Some personal news

Yesterday I resigned as Professor of Sociology and Medicine at Temple University and from The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice.

This wasn’t an easy decision. I’ve earned tenure multiple times and walking away from a tenured faculty role and the leadership of a center I founded isn’t something I’m taking lightly. There are so many humans involved — humans who matter a great deal to me and made much of my time at Temple enjoyable and productive.

For example, I’m immensely grateful to the many talented and inspiring colleagues across the university, especially in the Medical School, Communications School, Sociology Department, and College of Education. It was always a privilege to be part of extraordinary teams at the Wisconsin HOPE Lab and The Hope Center. Together our work reshaped higher education in communities across the country for years to come. Students are humans first, and I suspect that far more of higher education now knows and appreciates that fact.

A couple of moments at Temple will remain with me. President Theobald’s kindness during my hiring process, President Englert’s nomination of my work for a Carnegie Fellowship, and President Wingard’s recent letter (see below) — were all unexpected and greatly appreciated. The Temple Association of University Professionals, our AFT-affiliated faculty union, demonstrated its value and importance over and over. Most of all, the time I spent with students was life changing. My undergraduate and graduate students were extraordinary, insightful, and inspiring. I enjoyed every second I spent learning alongside them.

However, other experiences during the last six years — and particularly the last four months — caused me to realize that Temple is not the right home for me and my work advancing affordability and basic needs security for college students.

In the near term I will focus on writing a book about what I’ve learned from the #RealCollege movement and where the movement needs to go next. My kids are now teenagers and for the first time in my career I plan to devote significant time in my weekdays, nights, and weekends for them. I’m also excited about several new partnerships that will broaden and deepen the movement — and I’m open to additional ones.

In gratitude and hope,

Sara