Unmasked

In what was probably the most poorly kept secret since Tiger Woods affairs, the infamous Dr. Tinkle has been unmasked. Yes, it is I the one and only David E. Tucker, Associate Professor of Communication. Since I have no doubt you're on the edge of your seat wondering where the name came from let me briefly explain. From 1972-1974 I was a morning disc jockey in Fremont, Ohio. My air name was (are you really ready for this) Tinkle Tongues Tucker. The Fremont folks loved it. As I said goodby at the station I told the audience I was returning to graduate school in the hopes of someday being known as Dr. Tinkle.

Now that we have that out of the way let's examine yesterday's train crash at Arts & Sciences between this blog and the Round Table Report. The meeting was a case of making mountains out of molehills and molehills out of mountains. Beginning with the former, there seems to be a group (one has no idea how large or small) that finds this blog offensive. They have raised the straw man that because of the blog's name people from all over the country are somehow seeing this page, drawing dastardly conclusions about the university and never setting foot on our fair campus. They demanded the blog be taken down, or, at the very least it change its name and URL. They were concerned that when you Google Arts and Sciences this is the second thing you find. My imediate answer is to just say no, but I will take time to elaborate. I've checked the data. No one from off campus is reading this blog. We and this university do not make anyone's radar. I'm sorry to inform you but we just aren't that important. Surprise, surprise, but the inner workings of the College of Arts & Sciences just don't matter to many people, including those members of A & S Council who wondered what on earth all the fuss was about. The University of Toledo has a million dollar public relations machine. We have this blog. We are not going anywhere.

Top universities result from three things: the quality of their students/graduates, the quality of their faculty (teaching and research) and the amount of resources the university has to throw at the first two. This brings me to my previous statement about making a molehill out of a mountain. The Round Table report has taken the major problem of this college, resources, and ignored it. We have been told our future lies in integrative programs and new teaching methodologies/technologies. I have given reasons elsewhere on this blog as to why I believe these answers to be wrong. We have spent over a year-and-one-half of our time and produced what I believe to be marginal results while the administration has refused to even supply a faculty member to Foreign Language to help with the Confuscious Institute. That action alone should have said volumes to A & S Faculty. In the twenty-two and one-half years I have been a member of A & S faculty, the tenured and tenure track faculty in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Arts have been decimated. Until those resources and returned, you can produce reports till the cows come home and your programs will not improve. You can have as many integrative programs as your little heart desires, but if the Titanic's side is still caved in all you've done is rearrange the deck chairs.