Sorry to be slow responding to some of the postings on the blog, but I've been trying to take care of business for you, and I've had that nasty bug that's going around.
At any rate, I'm feeling better and ready to respond to at least a couple of questions (more later this week).
First, I take no responsibility for the poetry on this blog--even though I have enjoyed reading it. What a civilized response to the tense time as we waited for the audit results! Keep it up, and maybe we'll have enough material to publish a chapbook.
On a more serious note, I have been asked by an anonymous reader if the BOR should vote on something more than an "executive summary" of the audit. The reader's specific question is this:
"Is the BOR not charged with the task of: 'The determination of the number of divisions, departments, bureaus, offices, and agencies needed for the successful conduct of the University' (BOR Bylaws, Article II, A.11). Is it appropriate for the BOR to make that determination based on an executive summary?
This question deserves a detailed answer.
Article II, A.11 certainly applies here, but so do other bylaws. The BOR will eventually be presented with program deletions and additions, as well as other items that need BOR approval.
But right now, what we have is a recommendation from Academic Affairs to take certain actions on various programs, including some fairly extensive reorganizations. While it is safe to assume that the President and his Cabinet would like to approve all or most of these recommendations, fiscal constraints and other practicalities may indeed cause the plan to be revised in some ways. If you have looked at the recommendations, you realize that there are still lots of details to be ironed out, and indeed implementing these recommendations may prove difficult. Thus, while eventually the BOR will approve many specific elements of the plan (including, presumably, the number of "divisions, departments, etc.), we are not quite at that point yet.
To address the other part of the reader's question, I don't want to speak for my fellow BOR members, but they are very much aware of how important this academic audit is for the health of the University. At the BOR meeting on 12 March, they will hear a detailed presentation on the audit and will have a chance to ask questions and make comments. BOR members will have also access to the same materials that you have, including the full audit recommendations.
In the last couple of days, a reader asked about my reaction to the audit recommendations. I have given this same answer a couple of times recently, but it's what I really believe. My personal reaction is far less important than YOUR responses. If you have issues you want to get out there, please respond to this blog or send me an e-mail. I want to know what you're thinking so that I can communicate your thoughts to Board.
Stay strong.
Ron
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4 comments:
I find it interesting, that during difficult financial times, additional administrative layers are included in the organizational structure proposed in the audit - specifically Schools within Colleges.
Academic Exorcism May Be Needed:
President Andrews deserves a lot credit for holding these public forums even though it leaves him open to a lot of odd talking points. He really does make it all sound so matter of fact and positive. His glass may be half full but it's the Kool-Aid that is in it that we need to be concerned about. Apparently somebody already drank half of it.
In President Andrew's recent forum the public was reminded that the "devil is in the details" of the Curriculum Audit. A couple of faculty members asked about their program status and if there would ever be a meeting with them about the next steps of the process. It was just strange to then hear both the President and the Provost bring up the fact that they were delaying meetings with these departments until they had data that they were waiting to receive. The question is, wouldn't it have been helpful to have this important data before the audit results were decided? Now that the report is out they can't meet with the departments until they have more data?
Departments that are left hanging in the wind waiting for the "devilish details" now need to wait for more of this elusive data to appear before they can find out about their fate. Then it was stated that it may take until the fall semester for this data to materialize for the next steps to be announced. Truly amazing! Meanwhile the Deans met with the Provost and agreed to meet with these departments to reassure them that all will be well, even though no real details were to be outlined. "Take a deep breath," Andrews told us. The Deans will hold your hand if you are afraid of the devil.
Faculty members in programs that were not affected by the audit are feeling pretty good about it all, and they should. If their dept isn't getting busted up then they don't have much to worry about -- other than no pay raise or etc. Those faculty members unfortunate enough to be caught in the black hole of the audit with the devil holding the details have got to be wondering about their karma or what the did in some past life to deserve this. They don't know where their offices will be, who their department chair will be, what colleagues will be in their department, or who will be teaching in their program. Seems like a good way to drive off some faculty and trim down the budget the old fashion way.
