College professors face unique workplace challenges. These have been exponentially exacerbated since 2020. The Resilient Professor TM is a framework for college professors to build their resilience in the face of their current academic and professional challenges. Through The Resilient Professor TM program, participants analyze what they can do to navigate through and around these challenges in healthy ways.
College professors should feel confident and successful as educators, researchers, advisors, and mentors. They deserve to feel welcomed and included, as members of a thriving academic community. And they want to realize optimistic outcomes that include positive course evaluations, contract renewals, and opportunities for tenure and promotion.
Too often they are met with external obstacles that threaten this success. Common faculty frustrations include student defiance, feelings of injustice due to arbitrary decision-making by administration, unproductive meetings, administrative communication issues, and university systems that hinder rather than support faculty.
The Resilient Professor TM program is an outlet for faculty to privately engage in a formal model for self-reflection and problem-solving should help lead to healthy college faculty, and as such, healthy college students, and healthy college classrooms.
According to the 2024 Faces of Faculty report by Cengage, some key findings include: Changing student norms around cheating, deadlines, plagiarism and AI usage continue to challenge faculty. Top drivers of faculty dissatisfaction include challenges with mental health and wellbeing, not enough time or support for research, new or changing job expectations, and dishonesty and lack of accountability among students.
Faculty need more support from their institutions as they strive to adapt to a changing higher education field and support students. College professors are frustrated, exhausted, and confused – and they need help to best cope in the face of these challenges.
“I don’t have the time or energy to put into my classes as much as I’d like and for what is expected. It’s extremely taxing on my mental health. I am considering leaving the field.” ~ Anonymous
























