tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-491174673971804494.post5493561277471133952..comments2024-03-22T01:06:23.845-07:00Comments on Confessions of a College Professor: Doomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528555392898760692noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-491174673971804494.post-78103810891182477942014-02-20T09:39:41.426-08:002014-02-20T09:39:41.426-08:00It's funny how often my colleagues use phrases...It's funny how often my colleagues use phrases like "nut farm" to describe higher education.<br /><br />It's not really that admin control content now...it's that if you have no content, admin is happy. You'll still need to put on your syllabus that you have a real course, but as long as students don't complain, it's fine with admin if you don't do anything at all. On the other hand, if you actually do the job you claim you're doing on your syllabus? That's a problem, and you run the risk of student complaints.<br /><br />Decades ago, this didn't fly, because all coursework built on prior coursework. But now most degrees (even graduate degrees) are just isolated collections of random chapters of books...there, literally, is no expectation that a student coming into a 4000 level course will know more than a student coming into a 1000 level course. It's why books like Academically Adrift can show that around half of college graduates get nothing from their 6 years of college (an impressive feat, when you consider that simply living as an adult for 6 years should have shown some gains).<br /><br />Lots of faculty have done the math, and decided "educating" need not be a part of education now. Admin concurs and encourages this attitude.Doomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04528555392898760692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-491174673971804494.post-18483012993092633742014-02-19T21:38:13.293-08:002014-02-19T21:38:13.293-08:00While I was teaching, course content was determine...While I was teaching, course content was determined by the department administrators. This was made possible in part by having an advisory committee hand-picked by the head and making sure that its members were people would tell him what he wanted to hear. Any relation between the advice he received and what actually went on the real world was purely accidental.<br /><br />When I started my teaching job, new staff were initially under contract for 2 years before being granted permanent status. Who was made permanent and when was at the discretion of the head (I remember one colleague who was made permanent after 8 months, and that was because the DH liked him).<br /><br />Shortly before I quit, though, new teaching staff were hired on a contractual basis only. Permanent status was a thing of the past--institutional flexibility or some such thing.<br /><br />However, permanent status wasn't necessarily that, either. I made some enemies in my department and, soon after I was made permanent, one of them (who had become assistant DH) started harassing and bullying me. His objective was to get rid of me, though he never stated why. (There was ample evidence that it was a personal matter.) The last head soon started his own campaign against me.<br /><br />This went on for years until I finally decided I could afford to leave, which I did under terms that I dictated.<br /><br />I found I couldn't count on the support of our staff association. Most of its presidents collaborated with the institution's administrators rather than standing up for the staff. (Something about not rocking the boat, I think.) Only one president stuck up for me in my dispute but she was hounded out of office due to internal association politics.<br /><br />That place was a nut farm. I'm amazed I lasted as long as I did without going bonkers.<br />Quarter Wave Verticalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03173446011323023116noreply@blogger.com