I had a couple chuckles yesterday while reading the front page article in the Times about the surfeit of Powerpoint presentations and analyses at the command and field headquarters in Afghanistan. The complex analysis of the labyrinth in the war zone looked curiously like the multiplicity of problems that are besetting higher education at present. The power point mantra continued on the Stephen Colbert Report concerning what aliens (via the Stephen Hawking pronoucement) will do when they meet the earthlings. Allegely, what they will find about all of us that we can use Power point, among a couple of other not-that-life sustaining items.
Well, this blog is not about Power point, although I have seen and used my share during the last 20 years in higher education at various venues and confabs. Rather, the spagetti-like concentric circles on the General's graph represented a complex skein of problems that seemed at similar times to be non-connected but yet tightly bundled. I have often felt this way during the last year as I have observed the higher education system at a distance: nothing seems related, yet everything is woven together. Pull one string and a bunch of others become loose and/or tangled. Perhaps the only way to look at this gummed up ball or balls of fish line is to sit by the river's edge and quietly and zen like take time to look at the trees between stints of unraveling the tiny strands.
Last week I mentioned that much of long term maintenance had been put off into a deferred capacity so that colleges could spend funds on a plethora of items that appeared to be more important at the time. These various items could fall into one or more of the following categories: mission creep, profligate spending, and genuine fear of one thing or person or another. During the past ten to fifteen years, I had occasion to stay in residence hall rooms for either college or non profit confences or alumni gatherings. Each hall looked and felt like they had when I was a college student (let's just say that I served that time between the crazy 60s and the go-go 80s). While there was not much need for more than a record player and maybe a mixer in my rooms back then, today's students has a range of every expanding electronic and other equipment and wardrobe acccoutrements that don't fit nicely in the non-upgraded rooms. During an alumni weekend, the hall seemed the same (except men and women shared the same, not very private bathrooms, legally now) as back then. I could fin only one plug for which to plug in my modest electronic supplies of a cell phone and a hair dryer and had to contort myself into a pretzel position on the floor under a desk to plug it in.
Colleges could avoid and decided to forgoe deferred boring maintenance projects like new rugs and double paned windows so that funds could be spent on the areas that were more on display: shiny computer console rooms, well equipeed gyms, boutique style dining halls and shuttle buses to downtown shopping. In a room at a major research university, my middle aged roomate and I (and about 20 similar women) shared a gang bathroom, while the room itself had exactly two outlets, one of which was for a refrigerator that had to sit in front of the double beds with the cords hanging over the covers. But I did see a lovely large football stadium and various recreational areas and courts outside of my windows and the meals were served in a club med style of buffet tables.
Mission creep is another area where colleges and universities have become unfettered. While I am a stalwart supporter of expanding the canon to women, diverse, queer and other writers, it appeared that the academy could not approach the traditional departments regarding the inclucation of those writers within the traditional canon; therefore, additional departments were staffed focusing on those areas. Efforts to integrate the curriculum with more diversity has met with mostly inaction and no administrator worth her salt wants to be the one to try to bring the groups together in one department or to facilitate the move for all those faculty to teach a group of writers or thinkers interchangeably.
The community college, bless them, have become the be all, end all to the areas that they serve. Whether laid off worker, college bound students wanting to save a few bucks, seniors looking to learn Italian or for just a place to hang out, homeless looking for a place to rest, read and eat (one thing about colleges-secret-you can always find some couches, bathrooms, magazines and some free food), and local kids wanting to swim, learn to play the French horn or skateboard the carefully groomed sides of flower beds. Often there are staff and programs, and not just at the community college-the university has a plethora of little closets housing one arcane program or another) that are known only to a few people, if any.
All of these programs take money and it can certainly be said that many colleges are lean and mean and staff serve a variety of functions, especially those young and bright things in student services or in the junior faculty. But large bits of money are used, often to fund items that might not be seen as critical to those outside of the ivy towers, or even those who study the field. The Yale football stadium is giant and once grand, serving the special students and alumni of the 30s and 40's in the so-called Golden era of the college. Now, that stadium is mostly empty and the teams usually laughable, except for (the) important THE Game against Harvard once yearly on alternate years. Yet, Yale doesn't do much to keep up the stadium except to maintain safety and to obviate drunkenness as much as possible. Not so in terms of lavishing on the part of many Division I football and basketball venues today. But, for the most part, no matter how many barely sober and painted and almost naked college fans that you see on the televised games, this once-extracurriculum is now front and center in many University's minds, including the Division II and III johnny come lately wannnabes. The games are not for students; they are for money, from donors, alumni, friends and the nation's fan base. And lavish money is provided for the programs. Now most Athletic Departments would say that their funds come from the Foundation or Alumni Offices, not the general fund. That may be so, but why is it (as one Foundation employees told me at a large Division I school) did the Foundation receive over 90% of its donations for sports (with the accompanying garnishments) than for the other parts of the School. Well the rest frankly is not sexy or fund, unless you give oodles and get your name on a building.
