Since last spring, RNU has been undergoing prioritization. How you define that seems to vary by individual, and what we all expected varied as well. Tuesday the first set of reports came out.
First, several of us have decided we're in the wrong profession - we need to be educational consultants. The money spent on this study - just to the consultant - was absurd, given the process and outcomes. Seems Mr Consultant offered a few talks (all on one day, so a one day lecture schedule), some written material that outlined the process (taken from a book, so not customized in any way), and... not much else. Hey, I can take the book, these reports, and repackage them, sell 'em on and cash in!?!
Second, the reports - there are two of them - are very different. The academic programs one is a long list in five sections (quintiles). In that report, the 228 programs on campus are 'ranked' into quintiles. There are no hints or anything as to what the committee/task force suggests, and the recommendations are so vague as to be worthless. The lists are simply Q-5, with no explanation as to what those quintiles mean or imply. Certainly, the recommendations and conclusions are not worth the hours of labor that the TF put into the project. The staff/support report is, by contrast, amazing. It goes through every since 'function' and articulates what needs to happen for that function. Suggests massive reorganization and centralization (it's astonishing how silo-ized our campus is - probably 5 different groups doing the same job), elimination of much of the administrative bloat (yay!), stripping lots of positions and freebies out of the president's office (we had no idea they were doing all of that non-university-related stuff).
Third, our department came out much better than any of us had any right to expect. We made it into Q4, apparently meaning we need to "transform/re-invent" ourselves. Q5 programs, if one cobbles the two reports together and does a bit of Ouija boarding, should be eliminated, cut or deactivated. What I saw of our dept reports, we should have been at the bottom of the Q5 list - cut immediately. Instead, we got Q4. Okay. Dean explained that to me yesterday - every college/university in the region has one of us. (Sorry, but I cannot identify the department itself due to that damned gag order... even referencing the gag order violates the instructions to shut the hell up). Let's call it... Arts & Sciences Basic (hereafter ASB). So everybody who claims to be a college/university has a ASB department/program. So we couldn't be in Q5, no matter how bad we are. And let me assure you, give what the TF had to judge us on, we are really bad.
Where do we - they - go from here? Who knows. The deans have the opportunity to rebut, and then the whole shebang goes off to the president's prioritization group, who will decided what, if any, actions are to be taken.
As far as ASB goes, the people who are left standing are the dinosaurs. Completely out of touch with the field/discipline, in their 70s, they are privileged white men, secure in their privilege and tenure. The one who will be the most active in this process has not done any work in the field - research, writing or even keeping up with the scholarly literature of his own field - for (by his own account) 4 decades. He doesn't know how to turn on a computer, much less do a google search. Online resources and/or research is as remote and important to him as Serengeti insect life. He's going to be the one that frames and re-invents the ASB department. He's a lousy teacher too. He got a teaching award from Sears (!) in 1991, and regards that as proof that he's an outstanding teacher. Eep.
It's both liberating and depressing to know that I'm walking out the door and leaving the students to this mess. It's hard to disengage, after 16 years of caring deeply, trying to make a difference.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Public: Retiring!
Told the dean last week that this is my last term at RNU. Felt great. Zie was surprised - majorly - and hir jaw dropped. And then, I got to watch as the dinosaurs scramble, trying to figure out what it meant for them.
Dino1 proved the most astonishing. I have to quit giving him this power to prompt a response. He wants so badly to emerge as the hero of the piece. And he might well, despite his unfitness for the role. This is the man who (proudly) told me he hadn't done anything in the profession - research, service, writing - for 40 years. His version of scholarship is to read the NYT Review of Books, and to invent new classes based on non-scholarly works. He jumped right in, offering to teach 7 classes. Because he couldn't count. Two of these, that one, or just go ahead and add that one too, then this one here and of course we need to do that and that. "Err, are you sure? That's seven classes." "What? What? No, that's only five! I don't mind doing an extra prep!" Dean: "I've got a, b, c, d, e, f and g. That's seven." "Oh? No, two a, two b, c, d and e. That's not 7 is it? It is?" "It is." "oh." Oh indeed. Then I really pissed him off, as he was primping and puffing about his 'best student in 30 years' being available for adjunct. I choked, added that I was going to advise "above all, don't hire K as adjunct!" Dino was very indignant. Very. I was more articulate, and provided evidence of K unsuitability. Dino will prevail, as K is an acolyte. D is so out of touch with the reality of the field, that he doesn't see K as anything other than a replicate of himself. Which, IMHO, is precisely why K shouldn't come in as adjunct!
Oh. Well. Not my problem.
Knee doing well. Get the stitches out Tuesday, and hopefully cleared to drive. Which will promptly not happen, as the info sheet says PT, which starts Wednesday, will require pain killers. O. Joy. However, it'll be a process and one I need to get on, get moving, get completely mobile!
Some gratifying elements of the past week: good classes, some students returning from my best class ever, and the comments I got from my campus-friend-wide email announcing my retirement. Very nice, very affirming, very needed.
