University cutbacks

[TheGoodRev]

This is the kind of topic that I suspect could garner some response, or none at all, but I'm posting it anyway, partially to vent.

It was announced over the weekend that two professors in the Cultural Studies department at Mac will not have their contracts renewed at the end of this semester. I have taken three courses with one of these guys and he is the singular most engaging teacher I have ever had the pleasure to learn from. He's incredibly knowledgable, but doesn't put up the typical wall between himself and the students. I've never had the other guy but by all accounts he is the same way, and these two are the highest student-rated professors in the department. Here's what my prof had to say on his website yesterday:

hi everyone,

first of all, many thanks for everything everyone has said on these boards over the past few days: all of this concern is crazily humbling, and very much appreciated.

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up regarding exactly what's going on here, since I was a bit less than clear in my last email perhaps.

[other guy] and I are cla's (12 month contractually limited appointments) which is a position about halfway between a sessional lecturer (lowest on the academic totem pole: apply for whatever courses are available, paid badly, no benefits or security, etc) and an associate professor (tenure track, and entailing all of the sweet priveleges that come with). this has been my first year as a cla, but [other guy] is in his second year in a spot that, as he pointed out, has been around for six years yet has curiously never been considered necessary enough to be made a permanent hire in that time (which is, for instance, why crowd pleasing russ kilbourn is no longer in our happy ranks).

what happened last week was that [other guy] and I were told by the department that the faculty of humanities is not giving them enough money in their budget for next year to hire any cla's at all, which hasn't happened in many years. all of the courses that [other guy] and I taught as part of our cla contracts will now be taught by sessional lecturers. so, it's not so much that either of us has been fired, as it is that we are not having our contracts renewed. I suppose from the faculty's position, this is sound business sense: it's entirely possible that if [other guy] and I can't get hired on permanently elsewhere, then we'll have no choice but to come back and apply to do exactly the same job as we did this year, only for much less money, no security, no professional development funds (which I use, for instance, to pay for the operation of this website), no benefits, etc.

obviously, this stings, and while neither [other guy] or I has any desire to leave this place, it's been made pretty clear that our futures here are short term, temporary, and entirely contingent on the ebb and flow of the faculty's budgetary requirements, which at present we are surplus to...

and that, my friends, is that.

many sincere thanks again for all of your kind words.

cheers,

That, to me, sounds like a hell of a hose job. I would bet that the university would welcome them back with open arms...the work as sessional lecturers, that is. This has become quite a big deal over the last couple days; my prof's message board - which is about as active as this one on a normal day, and on which he offers downloads of his lecture notes and assignments - is absolutely flooded with people ready to fight tooth and nail to keep them here.

Many of you may have heard that the McMaster student body voted earlier this year not to renew their exclusivity contract with Coca-Cola, based upon grievous human rights violations at bottling plants in Columbia, as well as a desire to minimize corporate presense on campus. These two profs were actively involved in the campaign (as they were right to have been, being Cultural Studies teachers), and there are rumours (though completely unsubstantiated) that they were targetted for their progressive views, which are in direct contradiction to the corporate manner in which the university wishes to conduct itself.

Basically, what it comes down to is a general sense on campus that McMaster wants to take the shape of a school that focuses on the Health Sciences, Engineering and Athletics, and that decision is being reflected in their budgetary decisions. Despite the size of the Faculty of Humanities, and the fact that the Cultural Studies department is one of the most advanced in North America and continues to grow each semester, the university is continuing to cut the faculty's funding.

So here's where I was hoping for some feedback: If the university is the entity that holds the money, and wishes to spend it in a certain manner despite the demands of students, who makes the call? Is it fair for us, as students, to demand something of the university (namely, more money to the Humanities, a demand that I think would have been implied by the high enrollment numbers in the faculty), or is the money theirs to spend and our thumbs ours to suck? Please to discuss.

