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[brixton]

Our state has declared war on the liberal arts.  STEM is where it is at.  And so we go into the budget battles with cotton cloth for armor.  I have started a limited search for admin positions at (resource rich) slacs.  So lots of sympathy Larry. 

[amlithist]

The govnah said 12.5% cuts in his state of the state this week.  Scary, beause he's usually been the higher ed champion, talking the state leg. off the ledge from much higher cuts.  For us, if it stays at that level, that means lots deeper cuts than we have fat.  I should be OK, as my job is directly related to building up a ash-cow program that should start turning money for us within 18 months; even if I have to fall back to strict faculty status, there are tons of adjuncts, and 6 FT people below me in seniority, if it comes to that.  Still.

[2much2do]

I teach as an adjunct at a private SLAC, and things there seem to be going OK, although they have replaced two faculty who retired in my department with more adjuncts.  I left there 5 years ago, and now there are tons of people I don't recognize.  But they don't recognize me, either. 

The non-profit where I work needs to make a 5% budget cut, but leadership can't seem to get in gear.  They've set up committees, task forces, "leadership teams", meetings, meetings, meetings, and so far have added one new VP to their team. And basically put the cuts on middle-management's heads. And, since they've delayed cuts for 4 months and added non-income producing overhead, we're looking at deep cuts. 

I'm looking at going to back to teaching, and our flagship U has two positions open that I would be a good fit for, but both have been pulled from the website. Funding is "on hold", so I'm guessing they'll have more adjunct positions next year.

Hard to know where to turn.  Guess I'll try to stay put.

[shrek]

Well, today I was in a meeting to discuss graduate funding. Lip service to excellence, but in the end just a money grab for the powers that be. The small programs got screwed. Why you ask? Because they're small. No consideration of graduation rates, placement rates, time to degree, etc. I'm just sick about the whole thing.

This is a serious sign of something very much amiss in what should be the ongoing assessment process between accreditation visits. Disregarding the factors you mention is, quite simply, both crazy and self-destructive to the larger enterprise.

Tell me about it-- I came very close to telling the dean to go to hell and more. I protested as long and as loud as I could, and those representing the larger programs (except one person who took a chance I must give them credit), really didn't give a sh!t as long as they got their $$. I usually have a plan b and a plan c, but I don't this time and I think I just never believed that they would be willing to take all the resources for themselves.

This has been the experience of adjuncts for a decade.  This has been the experience in the humanities relative to the sciences and business.  Why is anyone surprised that the hits just keep on coming?  Because in the past they only happened to others?

What's shocking here is the self-destructive nature of this kind of decision-making. From the perspective of fiscal management for a university, it makes perfect sense to keep the adjuncting situation just the way it is. Please note that I DO NOT AGREE that this is, in an overall sense, defensible--but it works in a shallow spreadsheet-based kind of a way. These tactics, though, actually threaten the continued good health of institutions, when they disregard the successes of programs in favor of the biggest--and therefore loudest-- voices. They are, truly, cutting their own throats by eviscerating the successful programs. Further, in many cases, these are the kinds of actions that can threaten accreditation.

Speaking of which--Shrek, is there any way you can pursue this in relation to accreditation requirements, or your department's and college's self-studies? 

thanks for the suggestion, we just went through accreditation with flying colors. We're considered a top 10 program. We enjoy a near 100% placement rate for our doc students (one decided to go into practice rather than teaching/research). Significantly less funding for our doctoral students may translate into being able to recruit fewer students on the one hand, but we've been pretty successful at securing federal funds for doctoral student training. It's just problematic because it may make us less competitive for fed. funding-- usually we will talk about the university contributing part of those costs, etc. With the bigger departments taking a larger share now, we lose out-- and those bigger departments don't bother going after federal funds-- so, it's a downward spiral-- today I'm slightly more optimistic, I think we can secure funds another way, but we shouldn't have to.

[spork]

Our state has declared war on the liberal arts.  STEM is where it is at.  And so we go into the budget battles with cotton cloth for armor.  I have started a limited search for admin positions at (resource rich) slacs.  So lots of sympathy Larry. 

In all honesty, liberal arts programs haven't done a very good job demonstrating their worth. The argument that "a liberal arts college education is necessary for good citizenship/creativity/general satisfaction in life" doesn't hold a lot of weight in the public domain. Either there isn't data supporting it, or (and I'm referring to studies on average salary by undergraduate major post-graduation, etc.) it's not publicized in an effective manner.

On the other hand, STEM programs are capital intensive and are difficult to deliver well. Students self-sort by academic reputation just like they do for liberal arts, with the wealthiest and most talented students going to the most elite, well-funded universities. Furthermore, there's evidence that cranking out more graduates in some STEM fields does not mean all those new graduates are going to earn six figure incomes. Computer programming is one example. You've got a few stars at the genius level who go to work for Google, Microsoft, and whatnot, and all the rest get mediocre jobs at mediocre salaries. Or they find themselves trying to earn money by designing websites at home.

