Search The Site
 
More options | Back issues
Home
News
Opinion & Forums
Careers
Multimedia
Leadership Forum
Technology Forum
Resource Center
Campus Viewpoints
Services
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle Review
A weekly special section
Brainstorm: Lives of the Mind Mark Bauerlein

Tennessee Takes First Annual 'Turkey at the Top' Award

cross-posted from howtheuniversityworks.com



Turkey at the top is always intensely competitive. This year’s contenders included first runner-up Robert Felner, the U of Louisville dean indicted for conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion in what the feds allege are repeated acts of embezzlement of grant monies amounting to over $2 million. Not content with these escapades, Felner racked up 31 grievances and complaints in his 5 years at the “U of L” but was consistently backed against the faculty by upper administration, especially Provost Shirley Willihnganz and President James Ramsey, who spent extravagantly on lawyers and consultants to prop up his administration despite what numerous accounts (including this one and others that I’ve privately confirmed) termed an “onslaught” of complaints from faculty, staff and students alleging “unsavory behavior, ranging from sexual harassment to workplace intimidation.” This pair continued the authoritarian regime of wall-to-wall administrative solidarity and secrecy established by their high-living predecessors, former provost Carol Garrison and former president John Shumaker—later found sharing lavish hotel rooms and limousines at public expense, while jetting to trysts in the University of Tennessee’s private plane.

But every year only one can win. This year’s award goes to the chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents, Charlie Manning, for his new business model for higher ed in his Appalachian state. Over the past couple of decades, the great state of Tennessee has burned millions of education dollars on executive compensation, sports facilities, and miles of orange carpet—while leading the country in squeezing its faculty.

Of course the “new” business model isn’t new at all—it’s just Chuck Manning refusing to let a good crisis go to waste. It’s the same tired Toyota-management theory from the 80s, with wide-eyed managers and credulous politicians swapping bromides (crisis=danger + opportunity) of doubtful validity, linguistic or otherwise.

In the big picture of capital, Chuck Manning is just a low-level squeezer—the higher-ed equivalent of a regional manager for PepsiCo. The first half of the “opportunity” for higher-level squeezers and shareholders has already been realized, in the stabilization of finance-industry holdings and incomes. Chuck’s job is to realize the other half of the opportunity—squeezing a few more nickels and dimes out of his already-on-food-stamps faculty, and further watering down the thin gruel he passes off as “higher education.”

In the business curriculum, squeezing nickels and dimes until your workers are living on food stamps, loans, or gifts from relatives is called “long term productivity enhancement.” Manning’s ideas for good squeezing include:

+ Requiring students to take a certain number of online courses en route to their bachelor’s and associate’s degrees.

+ Turning online learning into an entirely automated experience “with no direct support from a faculty member except oversight of testing and grading,” and providing financial incentives for students to voluntarily accept teacherless education-as-testing.

+ Use even more adjuncts and convert the remaining tenure-stream faculty into their direct supervisors, “formalizing” that arrangement. (Can you hear me screaming “I told you so”?)

+Use “advanced students” to teach “beginning students” and build that requirement into curriculum and financial aid packages. (Again, I’m screaming. You should be screaming too.)

+Increase faculty workload, initiating a “students-taught” metric to supersede courseload, and “revise” summer compensation.

+Austerity for the poor—cutting athletics at community colleges, eg—but rewards for privatization and revenue-producing programs, etc etc.

Reading all this life-in-wartime austerity of fake correspondence learning, students as teachers, faculty as supervisors, and a standing army of temps, you’d think there was actual fat to be trimmed (other than in the administration).

But the reality is that if you’re really experienced and qualified, teaching 10 courses a year for Chuck Manning nets you about 15 grand without benefits, or less than you’d make at Wal-mart. That’s quite a bit less than half the $33, 960 that the extremely useful Living Wage Calculator says is necessary to support one adult and one child in Knox County.

This has been going on for quite some time, as the hero of our Faculty on Food Stamps video series, Andy Smith can tell you. Since starring in the series, Andy has learned another hard lesson about Chuck Manning: asking politely for a raise gets you a) strung along with months and years of “we’re considering that” and b) turned down flat when they run out of string.

When higher ed administration has left you jaded—when blood from a stone doesn’t thrill you any more—call Charlie Manning, this year’s Turkey at the Top. He’ll squeeze you a faculty smoothie and slip you a side of diploma mill, and do it with a smile.

