The Illuminator

2011-08-01T06:40:00.002-04:00

Dragosavac Wins Overload Greivance

2011-07-12T15:10:00.002-04:00

Arbitrator sides with Faculty; College apparently intends to continue violating CBA; Dragosavac uncertain, hopeful; questions next steps...

From ESEA President, Larry Dragosavac:

I want to share my experience over this last year about my grievance.

The college decided to limit overload and restrict the use of release time, fifteen days after saying in negotiations that they would not pursue those actions. During the months to come, my schedule was affected, and the result that I would lose approximately $10,000 in wages in a year. I believed, and still believe, this was a revenge tactic by our past president; For that reason, I decided to file a grievance. The grievance went all the way to binding arbitration--the arbitrator sided with me, but I am not sure yet what was won.

The arbitrator indicated one of the violations was the lack of notification that my hours would be limited. Since we have been notified for over a year, I believe the college attempt to continue limiting overload. In fact, I have already received an email from my dean indicating that I am limited to 21 hours.

I do not understand the thinking behind the college’s decision. Limiting overload means adjuncts teach instead of a full-time faculty. We have lots of qualified adjunct faculty in many disciplines, but it is difficult to find qualified adjuncts for some classes In my program. The accounting department has built-in quality checks: we assign qualified adjuncts who work in specific fields of expertise to teach classes I am not as qualified to teach, such as tax and auditing.

Their claim that limiting overload saves the college money is mysterious. In the most basic sense, the directive saves money. Adjunct pay per credit hour is less than overload pay for full-time faculty; however, if you consider other factors, you will discover that this costs the college in money, time and quality.

Also, their request that we teach new GEN-101 classes in overload, but limiting overload in our areas of expertise is a stark contradiction.

Cancelled classes and unhappy students who leave for Sinclair, or Clark State, were not factored into the college's decision. Consider this unsettling anecdote: Because of overload limits, the college replaced me with an unqualified adjunct in one particular class. Taught by a cheaper, less-qualified adjunct, the students did not learn the material.

When I first joined Edison’s faculty, I questioned the need for a union--not just at Edison, but any college. I soon discovered that the need for Edison was valid, because of the vast difference between faculty and administration about what is the best interests of student learning.

I hope that with our new leadership, the union issues will be minimal and the faculty and administration will converge on the right activities to ensure quality education for our students.

Respectfully,

Larry J. Dragosavac
Professor of Accounting

No Fooling This Apr. 1: Emancipation Day Is Here!

2011-04-01T20:58:00.002-04:00

A little music to celebrate by, courtesy the Junta:

Oddly enough, NOT KY at an Edison Board of Trustee's Meeting

2011-01-28T15:06:00.003-05:00

End of the Semester Musings: Lessons on Raising the Bar and Small Successes

2010-12-16T22:54:00.001-05:00

As I rush to grade final papers and revisions, I always find myself making mental notes on how to improve my courses for the next semester. Of course, when that next semester comes around, I find myself scrambling to remember what I told myself. I've solved the problem (somewhat) by taking notes. I've had my share of challenges and successes this semester. My next step is to keep those successes going strong while addressing the challenges to improve for next semester.

This semester had some major changes in my courses. After hearing many of my colleagues bemoaning student writing skills, especially on research papers, I blocked off a major section of my course schedule devoted to research. My composition courses featured a six week "Research Intensive" where students researched a topic, submitted an annotated bibliography of ten sources, and wrote a 4-5 page research paper. They did this twice, once in MLA and once in APA, on different topics.

For the most part, my students rose to the challenge. I read some pretty good research papers. While my students don't know APA or MLA like the back of their hand, I am pretty sure they have a grasp of the basic concepts and--most importantly--how to find resources to help them understand the formatting when they can't remember. My composition students are leaving the course having written more essays than any of my composition students before them. I feel pretty good about that.

What doesn't feel so good is the amount of time it took to grade these papers. Adding a sixth essay to a course that normally requires four is my own fault--I know. This semester was a test for me: how much could I push my students? The answer: until my arms fall off. I think my students, most of them, passed the test. They were willing to participate in my experiment of teaching two citation methods. However, I can't help but feel a little guilty for getting behind in my grading. Sometimes, when I teach, I feel like I am the one doing the learning. This semester, I've learned that when I raise the bar on my students, I've got to raise the bar on myself.

So, I adapted my grading for the last writing assignment. The conference time I normally spend with my students each class became part of the grading process. If part of the draft met the requirement on my rubric, I marked it as met. If not, the student and I discussed how to meet the requirement. By the time papers were officially due, I had a better feeling for the paper and that greatly sped up my grading--which meant I could have had essays for four sections returned by the next class meeting, had I not had to catch up on other papers. Still, turn around for that assignment was still faster than any other paper this semester.

It's these little successes, especially the ones that come out of the feeling of failure, that make me look forward to the next semester. Not only did my experiences teach me a new way to grade--a method I had hoped to incorporate over a year ago but couldn't figure out how--but allowed me to have a stronger sense of collaboration with my students. I have always spent a lot of class time in one-on-one "conferences" with students during work days (it's a writing class, so let's write). While going to each student and speaking to him or her about the assignment allowed me to see what and how each student was doing, I wasn't doing enough. Sure, none of my students could hide the fact that they weren't prepared, but there weren't any consequences. The big change for me is calling students up to my desk rather than going to each student. This puts me in a more authoritarian position (which I don't necessarily like) but perhaps it's what the students need. The next step is to figure out what to do with the students who never have a draft prepared. And that's where I am with next semester's syllabus.

As I mentioned before, I've had some successful moments. The highlight of this semester was the discussion of the final reading for the class. I like to pull articles from online magazines to supplement our course reader. We read things differently if they're in a text book, so these online readings demonstrate a real-world application of their critical thinking and analytical skills. These readings are meant to be provocative in order to challenge students to re-think what they already know. I don't know if it's solely due to the nature of the readings or if it's the accessibility of them, but students in one of my classes revealed that they shared these articles with friends and family members. So, not only did I get to hear my students' reactions to the essays, but I got to hear them tell me other people's reactions.

What was great about hearing my students share the reading was how involved they were with the material. Not only did my students share something from their course work, they got to experience the role of the teacher by working with a less experienced reader. Due to the provocative nature of these essays (one essay was titled "Women Can't Cook," written by a married couple to explore gender stereotypes), many of these friends and family members were outraged by what my students were asked to read. My students had to explain these essays to their friends and family members. That experience, I feel, teaches them more about critical thinking than I can hope to show them in 15 weeks.

As a composition teacher, I rarely get to see the effects of my teaching (unless it's negative). Most of my students take one or two classes from me and move on having practiced a skill they will use in almost every class they take. It's evident from the conversations I have with fellow faculty that students don't take writing as seriously outside of the composition class. The idea of an educational foundation seems to be lost in the world of "tell me what I need to do to get an A" students. The idea of writing well as an important part of communicating well--no matter how much I stress it in class--doesn't appear to take hold.

I can only hope that some fraction of what I teach, what I ask my students do, sinks in. Perhaps that's why I keep raising the bar. Try to shake the idea that we are "Edi High" from my students' collective mindset exposes how thin the lines are between challenging students and driving them off, and between nurturing students and enabling to be too dependent on the instructor's input.

These small successes keep me moving forward, finding balance. I am looking forward to discovering new successes in this next semester. I'm sure this energy will fade over the break, so I wanted to capture it here before I lost it.

Feel free to post your own successes in the comments.

Well, yes. Then there's that.

2010-09-01T21:54:00.007-04:00

It doesn't have to be this way.

2010-07-27T11:09:00.005-04:00

Two excellent articles from the Chronicle that bear directly on Edison's climate.

How to treat college employees.
Some colleges value their adjuncts.

Asks the referrer: "Good God, how many good teachers have we killed with adjunct teaching?"

Sic Semper Tyrannis

2010-07-23T20:00:00.003-04:00

Bell, California deals with public corruption, inflated administrative salaries, lack of transparency, Trustees who've forgotten the "trust" part of their titles, the use of procedural tricks to avoid accountability, and a constituency aching for a return common sense.

Edison feels you, Bell.

What Edison Can Afford Is Relative And Conditional, Isn't It?

2010-06-29T17:51:00.005-04:00

[Sigh.]

Does the KY Administration Hate America, Apple Pie and Puppies??

2010-06-27T11:31:00.006-04:00

The folks over at the Dimbulbs are on to something. Looks like Edison has stopped flying the American flag--for Memorial Day, and perhaps for the July 4th Holidays. God knows the excuse will be something monetary--as it has been for years whenever KY's minions are caught being miniony--but frankly, at this point, it doesn't really matter. It's. Just. Sad. Things the KY administration also probably completely and totally detests with all its fat, black heart:

and,

American Apparel Learns From Edison?