In general, a lot of us need to ask pointed questions a lot more often. For example, why do the students who perform the worst academically gravitate to business and education, and what are the salaries of those graduates compared to graduates who have bachelor's degrees in other fields? What do employers say about graduates from the local compass point U who have degrees in marketing, English, history, math, etc.?

[msparticularity]

I think a large part of the blame for the current condition of higher ed in this country lies with academics themselves, for not engaging in the public discourse.

Yes, I agree--with this and with your more recent comments on this issue. So many of my colleagues in the liberal arts, and in other fields as well, seem to have this rooted idea that their value--and that of their fields--ought to be self-evident, and that it's ridiculous to expect them to be able to communicate about this with others. They see that communication as the responsibility of someone else--often the administrators and even the legislators. In my mind, this really is an elitist attitude.

The other thing is, large universities were supposed to be more efficient on any number of levels. They were supposed to offer a wide range of options, while doing more than was possible at smaller institutions because of economies of scale. I think maybe a part of what we're seeing, at a structural level, is the fact that these economies of scale haven't actually worked out, or at least haven't overcome the difficulties of responding to changing conditions. As the USSR discovered long ago, central planning becomes extremely inefficient pretty quickly, and the effect gets worse with size. Achieving change in a large institution really is a matter of steering the Titanic; it can't be done quickly or easily, and you have to overcome a truly mind-boggling degree of resistance.

I would say, too, that one answer to your question about why the mediocre students gravitate toward education is that we drive out the other ones. Much of K-16 education has become so mind-numbing that I believe we really are seeing a major drop-out problem with our best students--those who are creative and thoughtful--rather than the weaker students who might have been at risk in earlier generations. This becomes compounded in large Colleges of Ed, where the vast majority of public school teachers are educated. A couple of decades of firmly weeding out the mavericks, and of intensified bureaucratization (see: NCATE accreditation requirements), have left us, to a very large degree, with the students and the teacher educators who can tolerate highly bureaucratic and reductionist educational systems.

And yes, these are, in large part, the reasons I'm moving to a SLAC. Robust joint governance actually is possible when you can get everyone involved into a single large room, and where individual departments consist of 3-8 people, rather than 25-30. Also, you simply have to do a better job of managing your resources when your institution must sink or swim on its own; you can't float bonds or take out loans to engage in major construction you really can't afford because there's no false sense of security offered by a state and its rosy visions of future increases to revenues. Best of all, my new students will be majors in a content area (history, math, science, art, and so on) with just enough solid courses in pedagogy and background in educational foundations (historical, philosophical, sociological, and psychological) to prepare them for the classroom and to achieve state licensure.

[genius_at_large]

I for one am tired of seeing a college education marketed to students as nothing more than a way to make money. I know the "business sector" is important, but I hope there's more to life than making a buck.

[spork]

I for one am tired of seeing a college education marketed to students as nothing more than a way to make money. I know the "business sector" is important, but I hope there's more to life than making a buck.

Then you will have to provide an argument that is accepted by the public and by legislators that college is necessary to get more to life, and that the "more" you get is worth the $40,000 per year the experience costs.

[proftowanda]

I for one am tired of seeing a college education marketed to students as nothing more than a way to make money. I know the "business sector" is important, but I hope there's more to life than making a buck.

Then you will have to provide an argument that is accepted by the public and by legislators that college is necessary to get more to life, and that the "more" you get is worth the $40,000 per year the experience costs.

$40,000 per year must be the average at private campuses?

I gathered that this thread is primarily about public institutions, and I think that the cost averages about one-fourth of your figure, which turns out to be worth it when so many employers require a college degree and/or pay more in the same job for employees with college degrees.  That's based on the recent experiences on the job market for many recent grads that I know well as well as on studies that I've seen.  However, I've also seen that those who went to private campuses got a lot more job placement support and assistance, so some got better jobs and got them sooner than did those from large public institutions strapped for funding for such services.

[spork]

Is the $10,000 per year per student (1/4 of $40,000 I mentioned) just tuition or total cost per student (operations/overhead, depreciation, salaries, etc. divided by total number of FTE students)? Even if the latter, I can bet a significant portion of that $10,000 is spent on athletics, campus housing, "student programming," and other non-academic budget lines.

I recently returned from a trip abroad during which I visited a university campus. No dormitories (students come to campus for class but live at home), no clubs, nothing. I saw students taking final exams at desks placed on stairway landings. Cost? Don't know exactly, but much much less than what a college education costs in the USA. Some of those students are learning to write code just as well as American CS majors. And now there are fewer middle class jobs with middle class wages for American college graduates to fill:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

I don't see any politicians here talking about improving industrial responsiveness to changing market demand or supply chain management in the USA, or reforming higher ed to facilitate this.

