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Sunday, November 1, 2015

The Real Need


22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe the relentless kicking of deans and other administrative folks going on here. Wake up. UT is not a one room school house. Learn to see the bigger picture. There are compliance, regulatory, and audit requirments from both the state and federal level. Accreditation organization demand that certain data be maintained and compliled. Funding agencies, both prive and public, require data, reports, etc. While teaching is the most important thing we do at a University, it is far from the only thing we do. No one likes getting a message that they need to complie a 20 page report by the end of the week, but that is a reality. I'm sure the deans are under the same pressure from their superiors, who are probably under the same pressure from funding agencies, the state, accreditors, etc.

I'm sorry, the negativity here is starting to get to be to0 much. I'm sick of the throw the bums out mentality in politics and at UT. UT is a metropolitan research university that is fullfilling its stated mission as best as it can with limited resources. Join us and work to make it even better, or just retire. I suspect you won't be missed much.

Sorry for adding to the negativity. Now go on and call me a dean or shill.

Bloggie said...

Throw the bums out.

Anonymous said...

If the deans and associate deans don't like all the regulatory reporting required of them, perhaps they should return to full-time faculty positions, though I thought their high, six-figure salaries were compensation for all the pressure and all the workload as administrators.

The reality is that Arts and Sciences was once administered by 1 dean and 2-3 associate deans. Now we have 3 deans, at least 4 associate deans, all at significantly higher salaries than before (and I don't mean 2% increases!). Has the regulatory reporting increased? Probably, but that has trickled down to faculty, as well.

Administrators attend regular HLC meetings and regular meetings in Columbus. If the bureaucratic red-tape has exploded into meaningless busy-work, then do something about it. I'd like to see administrators use their highly-paid time for better things, like promoting our programs and increasing enrollment.

Anonymous said...

The point the poster was making was in reference to "throw the bums out" when in fact Deans and Associate Deans are always going to be in place, it is just a matter of whom and how many. Just to be clear there is nothing the University, President, Provost or Deans can due about the increase in reporting required by the State or HLC - they have no choice. If there is a return to an A&S with one Dean, and 2-3 Associates they will still be highly paid and required to do reporting on all 18 Departments and 18+ programs. Plus the eliminated 2 Deans and 2 Associate Deans go back to the faculty with total savings of perhaps $250,000 (since they will all be still earning top faculty salaries, especially the 2 Deans). Yes savings, but not as much as I suspect some people think. Even the President has said publicly that merging colleges is not about budgets or cost savings, but more due to addressing the public and political perception regarding administrative expansion in higher ed, hence her focus to date in eliminating 2 VPs and 2 Deans, with more to come.

Anonymous said...


Yeah, but don't forget you have a junior H.R. Haldeman occupying an office on third floor of U. Hall and pulling a cool $205,000 for doing what?

Where in the hell is the cost savings there?

Anonymous said...


Since we are on the topic of deans, the new dean of the College of Law certainly has a lot on his plate--a big drop in student enrollment and a poor performance by UT grads on the most recent Ohio bar exam,, tying another law school for last place.

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

And time for some posters here and in LLSS to move on from pushing for NMS to rejoin other two colleges and thus recreate A&S - that idea is DEAD, no support from anyone besides a handful of faculty. Provost and NSM have said NO, and President made it clear she was not going to force the issue. Focus now needs to be on the issues and concerns with keeping or merging COCA and LLSS, and any continued debate about reforming A&S is a waste of time and only detracts from the more important and current discussion regarding a merger or not.

Anonymous said...

Curriculum reform really needs to be on the table regardless of whether we merge.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 7:20 The President will listen to all arguments for and against recreating A&S and then do what is just, pragmatic and most advances the long-term fulfillment of the university's academic mission on the main campus in measurable ways, resulting in higher rankings across the board. She will recreate A&S as it once was. President Gaber has the power to right the terrible wrong of dismantling the A&S College, and because she is an intelligent woman of fine character,will do so, with courage and with speed. Did you not know that the three leafs on the UT shield logo represent the unity of natural sciences, social sciences and humanities under one college?