2010-06-27T11:15:00.006-04:00

From the Completely Absurd Policies Foisted Upon Grown Ups With Things To Do By Sanity Challenged CEO's With Sartorial Issues Department.

You'll notice the terrible spelling and contextual confusion inherent in American Apparel's "dress code."

Cause it's an expression of profound illness by a crazy person whose sole excuse for exercising power over others is to preserve and extend deeply held, personal notions of having attained some level of sophistication his subordinates lack.

Ironically, to hold such notions is dispositive proof that one's concept of worldliness is really, um, sort of provincial, and probably has more to do with one's lame baby-boomer notions of propriety and booshy sensibilities than any real curatorial interest in corporate culture.

Viva los Pantalones Gauchos!

Updated link of interest.

Kool & The Gang Say:

2010-05-25T06:56:00.004-04:00

One of The Illuminator's greatest hits, to be sure.

Administrative Thinking

2010-05-19T11:59:00.004-04:00

And you thought that Letterman was the only show offering close-up slight of hand this week! The dangling carrot is never as appealing when you know it is plastic.

OMG!

2010-05-19T01:03:00.003-04:00

Alert the Daily Call! The Yowell Administration...is...complying...with state bidding requirements for...contracts! Of course, it begs the question of what process applied to Edison's other hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of contract awards, doesn't it?

Faculty Reject Yowell Proposals

2010-05-17T16:48:00.003-04:00

Faculty resoundingly rejected the Yowell administration's absurd contract proposals, by a vote of 27-2-3.

Not us. We have Security.

2010-05-08T02:32:00.002-04:00

Ain't No Inglorious Basterds

2010-05-07T09:46:00.004-04:00

Little comic relief for the faculty who confuse ENG 121 with ENG 090, and the English faculty who have been explaining the difference for, like, 35 years. Fatwas in the comments, please.

The Real Cost of Education

2010-05-06T14:30:00.002-04:00

The Frontline series on PBS had an in-depth look at the ways that colleges market themselves and who is really getting rich off education. Excellent conversations about the program and the ability to watch it online. College Inc.

PSEOP's Invade Greendale College

2010-04-30T12:38:00.000-04:00

Notice: Some Rude Humor.

Image 3!

2010-04-24T10:42:00.003-04:00

Third in a series where we take a more in-depth critical look at Edison's visual presence.

Gordon Gee's bowtie and blue-shoes research.

In our last installment in this series, I previewed this one by asking "how does Gordon Gee get away with that bowtie?" Fortuitously, the Chronicle of Higher Education followed up just a couple of weeks later with an article about several higher-ed presidents who, like Gee of OSU, regularly wear the Mister-Peepers-style accessory. Regrettably, the Chronicle engaged in no critical analysis--it merely quoted the presidents' opinions. Also regrettably, Ken Yowell wasn't included.

The question remains: if a four-in-hand tie with diagonal stripes in conservative colors is the most successful style, according to good research, then why would anyone in an authoritative management position choose to wear anything else? Doesn't a bow tie constitute an admission that image isn't all that important?

The question has broader implications. If professional attire is crucial to our effectiveness as a college, then how much damage is done by "Casual Friday" or "Summer Attire" or "Dress Up for Hallowe'en" or "Blue Jeans for Charity"--all of which have been officially-sanctioned abandonments of Edison's dress codes.

To answer the question, we need to look at how that good research is conducted.

Blue Shoes Research

That's what one of my graduate professors called the type of research that image consultants rely on; John T. Molloy claimed to have conducted thousands of such projects. Here's how it's done.

First, you get stimuli--those are things you're going to show to participants in the study. They can be photographs, videos, audiorecordings--Molloy sometimes used himself. Then you change key elements in the stimuli--for instance, you might retouch the photos of a businessman so that you have some copies that show him in a brown suit, others in a gray one, still others in navy, black, green, turquoise. Then you show sets of the pictures to management executives and ask them "based only on these pictures, which of these people would you hire/promote?"

Molloy thought that people who would make such decisions based on appearance were foolish--but, he noted, all of the execs had no trouble doing so. And when the data was sorted out, blue and gray suits got hired and promoted far more often than any other color (except in Chicago, where brown also did well).

This sort of research seems reasonable and scientific, and back before 1960 studies like these were the basis of most academic research in persuasion. But this research misses the mark in one important way. Human beings are complex, and reducing the quality of their interactions to one trait is not valid. That was proven in 1964, when William McGuire did a meta-analysis of many persuasion studies and demonstrated interaction effects. In plainer language, a gray suit might be the best thing if all other things are equal--but all the other things aren't equal, and sometimes the pink suit is better.

Interaction Effects and Idiosyncrasy Credits

No reasonable person can prescribe a strict dress code that works.

First, the interaction effects mean that sometimes, wearing "the uniform" is a bad idea. U.S. Presidential campaigns are instructive: "the uniform" (recently) is a tailored two-piece business suit in navy, white shirt, and red or blue necktie. In the most recent election, both major candidates often appeared coatless and tieless, and Obama frequently rolled up his sleeves. On other occasions, both adopted polo shirts. Their image consultants knew that there are times when the dress-for-success look is unsuccessful.

Second, within any organization, there are some individuals (more often, those of high status due to job importance or seniority) who can get away with breaking some of the unwritten rules. We say that these individuals have "idiosyncrasy credits"; they get to be different from everyone else without damaging their effectiveness.

Third and finally, people are not alike. Some will need to adjust their attire to compensate for individual differences, ranging from quirks of personal appearance to qualifying disabilities. We shouldn't forget that rigid dress codes run counter to the acceptance of diversity.

So Gordon Gee gets away with that bow tie because (a) he has a general Mr. Peepers sort of look and the bow tie doesn't seem out of place (b) his long tenure in higher education administration affords him a good number of idiosyncrasy credits (c) he may find it strategically to his advantage to disarm others by having a less-then-corporate appearance (d) all of the above.

Next: clothes don't make the college--what are the other ways in which Edison creates an image?

More Community

2010-04-23T21:13:00.003-04:00

Retirement Breakfast Planned!

2010-04-14T10:53:00.003-04:00

The Dimbulbs have posted an open invite for a retirement breakfast on April 23, 2010.

WHIO Tells It Like It Is, Unintentionally.

2010-04-11T21:49:00.010-04:00

Story has "no lead", much like the College.
No quotes from anyone who actually has to work with KY.

Can this Board, after doing the wrong thing at every turn, do the right thing with The Search? What do you want in Edison's new leadership? Tell us in the comments.

Sigh: Faculty Members at Idaho State U. Vote No Confidence in Provost

2010-04-11T21:23:00.002-04:00

Nearly 70 percent of Idaho State University faculty members who participated in an advisory vote last week expressed no confidence in their provost, Gary A. Olson, the Idaho State Journal reported. The vote has no binding effect. Mr. Olson, who has been at Idaho State for less than a year, has led efforts to develop a sweeping reorganization plan that is intended to save up to $1-million. But some faculty critics say the plan would create excessive administrative oversight, while others doubt the savings it would generate. Mr. Olson, a regular contributor of advice columns to The Chronicle, could not be reached for comment in the Idaho State Journal's article.

via Chronicle of Higher Ed.

2010-04-06T22:07:00.007-04:00

Even On This Chart, No Faculty

2010-03-05T10:28:00.002-05:00

Cheer your teams, pay your loans, and mind your business.

2010-03-04T21:44:00.007-05:00

by David Zirin

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." - Frederick Douglass

On Thursday, I was proud to take part in a student walkout at the University of Maryland in defense of public education. It was just one link in a National Day of Action that saw protests in more than 32 states across the country. I am not a student, and haven't been since those innocent days when Monica Lewinsky mattered, but I was asked to come speak at a post walkout teach-in about the way sports is used to attack public education. It might sound like a bizarre topic, but it's the world that students see every day.

At the University of Maryland, as tuition has been hiked and classes cut, football coach Ralph Friedgen makes a base salary of 1.75 million bucks, which would be outrageous even if the team weren't two steps past terrible. Friedgen also gets perks like a $50,000 bonus if none of his players are arrested during the course of the season.

Ground zero of the student protest movement is the University of California at Berkeley. Over at Berkeley, students are facing 32% tuition hikes, while the school pays football coach Jeff Tedford $2.8 million a year and is finishing more than $400 million in renovations on the football stadium. This is what students see: boosters and alumni come first, while they've been instructed to cheer their teams, pay their loans, and mind their business.