[Alexis]

i would think that the funding would be proportionate and down the line where students are enrolled. that's why some programs cost more in tuition right? theoreticly anyways.

that being said, if mac want to push itself in the health and science area and the other two mentioned above...that shit costs lots of money. that shit creates press and buzz for the university too. research is one of the things that gets grants and makes mac the world reknowned university it is, which is part of the reason you went there to begin with. it's all kind of cyclical.

i can see the conspiracy theory angle completely, and would venture to say it probably has at least a small amount of baring on the situation.

i definitely think that if mac is running itself on a business model, then you, the student, aka the consumer do have a voice. but what you have to say has to be sound business and acedemic wise. if you can prove that the humanities, and even the specific dept you're talking about have a baring on what they're trying to put forward then you're in business and maybe they'll reconsider. if you can't, well, life isn't a popularity contest sometimes.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Pretty shitty news, Rev. Not like it's not been coming down the pipe in a general sense - I've watched for the last ten years as my chosen discipline has had department collapse across the continent and be merged with generic humanities departments that don't give a rat's ass about them. Most of the best classroom people disappear into the woodwork given the present system - universities hire their Assistant/Associate Profs chiefly on the merit of their publications record (I actually heard someone say in a conference seminar that there are more and more universities that will make up their interview short-lists from the CVs that their rulers (the 12" sort) most like - i.e., if you've written a book, don't publish it as a book but as distinct articles because that bulks out the CV that much more). If you care about students, in other words, fuck you; we'll milk you for the classroom labour, but that doesn't cut it in University Affairs or any trade magazines, and if you're in the Humanities... bwahhahhhahhahhhahhah!

Sorry, I'm a little bitter. Something about sinking more than a decade of my life into this business to see what it's turned into.

Concerns, btw, a CPC victory will render completely irrelevant.

All that said, Mac's Humanities depts. do have an admirable reputation worth keeping alive, and I hope against hope that they're able to stay above the waterline.

[Birdy]

just a question, does anyone know how much money coca cola was giving mac to be the exclusive distributor of pop? corporate sponsorships normally make a hefty change purse. i'm sure that although in theory getting rid of coke was the 'right' thing to do, financially, that must have hurt. it sucks that corporations have to be so evil cuz sponsorships are a solid way that they can contribute actively and beneficially to the community. sometimes i think it would do us more good than harm to forgive for the evil ways in exchange for what they give to us. i mean, beggars can't be choosers. we can't have our cake and eat it too.

[Dr. J]

It's not just the amount of money that's available to education that's problematic, it's also the way that the money is allocated. Over the years, there has evolved, at all levels of education, a bureaucracy that literally sucks millions and millions of dollars out of the system and whose primary function is simply to try and justify its own existence.

When I started teaching, the board administration was housed in 2 rooms above a bowling alley in downtown Smiths Falls. I kid you not. That same administration now occupies 3 multi-million dollar complexes in 3 different cities and isn't doing any better job than was done above the bowling alley.

The money spent on education that never actually reaches the classroom (the teacher and the student) is absolutely criminal. If you had just a portion of it, you wouldn't need any from Coke.

Sorry for the rant. I'm going back to the thread with the girl in the red top.

[Alexis]

dr j is totally right...the bureaucracy of education costs millions and doesn't do nearly what it's worth on paper. and that's sad

i think the coke thing was 1 or 2 million. at least one.

and well, i'll have to disagree with for the first time birdy. corporate america, canada, earth, don't give back nearly what they take. not at all. i don't think that we should shut up, take the 1 or 2M and be happy. we in north america may not pay the price, but the earth, and humanity in general certainly does. corporations will be the downfall of society as we know it. whether in the long run that's a good thing or bad thing, it'll happen. yes without them we wouldn't have medical strides and new technology and lots of other good things they give us...well maybe it all balances out...who knows. but they don't inherently have the best interests of anything or anyone in mind.

my head hurts.

[TheGoodRev]

I don't know the specific Humanities enrollment figures, but I know that the Cultural Studies department specifically has enjoyed a boom over the last few years. When I came to Mac it was my understanding that they were at the forefront of Cultural Studies in North America, and the prof in question has largely come to represent Cultural Studies for me and many other students at the school. He has a genuine personal interest in the material, and the final assignment for many of his courses require us to engage in a practical inquiry between ourselves and our culture, with particular attention to the course material. This means that instead of simply writing an essay, we must go and DO something that demonstrates a concept from the course, and then write the essay about what we did.