Perhaps the Athletic areas do give the colleges more glitz and glamour, and potential students yearn to attend that of a winner; (however, research does show that a winning season produced a short rise in enrollments but those enrollments go back after a year or so to the mean.) But what is the main mission of the colleges and universities? Pretty much all of us know, and we do know that the creep and the profligate spending has wreaked havoc on maintaining appropriate buildings and equipment for learning.
We might re mix that General's spagetti Power point bowl into an angry seething ecotplasm pushing out and being pulled into a stretched out piece of silly putty.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
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Thursday, April 15, 2010
The cuts keep on coming
Every day when I turn on my office computer, the higher ed on line newletters scream headlines of another college or university promising, planning or deciding on cuts. It seems like the fiscal incisions go deep and wide--not even ancient Yale U. is left alone. Nor are any aspects of the budgets--furloughs,no retirement medical insurance for new hires, department skewered or eliminated along with the faculty and staff, a library closing, sports teams obliterated, more deferred maintenance and the closing of a college completely, left alone. Even if cuts are yet evident, there are plans brewing everywhere, and state legislatures are trying to decide if they should cut k-12, the cops, the prisons, medicare, dial a ride, early maternal care? Depending on your wont and politics and perhaps employment in any of the above or not, you can easily make a decision. But can we really do without any of these services?
If k-12 has cuts (and surely I know that everyone of these entities and all others besides are not working up to capacity or efficiency) surely there will be more delinquencies, more kids on the street, more pregnancies as young people have more time on their hands and fewer adults around to offer (them) guidance. But then, we will need to expand prison space which is already crowded and offers little in terms of education or training. I visited a medium security state prison and a federal system, and they are not pleasant places. The state medium security was acutely perverse: a bunch of guys in a Dachua type setting with open toilet stalls and showers (we could see in) with every type of music blaring, inmates yelling, pornographic picture hanging everywhere. bunks stacked three high like on an aircraft carrier. The warden told us that all college classes were cancelled, and there no money for art, music or library services, and few volunteers to offer those options. Nothing for the inmates to do, but play cards, yell, scream, wait for chow and lights out. As Jesse Jackson once said at a commencement I attended "It costs more to send a man to jail then to send him to Yale".
I don't want to cut medicaid as my mom is in the nursing home and covered by it--not a glamorous place, two to four in a room, meals that are worse than my college dining hall or camp kitchen or "dirty dancing" resort waitress experiences, but the staff are kind and good and there are activities and a hairdresser and therapy, and mom now has a computer with wi fi. Cops? Some people don't want them, but I do. They came to my house one night to tell me my dad had fallen, and woke us when a neighbor had called and said some people were in my garage and yard screaming-it was not us.
So what can we do? How is higher education going to go head to head with these other programs, including the plethora of social services? Many colleges, especially community colleges, are bursting at the seams with students, many of whom are desperate for work, food, a home, and quite a few who have emotional or social problems. Some of the students don't know how to act in a class and don't know how to manage their emotions, and lack social and cultural capital. Who is going to assist them? There is a door in front and they come in and some go out the back after not much time. Perhaps a friendly adult face who takes a personal interest in the student, as the literature says, will help a student to stay in college and complete their career training plans. The overhaul of financial aid should help somewhat but money is just one of the factors that support student success. Good faculty and staff, and interesting and challenges courses with various pedagogies and technologies, along with opportunity for student interaction and leadership building, are all imperative if colleges are to do what their missions say they will and society says we must.
I have spoken with a lot of people lately, and they ask?:Why do you need more money if you have more students? Just hire a few more adjuncts. Well, sometimes you cannot "just do it", due to collective bargaining rules, sometimes you cannot find anyone to teach for the relatively low part time wages to especially science and math, and perhaps most importantly, the states give a only ertain amount of money for every credit taught. There is a pie of money from the states for the reimbursement of college credits earned, and sometimes its gets cut into smaller pieces if one college takes a big chunk, but the overall size of the pie stays the same. Basically, there is a set amount of money allocated. Do the colleges turn students away if their coffers are expended or plan to be?