[erzuliefreda]

My university is going to offer lots more classes online, and may open up a whole college of certificates. Not AA degrees, just... certificates in random areas. Not useful ones like Nurse's Aide or even Administrative Assistant Skills, but truly laughable ones. Because our Regents see "completion" as not just a degree... it can also count if you earn a certificate! It's going to be great! A college with administrators and no faculty--they've finally perfected the administrative dream.

[amlithist]

My university is going to offer lots more classes online, and may open up a whole college of certificates. Not AA degrees, just... certificates in random areas. Not useful ones like Nurse's Aide or even Administrative Assistant Skills, but truly laughable ones. Because our Regents see "completion" as not just a degree... it can also count if you earn a certificate! It's going to be great! A college with administrators and no faculty--they've finally perfected the administrative dream.

We're moving that way, too, but the certificates make sense for us, as we're a CC.  Businesses in our area are begging for what they call "stackable credentials," and CCs are great for those.  Real Schools, though---ouch.

Whatever happens, I'm pretty sure at some point I'm going to have to start writing them a check so I can go to work everyday soon, the rate things are going......

[spork]

My university is going to offer lots more classes online, and may open up a whole college of certificates. Not AA degrees, just... certificates in random areas. Not useful ones like Nurse's Aide or even Administrative Assistant Skills, but truly laughable ones. Because our Regents see "completion" as not just a degree... it can also count if you earn a certificate! It's going to be great! A college with administrators and no faculty--they've finally perfected the administrative dream.

We're moving that way, too, but the certificates make sense for us, as we're a CC.  Businesses in our area are begging for what they call "stackable credentials," and CCs are great for those.  Real Schools, though---ouch.

Whatever happens, I'm pretty sure at some point I'm going to have to start writing them a check so I can go to work everyday soon, the rate things are going......

These stackable credentials represent the unbundling of what used to be the standard college experience -- four years, full-time, residential. We are moving toward training in what you need when you need it.

The article about Apple's overseas production mentions that the USA lacks engineers with training between high school and a bachelor's degree -- in other words, vocational programs that go beyond HVAC and auto repair.

[erzuliefreda]

My university is going to offer lots more classes online, and may open up a whole college of certificates. Not AA degrees, just... certificates in random areas. Not useful ones like Nurse's Aide or even Administrative Assistant Skills, but truly laughable ones. Because our Regents see "completion" as not just a degree... it can also count if you earn a certificate! It's going to be great! A college with administrators and no faculty--they've finally perfected the administrative dream.

We're moving that way, too, but the certificates make sense for us, as we're a CC.  Businesses in our area are begging for what they call "stackable credentials," and CCs are great for those.  Real Schools, though---ouch.

Whatever happens, I'm pretty sure at some point I'm going to have to start writing them a check so I can go to work everyday soon, the rate things are going......

These stackable credentials represent the unbundling of what used to be the standard college experience -- four years, full-time, residential. We are moving toward training in what you need when you need it.

The article about Apple's overseas production mentions that the USA lacks engineers with training between high school and a bachelor's degree -- in other words, vocational programs that go beyond HVAC and auto repair.

I'm actually all for certificates. I've taught Introduction to Microsoft Excel, etc., and would be happy to help develop skills-based vocational training programs. But the ones I've seen listed in my university's goals aren't going to help anyone find employment around here. The goal is simply to find something for which they can pay us and then achieve "completion" to make us look good for the Regents. But then no one cares what I think about the issue--faculty won't be driving this bus.

[rebelgirl]

I agree with Spork and others who note that we academics have failed to get the message out about the value of our disciplines and programs.  At this point, though, it is hard to find public venues interested in hearing from us.  Not only do we have to contend with traditional hatred of college faculty (arrogant lazy-@sses with job security for life & summers off!), but in the present economic situation - unemployment in my rural county is officially at 15% and in reality about 25% - the public perception is that we have it pretty sweet. 

Our local paper reported - in the midst of discussions about statewide budget cuts - that faculty at our college earn salaries of over $20K more than we actually do, and when I went to our PR people about writing a correction, I was told that (a) sending a correction would be useless, wouldn't be printed and (b) I'd better keep my head down so as not to become a target ("people can find out where you live pretty easily").  My dean, more helpfully, pointed out that even real faculty salaries look awesome to many in our area, so best to STFU.  And he's right.  We're on year 4 of frozen salaries, sabbaticals are gone, we may get "faux furlough days" soon, and tenured faculty are replaced with more and more adjuncts as our class sizes get bigger and bigger . . . and still, we truly are better off than many of our neighbors. 

In this context, many of our students are not finding jobs and are moving on from our cc to more expensive 4 year schools and certificate programs. We've got data up the kazoo showing that our students out-perform students who start at the 4years in our state - but all anyone cares about is if their kids are getting decent jobs.  In this context, how to make a case for the arts and humanities?  I'm a literature & composition prof, but no one wants to hear about human values.  Do my classes help students get jobs?  Even by teaching writing skills and critical thinking?  That's all anyone wants to hear right now. 

If anyone has ideas about venues where we can break into public discourse without drawing down envy and resentment that will eclipse anything we have to say, please, post.