The counterargument is that college athletic departments fund themselves and actually put money back into a school's general fund. This is simply not true. The October Knight Commission report of college presidents stated that the 25 top football schools had revenues on average of $3.9 million in 2008. The other 94 ran deficits averaging $9.9 million. When athletic departments run deficits, it's not like the football coach takes a pay cut. In other words, if the team is doing well, the entire school benefits. If the football team suffers, the entire school suffers. This, to put it mildly, is financial lunacy. A school would statistically be better off if it took its endowment to Vegas and just bet it all on black.

If state colleges are hurting, your typical urban public school is in a world of pain with budgets slashed to the bone. Politicians act like these are problems beyond their control like the weather. ("50% chance of sun and a 40% chance of losing music programs.")

In truth, they are the result of a comprehensive attack on public education that has seen the system starved. One way this has been implemented is through stadium construction, the grand substitute for anything resembling an urban policy in this country. Over the last generation, we've seen $30 billion in public funds spent on stadiums. They were presented as photogenic solutions to deindustrialization, declining tax bases, and suburban flight. The results are now in and they don't look good for the home teams. University of Maryland sports economists Dennis Coates and University of Alberta Brad R. Humphreys studied stadium funding over 30 years and failed to find one solitary example of a sports franchise lifting or even stabilizing a local economy. They concluded the opposite: "a reduction in real per capita income over the entire metropolitan area....Our conclusion, and that of nearly all academic economists studying this issue, is that professional sports generally have little, if any, positive effect on a city's economy." These projects achieve so little because the jobs created are low wage, service sector, seasonal employment. Instead of being solutions of urban decay, the stadiums have been tools of organized theft: sporting shock doctrines for our ailing cities.

With crumbling schools, higher tuitions, and an Education Secretary in Arne Duncan who seems more obsessed with providing extra money for schools that break their teachers unions, it's no wonder that the anger is starting to boil over. It can also bubble up in unpredictable ways. On Wednesday night, after the University of Maryland men's basketball team beat hated arch-rival Duke, students were arrested after pouring into the streets surrounding the campus. In years past, these sporting riots have been testosterone run amok, frat parties of burning mattresses and excessive inebriation. This year it was different, with police needing to use pepper spray and horses to quell the 1,500 students who filled Route 1. In response, students chanted, "Defense! Defense!" At the Thursday teach in, I said to the students that I didn't think there was anything particularly political or interesting about a college sports riot. One person shot his hand up and said, "It wasn't a riot until the cops showed up." Everyone proceeded to applaud. I was surprised at first that these politically minded students would be defending a post-game melee, but no longer. The anger is real and it isn't going anywhere. While schools are paying football coaches millions and revamping stadiums, students are choosing between dropping out or living with decades of debt. One thing is certain: it aint a game.

Posted via web from entersxion

College: Now Free With Purchase of High School [Trendwatch]

2010-02-08T10:33:00.004-05:00

From Trendy NY Tabblog Gawker:
College: Now Free With Purchase of High School

Disturbing trend: Non-rich kids are being allowed to get college credit while still in high school—an activity previously reserved for hoity-toits in AP classes. Wealthies, if it's any consolation, at least the poors aren't getting anything of value. [NYT]

Posted via web from entersxion

Yowell Bars Faculty From Budget Committee

2010-01-24T09:20:00.003-05:00

KY has once again shown his contempt for Edison's faculty by refusing to seat Larry Dragosavac or Brad Reed on Edison's budget committee, despite contract provisions guaranteeing faculty representation...

Developing...

With Consultants Like These, Who Needs An Illuminator?

2010-01-22T07:17:00.011-05:00

Last year, in the middle of a so-called "financial crisis," KY's regime hired an expensive consulting firm to ask Edison's employees questions about why the College's Datatel driven procedures don't work for squat. The answers were there for the asking, but the Empire probably didn't want the ones it would've received, and likely hoped paying for answers would make them different.

This morning, enjoy a sampling of the group's suggestions, culled from its 17-page report (we bet about a thou per page, but that's probably low), with obligatorily snarky interjections from your trusty Junta:

...The Dashboard

Since the dashboards are web based it would be our recommendation to use Google Analytics to see what dashboards are being utilized. Because dashboards are labor intensive we recommend that the utilization be tracked to ensure that resources are being allocated appropriately. Additionally, as stated in Reporting, we recommend tying in a third party reporting tool like Informer to see if it can be integrated with Xcelsius to up-date the dashboards automatically...

Apparently, the consultants assume the dashboard is intended to reflect actual objective data.

...IT

It is difficult to tell if the Information Technology Department (IT) is adequately staffed because there are a number of staff members that perform IT functions but yet are not directly allocated to the IT Department...

Ouch.

…This presents an internal control issue that must be addressed because non-IT staff members have administrator access to administrative systems. One example of this is Carol Rigola, who manages the Blackboard imports...

From several time-zones away, no less. Good thing the consultants don't work at Edison--this little epiphany would've probably got them canned.

…Currently, the Administrative and Network Computing Departments are separate which may cause a loss of efficiency...

Um, ya think?

...Moreover, there has been significant turnover in other departments…

Like most employees of the college, but only sort-of-not-really…oh, and the Academic VP, A&S's Dean, The Registrar, etc., etc...okay, fine, fine. We leak talent like a sieve. You know what could fix that? Bonuses.

…which has put additional requirements on IT for training and support. These departments are contacting IT for routine questions that they should be able to resolve internally. Each department should have documented business processes and workflows to assist newer staff in resolving minor routine issues…The IT staff is tasked with writing many queries and this is taking a large portion of their time. The staff is also bringing the patch load process back in-house and will be required to keep the environments up- to-date….In order to achieve better internal controls, we recommend that all traditional IT functions be migrated back to IT personnel...

Let us know how that works out.

…The institution must also identify if any non-IT personnel needs to be transferred to the IT department in order for IT to maintain all these functions…

Nice save, consultants! Hook 'em, Horns!

…Long-term we would suggest restructuring the department in a more traditional way as seen at a number of other institutions…

But that would mean transparency and diminished ability to just order things be done however you feel like it that day!

…The Administrative and Networking Computing Departments should be unified under a single Executive Director who traditionally reports to the CFO…

We had something like that once, back around twenty-aught-four. Then we didn't.

…Reporting

On a positive note, the institution has successfully implemented the FRx tool (at, no joke, about $4,000 per user). The institution uses FRx to produce monthly financial reports to the Board including actuals and forecasts…

But, just recently the Board was told there was no way to do up-to-date monthly reports or forecasts, and later the consultants say these reports are produced by the budget office's staff. Did somebody fib to the pricey consultants? Or did somebody fib to the board? And, at a glance, it looks like Datatel could do what FRx does--but, as shown below, it appears that nobody knows how to operate either of them, so what could it hurt? We should probably just keep buying software until we get something that keeps the books on its own.

...Financial Aid

…the techniques that are being used are old…

You can't even soften that up in passive voice.

...Business Office

There is general consensus…that Datatel is not user friendly partly because it is too large…

…The staff has never been trained on how to use the Colleague AR system and struggle with anything beyond basic tasks…

Zing! Is this thing on?

…[t]hey often rely on Information Technology to write their queries…

Cause IT has nothing else to do…not that IT would ever complain or anything cause they wouldn't, never ever.

And on, and on:

…the Business Office does not have a good handle on Colleague AR…

…they were not involved in the implementation and do not understand the set-up…

…Sometimes they have unexplained issues with the billing process…

And, this whopper, which everyone knows but doesn't seem to be making its way to the Board of Trustees:

"…and have been cited by auditors for having questionable business practices…"

For crying out loud. &:

…They currently use Excel to manage…Payment Plans…

Heck, if FRx and Excel weren't both Microsoft products, you'd think they'd work together.

…they manually process the new security fee for each student…

(The Illuminator is still unsure what a "security fee" is, unless it pays for Commencement Thugs or Lot-SWAT)

…When asked why these items were not customized, the staff stated the College wanted to keep the software 'vanilla'…

Too...many...quips...can't...pick just...one....then, the intrepid consultants recommend:

…A top priority should be to do an in-depth assessment of the Colleague AR Business processes and system set-up because the staff does not have a clear understanding of the functionality…

More consulting? Yes, please!

…Once the assessment is complete, we recommend that the College re-implement deficient areas of the system and train the staff on how to implement and use the module…

Despite which they already know we'll need to hit the reset button.

...customizations are minor and could be completed in a minimal amount of time by an experienced Colleague programmer…

If we hadn't blown our budget on staffing for Blackboard Imports and reporting software. Quick, Strategeric HR! Fire the entire classified staff! And any bitchy faculty members!

…We recommend that these changes be made in order to better service the Students…

Or simply to function? And we think they meant "serve" the students. But they're consultants and don't "utilize" English well.