The comment about the "hammer coming down" was more telling than anyone in Button auditorium realized. Why use a hammer when you can just ask the faculty to write their own audit report, and then send the program off to purgatory for a couple of years while they wait for more "data" to turn up. Colleagues from these programs have indicated that they will "never again" put all that work into an audit only to have it turned into a poker game for the Deans with the Provost shuffling the deck. Somebody in that lot has a red tail, horns growing out of their head and a pitchfork in their left hand. Many people have ideas about who that might be. Until these "details" reach the faculty we will all have to beware of where that devil may be lurking.
Parva scintilla saepe magnam flamam excitat
What else do faculty and staff lose?
Over the past year faculty and staff have seen their benefits whittled away more and more. Two of those were the removal of graduate waivers for faculty and staff and now the childcare center being closed down. I recognize that not everyone utilizes those benefits, but where does it stop? What are the administration giving up? That doesn't seem to come up too much. Are we next going to see a decrease in the amount that the university puts towards health insurance, because that was a threat of potentiality that the President made at one of the forums back in December?
MSU has some excellent faculty and staff on this campus and the more that our benefits are taken away the less people will care about this institution or working here. We may be somewhat recession proof as the Dr. Andrews said, but there are other ways to kill our university and it seems that these are options the administration is looking at. I hope the Board of Regents gives more of a care for the faculty and staff then the administration does because otherwise look for us to lose more of the benefits that helped entice us to work at this great institution.
"The Devil is in the Details"
A previous blog entry mentioned President Andrew's comment about the "devil is in the details" regarding the Curriculum Audit. It is hard to get out of my head images of the Deans and the Provost and that statement.
… complete with their red tails and horns growing out of their heads, they sit around a blood soaked table. Their pitchforks are stacked neatly by the flaming door to the dark hall of the underworld. Before them at the center of the table is a decaying carcass of a dying department draped over a large platter warmed by the heat of burning textbooks.
Long forks and sharp knives are in hand. Over drooling mouths and the gnashing of teeth, heated arguments erupt over who gets which parts of the victim. Chaos rules as the night transforms their madness into sheer insanity.
As their fearless Minion Queen pours for each fiend a large goblet of impish ale she slaps down her Book of the Dead Audit on the table startling even the hardest core of the devilish types. "Rules must be followed" she declares, all the while two sitting across from her slip each other an exchange of tasty morsels out of sight under the table.
The decaying carcass of a former department is carved up into a pentagram as the horned heads chant around the table "More, More, More" then "Mine, Mine, Mine." With a large-tined fork each program part is divided up and thrown onto a smoldering plate in front of each grinning set of teeth. Flames from the surrounding inferno cause a hazy stench to drift over the dark and broiling cavern.
Just as the last of the academic entree is being devoured the once bolted door bursts open resulting in terrified shrieks of such frequency that it causes the pitchforks to rattle off their corner rack. In marches the only being that can ride herd on this motley crew, the Dark Lord himself! His firm hand is outstretched toward the table as he gestures for the item in question. In a heavy voice and demanding tone he makes his request, "Let's have it. I've got a forum to preside over."
Low muttering and mumbling relays around the table as eyes don't dare gaze upon his countenance. Sweeping aside her scaled red robe, the Minion Queen reached down and hands over the Book of the Dead Audit and informs his majesty that it's not complete. "One of them at the table is holding out on all the details" she responds.
With time running out, the Dark Lord storms out of the chamber with the smoldering book under his arm and shouts back a warning through the flaming door, "If you don't get more data I'm going to cut your heat off."
Once the flaming door is closed again the activity at the table erupts into a milieu of poking and stabbing sharp instruments at each other as the squabbling continues over the few bones left on the table. A haunting draft sweeps over the hall as the thought of the need for more devilish data sends hot flashes surging through the spine of the….
…To be continued…
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