A Fire Here, A Fire There: An Academic’s Transition to Administration

A version of this piece originally appeared in the 2025 Anoka Tech Newsletter. View other featured stories

In 2024, Eric Blankenburg stepped in to the role of Academic Dean at Anoka Technical College. He’d previously served as an English instructor at the college. Here he shares his thoughts on the move from the classroom to serving as a college administrator. 

Mid-morning in my office, outside rungs of clouds signal the first snow of winter with a luminous glow that floats through the cracks in the shade, a contrast to the fluorescent light buzzing overhead. I’m about to call someone to offer a tenure-track position when my phone rings, a student concerned about an instructor. Then my email dings, and then dings again, and … a rapping on my door, a faculty member popping by with a problem. A committee meeting in five minutes requires my presence, but that’s the day of a dean. A fire here, a fire there. 

Before committing to a career in higher education, I fought wildland fires throughout the Northwest. Thrilling headlines, 300-foot columns of flame and 16-hour days, hot-lines, chainsaws, burnouts, helicopter rides to work and the power of being at the center had called me into those mountains. It was a suitable fit for a hard-headed, unemployed English grad. But I learned the hard way about mortality, a Sikorsky gear failure, explosive wreckage and so much young life lost, yet more so, I learned it’s not a matter of if but when and questions about “Why me?” or “Why not me?” were irrelevant. I dove into the search for meaning, which I found in books, stories and learning, but the magic of a classroom drew me into college teaching. Give me hours on the beauty of a comma or the incongruous enchantment of McCarthy, Faulkner or Joyce.  

Now, snow falls outside — almost 5 pm — and I’m finally back in my office with a call to make. I hit nine and one, and because it’s a long-distance number, I dial one again. It rings. I hang up ... 

Last year, as I transitioned to administration many asked, “How’s it going?” 

Two things are buried in this question: one, an explanation for leaving tenure to cliff-jump into the abyss of administration, and the second, an affirmation. I don’t have any answers to the first question, at least not any that overcome the illogicality of my choice. The second question, though, arises from the jewel of academia — that if we don’t like how things are going, we can make changes, so if I can do it, they can too. Democracy and higher education require participation, and that’s as good an answer to the first question that I can discover. 

The Anoka Police Department calls back. Moments later, the head of security calls as well and, again, I apologize profusely. A fire here, a fire there. 

Still, I have a happy call to make, one that comes infrequently as a dean, so I shut off the lights and let the twilight glow. I dial again. The phone rings ... After the fire comes new seedlings, trees that will soon tower.