Of course these guys shouldn't be kept based on their popularity alone, but that should count for something. I had the opportunity to meet the other prof tonight (he's awesome too), and he told us about the various positions he holds within the department; he is the faculty-student liason, and sits on a number of lay committees, amongst other things. A sectional lecturer would not be able to fill these other positions. Further, I think it shows a great lack of foresight on the part of the university to "unhire" these two gentlemen - both of whom have authored courses now being taught at the school - only to have those courses taught by people who will begin work July 1, study the material over the summer, and regurgitate it to students beginning in September simply as part of their job, rather than because they are particularly excited by the material.

I should mention that I found out today that the two profs in question are amongst 15 CLA's being let go (or "unhired") from the Faculty of Humanities at the end of this semester. The courses these people taught must still be taught; they will now simply be taught by instructors who are not likely to be particularly interested in the material, or at the very least, not as interested as some of the specialists being let go certainly are.

From the Department of English and Cultural Studies website:

As one of the oldest English departments in Canada, we have a longstanding commitment to the study of the British, American and Canadian literary traditions and of the poets, dramatists and novelists who both reflect and shape the cultural histories of the people of the English-speaking world. Our libraries have world-renowned collections of eighteenth-century and twentieth-century British and twentieth-century Canadian works. Our faculty and students bring to this literature a wide range of current theories and approaches, asking questions that reshape the tradition and extend the literary canon. Two journals of international reputation devoted to such questions are based in the Department: Eighteenth-Century Fiction and Early Theatre. We have also, in our recent hiring, strengthened our expertise and our course offerings in the most rapidly expanding fields of English: Postcolonial Studies (devoted to the literatures in English in the former colonies of the British empire) and Cultural Studies (the investigation of the conditions of contemporary social life and popular culture).

The recent hirings no doubt refer, at least in part, to these two guys. I wonder if they'll augment the website in April.

As for the Coke contract, according to materials distributed at the time of the campaign and to the best of my recollection, it was worth $750,000 per year - to the student union, though. I'm sure the university perceives that the loss of the contract will reflect upon its own finances as well, and that may be true to a degree. The McMaster Students Union (MSU), though, has been operating at a surplus that has hovered around a million dollars for the past few years; I have no doubt that the refferendum would have been quashed long before it actually took place if the MSU executive board had really been concerned with its effects.

I think I've answered everything I wanted to. I was at school late tonight meeting with a committee to discuss what action can be taken in response to this news. I took a course last semester with the prof in question called Modern Countercultures, wherein we learned about effective forms of activism, and we plan to put them to use. To be continued...

[TheGoodRev]

I know that last post was a thread-killer, but I can't help myself; I have two more things to add for anyone who might still be reading. The first is a more detailed description of the Cultural Studies program at Mac, from this page of the faculty's site:

McMaster University has emerged in recent years as a national centre for the study of Cultural Studies and Critical Theory, with many faculty across a wide range of disciplines devoted to the critical analysis of contemporary culture. The Canadian Association of Cultural Studies was founded by faculty members at McMaster in 2002. The English Department offers a Combined Honours BA degree in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory with a set of courses that have been phased in since 1997, and two members of the Department, Susie O’Brien and Imre Szeman, wrote the first Canadian introductory textbook in Cultural Studies. And in 2004 the University appointed prominent cultural theorist Henry Giroux as the first Global Television Network Chair in Communication.

The second is a comment from one of my classmates on my prof's message board; I think she really hit the nail on the head:

I dropped out of MAC in 1st year way back in 2002 because I thought their Humanities program sucked. I transferred to the University of Waterloo, but left their campus because I hated it. I've been doing distance ed (correspondence) for the last 2-3 years because I didn't like being on campus. I finally decided to give MAC another try this fall because I'd like to do my graduate work and hopefully, a PhD here. [Prof] was one of my first teachers here last fall in 2J03 and I have him again this term for 3CC3. He's honestly been a huge part of my decision to transfer to this school permanently to finish my UG studies and then work on my graduate work.

The decision to terminate someone like [prof] (lack of funds or not) represents a total disconnect between the administration and the student body here at MAC. As far as I can tell, [prof] is a well-loved, well-respected, and all-around solid educator who goes beyond what is required of him on a regular basis - why would MAC choose to get rid of somebody so well-praised by their students? Does anyone here even care what we think, despite the LOADS of cash we all drop here?

