Rest, research, and rejuvenation: Bethel professors take time for themselves through Sabbaticals
Rest, research, and rejuvenation: Bethel professors take time for themselves through Sabbaticals
Sabbaticals allow for professors to rest, reflect, and research outside of their everyday routine, so they can return to Bethel rejuvenated.
College is an exhausting time: Students push through classes, projects, clubs, sports, musical obligations, and countless other aspects of campus life. For four years, college students struggle. Then, for most, it’s over. However, not everybody on campus gets to leave after four years. Some people stay at Bethel College for much longer.
Professors are the soul of the Bethel campus. Many professors working at Bethel for decades return year after year to educate the next generation of students. Unfortunately, even with the most noble of intentions, professors get tired. To combat this, Bethel offers its professors the chance to take a sabbatical every seven years.
A sabbatical is a time during which the professor does not teach. Although typically devoted to research, rest, and exploration, there are countless ways in which Bethel professors have used their sabbaticals. At Bethel, professors can choose between taking a semester off and receiving full pay, or taking a full year off while receiving half pay. Of the six professors interviewed for this article, all chose to take the one-semester option.
Dr. Jennifer Chappell Deckert, professor and program director of social work at Bethel, took a sabbatical in the fall of 2022. During her first sabbatical at Bethel, Chappell Deckert was more than ready to take the time. “The first three years [at Bethel] I was finishing my dissertation while I was teaching, and then the second three years was COVID,” she said. “And in the midst of COVID, we had two faculty transitions in Social Work, and so I was the one left trying to work on those transitions. I was really kind of burnt out and tired. I needed a chance to rest.”
Along with her desire to rest, Chappell Deckert also hoped to set a good example for her students, saying, “Part of what we try to teach students is how to take care of yourself … and have those boundaries. I thought, if I don't do this, then I'm not really practicing what I preach.”
“Part of what we try to teach students is how to take care of yourself … and have those boundaries. I thought, if I don't do this, then I'm not really practicing what I preach.”
Dr. Jennifer Chappell Deckert
Despite her professed aim of resting, Chappell Deckert was far from sedentary during her time away from Bethel. She also hoped to explore and engage in the scholarship she couldn’t find time for while working. Traveling to Cuba with the organization Witness for Peace, Chappell Deckert says she “met with healthcare professionals, college professors, and community organizers in Cuba to learn about how their systems work under democratic socialism.”
Chappell Deckert returned from Cuba and traveled north to Minnesota, where she spent six weeks thinking, reading, and writing. Chappell Deckert made the most of her time away from teaching, working on papers about “ungrading,” what she learned in Cuba, and “theories and concepts surrounding sanctuary.”
Dr. Sarah Masem, professor and assistant director of nursing at Bethel, has not yet taken her sabbatical. Recently approved to take a sabbatical in the fall of 2024, Masem has high hopes for her time away from Bethel. During the fall semester, Masem said, “I’ll develop a camp nursing course. It's going to be an elective. Nursing … is one of the only departments that doesn't have electives. And so if our students are short that hour or two, they have very limited options.”
To facilitate the creation of the new course, during the summer before the fall semester, Masem will visit and work at various summer camps in Kansas and the surrounding states. She said, “[I will] go to these camps and establish a relationship with the directors in the hopes of then being able to come back the following summer with nursing students.”
Masem’s motivation for this new course is not just to give nursing students another option for classes. She hopes that the course will serve an important purpose in her students’ education. “Nursing has a travel course to Chiapas, Mexico… and we used to take students to Haiti. Those are great courses, if you have an extra $3,000-$4,000 laying around,” she said. “It’s very cost-prohibitive.”
Masem hopes that her planned new camp nursing course will function as a “pseudo travel course” for future nurses without the expendable income to travel internationally. “They get that off-site, overnight experience … working with children and with vulnerable populations. It's a way to add a little bit of justice back into offering classes to more nursing students, not just the ones who have got the money to go,” she said.
Other faculty who have recently taken or will take sabbaticals include David Long, professor and chair of visual arts and design; Dr. Brad Born, professor of english; Dr. Christine Crouse-Dick, professor and chair of communication arts, and Dr. Rachel Epp Buller, chair of faculty and professor of visual arts and design.
In this diverse group, there was one thing that was shared by all as a desire for their sabbatical: Returning to what they love to do. Dr. Masem summed it up best, saying, “Students forget that I'm a nurse. They view me as a teacher, but I haven't always done this. … I'm ready to get back to some nursing.”