Currently most state colleges and universities are not truly state supported; they are assisted, anywhere from 5 to 50% of the total cost of tuition. The remainder of costs need to come from tuition and fees from the students, the taxpayers in some districts and donors. But most colleges don't have big shot alumni or friends. And few donors want to fund operating costs; they want a new shiny program or building with their name on it, one that the institution then has to fill with furniture, staff and to maintain.
So the problems are heavy and the demands and mandates are high. Colleges need to keep abreast of research and equipment, have attractive campuses to garner and keep students, and need to pay their faculty and staff, as well as keep the lights burning. Tuition funds, no matter how funded, rarely keep up with the real costs of running a college, particularly if rainy day funds are continually expended or endowments are reduced with financial markets or a dearth of giving.
And all rise in double digits each year, while state expenditures, tuition, fees and donations, and financial aid do not keep pace. So what do we do?
On April 15, legislation sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) focuses on emergency funding connected to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to apply to colleges and k-12 schools to stave off cuts for another year. While it would not assist this overarching funding problem long term, it might help with some training opportunities for students and thence pump up the trained workforce? But are the jobs out there?
Higher education is part of an ecosystem that morphs constantly based on the forces around the world. It no longer is a quaint ivey covered place where gentility marks four years of a middle or upper middle class student's life, or a allows a life of the mind for a small cadre of tenured professors.
I would love to hear from you.
If k-12 has cuts (and surely I know that everyone of these entities and all others besides are not working up to capacity or efficiency) surely there will be more delinquencies, more kids on the street, more pregnancies as young people have more time on their hands and fewer adults around to offer (them) guidance. But then, we will need to expand prison space which is already crowded and offers little in terms of education or training. I visited a medium security state prison and a federal system, and they are not pleasant places. The state medium security was acutely perverse: a bunch of guys in a Dachua type setting with open toilet stalls and showers (we could see in) with every type of music blaring, inmates yelling, pornographic picture hanging everywhere. bunks stacked three high like on an aircraft carrier. The warden told us that all college classes were cancelled, and there no money for art, music or library services, and few volunteers to offer those options. Nothing for the inmates to do, but play cards, yell, scream, wait for chow and lights out. As Jesse Jackson once said at a commencement I attended "It costs more to send a man to jail then to send him to Yale".
I don't want to cut medicaid as my mom is in the nursing home and covered by it--not a glamorous place, two to four in a room, meals that are worse than my college dining hall or camp kitchen or "dirty dancing" resort waitress experiences, but the staff are kind and good and there are activities and a hairdresser and therapy, and mom now has a computer with wi fi. Cops? Some people don't want them, but I do. They came to my house one night to tell me my dad had fallen, and woke us when a neighbor had called and said some people were in my garage and yard screaming-it was not us.
So what can we do? How is higher education going to go head to head with these other programs, including the plethora of social services? Many colleges, especially community colleges, are bursting at the seams with students, many of whom are desperate for work, food, a home, and quite a few who have emotional or social problems. Some of the students don't know how to act in a class and don't know how to manage their emotions, and lack social and cultural capital. Who is going to assist them? There is a door in front and they come in and some go out the back after not much time. Perhaps a friendly adult face who takes a personal interest in the student, as the literature says, will help a student to stay in college and complete their career training plans. The overhaul of financial aid should help somewhat but money is just one of the factors that support student success. Good faculty and staff, and interesting and challenges courses with various pedagogies and technologies, along with opportunity for student interaction and leadership building, are all imperative if colleges are to do what their missions say they will and society says we must.
I have spoken with a lot of people lately, and they ask?:Why do you need more money if you have more students? Just hire a few more adjuncts. Well, sometimes you cannot "just do it", due to collective bargaining rules, sometimes you cannot find anyone to teach for the relatively low part time wages to especially science and math, and perhaps most importantly, the states give a only ertain amount of money for every credit taught. There is a pie of money from the states for the reimbursement of college credits earned, and sometimes its gets cut into smaller pieces if one college takes a big chunk, but the overall size of the pie stays the same. Basically, there is a set amount of money allocated. Do the colleges turn students away if their coffers are expended or plan to be?
Currently most state colleges and universities are not truly state supported; they are assisted, anywhere from 5 to 50% of the total cost of tuition. The remainder of costs need to come from tuition and fees from the students, the taxpayers in some districts and donors. But most colleges don't have big shot alumni or friends. And few donors want to fund operating costs; they want a new shiny program or building with their name on it, one that the institution then has to fill with furniture, staff and to maintain.