I'm glad I haven't gone about the final steps to transfer here permanently. The thought of losing a prof that I had hoped to work with as my studies progressed over something so insignificant has left me feeling seriously betrayed and disappointed with this school.

That is all. Thanks for letting me vent, skanks. Feel free to continue to comment.

[bradm]

When I started teaching, the board administration was housed in 2 rooms above a bowling alley in downtown Smiths Falls. I kid you not. That same administration now occupies 3 multi-million dollar complexes in 3 different cities and isn't doing any better job than was done above the bowling alley.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law

Aloha,

Brad

[Dr. J]

Good call Brad. Parkinson's whole notion of the coefficient of inefficiencies and comitology (where a committee or governing body grows to the point of irrelevance) is right on.

For education to take place you need two things - a teacher + a student - nothing more, nothing less. Everything else in the system (whether it be buses, buildings, counsellors, research grants, boards of directors, consultants, government ministries etc. etc etc) exists to support the dynamic that takes place between those two. They have no other purpose in and of themselves.

Unfortunately, as the bureaucracy grows (and fears for its existence as its relevance decreases), decisions cease to be based on its original reason for existing (to support teacher + student). There eventually occurs as the young lady above points out, "a total disconnect between the administration and the student body."

The attempt to get the system to re-focus on what its purpose should be is both admirable and daunting. I commend the Rev and others who accept the challenge. Good luck guys...and I mean that sincerely.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I remember the last TA strike I was in on at U of Toronto. What the head of OISE got in a salary hike would have put dozens of TAs and sessional instructors into the mix. And this was all the while that Pres. Robert Pritchard was being limo-driven to his office every day. "Makes this place look like a world-class institution" was how I remember one person trying to justify it.

[Dr. J]

That's the funny thing. The further one removes themselves from the classroom....teacher > principal > superintendent > director > minister of education....one's direct relevance to the educational process decreases, but one's salary increases.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Great racket, eh?

Time to reflect on the wisdom of Douglas Adams' concept of the B-Ark.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Just saw this. Really makes you wonder. I'm kind of embarrassed the guy's in my own discipline (though having seen how universities load up classrooms, I'm not entirely unsympathetic).

Students offered a B-minus for skipping classes.

And, oh great, I just ran across this as well -

Johnny Still Can't Read - in College.

Edited January 21, 2006 by Guest
More disheartening news.

[Blane]

Good reading folks. Thanks a lot.

I'm dealing with basically the same shit here at McGill, where our faculty (Education) has systematically been passed over by administration, and the Chancelor has apparently come right out and said she feels it's a 2nd class discipline. Thus there is no guaranteed funding offered to PhD students, little connection with the rest of the university and a real sense of detachment.

To compensate for the attrition of funds, they've brought in a new "all business" type of Dean who has jacked up class sizes (I'm TA-ing a 4th year class of 117 students right now!), dumped the sessional lecturers, and tried to bring in flashy name Endowed Chairs to give some "glitz" to the faculty. Welcome to the world of Education Inc. I guess...

As an aside, have you folks been following the McCarthy-esque "radical" witch-hunt happening at UCLA right now, with the publication of a "Dirty Thirty" list of the most "left leaning, radical" (read: not supportive of Israel, versed in Marxist theory, deconstruction of Capitalism, *shudder* Feminist) profs on campus as a part of a smear campaign against teaching with a progressive bent. Check it out:

http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=35507

http://www.uclaprofs.com/articles/dirtythirty.html

Humourously, Peter Mclaren, a Canadian, tops the list of evil liberals.

Edited January 21, 2006 by Guest

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

To compensate for the attrition of funds, they've brought in a new "all business" type of Dean who has jacked up class sizes (I'm TA-ing a 4th year class of 117 students right now!), dumped the sessional lecturers, and tried to bring in flashy name Endowed Chairs to give some "glitz" to the faculty. Welcome to the world of Education Inc. I guess..

That's perfectly obscene and very hard to watch. When is the next round of TA contracts up? These "all business" deans seem to be all the rage. Is there much noise coming from students, or are they just trying to take it in stride?

