Comments are closed on this post due to violations of Godwin's Law, and thanks--special thanks--to numerous other anonymous offenses against good taste, bad taste, any taste at all. For similar reasons, even before shutting comments down, I have forever deleted (ah, what absolute powers I have as blogmaster, though they are but a pale foreshadow of my administrative kingdom to come!) I have deleted, I say, a number of terribly clever personal and impersonal attacks made via abusive references to poultry--who really deserve better, don't you think? Is there a law mandating that comment threads cease and desist once we get to maladroit rhetorical bestiality of this sort? Gosh, there should be. Johnson's Law? I shall be immortal, after all.
OK, I promised only retrospective posts but this one is close to home. The Southern has a story today on the renovated "pedestrian mall" outside Faner, where I work.
Two points: the non-aesthetic reasons for this renovation given in the story are bogus. And this is a helluva lot of money: $1.25 million.
The non-aesthetic justification for the renovation appears to be that the current area is unsafe. The concrete is cracked, vehicular traffic in the area is a threat to pedestrians, and the renovations will improve lighting and add a security phone. But I had thought that the vehicular access problem had already been solved, with a $250 removable post inserted off the Faner Circle to control automotive access. If the sidewalks were cracked they weren't obviously in worse shape than other areas of campus (and I walked or rode my bike across these sidewalks most work days). The ramp didn't look or feel new, but as far as I know (and I'm no structural engineer, of course), the "deterioration" was aesthetic rather than structural--meaning that the ramp matched the rest of Faner's brutal concrete in this regard. If better lighting and a security phone will improve security, well and good, but they won't cost $1.25 million.
So we're spending $1.25 million to beautify the area. Beauty is a splendid thing, and always hard to price--had no one been willing to spend money on beauty we'd never have any attractive buildings or attractive artificial areas on campus. I suppose we'll have to see what the area ends up looking like. To my mind, the space between Faner and Shyrock and Faner and Allyn wasn't exactly an eyesore, at least by Carbondale standards, but perhaps the new area will be so lovely that we'll welcome this change in the end.
There will, of course, be fewer of us to enjoy the area, given the hiring freeze and exodus of faculty and staff. By my back of the envelope calculations, leaving the pedestrian mall as it is would allow SIUC to hire one professor to work in Faner Hall for twenty years ($1,250,000 / $60,000 = 20.8). One professor doesn't seem such a high price for aesthetics--but one professor could make a huge difference in a department desperate to replace departed or departing colleagues. Another way of looking at it: the College of Liberal Arts was guessing that it might be allowed to be able to hire about 10 faculty next year, I think. Given the bad budgetary news threatening us from Springfield, that number may prove overly optimistic. So this pedestrian mall is costing at least 10% of the hiring budget for the College of Liberal Arts. You do the math.
This is another colossal waste of money that could have better been spent towards hiring that one professor who could make a difference. Unfortunately, with the looming reducation in state support for higher education, it is unlikely that any replacement faculty will be hired for COLA. In the English Department we have no Shakespeare or Medieval replacement and areas such as Rhetoric/composition are overworked. I'm sure the same can be said for other departments. But this administration seems to concentrate onn flashy externals. Yes, we may have an attarctive pedestrian mall but few students and faculty many of whom are considering that economic life-saving move to other states in view of the attacks on Illinois state workers.
ReplyDeleteFor a guy who's getting out of the blogging business...you sure are busy.
ReplyDeleteIt is really funny to see all the construction equipment driving on all of the unbroken sidewalks while fixing the broken sidewalks... guess they will need to replace those sidewalks next year... Student foot and bicycle traffic does not break up the sidewalks like truck traffic does... Nothing like keeping the downward spiral going...
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out (again) the lies and misinformation that the Chancellor and her mouthpieces tell the public (whom I guess they must think are stupid, as anyone could see this as the sham that it is - started and announced right after faculty were off-contract).
ReplyDeleteI heard that some of Chancellor Cheng's mouthpieces are leaving the university! yay! one of them is pigstock and the other is the head of the univ. collage or some such. I wish they would take the rest of the gang with them as well. All the rats are leaving the sinking ship after doing all they can to make it sink. I hope some day siuc will rise and be a shining star once again--like in the good old days of Morris!
ReplyDeleteI heard that some of hateful people (Anon 10:12's friends) are leaving the university! yay! one of them is pigstock and the other is the head of the univ. collage or some such. I wish they would take the rest of the gang (including Anon 10:12) with them as well. All the rats are leaving the sinking ship after doing all they can to make it sink. I hope some day siuc will rise and be a shining star once again--like in the good old days of Morris!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 10:28
DeleteCan't you be more original? you plagiarizing copy cat!
Anonymous 10:28
DeleteCan't you be more original? you plagiarizing copy cat!
Anon 10:58 and 11:00, both of you copy each other?
DeleteI never thought of faculty as "middle management", but the folks @ Anthony Hall are beginning to remind me of our students in that they believe we (faculty & the So Ill community) are as dumb aa they are (I.e , we will believe anything they tell us).