…General ledger

Currently, the GL system is set-up in a fashion that allows Budget Officers to go over their budgets with purchase requisitions…

Like by tens of thousands of dollars for "reporting" software?

…Budget Officers can authorize Purchase Requisitions that cause them to go over budget in a particular line item without doing a transfer of funds. This practice has resulted in departments going over budget as a whole…

But…but…wasn't it faculty greed that caused Edison's financial mess? Hm. Guess not.

…Additionally, there have been cases that purchase requisitions have been charged to other line items outside of the Budget Officer’s authority…

Upper-level Administrative Professional Development and accreditation consulting junkets don't pay for themselves, bub.

…Someone from the Budget Office presently creates and distributes monthly budget reports…

Using super-expensive software, we hope.

…It appears most divisions keep shadow databases to manage their budgets in between reports…

Because nobody trusts the official books--why is it that The Junta has been drunk, collectively, in mafia-owned taverns with fewer sets of books than Edison?

…with various levels of accuracy…

As the auditors would tell you, if they told you, which they didn't, because the full report is locked away, somewhere in a bank in the middle of Beverly Hills, in somebody else's name.

…The divisions would be interested in accessing their budget and encumbrance information in real-time…

As a completely unrelated riddle: Q. What's a warm, yellow astringent that smart people can use to identify bad guys? A. Sunlight.

…The institution should implement or tighten GL security and on-line authorization to force staff generating purchase requests to encumber funds on authorized and funded GL accounts. This recommendation was also made by the forensic auditor who performer a special internal control audit this past Fall. The College should implement the Datatel My Budget module for all Budget Managers so they can access real-time budget information via WebAdvisor…

Fat Chance, Consulty.

…This would eliminate staff time necessary to create and distribute monthly budget reports and allow Budget Managers to have real-time access to their budget information…

Oh my. My, oh my. And this was from people we paid, who hoped we would buy more stuff from them. Can you imagine what someone with subpoena power, a master key and open eyes might find?

Edison's Continuing Crisis Garner's Eyes of eBossWatch

2010-01-17T21:46:00.002-05:00

eBossWatch was launched by Asher Adelman in 2007 to help people avoid toxic workplaces. The site says, "...it is very difficult during the job interview process to discover the true environment at a potential employer and the true nature of a potential manager...eBossWatch is a critical resource for people who are considering a career change." Lately, the site has begun chronicling KY's Reign of Error for posterity's sake.

Oh, Fun.

2010-01-15T07:28:00.002-05:00

TippNewsDaily Covers Quincy's Suit

2010-01-14T12:31:00.013-05:00

Video Interview--Tipp News Daily
Radio Interview--GetSocial Radio

Union Meeting 11410

2010-01-14T12:17:00.008-05:00

Call to Order: 12:05
Budget Committee membership and Negotiation Team is a possible conflict of interest; LD & BR will recuse. Interested members should volunteer with Larry. SM asked about the nature of conflict. LD & BR explained.
Insurance Study Committee Report: LD updates on USO possibilities, otherwise, expect increase.
Negotiation Team: LD, BR, PH, IS; Observers: JC, SS, JK, BW. JK asks about faculty calendar input. Info only discussion on calendar: CE, LD, BR, JK.
Discussion of Negotiations & Contract Issues, all. [redacted.]
Adjourned: 1 pm.

Inside Higher Ed posts on Edison and Related Issues

2009-12-23T10:02:00.007-05:00

Once again, the sagas at Edison are mentioned in Inside Higher Ed. Quincy Essinger's lawsuit makes the "Quick Takes" section.

In related news, another article, one of the top headlines on Inside Higher Ed, throws some sand in the eyes of those watching the recent lawsuit against Edison. The article begins with ominous news from a recent case at Idaho State University: "a court has suggested that faculty members at public colleges and universities do not have First Amendment protection when criticizing their administrations."

The article cites two cases, one in which a professor was fired for comments the administration "believed crossed over lines of professionalism, but that he said represented the appropriate right to express dissent. He was fired despite a faculty panel's finding that there was not cause to do so, and his suit against the university charges that the university denied him his First Amendment rights by dismissing him."

The other case involves a professor who believed he was denied a merit raise because of an all too familiar complaint: "that his department was relying too much on part-time instructors to teach lower-division courses, and that students were entitled to full-time professors." This case is under appeal.

The article connects both rulings to a supreme court ruling called Garcetti v. Ceballos, which the American Association of University Professors says creates a dangerous precident. Indeed, the judge in the second case stated in his ruling that the professor should have realized "'that he has limitations of his speech that he accepted when becoming a state employee.'"

Garcetti v. Ceballos states:

When public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, they are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline. Pp. 5–14. (a) Two inquiries guide interpretation of the constitutional protections accorded public employee speech. The first requires determining whether the employee spoke as a citizen on a matter of public concern.

and:

(b) Proper application of the Court’s precedents leads to the conclusion that the First Amendment does not prohibit managerial discipline based on an employee’s expressions made pursuant to official responsibilities.

and finally:

(c) Exposing governmental inefficiency and misconduct is a matter of considerable significance, and various measures have been adopted to protect employees and provide checks on supervisors who would order unlawful or otherwise inappropriate actions. These include federal and state whistle-blower protection laws and labor codes and, for government attorneys, rules of conduct and constitutional obligations apart from the First Amendment. However, the Court’s precedents do not support the existence of a constitutional cause of action behind every statement a public employee makes in the course of doing his or her job.

If the court were to decide that Quincy was acting as an employee rather than a citizen at the board meeting, then it doesn't look Quincy has a chance. This, of course, will lead to an interesting slippery slope to what degree of activity employment contracts encompass (particularly for adjuncts). I'll leave the legal debate to others.

We are, as Bender from Futurama says, boned.

Malfeasance in other high places

2009-12-22T08:41:00.004-05:00

The NY Times today has explored allegations of fiduciary misdeeds against the president and board of Stevens Institute of Technology--with recaps of similar goings-on as Adelphi, Towson, and Texas Southern.

Provided at this time without comment.

Home to Roost

2009-12-19T08:34:00.006-05:00

Oh, my. The Dayton Daily News is covering Quincy's lawsuit. Also, bringing up the rear as always, the Daily Call; it's worth noting Nancy Bowman, a real journalist, is on the case there. (Why does Dayton's paper know what's going on before Piqua's? Why does the national media know what's going on before Dayton's?) For a reminder, here's the video that made KY flip out and put himself and our College in a world of hurt:

Dimbulbs post on Federal Lawsuit

2009-12-18T16:42:00.002-05:00

In case you haven't checked it out, the Dimbulbs have posted about a federal lawsuit against Edison stemming back to the April 15th Board meeting.

Image 2!

2009-12-15T21:22:00.007-05:00

Second in a series where we explore the Edison image from a more scholarly perspective.

The Emperor Has Clothes--but are they the RIGHT clothes?

Do a web search for "dress for success" or "business attire" or any synonym and you'll find many websites from image consultants who will confirm that John T. Molloy's advice from the mid-70s in Dress for Success and The Women's Dress for Success Book has changed but little. The major difference is that a business suit for men is now two-piece rather than three-piece.

While there are some minor disagreements, the overall considerations for business attire remain the same. You dress according to your business' standards, your geographic region, your role in your business, and (most importantly) what your client expects you to wear.

Ohio--unlike Puerto Rico or Texas--has no distinctive regional style of business attire. Therefore, we're relatively safe with sticking to the mainstream recommendations of the image consulting industry. These recommendations break down into relatively few subsets in Edison's case.

The Look for the Boundary Spanners

"Boundary Spanner" is an academic term for anyone who crosses the boundary between the organization and the outside world on an official basis. It does not include everyone at Edison who has contact with students--students are not the outside world, they are a part of our organization. It does include everyone who acts as an official spokesperson for Edison to the media, to the government, or to the general public.

People in these positions are advised to wear the most conservative of business attire--they should dress like investment bankers. This appearance satisfies the prejudices of their target audiences; it conveys an image of stability and reliability (regardless of the recent degrading of the image of investment bankers). This is the stratum of the organization where the image consultant can be most prescriptive--the rules are narrow and widely recognized.

In particular, the attire should be:

MEN:

two-piece business suit in navy blue or grey (charcoal/silver--not verdigris, slate). Pinstripes optional.
white, long sleeved dress shirt (some also accept blue, but that color plays poorly among African-Americans).
necktie--a long tie, not a bow or bolo or other style--standard knot; solids or diagonal stripes in conservative colors, perhaps with some brighter color for contrast--alternatively, any tie recently seen on the President of the United States.
black hosiery, long enough so that the leg is not seen no matter how much the knee is bent.
black shoes, preferably wing-tips, highly polished.
wristwatch--preferably resembling a Rolex
wedding band (if married), class or professional ring--no more than 2 rings total.
medic-alert bracelet if needed.
professional briefcase.
no detectable aroma of aftershave or men's cologne.