Dino1 proved the most astonishing. I have to quit giving him this power to prompt a response. He wants so badly to emerge as the hero of the piece. And he might well, despite his unfitness for the role. This is the man who (proudly) told me he hadn't done anything in the profession - research, service, writing - for 40 years. His version of scholarship is to read the NYT Review of Books, and to invent new classes based on non-scholarly works. He jumped right in, offering to teach 7 classes. Because he couldn't count. Two of these, that one, or just go ahead and add that one too, then this one here and of course we need to do that and that. "Err, are you sure? That's seven classes." "What? What? No, that's only five! I don't mind doing an extra prep!" Dean: "I've got a, b, c, d, e, f and g. That's seven." "Oh? No, two a, two b, c, d and e. That's not 7 is it? It is?" "It is." "oh." Oh indeed. Then I really pissed him off, as he was primping and puffing about his 'best student in 30 years' being available for adjunct. I choked, added that I was going to advise "above all, don't hire K as adjunct!" Dino was very indignant. Very. I was more articulate, and provided evidence of K unsuitability. Dino will prevail, as K is an acolyte. D is so out of touch with the reality of the field, that he doesn't see K as anything other than a replicate of himself. Which, IMHO, is precisely why K shouldn't come in as adjunct!
Oh. Well. Not my problem.
Knee doing well. Get the stitches out Tuesday, and hopefully cleared to drive. Which will promptly not happen, as the info sheet says PT, which starts Wednesday, will require pain killers. O. Joy. However, it'll be a process and one I need to get on, get moving, get completely mobile!
Some gratifying elements of the past week: good classes, some students returning from my best class ever, and the comments I got from my campus-friend-wide email announcing my retirement. Very nice, very affirming, very needed.
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Buh-Bye 2014! And Bring on the New!!
Definitely retiring at end of spring term. Summer is full of travel plans,and then I'll come back here, pack up and move to the northwest. Once the house is empty, realtor-friend will get the piddly work done and sell it. I shall rent up there until I can decide what's next. If I love the place, I'll stay. If not, I'll move south or out or something. But I won't be back in Red Neck State, and that is what is important.
I'm really excited about all this. And ready to tell the Powers That Be - when the time is right. Hopefully right after they tell me I have to teach x, y and z next fall, and that they're eliminating the program around us. The prioritization process, which they'd hyped to all as completely transparent - isn't. And they are causing a lot of unnecessary fear and angst around campus. Enough so that it prompted my decision to retire early just to get the hell away from them.
That all means that this is going to be my last term at Red Neck U. That has so many implications attached to it that, for me, it's this New Life that is opening up. And it's starting off well.
Monday is my knee replacement surgery! So tired of the pain and associated sedentariness, that the promised pain and rehabilitation seems like a lovely future. The surgeon said 3-4 days in the hospital and then a couple in rehab before I can go home. The Insurance twits say 2 days for everything. I am always astonished that we tolerate the extortion of commercial insurance. Our carrier is, like many, known as Auto-No. Their first response to everything is NO. NO you can't have that doctor. NO you can't have that med. NO you don't need the care the doctor thinks you do. Yes, you can appeal, but that initial NO is just damned irritating. And totally unnecessary. No wonder more and more doctors are opting out of the insurance racket: they get the hassle of filing and tracking and fighting just as we do. Only as patients, we're the bottom of the food chain.
So the new year for me is one of hope and promise - the biggest hope being that the bad mojo of 2014 is all behind me. Here's hoping your New Year is fun, exciting, relaxing, productive and everything you want it to be!
I'm really excited about all this. And ready to tell the Powers That Be - when the time is right. Hopefully right after they tell me I have to teach x, y and z next fall, and that they're eliminating the program around us. The prioritization process, which they'd hyped to all as completely transparent - isn't. And they are causing a lot of unnecessary fear and angst around campus. Enough so that it prompted my decision to retire early just to get the hell away from them.
That all means that this is going to be my last term at Red Neck U. That has so many implications attached to it that, for me, it's this New Life that is opening up. And it's starting off well.
Monday is my knee replacement surgery! So tired of the pain and associated sedentariness, that the promised pain and rehabilitation seems like a lovely future. The surgeon said 3-4 days in the hospital and then a couple in rehab before I can go home. The Insurance twits say 2 days for everything. I am always astonished that we tolerate the extortion of commercial insurance. Our carrier is, like many, known as Auto-No. Their first response to everything is NO. NO you can't have that doctor. NO you can't have that med. NO you don't need the care the doctor thinks you do. Yes, you can appeal, but that initial NO is just damned irritating. And totally unnecessary. No wonder more and more doctors are opting out of the insurance racket: they get the hassle of filing and tracking and fighting just as we do. Only as patients, we're the bottom of the food chain.
So the new year for me is one of hope and promise - the biggest hope being that the bad mojo of 2014 is all behind me. Here's hoping your New Year is fun, exciting, relaxing, productive and everything you want it to be!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)