IC Posts 2010 UT Budget

The Independent Collegian has posted the University of Toledo 2010 Budget on its website as a PDF.  Good reporting.  

See http://www.independentcollegian.com/news/view-the-ut-fy-2010-budget-here-1.1764507

Blade Article on Teaching Loads

Article published June 23, 2009
University of Toledo board OKs revised policy on faculty work
Goal is to ensure time in classroom
By MEGHAN GILBERT
BLADE STAFF WRITER
The University of Toledo wants to make sure its faculty is spending time in the classroom and will keep better track of work loads next school year.

The UT board of trustees approved an update yesterday to the faculty work load policy. It requires that faculty members teach the equivalent of 12 credit hours a semester and authorizes the administration to designate what nonteaching activities can offset that amount.

A full-time teaching load of 12 credit hours could be four three-credit classes a semester. But because faculty work includes activities outside the classroom instruction time, not everyone teaches that many courses.

Those activities can include research, advising, supervising clinical students or graduate student research, and participating on committees.

Each college has definitions for what qualifies as counting toward the required 12 credit hours.

President Lloyd Jacobs said the policy is more about legitimizing those other activities than baby-sitting faculty.

"I want to be clear. … In my own belief a great majority, nearly all faculty members, are working hard and being productive," he said.

But UT's faculty union, the American Association of University Professors, has filed grievances over the administration's defining "research active" rather than negotiating with the union for an agreed-upon definition.

The board resolution approved yesterday cites the Ohio Revised Code section that states a university board of trustees will adopt a faculty work load policy and that the board's policy prevails over conflicting collective bargaining agreements.

Dr. Jacobs said the policy exists, but this update is "more specified, more qualified."

Although some may consider it micromanaging faculty work,

it's common in difficult times to centralize, he said.

The state of the economy has led to a policy under which the president must OK all hires, which also is micromanaging, but nobody has argued that, Dr. Jacobs noted.

"It's part of the general tightening up and accountability of our times," he said.

John Barrett, president of the UT Faculty Senate, said faculty members are concerned about the new workload process in part because the details haven't been worked out for individuals and they don't know how it will affect them.

Also, he said, faculty members work with department chairmen, who are knowledgeable about the subject the professors teach and what else they have on their plates. But further up the chain, the dean and the provost office, there is potential for disagreement about what is good use of faculty time, said Mr. Barrett, an associate professor of law.

"There is concern with the way the process has come about in some people's minds," he said.

UT Trustee Carroll Ashley suggested the language in the faculty workload policy be changed to up to 15 credit hours instead of 12, given the difficult economic situation and the chance that the university will have to do more with less if the state slashes UT's budget.

His amendment wasn't supported by the other trustees.

Mr. Barrett said that move would have been more of a show of power and would create ill will when it's not necessary.

"His proposal was premature," he said. "If the state radically changes the budget for UT, who knows what steps we'll have to take to change things. But let's cross that bridge when we come to it."

The economic recession is having an impact on the university's capital projects as well.

During the finance discussion part of the board meeting, the trustees were told that several projects are being put on hold.

Scott Scarborough, UT's senior vice president for finance and administration, listed those as a new intensive care unit, new pharmacy college building, a "digital campus" project to make hospital records electronic, and increasing wireless Internet access on campus.

The planning for the new pharmacy building will go forward, but none of the work to construct the building will be considered until the state budget shakes out, he said.

The trustees also approved creation of an Institute for Vehicular Business and Supply Chain Management and a new bachelor's degree in biochemistry.

The meeting was the last for UT trustees Rick Stansley and David Huey, whose terms expire July 1.

And UT Trustee Marvin Himmelein is resigning from the board for personal reasons.

Contact Meghan Gilbert at:
mgilbert@theblade.com
or 419-724-6134.

Live via the web—but live???

Did anyone’s “UT Update” include the location of today’s Town Hall meeting? Mine didn’t—here’s what was in mine for today:


Town Hall Meeting Today: Main Campus Provost Rosemary Hagget will host a live Town Hall Meeting this morning at 11 a.m. via the web. You can watch and participate live, at http://video.utoledo.edu.

Send questions now or during the event to townhallquestions@utoledo.edu.


I don’t know about you, but when I think of participating live, doing it by video or e-mail is not what I think of.

