Quote from: Hibush on Today at 10:36:08 AMI wonder how MIT worded the request so that it appeared to be compelled speech.
Quote from: secundem_artem on May 03, 2024, 12:35:57 PMQuote 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!!
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
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.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 ....
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/magazine/issa-amro-palestinian-nonviolent-activist.html
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on Today at 08:30:03 AMMeetings are stealing most of the work day, so just T1ing today.
Quote from: secundem_artem on May 03, 2024, 12:35:57 PMQuote 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!!
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
[. . .]