I've been reading this book lately:
(WSJ review of it here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903461304576526353648342500.html)
And then I read this post:
http://academic-jungle.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-sucky-and-awesome-of-academia.html
And then I read the comments to that post, and it got me thinking about the connections between the two.
Life at my university has been pretty unpleasant lately, as we've gone through three (yes, 3!) "shared services" mergers in about 4 years. The administration hired an outside consulting firm for about $7million to recommend that we essentially outsource all staff support. So, all of our staff has been "merged" and moved out of their offices on campus. They now reside in a newly renovated and newly leased office building about 5 miles away from campus. Seriously. If you need staff assistance, you have to call some phone number and push a number corresponding to what kind of service you need. And then, you get an email asking you to review the service performance of the call transfer... "Yes, uh, I still have a grant proposal that I need to submit..."
It's in full force starting this semester, and I'm predicting absolute freaking chaos and failure. But at least we have awesome propaganda posters telling the staff to not be like a squirrel. Whatever that means.
Faculty don't get the propaganda posters though. We were allowed to suggest and vote on the "operating principles", but none of the 10 principles chosen includes any reference to education or research, so it was made pretty clear that faculty and students weren't actually important in the development of our great University's new operating principles (the one that we paid a consulting firm well over a million dollars to develop and implement, by the way).
But that is pretty much reflective of a culture that our administration has been fostering for years. I could walk through numerous examples, but believe me when I just summarize it for you: Faculty distract from the real mission of the university. We are free-loaders who are always trying to cheat the institution, so staff must keep a constant eye on us and fight back against anything we want to do (including, spending our own grant money), because it is, inherent in the fact that a faculty member is attempting to do it, suspicious. Protect the institution from the faculty.
Oh, BTW, all of the staff are out today on a retreat to build morale. I didn't even get a squirrel poster for my office.
Whatever happened to the notion that, perhaps, the administration should say "congratulations!" and "thank you!" to the faculty from time to time? We have Staff Appreciation Days when the staff all get invited to the main "quad" for ice cream and are told how essential they are to the institution. What about faculty? OR, what about the crazy idea that staff and faculty work together to advance the mission of the university? That is definitely a crazy idea, I know...
Nope, no effort to let faculty know that are appreciated. Staff and administration are off on a retreat building morale, and I'm here writing the syllabus for my class and reviewing a graduate student's dissertation chapter. You know, the non-essential kinda stuff that happens at a university.
(WSJ review of it here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903461304576526353648342500.html)
And then I read this post:
http://academic-jungle.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-sucky-and-awesome-of-academia.html
And then I read the comments to that post, and it got me thinking about the connections between the two.
Life at my university has been pretty unpleasant lately, as we've gone through three (yes, 3!) "shared services" mergers in about 4 years. The administration hired an outside consulting firm for about $7million to recommend that we essentially outsource all staff support. So, all of our staff has been "merged" and moved out of their offices on campus. They now reside in a newly renovated and newly leased office building about 5 miles away from campus. Seriously. If you need staff assistance, you have to call some phone number and push a number corresponding to what kind of service you need. And then, you get an email asking you to review the service performance of the call transfer... "Yes, uh, I still have a grant proposal that I need to submit..."
It's in full force starting this semester, and I'm predicting absolute freaking chaos and failure. But at least we have awesome propaganda posters telling the staff to not be like a squirrel. Whatever that means.
Faculty don't get the propaganda posters though. We were allowed to suggest and vote on the "operating principles", but none of the 10 principles chosen includes any reference to education or research, so it was made pretty clear that faculty and students weren't actually important in the development of our great University's new operating principles (the one that we paid a consulting firm well over a million dollars to develop and implement, by the way).
But that is pretty much reflective of a culture that our administration has been fostering for years. I could walk through numerous examples, but believe me when I just summarize it for you: Faculty distract from the real mission of the university. We are free-loaders who are always trying to cheat the institution, so staff must keep a constant eye on us and fight back against anything we want to do (including, spending our own grant money), because it is, inherent in the fact that a faculty member is attempting to do it, suspicious. Protect the institution from the faculty.
Oh, BTW, all of the staff are out today on a retreat to build morale. I didn't even get a squirrel poster for my office.
Whatever happened to the notion that, perhaps, the administration should say "congratulations!" and "thank you!" to the faculty from time to time? We have Staff Appreciation Days when the staff all get invited to the main "quad" for ice cream and are told how essential they are to the institution. What about faculty? OR, what about the crazy idea that staff and faculty work together to advance the mission of the university? That is definitely a crazy idea, I know...
Nope, no effort to let faculty know that are appreciated. Staff and administration are off on a retreat building morale, and I'm here writing the syllabus for my class and reviewing a graduate student's dissertation chapter. You know, the non-essential kinda stuff that happens at a university.
I have a cousin who is a University staff member, and she's totally Guilty. She thinks the faculty and grad students are the 'them' and the staff and the University are the 'us'. And the 'them' are always trying to freeload off the 'us'. It drives me kind of crazy.
ReplyDeleteI actually think my department staff are all really awesome. They are hard-working and competent and probably totally overworked (the department support was cut in third in the last decade). I really try to express my appreciation by treating them to lunch every so often, bringing candy and stuff.
ReplyDeleteHowever, even the college level administration, let alone university level, is a mixed bag. For instance, the SPO person in charge of my department is very unpleasant and unhelpful, at least to me.
We have a few academic staff members, faculty associates, who have MS degrees and teach some of our grad courses. They are all very good teachers and very popular among undergrads. But there is this chasm between us and them, maybe faculty don't treat them as equal, but I know that one of them (faculty associates) who has been a real dick to me from day 1, and has been heard many times saying how faculty are a lazy bunch, they don't care about students at all etc.
But you are right, it would be nice not to have to fight for some appreciation every step of the way. It seems that everywhere you turn -- students, administration, colleagues -- people assume you don't belong there, you are paid too much, work too little, and overall don't deserve the ivory tower you live in. Ah, if only we were in fact as idle, overprivileged, and overpaid as people seem to believe.
Well, speaking from the staff perspective ... we were completely unappreciated, too, and "dispensable" because we weren't faculty. When I left my last position, I was demoted by a faculty member who put a faculty member in charge of me: someone who had never run a program, and knew nothing about mine. I ran my program to support faculty and students, to build bridges. I realize that senior administrators don't give a flying (squirrel) about bridges, or staff, OR faculty. But I would be careful about believing what the books say, and about suggesting that faculty members can--or even should--do what staff do. That's why Plato wrote the _Republic_. (Sorry, got me on my soapbox.)
ReplyDelete