As an aside, have you folks been following the McCarthy-esque "radical" witch-hunt happening at UCLA right now, with the publication of a "Dirty Thirty" list of the most "left leaning, radical" (read: not supportive of Israel, versed in Marxist theory, deconstruction of Capitalism, *shudder* Feminist) profs on campus as a part of a smear campaign against teaching with a progressive bent. Check it out:...

Thanks - there's my morning reading. I remember last year some proposals in the HR being tabled to rescind funding to university departments that had faculty of the sort targetted here. Really scary.

[Blane]

That's perfectly obscene and very hard to watch. When is the next round of TA contracts up? These "all business" deans seem to be all the rage. Is there much noise coming from students, or are they just trying to take it in stride?

Not too sure when they're up as I just started back in Sept. Students have mixed responses. Some of the grad students are excited to have the "big name" profs added to the faculty (if you're in cultural studies, you've probably heard of Joe Kincheloe and his wife Shirley Steinberg, who joined the faculty this month, assuredly for big $$$), but I'm sure if they were to step back and think of how many other lecturers could have been paid with that cash, they'd rethink their attitudes a bit.

At any rate, it's unfortunate that we're stuck in a "streamlining" era of higher-ed. Master's students are being STRONGLY encouraged to be in and out in two years tops, and I'm being told that I can be through my PhD in 3.

[secondtube]

117 students in a class?

what the fuck.

students pay big bucks for their education.

i pay 2 grand a year for THREE semesters, and we have a class of 21 (if everyone is present)...

teachers know EVERY student by first name, and every student is on FIRST name basis with the coordinator.

She is Julie. Not mrs ryan.

Education can be fantastic. Just sometimes it needs to be at a college level, instead of univer$ity.

[d_rawk]

Wowza. Many of my classes are in big auditoriums with at least 100+. Not only would the prof not know you to look at you (if you haven't met him/her outside class in office hours or been involved in a discussion group with them), but I'd actually be hard pressed to think of some of their names (first *or* last).

2 grand a year sounds lovely. 3 semesters? I am fackin' jealous!

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

At any rate, it's unfortunate that we're stuck in a "streamlining" era of higher-ed. Master's students are being STRONGLY encouraged to be in and out in two years tops, and I'm being told that I can be through my PhD in 3.

I've never known anyone to get their doctorate done in three years (except my sister, but she's a freak ). At U of T, the shortest time I knew someone to get through in was four, and she racked up all sorts of money for having done so, got her thesis published for her efforts, the whole nine yards. The average in my experience is six (that's about what it took me). Our department, though, came under orders to cut people off after five (no funding, no TAships, anything), in order to keep the numbers rolling. And then people wonder why there's a glut of PhDs out there.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Education can be fantastic. Just sometimes it needs to be at a college level, instead of univer$ity.

Agreed. I just wish I felt more free to treat my students at the college I'm now at as students, and not as "clients" (which, as I think I mentioned elsewhere, is an improvement from what they called them a few years back, which was "units"). People learn better, I think, when they don't feel like they deserve to have you do all their work for them because they paid a lot of money. My sense is also that the admin will back up said clients against instructors, the customer being always right and all that.

[secondtube]

drawk, books are on top of that, but i just checked my last years tuition, and with tax its 2260, for three semesters.

if i could, i'd rate my program 100% satisfactory.

[d_rawk]

"clients"? Gawdam.

DEM - you're at Algonquin right? I was actually surprised to hear that it had a philosophy program, as I'd always considered it a business and policing school. Are the humanities faculties there robust? I live just down the street, and everyone I know who goes there is training to be either an accountant, an engineer, some vague unidentified form of business-person (most common), or disgruntled security guard.

secondtube - where are you at, and what're taking?

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Where I'm in is the General Arts and Science program, which is where the only really Humanities-geared courses are offered; part of its function is to act as a post-secondary buffer where people can sort out whether their chosen (career-directed) programs are in fact the ones they want. There are some great people on faculty, by all accounts, though by the sound of it the faculty has to struggle not a little to get adequate (viz. financial) recognition from the school. Most of the students (not clients!) I see are in ECE, art, or technical streams.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Update -

UPEI bounces lecturer who offered dropouts a passing grade .

I hope, at least, he feels he made some sort of point, considering he's likely just shot his career down the pipes.