"The Idea of the Presumption of "Yes"
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A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.
DON'T BE A SHEEP
UT's Officially Disapproved Information Source and HISTORICAL ARCHIVE. The only source of truth, where Paradox Manifests: Hundreds of thousands of visits. Yet No One Admits to Reading It. Welcome to the "Grey Area" where "Unethical Utterances," i.e., criticisms of administrators, are commonplace. Make U.U. here where genuine civility still reigns, a.k.a., freedom......................... UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO'S EQUIVALENT TO RADIO FREE EUROPE
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Hard Eight: Auto-Ethnographic Essays on Academic Culture Featuring the End of the Arts & Sciences College, University of Toledo, 2010
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Do you agree or disagree that University of Toledo suffers from administrative bloat?
How do you feel about the proposed UT Degree Guarantee program? (Reposted to allow more people to vote.)
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COMMENT OF THE WEEK
Bloggie applauds this perspicacious observer:
"The administration is in a panic mode to implement controversial and irreversible structural and curricular changes campus-wide by early February fiscal plan deadlines with only the vaguest notions of their impacts. The plan is, according to an interview with a top administrator published in the most recent Independent Collegian, to cast out many seeds and "see what grows." This experimental garden, as most senators articulated in many different ways, seems a costly recipe for disaster. Utter madness. Stay tuned."
Print Version of Dictionary of Academia Available on Amazon.com
The profound ruminations of the goaty Sage are now available in this 119 page satirical masterpiece. See: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1480292494/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B009RC0SJA&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JV8N5BYAYY9WC9SJWD2
"Dictionary of Academia" Read it While it's Hot
A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.
Comment of the Week
"This is that old tension between the corporate way of doing things and the academic way of doing things. In the corporate world, you sweep everything under the rug to make your b.s. as shiny, pleasing to the nose, and profitable as possible. In the academic world, you operate with a higher moral standard. Veritas and all that."
Comment of the Week of August 13
Re UT academic posers and hypocrites:
Have their checks calculated in units of postmodern theoretical currency and issued in photocopied legal tender notes signed by Walter Benjamin with a photo of Karl Marx and a seal stamped “In Derrida We Trust”.
Comment of the Era
Wow! Ain't that something.
-Anonymous
Comment of the Week
Mention goes to the the anonymous commentator of Feb 7, who, regarding UT President Llloyd Jacob's "Investing in Faculty" letter, stated: "If we could use the same criteria for 'investing in administrators' we could cut most of those positions."
Comments to HLC
Make sure you address your comments to HLC to the email address listed below in the "Higher Learning Commission Wants to Know" post. This may be the only chance you have to be heard. Bloggie hears that UT administration has discussed giving faculty "training" so that faculty members know how to "properly" talk to the HLC folks. How's that for stacking the deck? Does everyone get a little script to read? Make sure you practice before a mirror at being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
Comment of the Week!
Definitely, the Comment of the Week award goes to Anonymous 12:14 pm, Dec 3, under the "Higher Learning Commission Needs to Know" posting by Diogenes. Pithy and pointed!
--Love,
Bloggie
MESSAGE OF THE DAY:
DON'T BE A SHEEP
Independent Collegian Article on Dicey Administrative Spending
IC reporter Casey Cheap looks at bow ties, apartments and movie tickets purchased by UT administrators at university/public expense. See
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Letter and Petition from Foreign Languages Faculty Member
A couple weeks ago, at the beginning of summer break, we in the Department of Foreign Languages were informed that our secretary's position was being eliminated and that while she will not lose her job (she'll be transferred), that position is not to be filled. We apparently will be expected to do our own jobs plus what we can of the secretary's. That is clearly not acceptable, and so one of the steps we in FL are taking against it is an online petition now available for any who want to (including those who for whatever reason--not a registered Ohio voter, not a US citizen, etc.--cannot sign the petition against SB5), to read and sign.
I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.
It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.
Here's the link to the online petition:For those who can make it, there will also be an informational meeting--including lunch and petition-signing--next Friday, May 27 in FH 2420, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.
It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.
Here's the link to the online petition:For those who can make it, there will also be an informational meeting--including lunch and petition-signing--next Friday, May 27 in FH 2420, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Katherine Best
Wave of the Future or Merely Sometime Later This Week?
The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a deeply fascinating article called, "When to Dissolve a Faculty Senate." Apparently this is any time that it becomes "adversarial" to administration.
The online comments to the article are priceless.
