Fall Quarter 2013 has been tough and not just because of an unusually
heavy teaching load I gladly accepted to cover for a colleague on emergency
leave. Since the quarter began, I’ve been rear-ended, sick, and sprawled flat
in the campus parking, a victim of black ice. I have also learned that the new
building promised as the future home of my college division has morphed into a
multi-use building in direct response to faculty complaint.
Upon learning the completed design of “our” new building had
no faculty offices, we voiced concern about privacy and productivity issues
with cubicles and about a decision-making process that included zero input from
those who will be using the building, namely faculty and students.
The administrative response to our complaint has been to
change not the design of the building, but its designated use, thus allowing
them to move those who choose not to be stuck in a cluster of cubicles into the
vacated offices of those who are more creative and collaborative than we are.
Another decision made in the same vacuum, behind the same closed administrative
doors as the cubicle decision. Another slap in the face to those of us who have
dedicated lifelong careers to the college.
On this day before Thanksgiving, I count my blessings. I’m
grateful for mandatory car insurance and the science of
antibiotics. I am grateful to the student who helped me off the icy
pavement. And I am grateful to each and
every one of the students from every corner of the world who I have worked with
over the past three decades – even those who were less than happy with my
teaching style – because from all I have learned to be a stronger teacher, a
more aware world citizen, and a better human being. I am grateful to have a secure teaching
position and wonderful colleagues across campus who stimulate my creativity.
However, I am not grateful for a current administration that seems to define
creativity and collaboration by the number of committee meetings a faculty
member attends or how often he or she is seen walking across campus with a
colleague from a different department.
Those of us who have been at the college longer than most
administrators have witnessed the circular patterns of educational reform. We
know that this current focus will fade as soon as another “new” idea comes
along. The danger lies in designing and constructing a multimillion dollar
building on the basis of limited and constantly changing trends in education.
And in alienating a dedicated faculty in the process.
