I regularly read about Presidents and their administrations. Our public faith tells us that the President is endowed with superhuman qualifications once elected. We assume that whatever happens, the good is their doing and the bad is their fault. The minions are little more than paper and broom pushers.

I painfully realized that the staff at my beloved University were discounted and underappreciated. Presidents and Chancellors of the University stood up with their heads held high when success came. They were rewarded for the success of the institution. The people doing the work that created that success were forgotten or given platitudes. A Chancellor candidate told the search committee that I was a member of that staff was the ‘salt of the Earth.’ Even the Salt needs replenishing…

We were the great unwashed who were neither seen nor heard. A Board of Trustees member said we should be glad we had a job. A difficult pronouncement when you are the face of the University.

Success has many fathers failure is an orphan. If we want a professional staff we must pay them above poverty wage.

A Chancellor told me on occasion that faculty comes first then Administrative Staff and lastly Civil Service Staff. I wondered where this pecking order comes from.

The people who students interact with the most at my University are the Civil Service Staff. They are the people who bond with precious students many of whom are away from home for the first time. They are the kind human face of SIUC. They encourage the students to study and feed them when they are hungry.

When a loved and respected leader falters the Civil Service Staff picks them up. When a leader is honored the staff rejoices while they figure out how to make their paycheck stretch to purchase groceries for their kids.

The President of the United States does not do it alone and would be an abject failure without their staff.

The same can be said for the President or Chancellor of a university. Their ability often stops at their office door. It is the footsoldiers that implement the success.

I love the G.K. Chesterton saying, ‘We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.’