Dear Higher Education: Letters from the Social Justice Mountain

When Enthusiasm Outpaces Infrastructure

Felicia Mitchell

Arizona State University

Abstract

In When Enthusiasm Outpaces Infrastructure, Felicia M. Mitchell, Associate Professor, reflects on her journey through doctoral education and the tenure track as the “Lonely Only”—the only tenure-track Indigenous faculty member in her department. Situated at the intersection of being first-generation, low-income, mixed-race Indigenous, Black, and white, she traces how institutional enthusiasm for representation can coexist with structures that were never designed to sustain those invited in.

This letter speaks to the theme “Why we need to be heard” by centering the lived realities of intersectional identity in the academy. Dr. Mitchell recounts how requests framed as opportunity often accumulated into disproportionate service, how saying no carried reputational risk, and how tenure systems that presume neutral time can obscure uneven labor. Outwardly successful, she nonetheless crossed the tenure finish line mentally and physically depleted, illustrating how resilience is too often mistaken for adequate support.

At the same time, she acknowledges institutional responsiveness and the possibility of change, while underscoring that progress should not require visible strain to be taken seriously. Ultimately, this letter argues that inclusion without structural protection isolates the included. If higher education is serious about equity, enthusiasm must be matched with infrastructure so that the Lonely Only is not left to carry the weight of representation alone.