So we've all gotten this mysterious Faculty Furlough Days form, with no clear guidance on how we are supposed to fill them out. The administration hasn't officially said we can't, or shouldn't, or had better not dare, cancel class. And the FA, apparently on the advice of legal counsel, doesn't feel it's in any position to give people much guidance, either (not to mention that it doesn't want to help sort out the mess the administration has made). This leaves faculty puzzled, and chairs caught in the middle.
So what are you thinking about doing with your form, and your "required Faculty Furlough Days"? Let's get some comments going, people. (I know that there are some of you out there--aren't there? Maybe some of you are reading this on furlough, for all I know. Is that legal?) Comments can be anonymous if that makes you feel more comfortable.
Friday, April 8, 2011
7 comments:
I will review and post comments as quickly as I can. Comments that are substantive and not vicious will be posted promptly, including critical ones. "Substantive" here means that your comment needs to be more than a simple expression of approval or disapproval. "Vicious" refers to personal attacks, vile rhetoric, and anything else I end up deeming too nasty to post.
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I won't be signing mine, but I am not sure what my chair is planning on doing with it. How about others?
ReplyDeleteSomeone asked me to post this comment anonymously (I'm trying to figure out, by the way, how exactly to allow anonymous comments--sorry for that hiccup).
ReplyDeleteIn his letter, the Associate Dean of CoLA writes:
"Please note that if furlough designation forms are not returned to the Department by the departmental deadline, your chair / director will be obliged to select furlough days on your behalf." What it means is that CoLA faculty members are being directly ordered to sign the furlough forms, and so there is no compulsion to sign the forms. I will not be signing it. Since Article 18 mentions nothing about when the furlough days can or cannot be taken, and it says: “The days shall be those days selected by the Faculty member and his/her immediate supervisor” (note the “and”), it is not clear what the procedure is a faculty and his/her immediate supervisor cannot agree on the days.
Anonymous comments should now (Friday, 4:00) work. You can go all the way down the "Comment as" thing and get to Anonymous at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I missed a "not" in my anonymous comment.
ReplyDeleteI meant "CoLA faculty members are NOT being directly ordered to sign the furlough forms..."
I'm waiting to see if there are certain days that the unions might be planning for action. Will there be a rolling protest of furloughed employees in in the Free Forum Area every day between now and May 15 or a large-scale protest on select days? If I'm not working, I have the time.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the lack of threats against canceling class, I think this decision was made deliberately. If students complain about missing class, the chancellor can point to the "selfish" faculty for taking the furlough days during class time despite her "generous allowance" for us to take the days as half days.
ReplyDeleteThe form does not say anything about whether these so called "furLOW"-"furlOUCH" days can be taken during one's office hours. Interestingly, now faculty in COLA are also being asked to telephone potential students who have been accepted to SIUC and encourage them to attend this fall. Do we do this during the days when we GET a pay cut? So pay cuts + call to help recruit students and increase enrollment and the like...all in one breath. what new? what's next?
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