The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: Hibush on Today at 10:36:08 AMI wonder how MIT worded the request so that it appeared to be compelled speech.

I think it actually has to do with the answer: you must answer in a very specific way, with specific jargon, and agree to a specific ideology, to get the job.  That is my takeaway from the mass of articles and complaints out there.

If I were truthful, I would say that all students are equal in my eyes until they F*** up in my classes, and then some students are obviously better than others no matter their ethnic or race or religion or socioeconomic status.  But that absolutely would not fly.  And I can't just say, "I am very aware that some topics are sensitive to some people, so I avoid those unless they are absolutely necessary or are brought up by a student, and then I take steps in class and out to make sure that said topics are handled appropriately." DEI wants more than this, and I am never sure what that is.

Two hundred years ago today Ludwig van Beethoven's ninth premiered in Vienna. I've been listening to Ludwig all evening, and the ninth right now.

Quote from: secundem_artem on May 03, 2024, 12:35:57 PM

Quote from: secundem_artem on April 19, 2024, 10:01:57 AMThanks to all for the concern and good wishes for all the ongoing mishegoss at Artem U.  I'm personally safe and close enough to retirement that if the merde well and truly hits the fan, I am well funded for retirement and can just leave.

Earlier this week, the advisory body that was the next step in the process just spit the pacifier and threw all the toys out of the crib.  Were I the prez, I'd argue that they did not negotiate in good faith.  They have essentially ceded all decision making to the board and gawd knows what those guys may do.

Said advisory body seems to have recognized they shat the bed and are scrambling to come up  with a last minute, Hail Mary proposal to get in front of the board.  I'd offer that the proposals are about as effective as "let's have a bake sale".  Rather than dance with the devil they knew, now we all get to dance with the devil we don't.  Academic governance is a freakin' farce.  Nobody should take it seriously. 

Update.

All the tall foreheads and deep thinkers on the board punted.  No decision made.

Everybody knows something or somebody is gonna get cut. But nobody has the balls to wield the knife.

SO NOW FVCK1N6 WHAT!!!!???!!!

I'm inclined to ride this thing all the way to the bottom just to see how cowardly, incompetent, naive, foolish and generally stupid people can be.  I'll turn off the lights off on my way out.

My contempt for so-called faculty governance continues if the various wets and sob sisters cannot actually make a painful decision.  Putting adherence to mission over financial concerns is fine, BUT ONLY IF THE BLOODY FUNDS EXIST TO PAY FOR IT!! 

Everyone, especially your administrators, have quiet-quit. You should do the same. And, as you say, "ride this thing all the way to the bottom."

Quote from: methodsman on Today at 02:04:13 PMOne way to have those funds to preserve mission would have been to cut programs and their associated well compensated boomer faculty with bloated TIAA CREFs teaching in programs that have long outlived their market value. But, presidents and provosts are chicken shit and afraid of votes of no confidence. And, they and the Vice President of Finance are making too much f'ing money to risk a good thing. They would rather ride it out as long as possible to an early retirement or college closure than make the hard decisions. They have mortgages on second vacation homes to pay you know.  And, no, contrary to popular belief, the growth in administrators is not the cause of most
institutions' demise.  Most programs return negative contribution to overhead to begin with. It's only aux services, grants, development and non rare occasions athletics and certain grad programs which brings the entire institution into the black. Yes, there has been an explosive growth in administrators, but that has mostly occurred at institutions that can afford it and where students and parents expect it. Medium and small institutions typically function with administrative understaffing relative to the workload.

Note: if your institution has bled 50% or more of its senior leadership in the last 3 years, enrollment is down 15% or more over the past 5-7 years, it hasn't recently gone thru a reckoning and your endowment is less than 150M, buckle up and dust off that ole CV. They are lying to you.

mm

Not there, but could easily get there quickly if we don't remain vigilant and continue to hold people, especially administrators, accountable. Facilities and Administration ratios continue to creep up & up, thereby contributing to "negative contribution to overhead." BTW, Admin units ARE OVERHEAD. There are many admin overhead units on my campus, where if they were eliminated, students, parents, faculty, the community, research, etc. would not miss them. We have entire admin units (with buildings) where nobody, I mean NOBODY, knows what they hell they do. We routinely get admin visitors at program and college meetings, from these nebulous admin units, where they come explain to us what the hell they do, and how they contribute to mission. Sometimes they yammer on for 20 minutes or more. After they leave, the only thing I learn is that there is a lot of dead weight in our admin class. At the same time, these admin units are not required to do the same type of accounting as academic units. There is no "cost" that is funded with revenue by the admin unit itself. Rather, the admin unit's "cost" is factored into the costs of academic units, and those costs are creeping higher and higher.

No opening greeting.

"Could you at least please grade the part of the assignment? Partial credit is better than no credit, please I'm so sorry for not turning it in by the due date. I had a 17 page paper due last week and a 15 page paper due last night so I've been burnt out completely. I've attached the partial assignment if you do choose to grade that part."