Well, hey, here’s how to know when and where the Town Hall meetings are—don’t bother with the half-baked "selective" information in the e-notifications they send out; go straight to the President’s site:

http://www.utoledo.edu/offices/president/townhall/index.html

This lists all the meetings scheduled on both campuses from now through the end of next year (2010). Unless, of course, something gets changed or cancelled, with or without notice.

Oh—and, isn’t it Haggett???

Ode

The eternal flame of cronyism still burns bright
And sheds on our works a garish light

We labor with love, to make our own fate
And then is appointed some second rate

Burma Shave?
Or is it "Shave 'em Dry?"

That We May Bask in the Reflected Glory

This UT news release from yesterday says it all...

UT names Dr. Thomas Brady interim dean of Judith Herb College of Education    

Dr. Thomas E. Brady will be recommended to the UT Board of Trustees to assume the position of interim dean of The University of Toledo’s Judith Herb College of Education, at its meeting Monday, June 22, UT officials said Friday. 
 
If approved, Brady, a former member of the board of trustees for the Medical University of Ohio and UT, will assume his new role beginning August 1. His term will run until July 31, 2010 or until a national search process has been completed and a permanent dean selected, according to his letter of appointment.
 
“Tom Brady joins the Judith Herb College of Education at a critical time,” said Dr. Rosemary Haggett, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “Tom’s experience as a leader and an entrepreneur will be critical to the college’s success as new instructional technologies and higher student expectations force colleges and universities across the nation to adapt as the world changes around us.”
 
Brady said one of his most important jobs when he assumes his new role will be to listen.
 
“I’m incredibly excited by this challenge and honored to have been asked to serve,” Brady said. “This is a college full of brilliant thinkers and powerful minds and I see my role as helping bring good ideas together, helping secure needed resources to ensure faculty and student success and, ultimately, ensuring the next generation of teachers is prepared to educate students in a technological environment very different from the one that exists today.”
 
Brady is chairman, CEO and founder of Plastic Technologies, Inc. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Dartmouth College.
 
Haggett also emphasized the strides the Judith Herb College of Education had taken under retiring dean, Dr. Thomas Switzer.
 
“From overseeing the capital improvements to Gillham Hall, to helping form a relationship with Judith Herb and her family to harnessing the efforts of the college to a learning-focused pedagogy, the UT community and teachers and students all over the country owe Tom Switzer tremendous thanks for his lifelong contribution to education and for his leadership at The University of Toledo,” Haggett said.

Champions and Chairs

The release of the UT WMW group's White Paper titled "Wrong Directions at the University of Toledo: The Social Pathology of ‘Mass-Customization’ for the A&S College” (see July 18, 2008 on this blog) remains pending, as this university administration has yet to announce or implement the specifics of its “mass-customization” initiatives. However, it is timely to discuss preparation for a response should these initiatives shape up as unacceptable to quality-conscious A&S tenured and tenure-track faculty. In anticipation that departmental chairs in A&S will be pressured by provost and dean to force their faculties to bend over and accept the unacceptable, the draft WMW White Paper recommends that t/t-t faculty in each A&S department informally meet and select a “champion” to represent their shared quality-control interests to each of their respective departmental chairs. Departmental faculty members at present are too politically disorganized to put up a unified resistance to imposed change from above. Ideally, by selecting a departmental champion for the purpose of negotiating a potentially endless array of onerous changes imposed from above with a departmental chair, a typical t/t-t department faculty member’s own time and energy become freed up from everyday academic politics to permit more concentration on professional responsibilities and commitments: the continued pursuit of high quality teaching, research and community service. The departmental champions, while “unofficial” and extra-ordinary representatives of their departmental faculties, will most likely be selected from those few remaining seasoned senior faculty loyal to the UT and A&S traditions, appreciative of the core public higher education commitment to the liberal arts, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and willing to volunteer their own valuable time to help preserving those venerable traditions, especially face-to-face classroom teaching and mentoring of students on a personal scale. It would of course be preferable, according the tentative White Paper, if A&S departmental chairs were officially representing the best interests of the t/t-t faculties of their departments when negotiating change with the UT administration. Instead, the A&S department chairs are administrators themselves, having agreed to take coin to become the official working end of the administrative hammer as applied to their departmental faculties. They may be good people, but have committed themselves to wearing this present university administration's monochromatic structural straitjacket. In sum: Every A&S department with a sense of purpose and integrity, and every quality-conscious faculty member who proudly identifies with intellectual membership in his or her department, yet feels threatened, intimidated and demoralized by this present administration, need more than a Chair to protect and defend in the face of mismanagement, neglect and abuse. They need a Champion!

