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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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NEW!!! Hard Eight by Professor Extreme
HARD EIGHT
Hard Eight: Auto-Ethnographic Essays on Academic Culture Featuring the End of the Arts & Sciences College, University of Toledo, 2010
Daily Koan
Should the newly discovered black hole be named in honor of UT BOT?
Swamp Bubble
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.)
How do you feel about the proposed UT Guarantee program?
How would you grade the overall performance of the Jacobs' administration on running the University of Toledo?
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
TO CONTACT BLOGGIE . . .
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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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19 comments:
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?
I perceive a message.
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.
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!
Get some.
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!.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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