No closing.

Yeah, OK. It looks like Stu prioritized papers for their other classes rather than this one. Plus the paper was scaffolded over the semester to complete in steps to avoid the last minute rush. Plus multiple reminders given about time management and due dates.

I accepted the partial paper, gave it the grade it earned, and applied a late penalty.

Quote from: secundem_artem on Today at 07:23:21 AMThe New York Times Sunday Magazine has a good article on a Palestinian man who is trying to use non-violent resistance (~ Ghandi or MLK).  Suffice to say with limited success.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/magazine/issa-amro-palestinian-nonviolent-activist.html

Not related to the topic of this thread, but please, Gandhi not (ugh the other spelling). When transliterating from South Asian languages into English the placement of the 'h' is not arbitrary but indicates a specific consonant. Switching the position can go from a name to a slur .... 

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on Today at 08:30:03 AMMeetings are stealing most of the work day, so just T1ing today.

Managed a goodly chunk all the same, and sent a lengthy organizational email to a prospective co-translator for a projected T4.

St. Cloud State in Minnesota announced plans to terminate 46 out of 136 degree programs.  See page 42 of this slide show:  https://www.scribd.com/document/729982751/St-Cloud-State-University-Budget-Update-May-6-2024#from_embed

St. Cloud apparently is the most worse off financially of all of the MN state schools.

Quote from: secundem_artem on May 03, 2024, 12:35:57 PM

Quote from: secundem_artem on April 19, 2024, 10:01:57 AMThanks to all for the concern and good wishes for all the ongoing mishegoss at Artem U.  I'm personally safe and close enough to retirement that if the merde well and truly hits the fan, I am well funded for retirement and can just leave.

Earlier this week, the advisory body that was the next step in the process just spit the pacifier and threw all the toys out of the crib.  Were I the prez, I'd argue that they did not negotiate in good faith.  They have essentially ceded all decision making to the board and gawd knows what those guys may do.

Said advisory body seems to have recognized they shat the bed and are scrambling to come up  with a last minute, Hail Mary proposal to get in front of the board.  I'd offer that the proposals are about as effective as "let's have a bake sale".  Rather than dance with the devil they knew, now we all get to dance with the devil we don't.  Academic governance is a freakin' farce.  Nobody should take it seriously. 

Update.

All the tall foreheads and deep thinkers on the board punted.  No decision made.

Everybody knows something or somebody is gonna get cut. But nobody has the balls to wield the knife.

SO NOW FVCK1N6 WHAT!!!!???!!!

I'm inclined to ride this thing all the way to the bottom just to see how cowardly, incompetent, naive, foolish and generally stupid people can be.  I'll turn off the lights off on my way out.

My contempt for so-called faculty governance continues if the various wets and sob sisters cannot actually make a painful decision.  Putting adherence to mission over financial concerns is fine, BUT ONLY IF THE BLOODY FUNDS EXIST TO PAY FOR IT!! 

One way to have those funds to preserve mission would have been to cut programs and their associated well compensated boomer faculty with bloated TIAA CREFs teaching in programs that have long outlived their market value. But, presidents and provosts are chicken shit and afraid of votes of no confidence. And, they and the Vice President of Finance are making too much f'ing money to risk a good thing. They would rather ride it out as long as possible to an early retirement or college closure than make the hard decisions. They have mortgages on second vacation homes to pay you know.   And, no, contrary to popular belief, the growth in administrators is not the cause of most
institutions' demise.  Most programs return negative contribution to overhead to begin with. It's only aux services, grants, development and non rare occasions athletics and certain grad programs which brings the entire institution into the black. Yes, there has been an explosive growth in administrators, but that has mostly occurred at institutions that can afford it and where students and parents expect it. Medium and small institutions typically function with administrative understaffing relative to the workload.

Note: if your institution has bled 50% or more of its senior leadership in the last 3 years, enrollment is down 15% or more over the past 5-7 years, it hasn't recently gone thru a reckoning and your endowment is less than 150M, buckle up and dust off that ole CV. They are lying to you.

mm

Quote from: Hibush on Today at 10:36:08 AM[. . .]

Our prompt is along the lines of, "What kinds of diverse students have you taught, and how have you investigated and responded to potential obstacles to their learning and full participation in class?"
That is no more compelled speech than asking what kind of grants people have applied to

[. . .]

It is compelled because not answering the question means your application goes in the trash.

It is also irrelevant because it assumes that the answer reliably indicates one's past and future job performance. In my case, knowing what each and every one of my students considers salient to their identities is not my job. Trying to elucidate this information from students can be perceived by my employer as discriminatory and illegal. Simply looking at my students and deciding in what ways they might be "diverse" is definitely prejudicial. So when did you stop beating your wife?

Yes, thankfully my chair is very supportive.
We are an open enrollment institution so students can take any class multiple times as long as they pay. If he does come back we'll have a conversation up front and I'll document it just in case.