Embrace then distance yourself? It seems odd, but experience tells us that it happens. The higher education routine looks like this. Celebrate a new idea/approach and call it “transformational.” Implement it, but only partially, stripping away the elements that do not align (and may even interfere) with conducting business as usual. Higher ed gets “the good bits” (as it interprets it) and jettisons the rest, but what remains isn’t close to what was proposed in the first place. It’s like starting the day with a cup of cream and sugar without coffee or tea.

Here’s an insightful piece about how the routine is being applied in Diversity, Equality, and Exclusion efforts. It is authored by a faculty team from Simon Frazier University. Read their commentary in Inside Higher Education.