Anonymous said...

Reforming A&S will not improve the image of the university, help with recruitment and retention or improve higher rankings, as the fundamental issues with enrollment and rankings at UT are not due to the college structure. Gaber is focused on the future not the past, and has already stated publicly on multiple occasions that reforming A&S is not a battle she is willing to fight if many faculty are not supportive (NSM have clearly stated they are not), and rightfully so as she understands that her focus and efforts need to be on the bigger more important issues that actually will address budget, enrollment and rankings including better marketing and fund raising - neither of which were effective under A&S and no assurances they will be better because of reforming A&S. And no that is not what the three leaves represent on the UT shield. The small minority of faculty looking to rebuild A&S have to accept the reality and start focusing their efforts to work within their colleges and with the Deans and administration to address the fundamental issues of enrollment, retention, fund raising and marketing to improve our programs, attract more students, and provide quality learning environment for students - none of which would be enhanced by A&S, they can all be achieved by current college structures if efforts, leadership, and resources are provided -along with support and efforts of the faculty. Spending time and energy on discussing reforming A&S, and the efforts if it was recreated, takes away from more productive endeavors by deans, faculty and staff to tackle the important enrollment issues. UT will not attract and retain more students simply because A&S exists.

Anonymous said...



To: Anonymous 5:25

Nice try.

I always thought the three leafs in the UT logo represented the three main job responsibilities of the Main Campus provost—finding close-to-office parking spaces for faculty, football tickets for alumni, and sex for the students.

Anonymous said...


For the historical record, the three leaves were part of the original Medical College of Ohio seal that were incorporated into the new UT seal created following the 2006 merger. They symbolized education, research and community service, which were MCO’s three institutional goals.

Anonymous said...

What types of curriculum reforms are you referring to?

Anonymous said...

Bravo Anon @ 6:00 AM.

Anonymous said...

The long-term success of UT lies in 1 of 2 paths: merging UT and BGSU or programmatically differentiating the two institutions. It makes no educational or economic sense to have 2 four-year research universities 24 miles apart offering degree programs with the current level of overlap.

Anonymous said...

UT and BGSU are completely different. UT is a research institution that has professional schools like medicine, Pharmacy, Law, Engineering and Nursing, while BG was and is basically a teachers college with an emphasis on the arts.

Anonymous said...

@ 7:27 How many semesters of foreign language are needed? Should we require more math/statistics for social sciences programs? Should we pool resources between social science departments to offer common research methods courses? Should programs have more required courses and less flexibility in the area of electives?

Anonymous said...


Anonymous 6:09 raises a pertinent point and an even more irksome question.

With all of UT's professional schools as well as an academic health center in its broad academic portfolio, why has UT's national reputation continued to languish, even trailing "a teacher's college" with a lot of arts programs in the U.S. News and World Report's national rankings.

Of all of the disappointments associated with the 2006 merger, that is the biggest.

Anonymous said...

Well, it could have something to do with the previous administration's penchant for touting the breadth of our programs without actually providing the resources for those programs to be much other than than third rate. Take for instance one of this college's professional terminal degree programs, public administration. The administration let all of the faculty retire without replacement. The previous administration and the interim administration, knew that this was going to happen but they let it die on the vine anyway. Now, UT has an MPA program that cannot accept students because there are no faculty left to teach them. And now, BGSU has an accredited MPA program to take our natural market. Well done.

Anonymous said...

BGSU has a college of arts and sciences. That structure has not hindered its rankings which top UT's. Hmmm...
University of Michigan has Literature, Science and the Arts together. Hmmm...
OSU re-assembled Arts and Sciences. Hmmm...

Anonymous said...

6:20 AM, I'll tell you. A reputation to the general masses is all about undergraduates, especially admission and graduation rates as reported by USN&WR. Because UT will admit a high school student with a 15 ACT, the lowest in Ohio, and graduates few of these unprepared students, there's your answer.

Anonymous said...

Jacobs Inc. = nucking fuckelheads