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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Dedicated to Faculty Senate


19 comments:

Anonymous said...

What percentage (and count) of courses taught this year would have to be taught out-of-load if taught at the same enrollment levels?
How will the administration handle courses which fail to make at the week before classes begin? faculty load will not be met - is this a debt to be repaid the next semester by an additional class?

Anonymous said...

I perceive a message.

Anonymous said...

Why does it seem that only UT has problems with chronic outrageous deficits, high handed overpaid administrators, unending changing of drastic strategic plans, repeated arbitrary shuffling of departments, viziers and satraps, constant re-invention of itself for the past 20 years?

Besides those at the top, most are pretty demoralized. Instead of the excitement, creativity, commitment, spirit of devotion, vision, and sense of personal stewardship and service that they say they want to inspire, they are going to be getting more and more of the exact opposite.

Anonymous said...

See these colorful yarns? They are the foundation for the Web of deception by UT administration. WebMD means Web of Mass Deception where lies come in all colors and shapes. When classes fail, be ready to be taken to the cleaners by Scary Co, Jacobs, Inc. and BOT Bros. Debt? What debt? Oh, you mean the bonuses and raises given to useless administrators failing left and right? We pay, they play! Welcome to the the WebMD!

Anonymous said...

Get some.

Anonymous said...

I think Jacobs and co engineered this hole in order to create this drastic emergency so that they can create their "Brave New World" --UGH!.

Anonymous said...

If you want to read something creepy, read Scarborough's interview in the Ind Collegian on his five year plan, which involves the creation (and funding) of yet more colleges, more technological innovations, fully online degree programs, and a complete reorganization and redefinition of "faculty" at UT. I'm guessing he doesn't even get the irony in creating something that can be referred to as a five year plan. He has even (or rather, inevitably) a new normal vocabulary for the new normal faculty teaching at the new normal UT: "teacher scholars" & "professors of practice." If you read the interview with him and then the interview with Jacobs you might well be motivated to start looking for another job, once you get past the "you have got to be kidding" moment. Also worth a passing glance, as you pack your bags, is the anecdote about how he saw the light about flipped classes. It's a touching story of a compassionate administrator and first day first class new normal UT student bonding. The future is now.

Anonymous said...

Or it came through their incompetence, profligate spending of money for administrators and their perks and pet projects, as well as having a lot siphoned off for the simulator and kidney flushing mistakes, and other things for MCO.

Anonymous said...

I am sad for UT and it faculty and staff. UT is not the only university currently suffering these ills. When universities are run by incompetent and dishonest boards, leaches like Jacobs succeed in ruining good universities. While I am no longer a UT professor, every time I read something about UT, it has gotten much worse than when I was there.

Anonymous said...

I now see the downside of tenure. Faculty having earned it lost their edge when it comes to protesting the end of shared governance. Consider this, never once have the faculty gone on strike or slowdown. Never once have the faculty produced a list of names of their colleagues who have been bought out - with bonuses and extra compensation. Never once has there been an act of civil disobedience on the Ut campus since this administration came in.

Anonymous said...

With the announcement of a "supposed" 36 Million deficit at UT, how are administration members able to sleep at night knowing full well that that amount is less than the total they will all receive in bonuses in 2013, which they all voted to approve? Never ceases to amaze me how an organization like UT would like to think of themselves as one large corporate business, yet it is being run largely by folks who don't have any formal training in business, and have no business degrees (pretty sad since they tout UT as having one of the nation's leading business colleges). Why is it always a case of the worker bees who have to suffer and settle, all while the queens grab more and do less? Corporate GREED is alive and well at UT.

Anonymous said...

Why are the higher ups drooling over so called "flipped classes"? You can find examples of flipped classes (at Penn St e.g.) that have over 1000 students enrolled in a single class. Mind boggling class sizes (with physical classrooms and not solely DL): that's the Holy Grail they think they have found.

Anonymous said...

School of Athens: Early Flipped courses

View here:http://tinyurl.com/b88bfo6

You can see the return of Greek Akademia as Lloydie & Scary envisions it LSA: Lloydie-Scary-Academy -- hundreds of student to a few teacher scholars. Maximized profits, little to learn, low grade requirement. A Nirvana for Mediocracy.

Anonymous said...

This disaster is driven by the attempt of running university as business. That approach follows from the concept that money is the only value.

However universities are for generating knowledge, educating people, and through that shaping the future. These non-monetary values have never been emphasized by the current UT administration.

In spite of their proclaimed monetary approach, our administrators are lousy businessmen: this university was financially much better before they took over.

That recently proposed changes will trigger drastic drop in enrollment was immediately realized by our grad and undergrad students; many have started looking around. It's hard to believe that this simple calculation escaped our administration minds.

What triggered their attack on faculty and students then? At least three explanations can be proposed: 1) funds mismanaged to the extent that only scandalous attack on faculty can distract those in control; 2) turbulence in the system (chain of command, brains) increased beyond critical value making it chaotic and unpredictable; 3) revenge for SB5 failure. These explanations are not mutually exclusive or exhaustive -- other factors can contribute too.

At the end, we face the following alternative: either our best students and faculty will leave UT or this administration resigns. Make your bets.

Anonymous said...

Flipped Classes work when they allow the instructor more time with students, encourage students to work collaboratively in classes, in other words give students more opportunities and more responsibilities in class. Flipped Classes do not work when they are used to triple and quadruple class sizes, which sort of defeats the entire purpose. The idea that you will have huge classrooms with student assistants wandering around giving pep talks while the professor oversees it is doomed at the get go.

Anonymous said...

I used to be at UT; not there any longer. I'm very glad. And very sad for the wonderful colleagues who remain. I wonder when the breaking point will actually be reached?

Anonymous said...

Another thought about "flipped" classes: Science education researchers have shown that this sort of arrangement can be more effective than a traditional lecture. BUT -- I'm pretty sure the benefits only appear when there's a conscious effort by the instructor to make it work. It can't be imposed from without by some buzzword-spouting accountant.

Anonymous said...

The "flipped classroom" sounds like what we used to call "homework". How is it that live lectures in the classroom are inefficient, but once on-line, they apparently engage students at extremely high levels?

Anonymous said...

Back when I was a Professor (at UT) we used to call the method promulgated as "flipped classes" the Socratic Mthod. I gues it took a high paid administrator to find a new name for the method.