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| Faculty (Photo credit: Luther College Photos) |
All our sessionals are losing their jobs. These are people who ought to have REAL jobs, every damn one of them. But after years of exploitation the administration is perfectly happy to throw them out on the street. Don't bother them with our petty concerns; they're already late for their plane to the Bahamas.
We have already done everything we can in previous years to increase enrollments. We are maxed. We can no more. They don't care. They just ship themselves off to fancy conferences in the Caribbean where they will, one hopes, learn how to administrate more effectively. Perhaps I should wish them well. They couldn't do worse than they are right now. (I correct myself. Oh yes they could. Knock wood.)
Our new chair has taken over in difficult times, is facing a hostile administration, and is on edge. One cannot blame the chair for this. Still it would be nice not to have to tiptoe. Meanwhile the departmental owner of the Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder continues to snow those in power. This dynamic duo makes setting foot in the department a not unmixed pleasure.
Still, at least I have a regular job. So many people every bit as well-trained, well-published, and committed to teaching as I am are being paid slave wages or are out on the street. Or are about to be.
Perhaps the world will look better by Friday.
Perhaps I'll win a huge lottery and will be able to endow my Faculty with money for FACULTY, damn it; not administrative junkets, positions.
Perhaps my cat will learn to fly.
...and you will post the flying cat video to you-tube, get picked up by a talent show, get paid a huge amount of money which you can use for faculty lines...
ReplyDeletemuch empathy.
Isn't it the job of the trustees of the university to prevent blatant corruption?
ReplyDeleteYou mean the trustees that are off on a junket in the Caribbean?
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY! We found out that despite our school (SLAC with no union) having cut positions, each administrator voted themselves a 15% raise, the president got a $25k bonus, and they took a golf vacation to a famous resort for the last Board meetings. Tomorrow we're supposed to gather to talk about ways to further cut expenses on campus. How about we get rid of Administrators and the Board?
DeleteYike (to the situations described by both MA and CC)! I don't think our trustees/administrators would be this stupid, given the current financial/opinion climate in our state (if they are, they should be dismissed for that reason alone), but you never know. I should probably check to see what they've been up to.
DeletePublic or private? Union or no union? There are ways of getting this information out to the public. Sometimes outside pressure can bring results. Or anonymous fliers with the names and the cost of this junket, vs tuition information, class sizes, number of staff layoffs, quietly posted around campus.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking along somewhat the same lines as Annie: this sounds like a job for an investigative reporter. Of course, most of them are freelance/contingent these days, too, but if the story is juicy enough to sell, it could be a win-win proposition for reporter and informant alike. If the junkets draw participants from a variety of institutions and/or geographical areas, there might even be a national story there.
ReplyDelete