Last week, my university held its annual professional development event–historically a long, two days of administrator addresses and faculty-focused workshops. This was my sixth or seventh time attending and to my delight, the teeth-gritting energy that has accompanied this event (due to a few years of uncertainty about our institutional health) was replaced with something more calm and even a sweet hint of optimism. I speak for my community when I say we needed this, and I commend the organizers for leading us back to our shared purpose: supporting students. I am hopeful that a small part of this atmosphere of renewal is the result of the work that seventy…