WOMEN

business suit--skirt and matching blazer--in navy blue or grey, pinstripes optional (same colors as for men)--skirt should reach knees or slightly below.
business blouse (button-down and long sleeve) in white or pastel color.
something at the neckline to provide contrast--a neck scarf, a necktie that isn't the masculine long or bow tie, or a fancy neckline to the blouse itself.
if needed, neutral-colored non-patterned hosiery.
black business shoes--these are pumps with a 1-2 inch heel, black, highly polished, closed toes. Very tall women may opt for flats.
wristwatch that looks like a Rolex.
engagement ring and wedding band (if appropriate) and class or professional ring--no more than 3 rings total, and the style of the engagement ring and wedding band should match.
Medic-alert bracelet if needed.
no more than one earring in each lobe, small posts or tiny hoops, no other jewelry.
professional briefcase--businesswomen should not carry a purse.
invisible make-up, no detectable perfume or cologne.

Here, we might pause to identify the college's boundary spanners who deviate from these ideals. We've all seen men whose suits are not entirely business-style, whose neckwear takes flights of fancy--or women whose skirts barely reach the knee and whose shoes resemble open-toed stilts. But probably it's not necessary to name names. And we also might name the mid-level administrative assistants who have upheld these standards regardless of the strain it must put on their more-limited incomes--but best not to name them for fear of jealousy.

The Look for Faculty

John T. Molloy only mentions college faculty once in Dress for Success. In a section on selling, he notes that if you're trying to sell to college students for a charity or nonprofit, you might want to adopt the "rumpled, slightly seedy, professorial look."

That the college professor is the least polished-looking of professionals is widely known, and has often been explored--but not conclusively--in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Are there no standards?

There are some points that faculty should consider, but the leading one in my mind is that faculty are supposed to model their professions to the students. Now, do you interpret your profession to be the one you prepare students to do--or do you interpret your profession as professor?

faculty in liberal arts and sciences should adopt the quasi-casual styles traditional to those disciplines--moreover, since this is the stereotypical college professor style, it might be adopted by any member of the faculty--however, other disciplines may move toward more professional looks.
faculty who teach courses that lead to boundary-spanning positions (e.g., business management, paralegal, sales) might adopt the same sorts of attire that a graduate ought to wear in the professional office.
faculty who teach in disciplines that involve messy or hazardous materials ought to dress in durable work clothing--which would include denim blue jeans in many cases, since no other fabric is quite so durable and resistant to penetration by stains or noxious chemicals.
faculty in office professions that are non boundary spanning (accounting, IT) could dress professionally but not in the strict management-style attire of boundary spanners.
faculty in professions that require a uniform might choose to wear that uniform.

The Look for Student Services

This section doesn't only deal with the student services office, but all areas that serve students directly--libary, learning center, bookstore (tho' the bookstore is no longer under our control).

I still recall back in the first year of "swap days" when Bollenbacher and I volunteered to try to recruit at a local manufacturer. Impressed with the gravity of our assignment, Dick and I both showed up wearing Molloy-style management suits and ties. I was a little surprised when Chip Hare showed up in a polo shirt, but he was kind enough to explain (and experience confirmed) that business suits scare the people we want to recruit and a more 'business casual' approach is more successful.

Lesson learned--student services professionals need latitude in their outfits in order to make themselves approachable by students. The Molloy-style business suit ought generally to be discouraged in this line of work.

We'll not need to go into detail regarding the infrastructure employees, many of whom are uniformed and all of whom are dealing with far more important things then clothing.

next in the series: Are there any major exceptions--and if not where does Gordon Gee get off with that bowtie?

The Grass Is In Fact Greener

2009-11-29T22:03:00.003-05:00

Yup. The first place to go when balancing your budget is to start hacking away at facul...wait--

What? What's that you say? Some institutions actually value faculty? And aren't trying to de-academicize and de-professionalize the faculty corps? And don't have dreams of outsourcing to such an extent that the only real employees who'll be left, and who'll hold a stake in the institution, are the President and his bowing-and-scraping familiars?

Well then. What the hell is happening at Edison, where our ratios of full-time faculty hiring as related to administrative hires, and to faculty losses due to retirement, is utterly and completely abysmal? Someone, anyone, please?

Of Human Resources and Liabilities

2009-11-27T13:21:00.003-05:00

I hope this posting finds you well and enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.

As I was heading into a night class this Wednesday, NPR's All Things Considered featured a short radio essay by Alain De Botton titled "The Legend Of The Human Resources Crypt," which might be an excerpt from his new book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. The essay is a reflection on the Human Resources Department and the roles they play in moderating and negotiating inter-office disputes and encourage team building. It starts off with the sentiment we might all agree on in regards to some aspects of our own Human Resources Dept.:

Everyone hates the HR department. This is the cavern from which your pink slip is sent, where your assessments are stored and, if you are especially unfortunate, where orders are sent out to ship you off you on a group exercise to a salmon-coloured conference center, where you will hold hands with your boss and sing inspirational songs.

This, of course, is not a dig at the personnel in our own wonderful Human Resources Department, which is staffed with wonderfully helpful people who remember my name even though I only see them once or twice a year. Indeed, De Botton continues by writing that HR is often the most misunderstood part of any place of employment. It can't be fun signing notices of non-renewal for all faculty, sending out countless reminders about proper attire, managing a constantly changing file of employees, and all the other tasks assigned to our small HR department is asked to complete. So, yes, we might hate HR Department (the entity, not the people) for the things they have to do at the bequest of the higher-ups.

The remainder of De Botton's essay focuses on the moderating, problem-solving, tension relieving, and team-building side of HR. This is enough to raise the question, one I've been wondering for a while: What is, and has been, HR's role the in what the Illuminator calls the Current Crisis?

I'll confess that I don't know much about the functions of Edison's HR. I'm not writing this to complain about the department or the people in it. But really, I don't know what they're required to do. I don't know what's out of their realm and what's in the hands of the faculty senate or union. I also don't know where anyone on staff would turn when someone is in a situation which needs moderating. I will assume Edison's HR steps in and does a wonderful job on behalf of the employee and the college. As for adjuncts, I can't help but feel that we're going it alone--and without our colleagues' support, we'd be getting an even rawer deal than now.

At a time when any employee (particularly, but not limited to, adjunct faculty) can be fired simply because he or she displeases certain higher level administrators, I would expect the HR department to step between the disputing parties and let things calm down. In a time of employee anxiety and tension between staff, faculty, and administration, I would expect HR to propose some team-building exercises De Botton describes in his essay. Instead, things remain the same. We have our usual meetings, social hours, and annual celebratory gatherings. Perhaps, as an adjunct, I am missing some of the announcements--who knows?

My biggest concern for our HR department is the director, who has the difficult, and unenviable, task of being both the Director of Human Resources AND the Secretary to President Yowell. For someone to be both the gate keeper and moderator must be confusing and conflicting at times. Mrs. Peltier has the been the focus of considerable ire in the pages of the Illuminator for what seem to me to be legitimate (qualifications, certifications) and petty (i.e. personal) reasons. It's no wonder: she has to be both the mouth of authority and the protector of the oppressed. While I have no doubt that she is capable of putting personal allegiance aside for most issues--as I'm sure she was able to do when meeting with Marlowe to discuss his firing/non-firing/2nd firing/rehiring this summer. Of course, in other matters she might need not dabble, such as with the "firing" of Quincy Essinger at the personal request of Dr. Yowell. Whether any moderation was attempted or even required when dealing with adjuncts is something beyond my knowledge. My point is mainly that this close relationship between the higher-ups and HR is something I'm not something with which I'm familiar or comfortable.

I realize that Edison is not a corporation, so I can't compare my corporate experiences to the goings on at a public institution. However, the Illuminator has pointed out more than once that the higher level administrators are trying to push the college to be run more like a business than an institute of education. When the board focuses primarily on accounting and not on quality of education (that is, profit over product), they are willing to reduce everything and everyone to a value of credit or debit (revenue or expense). This allows our employers to make cuts in personnel to meet the bottom line, to dabble in the idea of reducing hours for adjuncts so we can bring in cheaper new adjuncts rather than rewarding loyalty, to refrain from hiring deans, to restrict access to supplies, and to cut deserved annual pay increases (or not even give them to adjuncts in the top pay level) while passing out bonuses to a select few.

With this sort of treatment, we have to wonder if the board and the higher level administration consider us to be resources or liabilities.

