort, initiative and care. This is partly a story of doing more with less, but also about work changing shape. Roles are being reinterpreted in practice, while the agreements around authority, support, time and limits often remain implicit. Under these conditions, the question of what roles can realistically hold becomes harder to avoid.

In our last piece, we argued that compassion is a strategic ethic and a way of shaping systems, relationships, and institutional life so that colleagues and students can think, feel, work and learn sustainably. Curiosity is compassion’s natural companion. If compassion creates the conditions in which transformation becomes possible, curiosity is the practice that activates those conditions. Together, they help us move beyond technical fixes towards cultural shifts that endure.

San Mateo County is at a pivotal crossroads. As local leaders explore ways to address our region’s staggering child care crisis, several funding mechanisms are under consideration. Most notably, the county is currently commissioning a poll (conducted by McGuire Research) to gauge resident support for a half-cent sales tax that could generate $114 million annually to lower costs for families and expand the child care workforce. This proposal has sparked a healthy and necessary debate.