PS—Next, I’ll tell you what I think Tennessee faculty and students ought to do, just IMHO, of course.

PPS—Oh, and Obama watchers? This kind of quality-management nickel-and-diming employees literally to death is the hallmark of the Clinton economy and Clinton-Gore approach to the public good. The next few weeks will tell if Obama thinks labor will fall for the quality scam again (doubtful), while he sells out our dreams, cozying up to folks like Manning and Michelle Rhee. You want to know what higher education will look like if Clinton-Gore principles are put to work? Just look at Charlie Manning’s work in Gore’s home state.

Posted at 04:34:08 PM on November 26, 2008 | All postings by Marc Bousquet

Comments

  1. Thank’s for the alert…I’ll be careful when evaluating UT transcripts from here on in…no more assuming their degree means anything…automated instruction indeed!

    PS You are free to dislike Obama for no reason at all, so why assume he would take Charlie Manning seriously?

    — perplexed · Nov 26, 04:55 PM · #

  2. Ahh, the requisite Clinton bashing. I suppose if one is linking Manning’s policies to Gore because its his “home state”, then I wonder when this guilt by association should end? Bill Ayers and Obama perhaps?

    — Winslow · Nov 26, 11:37 PM · #

  3. Oh, that’s right. Ralph Nader didn’t win the Presidency, did he. Damn!

    — Lonely · Nov 27, 08:46 AM · #

  4. perplexed, the University of Tennessee is not under the Tennessee Board of Regents. Tennessee has two systems. The regional universities and community colleges are under the regents. The University of Tennessee system (in other words all UT campuses) are a completely separate entity. Both answer to the Tennessee Higher Education Council.

    — Aneumey · Nov 28, 10:35 PM · #

  5. Some of what you allege is true. However, Dr. Manning is not in charge of the University of Tennessee system only the regents system. You’ve also missed a huge contributing factor. Tennessee is a no state income tax state. Over sixty percent of all state revenue is from sales tax, ergo, if sales plummet, as they do, state revenue plummets. Complex financial issues are also strained by the massive amounts of “royalties” paid to companies like Microsoft, SunGuard, et al, for the privilege of “renting” their software. Education is a push-me, pull-you venture in Tennessee with plenty of villains to go around.

    — TennesseeBorn · Nov 29, 08:52 AM · #

  6. Thank you for this. It helped me, a full professor in the state system of which you speak so beautifully and powerfully (16 yrs of teaching here), to breathe again. Public humiliation may be all that can save us. Once hopes Mr. Manning can read; certainly, he cannot write.

    P.S. Readers: DO NOT take this as an indictment of the schools – many of us work incredibly hard as professors despite the wrongs done us and the education we provide is genuine.

    — Sal · Nov 30, 06:30 PM · #

  7. Please keep in mind that in the document that Chuck sent out as a proposal, the “Online” courses are to be delivered from the Regents Online Degree Program, not the individual schools.

    Although this program does provide access to courses not offered at the individual schools, this degree program has become the major competitor for the individual schools because local administration will not allow faculty to create online courses if RODP already offers them. It has stifled the growth of Distance Education at most Higher Ed institutions and decreased enrollment in programs. You may see this as a cost saving effort on the Boards part, however when faculty teaching for RODP are told to provide “no direct support from a faculty member except oversight of testing and grading,” I question their motives. Faculty are also told this during “orientation”. From what I hear, most of these courses lack quality, depth, and are not maintained. These courses would be better served from the individual schools where students would have access to the faculty.

    Also, the “home school” that the student chooses does not necessarily receive money for that student. I believe it is 30 or 40 percent of the Technology Access Fee and they only get anything from tuition if the student is enrolled in one of the courses that the school is supporting. I guarantee you that most schools only have created three to five courses. The schools are required to provide support for any RODP student. Which means that the individual schools are responsible but do not get paid for this.

    I can’t help but see a huge conflict of interest here since TBR and RODP are one in the same. They are causing financial havoc at most schools and the faculty don’t know this information because they are not being told the whole truth.

    — AM · Dec 1, 09:14 AM · #

  8. Hurray for Tennessee! Gambling, Cigarette Taxes, Sales Tax on Groceries, and Liquor Tax form the basis of Tennessee’s revenue.