I believe we all want to feel a sense of unity at Edison. Faculty, staff, administrators, and adjuncts should all be working toward the same goal: producing excellent students. This can't be done until a few things change: the board and the administrators need to change their attitudes toward the faculty and staff (putting together a social event doesn't count) and to allow employees with a system of grievance and moderation. No one can feel comfortable offering a complaint about the boss to the boss's secretary, nor should a person be in that position to hear such a complaint in the first place. It's already bad enough when employee paranoia is so great that we fear every squeak, groan, or grumble made in private will be carried up the chain of command. For employees to not seek out the intervention of HR out of fear that any issue spoken in confidence could easily be carried over to the president and misconstrued as ungratefulness, a personal attack, or dismissed as petty should be an issue of concern and not sign that everything is OK.

Again, I am not sure what the difference between HR in education and HR in a corporation. Nor am I sure what role HR has played in the events since March last year. As an adjunct, I'll probably never know. But as the fall semester winds down and the spring semester begins, we will be facing another series of financial crises, pay debacles, and staffing controversies. It'll be good to know who's in our corner.

IMAGE!

2009-11-19T21:10:00.004-05:00

First in a series where we explore the Edison image from a more scholarly perspective.

Dress for Duress

The title, of course, is a riff on the book that started the image consulting business, John T. Molloy's Dress for Success Book and its sequels, The Women's Dress for Success Book and Live for Success and the 1988 revision The New Dress for Success Book.

We at Edison have been frequently provided guidance regarding our attire, and the Illuminator has chronicled several times that we've all been cautioned: Oct 29, 2008 (we were invited to wear Halloween costumes so long as they didn't incorporate bluejeans), November 21, 2008 (a faculty member's dean was advised to correct his dress because he'd worn denim and tennis shoes), and May 31, 2009 (a comment on the annual "casual summer" announcement). Rather than simply responding occasionally, perhaps it's time for us to provide a comprehensive and scholarly exploration of the issues of image generally.

It's big topic, and so we'll split it up into discrete subtopics. This entry will concentrate on the image consulting industry, which is generally recognized to have started with John T. Molloy and his popular-press books that promised to help the cubicle creatures of America to get hired or promoted into better jobs.

While Mr. Molloy is no longer with us, his ideas remain in his books but also in the websites of countless image consultants. Molloy personally weighed in on the industry he started in his New Dress for Success Book on page 3 passim Why Image Consultants are Dangerous.

Molloy derides most of those who rushed to fill the demand for image consultants that he'd created. His legitimate complaint is that the image consultant newbies had not researched the issue and so lacked data on which to base recommendations, often leading to catastrophe. The most extreme case he cites appears on pages 5-6:

A large midwestern industrial giant bought a small high-tech firm on the Coast several years ago....As soon as they took control they sent a vice-president out to run the operation. When he arrived he took one look at the employees and decided he would have to clean up their act. He sent for an image consultant he had known in the Midwest who had worked for the mother company and had done a terrific job. The consultant had talked to several groups of industrial salesmen and told them, if they would dress conservatively, they would sell more, and sure enough they did. When the consultant arrived at the California firm she took one look at the engineers and gave them the same message. She also told them to shave their beards and mustaches. When several employees objected to this directive and went in and complained to the vice-president, he told them he stood behind her orders. They packed their bags and left. Four of them were research people, two were top sales people, and one was an accountant. To make matters worse, three of the engineers and the accountant opened a competitive firm, and convinced a dozen of the best employees of the previous firm to follow them. According to the president of the midwestern firm, that consultant's advice cost his firm anywhere from one million to four million dollars...

So the potential for harm from bad image consulting is tangible. In the course of my graduate studies in communication, I was able to study Molloy's research and other sources, and my testimony is that I find it compelling. A good set of expectations for attire is important to the success of any organization, a bad set of expectations might lead to disaster. While most critical thinkers (including John T. Molloy) regret the need to dress in ways dictated by others' prejudices, nevertheless that's necessary for the greatest success.

So how should guidelines for attire be developed? Molloy and others insist that there is no universal set of guidelines. An individual should dress differently depending on the region of the nation, the type of business, the post you hold in the business, the type of customers you serve and the nature of your contact with them, and the slow changes that occur in business fashion.

To try to help businesses develop guidelines, Molloy offered the following principles in his New Dress for Success Book, pages 335-336.

There are a few general rules to keep in mind when planning a company's dress code:

First: Executives at corporate headquarters, sales and marketing people and the men who represent the public in the company eye should dress conservatively. This conservative, traditional image will announce to your white-collar workers, the general public and your customer that yours is a reliable, conservative company and can be trusted.

Second: Although there should be a genreal dress code, each branch, each division and each office in each section of the country should be able to argue that they should be exempted from part or all of the dress code, and, if their arguments are valid, they should be listened to.,,,

Third: Executives in charge of blue-collar workers should dress like the workers.

Fourth: If your company sells several products or services to a number of customers in different businesses and to different sections of the country, you will probably need a flexible dress code for your salespeople...

Fifth: Never let unqualified people choose your company's uniforms. This includes the head of human resources who knows no more about clothing than any other executive, any woman just because she likes clothing and dresses well (including the wife of the president), the uniform companies who are experts at creating uniforms, not images and finally, committees of employees...there is only one way of getting a less effective uniform than the ones chosen by employee committees, and that is to insist that the uniform include the company colors or, even worse, the colors in the company logo. If you do, you can end up with an outfit like the one that many Century 21 agents refuse to wear...

So, according to the father of the image consulting industry, Edison has done its dress code all wrong.

coming: let's explore what the dress code ought to be for different jobs at Edison--according to the experts.

Thievery?

2009-10-26T14:40:00.008-04:00

One of the posts on the eco-friendly mini-bus asks:

"Is anyone doing anything about the thefts that are occuring around here, of both cash and goods????"

The poster, "still curious" (is it curious how many people with good suggestions seem afraid to use their real names?) hedged a bit, commenting that this may not be a money-saving suggestion for the college so much as for individuals.

But it seems that hedge was probably not necessary. If people are stealing from individuals, they're probably also lifting a valuable or three from Edison directly. And the impact of petty theft goes beyond personal or institutional finance, resulting in a loss of productivity.

Let's take a look at what the experts say:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/11861/office_supplies_stopping_employee_theft.html?cat=3

Applying the examples in this article to Edison, we've seen how desk copies of textbooks have been stolen from faculty offices and mailboxes, we're aware of how many staplers walk off campus per annum, and we've followed the consternation in recent years as needed equipment has been spirited away from classrooms. How many of us have noted how it adds more chaos to the already-high levels of the Faculty Support office when they must lock up desk copies, email faculty of their arrival, and then unlock and pick out the texts when claimed? How many classes were thrown off schedule because someone failed to respect the equipment in the math, med tech, or humanities classrooms?

To a certain extent, we've been blessed to teach in Piqua and Greenville. This area is one of the last bastions of the protestant ethics of honesty and hard work. Dave Johnson managed to get through his entire career without being punished for leaving his keyring in his office door. But I fear that attitude is breaking down a bit.

How to reduce petty theft? That online article makes clear recommendaations:

"The best way to combat the theft of office supplies is not only to track where these supplies are going, but also to create high employee morale in your workplace. If your employees are happy in their job and in their relationship with the company they are less likely to pilfer office supplies in the long run."

So there's another cost-saving tip--one that is a little too complicated to post on the eco-friendly mini-bus. It would involve reducing the number of part-time faculty, who are the ones most likely to feel disconnected and abused in their positions--and also the ones for whom student satisfaction is more likely to be lower. It would involve reversing the impression that employees are sometimes dismissed for personal rather than personnel reasons. It would involve ensuring that employee incomes keep up with (if not exceed) the cost of living, that our health insurance provider would not abuse us, that our ideas were valued and our time was considered as something more than a duty to be paid on demand. It would involve respecting the expert opinions of people well educated and accomplished in their fields.

Until those things happen, lingering resentments are going to continue to provide excuses to our little criminals.

Fly! You fools.

2009-10-23T11:01:00.006-04:00

Thanks Board, for wussing out yet again. Actually, not for wussing out. For being part of the problem.

Let's see: Yowell & Co. attack and try to destroy anyone in the institution who has a backbone. This is indisputable. So you change the proposal that Edison Community members approach you directly when necessary, from which we have been "forbidden" by someone with no authority to do so. Now, not only do you think you're "letting" us do something we're Constitutionally entitled to do, but the real effect of your work is to make it policy that, as a "courtesy," KY be informed whenever anyone speaks to you. How y'all think that's going to work out for the whistle-blower? All you did was guarantee that anyone who speaks up will be fired.