Nemeth on Mammon in IC
David Nemeth's most recent tour-de-force
Professor Nemeth has another fabulous and timely article in the new and increasingly wonderful Independent Collegian. See http://www.independentcollegian.com/forum/the-kraken-attacks-1.2340091
Nemeth Does it Again
See the forum article in The Independent Collegian at:
Nemeth's New Article in Collegian
The Independent Collegian has run another of Professor Nemeth's fine and provocative articles in its latest edition. This one discusses the double-talk by mouthpieces for the current UT administration concerning the effects of and reasons behind so-called strategic reorganization. Make sure you get the latest version of Newspeak 5.1 if you want to decode what UT administrators are really saying.
UT Ranks 13th Nationally on Administrative Bloat
See Appendix B of the Administrative Bloat report posted on 8/28 for evidence, but UT now has a higher proportion of administrators to students than all but 12 public universities in America. President Jacobs has finally put University of Toledo in the top tier. With Strategic Organization he may be aiming for number one.
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Recent Letters from The Blade
Jacobs' arrogance is astonishing
Recently, President Lloyd Jacobs of the University of Toledo stated that bonuses were justified because his administrators "took all the risks."
As a professor at UT, I am outraged that President Jacobs claims that administrators take all of the risks. What risks do they take that the other faculty and staffs on campus do not?
Administrators are protected by state and federal employment laws and by their contracts.
When ex-President Vik Kapoor was terminated, he remained a professor with a salary near what he was paid as president.
As president emeritus, Dan Johnson retained a salary greater than his pay as president.
In the recent layoffs, exceptionally few administrators were terminated. It seems to me that low-level personnel at UT have far more risks because the greater proportion of the layoffs have come from their ranks. And they did not have continuing salaries.
President Jacobs' answer to questions on two occasions regarding relinquishing part of his bonus was to the effect that he earned his bonuses and what he did with them was his business.
Administrators do not risk their personal money in their duties: they use taxpayer money and funds collected through donations and grants to the university.
Administrators take home salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and then add bonuses for longevity and whatever else the president decides is fitting for their contracts.
However, the lower-level personnel have much lower salaries and no such bonuses. Where is the risk?
It seems to me that these bonuses are convoluted: The lower-level personnel are taking the greater risks with no bonuses while the administrators with very rewarding jobs with little risk receive large bonuses.
Am I missing something here?
WALTER W. OLSON,
Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing
Engineering,
University of Toledo
It's the same old, same old at UT
I could hardly believe the arrogance of Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, president of the University of Toledo, when a reporter asked if he would be willing to forgo his bonus in light of the layoffs, raise in tuition, etc.
His comment was that he worked for it. Is that to say that the ones being laid off did not work for their pay?
All I can say is, business as usual at UT. Some things never change.
SANDY FLICK
Rose Acres Drive
UT also has checks, balances
In response to letter titled "Professors must focus on teaching," I would like to point out that the University of Toledo operates on the basis of shared governance.
This means that faculty members participate in the administration of the university.
A focus on teaching requires faculty to address administrative issues such as policies, procedures, and yes, finances, because these all affect classroom outcomes. A university with solid and equitable finances benefits everyone, including and especially the students. Just as the U.S. government is constituted to have checks and balances, so is our university government.
The UT-AAUP is one of those checks against UT administrators who most recently have displayed more concern for their own profit rather than a concern for the common good.
LINDA M. ROUILLARD,
Associate Professor
of French,
University of Toledo
Quote of the Year (so far)
The following is excerpted from the recent UT AAUP newsletter concerning the official university response to news of the bonus scandal:
. . . . Either Jacobs is misleading the media or he has misled the Board of Trustees. President Jacobs objected to "the general tone" of the UT-AAUP Newsletter. Many persons on this campus object to the "general tone" of the Jacobs Administration. During his tenure as President, he has introduced an administrative culture of fear and intimidation. . . . A point of logic must be raised here, with all respect to UT AAUP, the conclusions that President Jacobs has (1) misled the media and (2) the Board of Trustees are not mutually exclusive. Both would seem likely given his considerable talent at spinning "visions." |
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9 comments:
That's funny, I remember something called called "The Roundtable" which had a "presumption" of "You guys waste your time and energy on a fool's errand and we will go ahead and do whatever we want and then say you participated in the decision."
Lloyd the Presumptive?
So, when will the Gleichschaltung of the university be completed?
Gleichschaltung = "forcible-coordination"
as per see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleichschaltung
If you don't learn German, how will you know, how will you know when you are being verschraubt?
Brought to you by the Committee to Preserve German Language Learning at The University of Toledo.
"Impress your friends! Swear in German!"
To Anonymous 6:01 -
"Cuando las vacas vuelvan a casa!"
Brought to you by The Committee to Save Spanish Language Learning at The University of Toledo.
"Impress your friends. Order Dos Equis in Spanish."
“As Dean of the University of Michigan Business School, I gave careful thought early on how to create a climate of high expectations with regard to fresh ideas that would lead to innovation and change. I came up with a simple philosophy that I communicated to everyone in leadership positions at the school. I simply called it the ‘Presumption of Yes.’”
