Burned Out or Burned Through? The Costs of Student Affairs Diversity Work

Abstract

This article uses data derived from an institutional ethnography of diversity work at a large public university to examine the experiences of student affairs professionals engaged in diversity work with students of Color and LGBTQ-identified students. Rather than describing their exhausting experiences providing emotional labor to multiple campus constituencies as burnout, the author reframes burnout as the institutional practice of burning through. The author highlights key attributes of burning through and considers implications for student affairs practice and institutional policy.