Kevin R. McClure is a professor of higher education and department chair at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and co-director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges. He writes the Working Better column for The Chronicle on workplace reform in academe. His new book, The Caring University: Reimagining the Higher Education Workplace after the Great Resignation, was published in July 2025 by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
Stories by This Author
Working Better: Advice
It’s unreasonable to expect professors to hit hurdle after hurdle and still stay in the race. Institutions are going to have to clear some obstacles.
Advice: Working Better
Few things define leaders and the culture they are trying to shape more than how they let someone go.
Advice: Working Better
Your institution might not be able to love you, but it can certainly prioritize your well-being on the job.
Advice: Working Better
How to stand up for academe in this era of constant attacks from federal and state governments.
The Review | Essay
While colleges duck and cover, their employees feel angry and abandoned.
Advice: Working Better
What does a well-designed leadership-development program look like?
Advice: Working Better
How to fix higher ed’s broken system of employee recognition.
Advice: Working Better
Employees dealing with life’s hardships find institutional support to be highly uneven. How to fix that.
Advice: Working Better
Our new columnist on reviving a stalled reform movement.
Advice
Some of the most vulnerable employees at institutions are being hung out to dry.