– B. Joseph White, “The Nature of Leadership: Reptiles, Mammals, and the Challenge of Becoming a Great Leader (2007) page 142 ad naseum
OMIGGOD! A Darwinist at the helm! Comet Jacobs is destined to obliterate the reptilian professoriate at UT in order to improve the human condition!
I think "Abgefickt" more correctly describes the current state of the University. Lloyd's done a fine job of elevating the place to this exalted position.
Down on the worm scale, we worms think you reptiles are a dangerous lot and need control.
The truth about the truth
Gleichschaltung or collectivization?
Take your pick.
Here is an essential fallacy that applies to UT, academia in general and human relations at all levels:
Proposition: I am an essentially good person (i.e. a good and decent and honest and intelligent person, who believes in and wants only what is good and right and true and best and equitable for all – equitable in the sense of equal opportunity and meritocracy, not arbitrary quotas and entitlements).
Therefore, all members of my group (group x – friends, family, professional colleagues, team, corporation, church, college, union, political party, whatever) are also essentially good people – any evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
Moreover, all members of groups y and z, whomever they may be (especially any disadvantaged minorities or “under-represented” special interest groups) are also well-meaning good people – any evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
And if I freely and magnanimously acquiesce to all demands made by members of groups x, y and z – no matter how plainly unreasonable these demands may be – members of groups x, y and z will appreciate and remember my generous fair-mindedness and will never turn on me or take any unfair advantage of me or attempt to oppress me or my friends, colleagues, or loved ones…
This was the fatal error committed by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in his naïve 1938 dealings with the Nazis at Munich.
Chamberlain wrongly believed he was negotiating with essentially noble, fair-minded and reasonable people. He claimed he had achieved “peace in our time” when in fact he had only achieved a very short-lived appeasement that ultimately resulted in the near extinction of western democratic civilization under the iron boot of Nazi fascism.
There is also a long and tragic history of naïve, cloistered intellectuals and ideologues naively developing and/or endorsing philosophies and ideologies that contributed to the horrific wars, genocides and cultural revolutions of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc. – e.g. Heidegger, Sartre, Chomsky, et al.
These political cataclysms often subverted, terrorized and engulfed the ideologues themselves (e.g. Trotsky, Adorno and various other members of the Frankfurt and Vienna schools, Che Guevara, Malcolm X, etc.).
Many foolishly believed the answer to right-wing Nazi fascism was an idealized, emancipatory, subversive, counter-cultural, left-wing Marxist-Stalinist-Maoist totalitarianism (Marcuse, de Beauvoir, Chomsky, Abbie Hoffman, et al.).
Obviously there are no jack-booted, goose-stepping Nazis or Bolsheviks presently holding massive Nuremberg-style rallies at UT or at other college campuses. Not yet anyway.
But decades of groupthink and intellectual, political and “collegial” appeasement have in many respects rotted the academy to its very core – and may ultimately result in the effective extinction of anything that can any longer honestly be called the academy.
If you happen to be one of those truly dedicated, serious-minded, well-informed and well-intentioned people on campus – but are merely hoping for the best and keeping your head down and covering your own behind and counting on the universal common decency and good will of others – you may be in for a very rude awakening.
The rudest awakening of all might be to discover your own well-meaning but misguided assumptions and ideological delusions have lulled you into complacency, or even made you an active, if unwitting anti-freedom fighter pawn participating in your own demise.
As Eric Hoffer so rightly noted in The True Believer – deluded, fanatic idealism and oppressive totalitarianism come in many, often highly deceptive and seemingly benign forms – from across the entire political spectrum. And as often as not, idealists who firmly believe they are fighting evil and oppression are in fact contributing to them.
Hello Anonymous 7:22 AM?
Wake up girl! I have read that silly book that has given Dr. Jacobs his latest inspiration. While Anonymous 5:32 maybe means well and is doing his or her homework, (s)he misinterprets who the lizards represent in the book. The reptiles are not the faculty. They are part of the dual persona of Great Leader-Administrators, who are half mammal/half reptile.
The author describes this shape-shifting behavior as the "natural way" of leadership. Whenever Great Administrators feel the need to "lay down with the lambs" they straightaway act like lions (thus become Alpha male mammals).
But, when their venom rises such that they suddenly feel the urge to kick employee butt and fire folks these Great Leaders will themselves for the good of their organization (and its stockholders) flip their switch to become cold-blooded reptiles. Such is transformative change.
I have summarized for you the advice that passes for wisdom in J.B. White's book. If President Jacobs likes this book he widely and frequently quotes from these days (but without attribution) so much, then someone should immediately send a message to Garcia.
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