Library Purge Accompanies People Purge

Bloggie says, "Think Fahrenheit 451."  No more books in the administrator-centered university!

The following report was forwarded by a reader.  

Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:47:59 -0400
From: "Martin, Juan"
To: "Thompson-Casado, Kathleen S." ,
     "Emonds, Friederike" ,
     "Dick, Warren H." ,
     "Semaan, Gaby " ,
     "Lepeley, Oscar C." ,
     "Cheng, AnChung" ,
     "Hara, Joseph" ,
     "Hottell, Ruth Ann" ,
     "Martin, Juan" ,
     "Rouillard, Linda"
Subject: Carlson evaluation of monographs

Dear colleagues,
 
In the last couple of weeks I have been meeting and in contact with the
librarians concerning the revision of the library collection. The process
is going to be different from what we were informed some months ago. The
process will be as follows.
 
The collection is being evaluated in its entirety for the first time. The
librarians envision a core circulating collection, that is, items used
repeatedly and extensively for classroom assignments and research. They
have decided upon a basic policy ? if an item has not circulated in the
past 9 years, then it is evaluated for placement at the Northwest Ohio
Book Depository or withdrawal. Before an item is ever withdrawn from
the collection, they check for existing copies at the Depository, for how
many copies are available via Ohio LINK and if the title exists on a
standard core collection list. These standard collections are based on
the 2002 Best Books for Academic Libraries and the 2007 RCL: Resources
for College Libraries ? some of our librarians have contributed to the
latter. I have some reservations about this process (for example I could
not find a section on linguistics in the 2007 RCL: Resources for College
Libraries, we the instructors know what we are going to need in the
future for our classrooms, etc.) and I have asked for the lists to be
evaluated by us too.
 
The evaluation is starting with sets (titles that have multi-volumes such
as, vol. 1, vol. 2, etc. ? because they appear to have little to no
circulation). I have attached the particulars regarding the sets
evaluated to date. There are two lists: one of sets to be sent to the
Depository and another one of sets to be withdrawn. Please examine the
list and let me know if any of these sets should be kept at the library
or not withdrawn. Please consider the criteria that they are using (see
above) in your evaluation. As soon as they send me more list I will be
forwarding them to you.
 
A second and even more important issue is the budget freeze on new
acquisitions. I have noticed that none of the books that I have requested
to be purchased for the library in the last months have been acquired.
The librarians have confirmed this action. (They have assured me
that  the budget freeze on new acquisitions is across all disciplines.)
The situation is not clear at this point for next fiscal year, and they
told me that they will keep us informed. Anyway I consider this is very
serious. If the university cannot purchase up-to-date materials for our
research and teaching how are we going to fulfill our mission? I think
that this issue should be discussed by the Executive Committee of the A &
S Council, Linda, as we talked, and may be other venues.
 
Please send me your evaluations, comments and reactions. Thanks in
advance.
 
Juan
 
 

FYI Reading Material

The following reading has been brought to Bloggie's attention by a reader.  Thank you. 

It concerns research on no confidence votes and their effects, and is taken from the Chronicle. You will note the accuracy of some of the researcher's findings if you paid attention to events at UT last summer:  