    Of course, I would be misrepresenting Tennessee if I did not recognize property and gas tax as important revenue streams.

    The motto, Tennessee, The Volunteer State, should be changed to Tennessee Vultures, because the greatest portion of revenue supporting needed services in the state has been funded through a regressive mechanism — in several cases preying off the poorer, preying off retirees, and the pride of the southland strum-along band – tourism. Did anyone think about using the billion dollar fund balance in state lottery to supplement the shortfall (even as a temporary fix during this period of financial reorganization)? Nope and this is why. The poorest in the state will be most impacted by the existing change proposal — these kids are rthe ones who need money for college and one-to-one teaching experience that a community college provides, but who have less political strength.

    The proposal to apply a business model to education has no merit. If the governorreally wanted profit centers in education, then he needs to divest all state interest in “college education” by selling the community college to the University of Phoenix.

    — Palin · Dec 1, 09:44 AM · #

  9. Hi. I really like this piece. I disagree strongly with the new business model proposal. I work at a local community college in Tennessee—-at the bottom of the totem poll. I am broke and what makes me so angry is that no where in this business model is the obscene pay of upper- and mid-level management addressed! Calling Manning a “Turkey” is being too kind.

    — Instructor considering food stamps · Dec 2, 06:58 AM · #

  10. This new proposal is absurd. Taking away needed programs so that the “higher ups” can lounge around while the teachers and students suffer, is completely against what the founding fathers had in mind. I am a student at a community college and it is hard enough dealing with all the crap that the government dishes out, and yet the governor still demands more money from my shrinking wallet. What about the coaches and upper management who receive an exorbitant amount of “funds” when they are hardly necessary to the education of the students? This plan is just another example of the wealthy having their way regardless of the poor who get in their way. I am proposing a protest/strike against this proposal. If anyone wishes to join e-mail me at www.Arcmage999@aol.com for more details.

    — Arcmage999 · Dec 2, 09:49 AM · #

  11. I would be one of the students affected by this monstrous plan, should it go into effect before I leave school. So thanks for the spotlight on it. However, I really don’t see why you felt like you had to politicize this issue. It is absurd to think that one political party over another is better for education. We should have learned by now that party politics must stay far away from our educational system. Don’t forget that we have W to thank for the joke that is “no child left behind”

    — Lidiya · Dec 2, 06:36 PM · #

  12. Andy Smith has balls and is a hero. I’m sure many professors in his position are fearing for their job and are afraid to speak out. The MTSU Faculty Senate Prez Lutz has issued an excellent response but there is very little time for discussion and changes before this “business model” may be adopted. I believe the TBR meets this Thurs.

    — js · Dec 2, 08:59 PM · #

  13. Obama? Clinton? Gore? Irrelevant to TN’s current higher ed problems. Chancellor Manning was appointed in 2000. Don Sunquist, an Illinois-born Republican businessman, was governor then (and he ironically advocated for a non-starter income tax). And Manning continued after Phil Bredesen, a New York-born Democrat businessman, took office in 2003. So, this is not a partisan problem or a Southern problem, just for the record. What is in common, though, is that both governors were businessmen. In this context, it unfortunately follows that TBR’s chancellor would propose a “business model” for higher education.

    — TBRprof2 · Dec 3, 10:02 AM · #

  14. I am one of the FTT in this system (read: full time temps – read: faculty we hire that we can let go anytime we want) . . . this is so absurd. The already horribly low quality of education in this system is about to get worse . . . following the Bush model of “assessment”, faculty waste their time with “student learning objectives” and “program outcomes” designed to prove that they are “really” teaching something. Hours upon hours of valuable time are wasted doing this … which could be spent actually TEACHING or RESEARCHING … SOMETHING. I mean damn, even a cup of coffee with a student could produce more information and outcomes than this system. I teach 5 classes per semester . . . I don’t have tenure, but I do have benefits . . . but I have no job security, no voice, no vote, and I am constantly in danger of losing my job, my house, and the ability to pay the large student loan balance of a PhD graduate. The tenured faculty on my campus are crying because they are going to lose travel money and copy priveleges . . . but the students are losing a hell of a lot more when the system being proposed subjects them to online courses, adjunct professors (mostly WITHOUT doctorates), and a hopelessly ignorant system of the blind leading the blind. What happened to the lottery surplus?

