Temporal justice and equity work: An open letter to higher education leaders

What happens when the people tasked with advancing equity are given responsibility, but not the time, care, or structures needed to sustain it? Written as an open letter to higher-education leaders, this epistolary reflection examines how institutional constructions of time, shaped by urgency and productivity, condition the possibilities of equity work. Drawing on my experiences in equity-focused educational development, alongside concepts of institutional fatigue and scholarship on affective labor, I examine how roles often framed as sites of autonomy and possibility can also be experienced as ambiguous, isolating, and structurally unsupported. Through reflective vignettes of community, solidarity, exhaustion, and resistance, the manuscript foregrounds counter-temporal practices—intentional pauses, collective refusals, and relational care—that challenge dominant institutional timeframes. Rather than offering prescriptive solutions, this manuscript positions temporal justice as a leadership imperative, inviting higher-education leaders to reimagine equity-related roles through structures grounded in care, relational accountability, and long-term visioning.