Schmidt,  Peter. (2009, June 12).   How to Fire Your President: Voting 'No Confidence' With Confidence. The Chronicle of Higher Education,http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/06/19892n.htm College faculties often use votes of "no confidence" to try to push out the leader of their institutions. Many do so, however, without giving much thought to what such a vote actually means, whether they are using it appropriately, or how it will affect their institution—and their own future. Mae Kuykendall, a professor of law at Michigan State University and an expert on corporate law, has spent much of the past two years studying the no-confidence vote's origins, philosophical underpinnings, and uses in higher-education institutions and other organizations. She is scheduled to discuss her findings in Washington on Saturday at an international conference on college governance, academic freedom, and globalization sponsored by the American Association of University Professors. The Chronicle asked her to share her insights in an interview conducted via e-mail: Q. Where did the no-confidence vote, as a way to change an organization's leadership, originate? Where is it used? A. The phrase arose in the British Parliament [in 1782, in response to the British surrender to the Americans at Yorktown]. The vote has come to express the loss of support by a group whose cooperation is necessary for a leader's exercise of her duties. Libraries, police departments, public schools, fire departments, universities and their subunits, and various nonprofit groups use the vote of no confidence. Q. How does the vote fit in, or contrast, with other means of trying to remove a leader? A. A vote of no confidence undermines a leader's claim to legitimacy, a feature made evident by contrast with common, but illegitimate, means of trying to remove a leader, such as mutiny, rebellion, work stoppage, mob action, and assassination. … The essence of the vote of no confidence is that the group need not give reasons or a set of charges. It is simultaneously unauthorized and legitimate.  Q. You talk about colleges as "fuzzily governed" institutions. How do they differ from other places that you examined, and how does the no-confidence vote fit into a "fuzzy" governance structure? A. In authoritarian groups, regular members cannot demand a change. At the other end of the spectrum, democratic structures have clear, weighty procedures—impeachment and recall—for ousting their leaders. Universities and other nonprofit institutions sit in the middle of this spectrum. There is consultation to select leaders and to make decisions. Q. Is there a typical response to these votes from college presidents and boards of trustees? A. My research does not support a definite statement about a "typical" response. I can, however, describe one recurring pattern that almost could be said to follow a script. By a circular logic, the leader often claims that the outbreak of opposition is proof of his success: He or she is challenging an entrenched organizational culture that requires bold intervention. The president and his or her allies cite the call for ouster as evidence of stellar performance. The claim verges on a generic defense—one made even when the basis of a no-confidence petition arises from idiosyncratically personal flaws of the leader with no discernible connection to larger political concerns for the advancement of an institutional agenda. This response also serves to stigmatize those voting for removal, suggesting that they have betrayed their institutional trust and resist useful change. … When leaders eventually exit after a period of resistance and denial, the leader and/or the board typically issue bland claims that the exit and the no-confidence vote are unrelated. Indeed, in the archives of official statement, there is virtually no such event as "pressured leader exit." There is merely the change of mood by a leader, who, after a claimed success in one domain, decides to move on to private concerns or new challenges. Q. How effective is the vote? Is it more likely to bring about change in some situations than others?  A. A review of public announcements concerning leaders' exits plainly reveals that no-confidence votes often work. … One hypothesis that I have developed is that votes of no confidence are more likely to be effective in smaller institutional settings than in larger, more-complex universities in which the president is more remote from the faculty and the mission-related concerns of the schools differ. The credibility that accrues to a group that works directly with a leader is not present in larger, more-complex settings. The concern of an institution about its reputation in its relevant audience matters. If a school is willing to forgo the esteem of professional organizations and to risk prospective students' concerns about a leadership under a cloud, the vote of no confidence will fail to drive out a leader backed by a determined board. Q. Can such votes make matters worse for faculty members? A. One can readily find articles urging faculty members to avoid votes of no confidence, on the grounds that less disruptive, mediated solutions are better. … The claim that the vote of no confidence always yields an outcome that is worse than some other imagined state of affairs is not persuasive. Faculty members, who are generally averse to risk, see a vote of no confidence as a last resort in a bad situation. … The risks are real. Opposing the leader and losing can bring about what management theorist [Jean] Lipman-Blumen has called exile or "social death." In addition, a successful effort can have unpredictable effects on group dynamics. … These risks help discipline groups to avoid casual resorts to such votes. Q. Do faculties ever use these votes inappropriately? A. Votes of no confidence are about the values and goals of mission-driven institutions, such as universities. … For this reason, faculties should strive to distinguish between union actions not related to core academic functions and actions animated by a faculty responsibility for the mission of the university. Q. What practical advice would you give faculty members who are contemplating using a no-confidence vote to try to rid their institution of its current president?  A. First, talk with anyone you know in a similar institution that has experienced a vote of no confidence. Second, take with a grain of salt much of what you hear. Look for practical information, not fortune telling. … Colleagues at other institutions can tell you how a no-confidence vote developed, what role accrediting agencies may have played, what techniques seemed helpful, and where the greatest hazards, to collegiality and to the task of making ethical choices, lie. Since there is typically no formally authorized procedure for votes of no confidence, there is no rule book. Every decision is open to critique or high cost. Whether to call a formal meeting and whether to involve the untenured are good targets for second guessing. A vote of no confidence is a statement of fact, not a charge, so don't give a bill of particulars. The constant question for faculty in the midst of making these critical decisions is the one posed by the old Johnny Carson quiz show, with its deficient grammar—Who Do You Trust? One good answer that is hard to beat: Trust yourself. Copyright © 2009 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

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UT Senior Leadership Team

Notice they keep getting smaller.