    I am so embarrassed to teach in this system. But that problem is about to be solved, because my job will be the first to be cut – I have a PhD and over 10 years teaching experience . . .I am too expensive for the TBR to keep. I will be replaced by someone with a Master’s degree and “real world” experience, but no higher education. And that is what Tennessee will be known for . . . no higher education. Sad.

    — welcome to my world · Dec 4, 03:13 AM · #

  15. I appreciate the calling out of Manning’s bad ideas, but I am frustrated reading this article because the author misses something huge—UTK is NOT a TN Board of Regents school, though they both report to the same governing body and cannot offer the same graduate programs. The biggest reason for this is that UTK does not want to have to share its football income with the rest of the state schools. MTSU operates with a fraction of UTK’s budget, despite the fact that it has the largest student population in the state.

    TBR grad students get far less in funding than those in other states but it is important to note that adjuncts make less than PhD students.

    — mtsu grad student · Dec 4, 09:16 AM · #

  16. “but I am frustrated reading this article because the author misses something huge—UTK is NOT a TN Board of Regents school,”

    You have to realize that Marc is never one to let the truth get in the way of his agenda. And to think, that they pay him to write this stuff. It does prove that the market is not infallible, just better than the alternatives.

    — James · Dec 4, 09:28 AM · #

  17. Actually, a careful reading will reveal that Marc does not say that Manning has anything to do with UTK. He merely mentions Knox County as an example of a typical TN living wage.

    Students at my TBR school are expressing their frustration at being asked to pay higher tuition when not only administrators continue to make high salaries, but many professors in “prestige” programs as well. They are also worried about the watering down of their educations—not just through this misguided emphasis on online classes, but also because those professors who do work hard on their behalf will leave for other universities where their efforts are compensated and appreciated.

    — Philologist · Dec 4, 02:17 PM · #

  18. Folks, thanks for (most of) these comments.

    Special thanks for all of the private email, and facebook notes, etc. There hasn’t been this much private traffic about one of my posts since the McGill situation.

    For the record, a) I agree that it’s not a partisan question—that’s why I mentioned Clinton and Gore (and see my post for today, on Obama, quality management, etc). The Dems are just as bad, and certainly just as responsible when they’ve held power, really. Of course we can hope to make them different, but that’s a project in itself.

    And b) I do understand that UT and TBR are separate systems! I was simply incorporating all of the state’s higher education spending together in the “orange carpet” reference. I was probably also trying to suggest that in the end the Mannings of the profession are even more dangerous than the scandal-attracters you’ve had in the top slot at UT…

    I’ll try to do an update on this next week. Solidarity, M

    — Marc Bousquet · Dec 4, 06:41 PM · #

  19. If this goes through, I propose that all of the students of TBR schools should collectively file a lawsuit for all the time and money we have spent so far in pursuit of what will become meaningless, watered down degrees. They can take the money straight from the pockets of Manning, other administrators, and teachers who think they are special. I should have gone to an out-of-state school when I had the chance instead of believing that obtaining a degree from my home state would actually be worth something. Manning should be ashamed of himself, but I’m sure he will be smiling straight to the bank. I’m pretty sure he owes me about $50,000. What about you? Btw…if MTSU is looking for a way to get some money, maybe they should consider selling that megatron tv in the football stadium they just HAD to have. I’m sure they can get half-price for it on craigslist….

