Administrative Trust & You

[mahagonny]

I trust my administration to make decisions based on the financial, legal, and political (internal and external) ramifications of those decisions. If the adminicritters are long-term employees, these decisions tend to look to the long term and benefit the College. For admicritters looking to move on to "bigger and better" things as quickly as possible, the decisions tend to represent short term, self-centered visions.

If they have a sense of what's best for students, staff, and faculty when making their decisions, it's nice; but I don't trust them to make decisions based solely on what's best for us. I'm not sure it's fair for us to expect them to do so.

Now I'm sad.

For me as a part time adjunct the analysis is a bit simpler. I know they would never make a decision based on what's good for us as a group, and what's fair to expect is defined with the assumption that we are lucky to ever be there at all, even temporarily. And if they make a decision based on what's fair to full time faculty while terminating us, we are expected to see that as a pro-faculty sensibility.

It's interesting that you think administrators--especially non-academic administrators--think or talk much about adjunct faculty. If the adjunct faculty are brought up at all in a big meeting, the subject gets a few grunts and a couple of head shakes, and then the meeting moves to the next topic.

Now I'm more sadder.

Better to be sad and know what going on, than to be denying.