So the problems are heavy and the demands and mandates are high. Colleges need to keep abreast of research and equipment, have attractive campuses to garner and keep students, and need to pay their faculty and staff, as well as keep the lights burning. Tuition funds, no matter how funded, rarely keep up with the real costs of running a college, particularly if rainy day funds are continually expended or endowments are reduced with financial markets or a dearth of giving.
And all rise in double digits each year, while state expenditures, tuition, fees and donations, and financial aid do not keep pace. So what do we do?
On April 15, legislation sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) focuses on emergency funding connected to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to apply to colleges and k-12 schools to stave off cuts for another year. While it would not assist this overarching funding problem long term, it might help with some training opportunities for students and thence pump up the trained workforce? But are the jobs out there?
Higher education is part of an ecosystem that morphs constantly based on the forces around the world. It no longer is a quaint ivey covered place where gentility marks four years of a middle or upper middle class student's life, or a allows a life of the mind for a small cadre of tenured professors.
I would love to hear from you.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Academic and other budget cuts: The times they are a changin'
I recently subscribed to a feed that lists daily the various cuts planned or posited by various institutions of higher education in order to make their budgets whole. These changes have been a long time in coming. What is most surprising is the wholeale plans to eliminate or par down many academic subject areas or programs, some areas that have been in the academic menu since the beginning of post-secondary education began.
Sure we have had cuts before around the country. The one I remembered vividly and which got quite a bit of press at its time was the closing of the Columbia University School of Journalism. And in the 80s, there was a smattering of regional private institutions that closed; some were rejevuenated by new buyers (e.g. Post College in Waterbury CT by a Japanese firm, University of Bridgeport that was allegedly run at one time by the Moonies), but the warning bells of mass closings never happened.
In budget cutting times, generally the plan was to cut travel, supplies, part time staff, staff in areas outside of academics (such as business, sports, student services, and advancement), but this particular budget busting time appears to call for my strategic and deep long term cuts. Administrators are saying that they are cutting programs that do not have enough students, are too costly, or are not viable in today's economy. Faculty are outraged that their field could be seen as disposable.
There are no good solutions. Obama is lauded for his new financial aid packages but the programs will help students attend school, not prop up the institutions. There are some program monies for STEM initatives, but many of these are given (and rightfully so since the country is so remiss in science and math literacy) to the k-12 system.
Yet with the economy edging quite slowly toward some type of clawing out of the recession, there still needs to be places where the populace can get some training and education for current and future jobs. Yet, state budgets for public institutions are funded at stable levels and do not take into account (or subsidize) the torrent of students. But the burgeoning of higher education and its contribution to research and to the upgrading of the socioeconomic status of many, as well as nation-building has been key to this Nation's greatness both in the 19th and the 20th centuries.
How do we create a viable system so that the needs of the individuals and the collective can be served?
Sure we have had cuts before around the country. The one I remembered vividly and which got quite a bit of press at its time was the closing of the Columbia University School of Journalism. And in the 80s, there was a smattering of regional private institutions that closed; some were rejevuenated by new buyers (e.g. Post College in Waterbury CT by a Japanese firm, University of Bridgeport that was allegedly run at one time by the Moonies), but the warning bells of mass closings never happened.
In budget cutting times, generally the plan was to cut travel, supplies, part time staff, staff in areas outside of academics (such as business, sports, student services, and advancement), but this particular budget busting time appears to call for my strategic and deep long term cuts. Administrators are saying that they are cutting programs that do not have enough students, are too costly, or are not viable in today's economy. Faculty are outraged that their field could be seen as disposable.
There are no good solutions. Obama is lauded for his new financial aid packages but the programs will help students attend school, not prop up the institutions. There are some program monies for STEM initatives, but many of these are given (and rightfully so since the country is so remiss in science and math literacy) to the k-12 system.
Yet with the economy edging quite slowly toward some type of clawing out of the recession, there still needs to be places where the populace can get some training and education for current and future jobs. Yet, state budgets for public institutions are funded at stable levels and do not take into account (or subsidize) the torrent of students. But the burgeoning of higher education and its contribution to research and to the upgrading of the socioeconomic status of many, as well as nation-building has been key to this Nation's greatness both in the 19th and the 20th centuries.
How do we create a viable system so that the needs of the individuals and the collective can be served?
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