How about this courtesy, which The Illuminator extends to you? The ruin of the institution--which won't survive half a decade at the rate it's being dismantled and decimated from within--is on your head. You will be the ones remembered as having deferred, with the utmost degree of civility, to KY's twisted visions and his minions fawning, sycophantic implementations. Enjoy that entry in local history, all of you; it'll be filed under: The Spineless Enable The Witless: A Courteous Betrayal of Trust, Law, Ethics and Common Sense. Of course, it'll be cross-indexed under EDISON COMMUNITY COLLEGE--NOW DEFUNCT, See SINCLAIR NORTH. As a courtesy.

You deserve him. And he deserves you. But the tri-county service area deserves better. You fools.

Offered Without Comment

2009-10-13T23:21:00.003-04:00

Not So Fast

Scientific management started as a way to work. How did it become a way of life?

Present Company Included

2009-10-12T13:02:00.000-04:00

A new study shows the more incompetent a boss feels, the more likely he or she is to "lash out."

Some call it "Administrative Bloat"

2009-10-12T11:29:00.010-04:00

Reliable sources, including the Chroncicle of Higher Education, have reported that now administrators in higher education in the USA outnumber full-time faculty. I thought it would be interesting to track that trend here during the tenure of our current president--especially since the recent draft copy of our systems portfolio report to the Higher Learning Commission gave concise totals for 2009. It might provide some context for my earlier blog post about the internet parable of the canoe race.

So to get some points of comparison, I selected 4 college catalogues from previous years: 1987-88 (the year prior to Dr. Yowell's arrival), 1993-94 (the first year of the semester calendar), 1998-99, and 2003-04. That's around five year's separation between each catalogue. Finally, I took the figures from the systems portfolio draft report.

Now, it's not easy to tease out precise figures because Edison's catalogue does not clearly differentiate between administrators and administrative support staff. My count here is based on job titles. I counted as administrators anyone whose job title was president, vice-president, dean, coordinator, manager, or director. Faculty, of course, are easier to identify since our titles are always instructor or professor.

1987-88: 35 faculty 29 administrators
1993-94: 40 faculty 38 administrators
1998-99: 36 faculty 36 administrators
2003-04: 40 faculty 43 administrators
2009.....: 50 faculty 67 administrators

So the full-time faculty of the college has increased by 43% in those 22 years, most of the increase recently and mostly due to certification requirements for new health care programs.

Meanwhile, administrators have increased by 131%. Some increase would be expected due to growth in enrollment and programs, increased use of technology, and government mandates. But we may well wonder at the rationale for this degree of top-heaviness.

Bonii at the Rubicon

2009-09-30T18:28:00.012-04:00

The Illuminator has learned the Board of Trustees, led by its finance committee, has tacitly approved KY's decision to award "bonuses" to Business Office employees for their extra "work" during the financial turmoil of SS 2009's budget season (turmoil which has not abated, by the way). These bonuses are rumored to cost many thousands of dollars.

This is the same committee that has begun to investigate whether it should establish procedures to avoid conflicts of interest between Edison administrators and vendors who provide services to the College. Without addressing the missing-horse, closed-too-late-barn-door aspect of this bold initiative, the Illuminator wonders why the Board isn't aware of Ohio's Ethics Law, which already determines what must be put out for bid and establishes criminal sanctions for people who self-deal with state money, or make money for their families or pals with state contracts. The Illuminator suggests the Board wake up and smell the coffee and figure out what the score is before it's too late.

But not getting it when it comes to the laws that govern one's entrusted charge to an institution, or with regard to criminal nepotism and purchase orders that pay their way, after a felonious hop or two, into employees' pockets, is of a different order than watching someone who, after claiming only six months ago that budget woes required the entire campus be fired, cut checks to administrators for doing nothing more than their jobs, despite that office's shared culpability for the crisis.

Where is the bonus for the hard-working custodian who has to clean human urine from the bathroom floors? Where's the extra bump for the folks working in the cafeteria, who must daily drag bags of putrid refuse to the dumpsters? Where is the bonus for the adjunct who teaches a full professor's load and more because allegedly we can't afford more faculty for core curricular courses?

If the rumored amounts are true, the money KY found for his pals would pay for an entire Edison education, if invested for scholarships. Certainly, it would pay for the girls' volleyball team to travel to their deserved championship tournament.

At the very least, this sort of drunken-sailor coin-tossing must be remembered the next time KY asks the Edison community to suffer collectively--and rest assured, he, they, will, and probably soon--for his administration's incompetence, waste, abuse, and utter lack of accountability.

KY has placed himself among the bloated ranks of CEO's (where he himself probably believes he belongs) who loot corporations at the expense of shareholders; by approving KY's action via their own knowledge and inaction, the Board of Trustees places itself among the bureaucrats in Washington and the hundreds of Boards of Directors who, rather than admit they have an irrational and erratic executive on their hands, clean up executive messes and offer excuses for their own impotence.

Disgusting. Absolutely filthy and disgusting.

Board of Trustees? The good people of Edison and its constituent counties have given you the better part of a year to do right by this community. Where has our faith in you taken us?

Alea iacta est.

In Memoriam

2009-09-29T10:43:00.001-04:00

RIP, Stan Easley.

Safety Issues

2009-09-27T19:21:00.005-04:00

As the one who first introduced campus safety as an issue at Academic Senate (1999), I can't say that much of substance has been done.

We did have one professional development session--back in 2000 or so as far as I recall--where a local law enforcement officer gave us rather good guidelines for what to do if you're held hostage. And we've got the campus safety manual--which will perhaps prove helpful if we ever get specific training in its use, otherwise I doubt that many have read it and fewer still recall much of it.

Oh, and wearing our ID badges was supposed to promote public safety. I guess identifying the likely victims of violence makes law enforcement's job easier--in that they can identify faculty and staff quicker after a crazed student (not wearing ID) opens fire randomly. Past that, the only thing that wearing ID badges accomplishes is to make us look more like we work on the floor at Wal-Mart.

So how about some specific suggestions for improving campus security? As in the thread on saving money, I'll start.

1. Professional development should include safety training at least annually. This training should include practicum and not just lecture.

2. Every classroom should be fitted with a simple single-throw deadbolt lock on the inside of its doors. If gunfire breaks out in the hallway, the instructor can then secure the door and direct students to huddle together in a corner that's protected from fire.

3. Every room with an exterior window should have its room number displayed visibly in one of those windows. That would allow first responders to find almost every room in the building without (for example) having to figure out that the 200 wing is not between the 100 and the 300.

All of those are inexpensive options--then there's a fourth that's been brought up elsewhere:

4. Configure campus phones so that the specific campus phone is identified in every 911 call.

Couple Hundred Grand Well Spent

2009-09-23T12:37:00.002-04:00

Yup. That's a hole in the wall all right. In a classroom that's so hot everyone in it has to violate KY's dress code to get through the session.

What Labour is Proposing

2009-09-20T13:01:00.004-04:00

This from British politics:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8265166.stm

"If we are going to keep teachers and teaching assistants on the front line that means we are going to have to be disciplined on public sector pay, including in education."

...He went on to stress there were no plans to cut the number of teachers and teaching assistants, but said reductions could be made to the number of bureaucrats and senior staff without the quality of teaching suffering.

An Internet Parable

2009-09-14T21:29:00.004-04:00

A few years old, but still insightful--especially in the wake of the recent management letter to the Board of Trustees that asserted that we must rely on more part-time faculty.

A Japanese company and a US company decided to have a canoe race.

Both teams practiced long and hard to reach peak performance levels. On the big day the Japanese won by a mile.

Afterwards the USA team became discouraged and depressed. The management decided to discover the reason for the crushing defeat. A Measurment Team made up of senior management was formed to discover the cause and recommend remedial action. The conclusion of their report was that the Japanese had 1 person steering and 8 rowing, whereas the USA had 8 steering and 1 rowing.

The management team hired a consultant company and paid them a large retainer. They advised that too many were steering and too few rowing.

The company did not want to lose to the Japanese next year, so they reorganized the rowing teams management sector. This led to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents, and 1 steering assistant manager.

They also implemented a new incentive system for the 1 rower. It was called 'The Rowing Team Quality First Program." There were meetings and dinners, and a free pen for the rower. The motto: we must empower the rower through enrichment.

The next year they lost to the Japanese by two miles.

The management laid off the rower for poor performance, stopped the development of the new canoe, sold the paddles and halted all capital investments for new equipment. They then use the money they saved to award High Performance awards to the steering managers. The rest of the money was distributed to the senior management as bonuses.

Please Make It Stop

2009-09-08T10:44:00.002-04:00

This could be a solution.

The Board should understand we can do without him. Save for his minions, the building wants him, and them, to leave us all alone. Pay him if you have to, but do something.

Let's Be Constructive!

