The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Sorry to hear that Artem U's leadership is continuing to put off tough decisions.  That will only make for tougher ones later.

As I said on another thread, I'm proposing to our Board of Trustees this coming week that we reduce service hours slightly, to recognize that we've reduced staff hours by letting a semi-retired staff member drop from full-time to part-time.  The savings will only amount to 2% of the budget, but it's a start on right-sizing our budget--and on what may end up being a greater long-term reduction in staff.  Doing some less painful things to save money now when we still have money in the bank will be better than using up all our reserves and then suddenly being forced into desperate measures.

Quote from: marshwiggle on Today at 06:38:24 AMI would imagine at any sort of protest, from any part of the political spectrum, many (if not most) of the most violent agitators have little or no connection to the cause, but just want to steal and destroy.

What you describe above is clearly wrong, but just as clearly unlike what is actually happening in these protests.


https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/05/03/college-campus-protests-israel-gaza-student-journalists-00155672

The government has announced the arrests of three men who are alleged to have carried out a hit on behalf of the Indian government. CBC reports that at least some had student visas here in the last couple of years. Presumably in my province, since that's where the murdered guy lived.


All three are the names of students I've had in the last couple of years. Now, they're fairly common names, so it may not be them. But...

Good afternoon!

QB yesterday with a hint for the last word, arrowroot. QB today with hints for the last two words.

LB: rapido-obstinancy. I was really surprised that rapido was accepted, but I am not complaining!

Ab_grp, don't you just hate it when a repair person comes and does something simple that you should have thought of? When my induction range stopped working, the repairman asked, "Did you check the circuit breakers?" Uh...no. Turns out that was the problem.

I hope that your husband's appointment goes well, and that his issues are not serious.

Happy puzzling!

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!! 

Quote from: Hibush on April 30, 2024, 05:51:13 AM

Quote from: apl68 on April 29, 2024, 01:19:38 PM

Quote from: spork on April 29, 2024, 10:25:50 AMClosure announcements today:

Wells College, NY

University of Saint Katherine, CA

Either St. Katherine's students and faculty had more to say, or its closure was the more abrupt of the two.  Apparently the great majority of their students played sports.

"St. Katherine's was founded in 2010 and offered more than two dozen undergraduate and three graduate programs of study. It enrolled about 300 students." The article indciated that they mainly enrolled students who could not afford to pay tuition, which leads quickly to dire financial straits unless one has a major alternate source of revenue. They also had grandiose plans for a 5000 student institution on a brand new campus in Chula Vista.

When you put it that way, you make it sound like somebody didn't think things through there....

Quote from: aside on Today at 11:07:26 AM

Quote from: darkstarrynight on Today at 10:48:22 AMAs someone who used to work in an academic integrity office at my previous institution, I can share on this. That institution had the policy that students could submit work to two courses if they had the permission of both instructors. While it could happen in the same semester, there were situations in which students had a paper from a previous semester that would fit an assignment in the current semester, so they would still be required to contact the previous class's instructor for permission as well as the current instructor's. I do not suggest this is a perfect solution, but it does remove concerns that arise from something like TurnItIn if the current instructor is unaware of the previous course's assignment.

My institution has a similar policy, but only requires permission from the instructor of the current course, not the former course.

Quote from: darkstarrynight on Today at 10:48:22 AMAs someone who used to work in an academic integrity office at my previous institution, I can share on this. That institution had the policy that students could submit work to two courses if they had the permission of both instructors. While it could happen in the same semester, there were situations in which students had a paper from a previous semester that would fit an assignment in the current semester, so they would still be required to contact the previous class's instructor for permission as well as the current instructor's. I do not suggest this is a perfect solution, but it does remove concerns that arise from something like TurnItIn if the current instructor is unaware of the previous course's assignment.

Unless it's a small school where everybody is easy to get to, I'd think it might be easier to just do a new assignment than to try to get both profs to agree to that.

Quote from: aside on Today at 11:02:05 AMIf you post a sign saying "Do not post signs on this door" on a door...

Saw a sign like that on a door on the campus where I was a grad student.  People respected it by not posting other signs.  It on the second floor, on what amounted to a fire escape landing, so there wasn't much reason why anybody would want to post signs there in the first place.  After a couple of years, the stairs and landing where taken away, and you just had this door up there, with a sign about not posting notices on it.  Later the door and sign were painted over.  You could still see the outline of the sign.  Wonder how many people are aware today that it was ever there?

Keep in mind now that many of the people now who have to look for jobs are regionally bound and may have some reasonable scholarship and other attractive qualities, but probably not the types to be top of anyone's lists. That would probably go for a lot of staff too.

Anyway, I doubt any of these schools really have much of a plan. They try to attract big donors, and when they don't, they have to make cuts, which rarely look attractive to prospective students, faculty or staff. If you have a large and flexible endowment, you could probably weather just about any storm, and it just becomes a question of when it just is pointless to have a dozen faculty, a few staff and a handful of students.  Of course, without the endowment, schools are forced to shutter when enrollment declines by too much too fast, and without any cushion (endowment, regular annual fund donations, grants).

Quote from: darkstarrynight on Today at 10:48:22 AMAs someone who used to work in an academic integrity office at my previous institution, I can share on this. That institution had the policy that students could submit work to two courses if they had the permission of both instructors. While it could happen in the same semester, there were situations in which students had a paper from a previous semester that would fit an assignment in the current semester, so they would still be required to contact the previous class's instructor for permission as well as the current instructor's. I do not suggest this is a perfect solution, but it does remove concerns that arise from something like TurnItIn if the current instructor is unaware of the previous course's assignment.

My institution has a similar policy, but only requires permission from the instructor of the current course, not the former course.