Summit Fever

There is an affliction called "summit fever" that sweeps over mountain climbers on occasion when the desire to get to the top overwhelms their innate sense of risk and, at times, their survival instinct. Making it to the top of the mountain becomes an obsession, to the point that they forget that they have to get back down too at some point.

Vice President of University Relations Karen Johnson addresses Midwestern University employees at the UR Summit on day one.

Thankfully, we here at Midwestern University aren't mountain climbers (at least, not in our day jobs). For us, "summit fever" has a different meaning. It has some of the same elements as the mountaineering version - drive, dedication, a willingness to overlook hardship - but instead of warping our perspective and putting us at risk, our version of summit fever helps to clarify our outlook and sharpen our focus for success.

I call it "summit fever" because we felt it at the University Relations Summit, which happened this week here on the Glendale Campus. Our counterparts at the Downers Grove Campus flew out for this year's event, and we all met together to discuss our jobs - what we do, how and why we do it, and how that impacts everyone else.

Midwestern has been doing summits since 2001. University Relations Vice President Karen Johnson recapped some of the previous summits, and I couldn't help but notice that many of them included team-building games and activities, such as volleyball and rock wall climbing and so forth. This year, there were no games - this was "two days of hard work," Karen told us.

Abena Patton (L), Manager of Special Events and Web Communication, takes a photo of Downers Grove graphic designer Joanne Davidauskas, Glendale graphic designer Chad Worth, and Assistant Director of Communications Karen Mattox at the UR Summit.

Now that the summit is over, I agree about that. It was hard work. But it was also rewarding work. We got to spend two days building relationships of trust with our co-workers from whom we are normally separated by half a continent. We learned about responsibilities, had intriguing discussions on various topics such as generational gaps in the workplace, and got a better "big picture" view of the University that we sometimes miss by being isolated on separate campuses.

Abena Patton, Manager of Special Events and Web Communication in Downers Grove, will no doubt be blogging about the summit as well, so I will leave the details to her. Suffice it to say, though, that work - even hard work - doesn't seem so bad when you're enjoying yourself. Which I did, even though I had 10 minutes of sheer panic during my PowerPoint presentation on day one.

To all my compadres in Downers Grove, thanks for making the trip. I hope I get a chance to return the favor in a year or two. Until then, it's nice to be able to put a face to the name on the e-mail or voice on the telephone.