    — Sick of wasting time and money · Dec 4, 10:59 PM · #

  20. The political parallels mentioned by the article really have taken away from the importance of the recent budget and leadership crisis taking place in the great State of Tennessee. Our lame duck Chancellor, Dr. Charles Manning, after destroying the higher education system of West Virginia as a lame duck, is now set to ruin an already underfunded but financially functioning higher education system with unrealistic and thoughtless budget cuts. Now, the President’s Council, representing the 19 community colleges and universities making up the Tennessee Board of Regents system (as opposed to the 5 University of Tennessee instititions), have posponed until their January meeting the vote to furlough (without pay) and further try to downsize the use of full-tiime, tenure-track and tenured faculty.
    My community college, like other rural-oriented institutions within the Tennessee Board of Regents community colleges, serves a very diverse and geographically spread out population using all the latest technologies to reach our target: Online courses, hybrid courses, Regents Online Degree Program (RODP) courses, college-by-video courses, and satellite-linked classrooms to reach students, and to maximize the faculty to student ratio. We are already stretched quite thin financially, and we are already having a tough time meeting the higher education and instructional needs of our multi-campus service area population. Any major budget cuts in Tennessee’s higher education system that impact the direct instructional needs of our students, hence posterity, will have a profound economic impact locally, regionally, now, and in the future. To alleviate some of the “bloat” in higher education, and to save money now an over time, I recommend the following cuts and rationale for the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR):
    1. Have the Chancellor, by March, propose a detailed plan to shave staff at TBR Headquarters in the Genesco Building in Nashville. Rationale – It has become a monster bureaucratic dumping ground for political hacks,for administrators that cannot manage, and for professors that cannot teach. Or, better yet, merge the TBR and UT systems.
    2. Close all the nursing education programs throught the State because of the expenses related to ratio of student to faculty. The nursing certifying boards require no more than 10 nursing students to each faculty member. Rationale – These programs are the most expesnive to operate because of the ratio, and cutting ours would save over 20 full-time faculty postions serving less than 200 students. If the people of Tennessee want this expensive but needed program, let students pay significantly more for program that only a few benefit from.
    3. Cut comunity college NCJAA athletics. Like the nursing program, athletics do not pay for themselves. Nursing programs at least cover some of their expenses – athletic programs do not even do that. Coaches are not tenured anyway, but the Athletic Director’s are. Let the AD go back to teaching college level physical education classes, and let the coaches go. Rationale – millions of dollars would be saved if the community colleges got out the wannabee-a-professional-athlete business.
    4. I know my colleagues would shoot me for this, but require all administrators/professional or technical staff holding a Master’s degree at a community college to teach at least one 3-hour couse each semester as part of their job responsibilities. Rationale – This would require less faculty to teach courses and a tremendous saving would be realized. In other words, it would leverage resources.
    5. Reorganize online education in the State. Currently, colleges and universities in the TBR compete with the TBR’s Regent’s Online Degree Program (RODP). Create the Regent’s College out of RODP, and have all current online classes administered not by each institution but by RODP. Let RODP hire and fire a non-tenured teaching staff. Rationale – In the short and long run, money would be saved in online consolidation, and in the employment of labor for that growing mode of learning.
    6. To insure continuity of education in tight fiscal times, require that each institition’s plan only make budget cuts that increasethe student to administrator/professional/technical/classified staff ration, thus improving efficiency. Rationale – In the digital age, the pencil-pushing staffs required of the 20th century have become antiquated. If the TBR institutions were to emulate the Japanese management-to-worker ratio significant revenues could be saved.
    7. Close satellite campuses – especially low enrollment teaching centers/campuses. Rationale – The cost of supporting them with faculty and equipment (and sometimes powerplant and rent for their building) would save each institition money.
    8. End the Chancellor’s air travel budget, and end the president’s gratis vehicle at the expense of the taxpayer. More than 1/2 million would be saved.
    9. Have the Regent’s fire lame duck Manning before his retirement, and have them appoint Dr. Paula Short, the current Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs as the new Chancellor. Rationale – this would save money used for a Chancellor search, it would allow for some continuity during downsizing, and it would bring to the top a career educator with a progessive outlook.

    — TBRprof3 · Dec 5, 04:56 PM · #

  21. Um, TBRprof3, I’m happy to report on the travails of higher ed in the south atlantic states, having lived them.

    But the bigger picture is kinda my thing. This isn’t a Tennessee local paper; we do the vision thing, so getting all “just the facts of Chuck Manning” on me isn’t encouraging me to do a follow-up story. Which I’d actually like to do, featuring some of your suggestions, if you don’t mind, and if you can live with me introducing the big picture just a bit for the rest of the planet not residing in the “Education Volunteer” state.

    — Marc Bousquet · Dec 5, 07:07 PM · #

  22. Help yourself to any of my suggestions.

    — TBRprof3 · Dec 6, 08:46 PM · #

Commenting is closed for this article.
Copyright © 2009 by The Chronicle of Higher Education | Contact us
User agreement | Privacy policy | About The Chronicle | Site map | Help
Subscribe | Advertise with us | Press inquiries | RSS | Today's most e-mailed
Home | Chronicle Careers | The Chronicle Review