ReplyDeleteAnd again, it comes down to priorities. This construction is not a bad thing, if viewed in isolation. But as Dave points out, it is terrible in the wake of all the other pressing needs left to flounder. Worse still, the Administration feels no need to make a statement weighing these priorities and justifying this construction above other needs (infrastructure or otherwise).
ReplyDeleteHey, did you all get that e-mail letter from the Provost? asking anyone with a masters degree to volunteer to teach the preparatory course to first year students (freshmen)? They will pay an honorarium--but likely it will be a pittance. So on the one hand they can spend so much (1.25 million) on beautification of the campus + certain buildings (not really necessary in these difficult times) but they will not set aside sufficient funds for people to teach these courses to incoming first year undergraduate students!
DeleteOh--and then they are continuing to hire so many administrators as usual. IN some departments there are several courses listed and no one knows yet who will teach them.
I just got an e-mail saying that a gas line near Faner Hall has ruptured. we have been asked to stay away from Faner hall until further notice. Now they didn't say what caused it to happen. But i can guess that it had to do with the renovation of Faner--unnecessary in my opinion in these difficult times.
DeleteAnon 9:22-- Interesting paradox in the open call for "anyone with a masters degree' in AP or CS positions (generally non-teaching personnel) to lead the *required* and (of course intellectually substantive/flagship) first year student prep seminar in our new University College. For those in that pay category I suspect the 'pittance' paid to volunteer is materially meaningful; I wonder if the content and pedagogy will be? (with due respect to our AP/CS folk who do, indeed, have teaching experience).
DeleteA sample syllabus is available via the following link:
Deletewww.firstyear.siuc.edu/web/images/pdfs/ucol%20101u.pdf
"IN some departments there are several courses listed and no one knows yet who will teach them."
DeleteFrom yesterday's Daily Egyptian, "The university will continue the hiring freeze and not rehire many of the positions left open, he said. Consolidations will have to be made to classes, too. Poshard said there may be some classes shared between the Carbondale and Edwardsville campus via televisions."
Read more: http://dailyegyptian.com/2012/05/29/siuc-works-around-budget/#ixzz1wTwJacQR
Then department chairs and Deans should teach more courses as needed.
DeleteAll this talk is pointless--the administration just keeps doing what it wants to do. Faculty keep asking questions and express their displeasure with some of its actions. But the administration believes it is all powerful and can do what it wants. This is the downfall of this university. Absolute power corrupts and lets the rot set in..and then it will be too late. Chancellor Cheng should stop focusing on the external aspects and start thinking about academic excellence and how siu can move forward on that dimension. Not valuing its faculty or students will get the university no where.
ReplyDeleteYes, Anon: 9:57. "Another fine mess" as Oliver Hardy would say, and one caused ny Rita. The shutdown will not only affect the renovation going on in Faner and delay it further but also will prevent those many incoming phone calls asking departments about listed courses for which there is now nobody to teach!
ReplyDeleteIt is not surprised since some of chairs recently hired by provost are FA people. These people fundamentally do not support the provost in many aspects, including the UCOL 101U course. To my view, in order to be successful in offering these courses, department chair is vital since he/she needs to convince his/her faculty members that these courses are critical for the retention, one of goals of our university. However, FA have very different opinions and with a FA supporter to be the chair, it will be unlikely successful.
ReplyDelete"...chairs recently hired by the provost...fundamentally do not support the provost"
DeleteAre you saying the provost has a self-destructive streak?
FA has controlled some department vote in a not decent way. Some vote outcome were very questionable since the vote were not conducted on the table. Even some vote may be legitimate, weak departments prefer weak chairs, this is a well-known fact in higher education. If the Dean or the provost select a chair only based on the number of votes, it certainly will hit the road sometimes later.
DeleteAnon. 1:45:
ReplyDeleteMy experience has been that the support or lack of support for UCOL 101 is not related to support or lack of support for the FA. I know of people from both sides of the the picket line who support and teach UCOL 101 classes and of people from both sides of the picket line who think that UCOL 101 is a dumbing down of the curriculum.
As for department chair support for UCOL 101U, if it means taking people away from department work, it will be hard to find that kind of support for UCOL 101U from chairs, regardless of their opinions of the FA. Chairs are too worried about vacant positions within their departments and about getting department classes covered to also worry about whether Mark Amos can find people to cover University College classes.
And finding those people will be difficult. The AP and Civil Service staff with Master's Degrees have bosses who, chair or not, are worried about whether they have enough people to get the work in their units done.
Maybe if there were more people to go around, this wouldn't be an issue, but, to quote Jonny Gray, it comes down to priorities. With this kind of spending on appearances and not on Student Success, Jonny's statement about the "detritus of spectacle" seems like more than just a rhetorical flourish.
``Maybe if there were more people to go around, this wouldn't be an issue,'' then why do we need a chair? We just need an office manager.
DeleteWell, my area has reached the point that we talk about whether we'll get any "warm bodies," so I wouldn't be surprised if that's the way the university is headed.
DeleteIf you can't make yourself do the right thing, resign. If you don't resign, do your job.
DeleteAnon. 11:21 AM:
DeleteWho is your comment addressed to? What is the right thing?
