Thank you for this article. I was a faculty member at Bluefield State under Capeharts Reign. His practices of no shared governance almost lost our HLC accreditation which would have shut down our institution. We provide an education to a largley underserved region. Without accreditation, we would have lost federal aid. So thanks to the faculty who fought tooth and nail to correct this tyranny, the University is still standing and moving toward a much much brighter future.
I understand the problem with administrators and their tendency for soul-less, bottom-line thinking. But faculty are not necessarily innocent. Where I (as a faculty member) draw the line is when the "oppositional" faculty are not fighting the fight for the students, or the institution, but for their own self interests. They want to teach the same courses in the same way they did 30 years ago, despite dropping course enrollment and mediocre evaluations. They don't want to do much research, which is reflected in the declining quality of their courses. They don't want to engage in college initiatives that students see as top priority (research, internships, travel, etc.).
It can actually be a good time for faculty in higher ed., if you are creative, innovative, engaged with the students, willing to think outside of the box, preserving what is good about higher ed. in a new and flexible manner. I've found that administrators are open to engaging and negotiating in this context. And the outcomes can be good when higher ed is not us versus them.
I agree, John. And that might be worth a post all of its own.
The faculty that don't care about their teaching and won't change with the times feed the anti-faculty sentiments of so many people. It's remarkable how the one bad actor can suck up all the attention while those doing great work get ignored. I once tried to get the P&T language changed to put those folks, as well as those who were destroying department morale, on a remedial track. The P&T committee said that they understood what I was trying to do, but worried that some imagined future administrator would use the language as a weapon to weed out those they disagreed with.
I'm glad you've got administrators who were flexible and saw themselves as partners. One of the hardest things about moving back to the classroom after nearly 20 years as an administrator was knowing the options available to administrators to build bridges that they wouldn't take. Not as bad as the situation at Bluefield, but still problematic. Too many arbitrary decisions without consultation. Not that faculty need to oversee all issues, but the courtesy of having administrative decision explained prior to implementation with an openness to alternatives would go a long way.
Thank you for this article. I was a faculty member at Bluefield State under Capeharts Reign. His practices of no shared governance almost lost our HLC accreditation which would have shut down our institution. We provide an education to a largley underserved region. Without accreditation, we would have lost federal aid. So thanks to the faculty who fought tooth and nail to correct this tyranny, the University is still standing and moving toward a much much brighter future.
I understand the problem with administrators and their tendency for soul-less, bottom-line thinking. But faculty are not necessarily innocent. Where I (as a faculty member) draw the line is when the "oppositional" faculty are not fighting the fight for the students, or the institution, but for their own self interests. They want to teach the same courses in the same way they did 30 years ago, despite dropping course enrollment and mediocre evaluations. They don't want to do much research, which is reflected in the declining quality of their courses. They don't want to engage in college initiatives that students see as top priority (research, internships, travel, etc.).
It can actually be a good time for faculty in higher ed., if you are creative, innovative, engaged with the students, willing to think outside of the box, preserving what is good about higher ed. in a new and flexible manner. I've found that administrators are open to engaging and negotiating in this context. And the outcomes can be good when higher ed is not us versus them.
I agree, John. And that might be worth a post all of its own.
The faculty that don't care about their teaching and won't change with the times feed the anti-faculty sentiments of so many people. It's remarkable how the one bad actor can suck up all the attention while those doing great work get ignored. I once tried to get the P&T language changed to put those folks, as well as those who were destroying department morale, on a remedial track. The P&T committee said that they understood what I was trying to do, but worried that some imagined future administrator would use the language as a weapon to weed out those they disagreed with.
I'm glad you've got administrators who were flexible and saw themselves as partners. One of the hardest things about moving back to the classroom after nearly 20 years as an administrator was knowing the options available to administrators to build bridges that they wouldn't take. Not as bad as the situation at Bluefield, but still problematic. Too many arbitrary decisions without consultation. Not that faculty need to oversee all issues, but the courtesy of having administrative decision explained prior to implementation with an openness to alternatives would go a long way.