For those chairs who disagree with the current Admins.
DeleteAnd what is the right thing?
DeleteFighting tooth and nail at every opportunity to make sure that there are adequate faculty and staff to provide a high-quality education and produce high-quality research in the subject area(s) that the department covers?
Encouraging every person in the department who can to teach in UCOL 101, despite the tradeoff in lost productivity for other things the department does?
Doing exactly what your superiors tell you, without complaint?
Doing exactly what the faculty in the department tell you, without complaint?
The problem is that the twelve month salary is the only motivation for some people to be a department chair. Thus there is no way for these people to resign. Also these chairs don't want to do their job either since they disagree with the top Admins.
DeleteAnon 12:49PM. Then please resign if the 12 month salary is your ONLY motivation to be a chair!
DeleteA chair's power is earned. It is based on a high level of credibility with many constituencies (faculty members, the Dean, administrators) a good reputation in his/her discipline. Chairs with low credibility will encounter resistance and are ineffective change agents for the institution.
DeleteI agree with the first part of your statement, that if your only motivation for being chair is the extra money, you don't belong as chair.
DeleteBut those people aren't necessarily the ones who disagree with top Admins. Meaningfully disagreeing with top Admins. takes work. Those chairs to argue or negotiate with Admins. to demonstrate why an edict violates university policy or is short-sighted. It takes at least as much work as doing what you're told from above and arguing or negotiating with your department faculty to get them to do what they're told.
I am not saying that any possible discussion with Admins should be excluded. Instead, a chair should often do it. However, when the final decision is reached, who is the boss? the chair or upper administrators? This leads to the point ``If you can't make yourself do the right thing, resign. If you don't resign, do your job.'' It is that simple!
DeleteYour conception of right and wrong is predicated on following orders.
DeleteThat's an argument that will quickly hit Goodwin's Law. Could we back off from that language?
This is reality and has nothing to do with Goodwin's Law.
DeleteNothing to do with Goodwin's Law?
DeleteDo you know who said the following?
"It was unthinkable that I would not follow orders."
Anon : 1:13 pm
DeleteBased on the ads for some recent chair and dean positions at the university and based also on who was appointed to these positions, clearly at this university all the upper administration ( including the college level) wants is a manager to do these jobs. Expertise in the disciplinary area/s represented by the unit is not valued and in some recent ads is explicitly indicated as irrelevant. Does the faculty senate even care about this blatant downgrading of the university's academic programs? No, no at all. It is just business as usual.
Anon 4:42PM "It was unthinkable that I would not follow orders."
Deleteso this is exactly my point: ''If you can't make yourself do the right thing, resign. If you don't resign, do your job.''
You don't have to follow the order, but you should resign.
Anon 6:03PM:
DeleteDoes Obama value your unit if your unit only wants less work but better pay?
Anon. 4:42:
DeleteI read you as saying that the only moral alternative to obeying orders is resigning. And the way you originally phrased it, was that obeying orders is (always) the right thing.
Resigning may not be the right thing to do if it simply means someone else will do what you find too reprehensible to do.
Oops-- I meant Anon. 6:09 responding to Anon. 4:42.
DeleteThe earth is still rotating without someone. Don't think yourself being so important.
DeleteAnon 10:03
ReplyDeleteThere is at least one dept at the universty
Where the office manager has become
The chair. These days it does not really
Matter whether you have disciplinary
Expertise or not.
I think that's a great idea. Let all chairs of depts and Deans, step down and teach full time. Let all office managers replace them. Also think of all. The money the universiy
DeleteWould save.
When Adorno fled Nazi Germany to take up a position in a US university, he remarked that many faculty were nothing less than "office managers." Anon.11.44 has an interesting idea but only if the replacements received adequate reimbursement and not the miserly salaries they receive at present. Deans and Chirs would not only be free to do teaching but also research which these administrative positions often burn them out of after a period of time. However, faculty should also be control of these positions as they should SIUC higher administration otherwise a new class of oppressors will arise.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Rita's latest missives she (they) have hired 5/6 new people, even though there is a hiring freeze in effect. All of them are administrators, of course, not a teacher nor researcher amongst them. No surprises there then.
ReplyDeleteHiring of faculty has also continued during the hiring freeze.
DeleteNew administrators -- a string of them . I wonder how much Rita will be paying them ?
DeleteShe could ask them all to teach the first year
UColl classes as well. In the meantime there are many content courses that have no faculty assigned to teach them in many depts.
But not as much as administrators! Many departments are lacking replacements for faculty who decided to retire last semester. DL. here we come!
ReplyDeleteThere have been far more faculty hired than administrators. The needs are still great, but hires are occurring. Plus, how are we going to get along without a vice-associate-chancellor for this and that?
DeleteLose thirty faculty, get three replacements.
DeleteLose one administrator, get one replacement.
Oh my, there have been far more faculty hired than administrators!
This blog has become a total joke.
ReplyDeleteYou're certainly right about this comment stream, though if you contributed any of the above you're as funny as the rest of us. I've eliminated the charming "bleeding chicken" thread and closed comments on this.
Delete