2009-09-03T12:48:00.003-04:00

In the crush of tight budgets, shaky state revenues, and a glacial economic recovery, isn't it time to put our heads together and try to come up with ways that Edison can save a few more dollars?

Even if the college can only save a few cents for itself, or for our students, shouldn't it be done?

So please, think outside the box (or inside it, if that's where you think best) and share your ideas through comments here. I'm confident that the more dedicated administrators and board members keep up with this blog.

A couple of rules just to prevent repetition:

Yes, we'd save money by firing your least-favorite people. No, let's not nominate them here; they've been mentioned elsewhere.
Yes, we'd save money by eliminating entire offices, programs, or initiatives. See above.
Please read the previous suggestions and don't copy them.
This is brainstorming; if you can improve on a previous suggestion, do so.
Offer constructive criticism if you think an idea misses the mark.

Since I don't mind going first, here's a few to start:

The "Security" pick-up truck is old and costly. The replacement should be an all-electric vehicle (Zenn or Zap brand, for example). These "city cars" cost as little as $10K new, require almost no maintenance, and drive 50 miles for pennies. Upside: frees up one parking spot for students as the car will need to be plugged in when parked (probably back by maintenance). Downside: security will be a li'l cold when driving the campus in wintertime.
Consider replacement of other vehicles with electric-powered ones as well. Of course, no electric vehicle has the power to do the heavy maintenance work--but a "city car" could run some local errands, for example.
Why issue new "staff" parking stickers every year? Let us use the old ones until our supply is exhausted. (Students, of course, will still need new ones every fall.)
Course syllabi are beginning to rival textbooks in size and scope. Let's keep all the documents we currently use, but reduce the paper consumption by: (a) providing syllabus part I only online (2) giving all students paper copies only of the following part II sections: contact information, course calendar, assignments, grading, and required texts and manuals (3) putting all policy statements and other material online; in the case of the disability policy that seems to be a legal mandate, print it on all student's course schedules at time of enrollment instead of requiring it on all printed syllabi. There--we've just saved reams of paper, with the environmentally-friendly upside.
Speaking of textbooks, our bookstore should be tasked with developing a book rental program ASAP. Students' costs would be cut, and we'd potentially increase store revenues by competing with online resellers.

New Countries Join The Resistance

2009-09-01T22:56:00.002-04:00

The Editorial Junta welcomes France, Germany, Spain and Finland to the soiree!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Huey Lewis and The News

2009-08-31T14:49:00.005-04:00

After the tumult of last year, consider: we are exactly where we were the day before the Edison HR Columbine. A year's worth of garden-variety mismanagement and budgetary boondoggling has been swept under the rug while the BOT ran around trying to figure out exactly where the warm and cozy got off to.

One must hand it to KY and the Usual Suspects--it takes gall, and no small amount of close-in knife-fighting moxy--to misbehave so thoroughly that what would be normally an appalling level of hubris, mismanagement and cronyism would look normal by comparison.

Cheers!

I Am A Scientist

2009-08-26T09:45:00.004-04:00

So JS has added to her myriad duties, and likely added to her hideously inflated salary, the post of "Dean of Sciences." She now supervises, ostensibly, Funkhouser, Head, Heintz, Klopfenstein, Kropiewnicki, Myers, Smith, and Zhao; however, we have seen an inclination to mission creep, and one wonders if JS can respect Dean Walters' boundaries. Dividing the divisive division: some strategy. Wonder if it will work? Time will tell.

Answer #1

2009-08-22T10:47:00.007-04:00

Not From the Board, but an answer to some of our pile of questions from a reliable administrator, anyhow:

"[T]he Linc Service Network provides preventive HVAC service and energy solutions to commercial building owners worldwide via an international Network of more than 140 independent and company-owned mechanical contractors.

Edison is in year five of a ten-year contract midway with Energy Systems Group, at approximately $6,000 per year. That's about 1/40th of our contract with Linc, and many of the services for which we pay, and for which we will suffer in budgetary terms, are duplicative."

Of course, questions of this sort of breed other questions like tribbles breed in Enterprise vents. Since, by Linc's own admission, Linc is an outsourcer who outsources, it leads one to wonder about the parameters of our relationships with Linc's local affiliate--who, what, why, when, how.

Another Question For The Board

2009-08-21T22:14:00.005-04:00

From an ECC administrator, who shall remain anonymous: How many HVAC companies will donate to the Edison Foundation this year?

a) None

b) None

c) None

d) a & c.

See previous questions (to date, unanswered, of course.)

911 Update

2009-08-21T14:30:00.008-04:00

Breaking update!...reliable KY Administration sources inform The Illuminator that our campus has been without network service capable of associating rooms, phones and outside calls for several years. This while our campus has been with various budgetary boondoggles, massive miscues and shameful perks to the campus elites, galore...if one of our beloved colleagues or co-workers were to suffer harm because of this idiocy our College and its captains will have Hell to pay--not just in damages for negligence, criminal negligence, manslaughter or other prosecutions, but in Karma as well.

Let's get our house in order, shall we? The Junta has some suggestions on how and where to start...oh, and don't forget to check out CTG's comment, under the "Questions for The Board," post. Some shady stuff there, and the folks in charge of it should account. Good weekend, friends. Junta out.

Illuminator Owns Ohio

2009-08-21T14:21:00.003-04:00

Above, a map of The Illuminator's geographical traffic. It corresponds pretty nicely to state government and Ohio's college towns, we think. Size equals traffic, depth of color equals individuals. Yeah, we bad.

911 Is A Joke

2009-08-21T12:19:00.005-04:00

Ask someone in the administration: if you dialed 911 right now, would IT, the Administration or the police know where in the building you were? If not, why the heck not? Are we waiting on a real Columbine instead of just an HR one? Or what about a heart attack, or a fire? Risk of this sort tempts fate.Where's the leadership and accountability from The Corner, whose vaunted improvement processes should prevent us from diminished quality and safety? Why, O God why, do we find ourselves in these situations again and again, year after year? At Edison, it would seem:

Questions For The Board

2009-08-18T22:58:00.008-04:00

Please use the comments section to pose your own questions! The Junta will begin:

We're concerned, in these tight, tight budgetary times, about our facilities department:

What's the new arrangement with the outsourcing company?
Was the board informed?
Did they consent?
How much is it costing us?
What are they doing that Bill & crew couldn't?
How did we come to the current arrangement, and for what reasons?
Was the contract put out for bid?
Is it the most cost-effective arrangement?

More to come. N.B. Questions not limited to facilities! Keep it civil, you.

First: Effective Teaching

2009-08-16T17:22:00.004-04:00

A thought for all the troops on the eve of the next campaign.

Many of us wore our "Inconsequential" buttons through the latter parts of the spring and summer semesters.

In the next few weeks, we'll be meeting students for the first time, and every little factor that might impact our credibility should be weighed carefully.

I'm suggesting that we take off the "Inconsequential" buttons until September. Most students don't know what they mean, and the subconscious message is that, as teachers, we don't matter to them. Let's do everything we can to establish our authority in our classes and in ancillary services to our students for the first couple of weeks of the year--then we may resume this protest knowing that we've mitigated any potential negative impacts on our overarching goal, which is education.

ESEA Duty Days Meeting

2009-08-13T03:48:00.003-04:00

First ESEA meeting of the year is August 21st at El Sombrero. Contact Larry for details. Big year, big negotiations, big changes ahead. New members welcome--and after the 2008-9 year, certainly expected!

Dimbulbs Taking It To The Top

2009-08-11T22:08:00.004-04:00

Our Administration-In-Exile encourage going over "their" heads.

2009-08-11T15:16:00.010-04:00

August 11, 2009

TO: Arts and Sciences Faculty

FROM: Cindy Carbone, Dean of Arts and Sciences

RE: Resignation

Everyone,

Effective August 31, I will be leaving Edison to pursue another dean position at Central Ohio Technical College in Newark, OH.

I want to thank you for all your support during my three years here at Edison. You are a wonderful group of faculty to work for, work with, and lead. You have made my first foray into “dean-ship” enlightening, challenging, and rewarding and I have learned much during this experience. Thank you so much!

I wish you well during this transition and I know you will keep the spirit of education for your students foremost in all your endeavors.

Best wishes to you all! And Good luck!

Wake up, Murray! All the wrong ones are leaving! There may be "no change of leadership at the top," but what will you do when there is no bottom left for him to lead?

Edison to Amend Tax Returns in Issacs Case

2009-08-11T06:17:00.002-04:00

DDN covers Darrell's sentencing.

Posted Without Comment

2009-08-10T15:46:00.003-04:00

Sunspot Baby

2009-08-07T12:14:00.002-04:00

Pursuant to our occasional review of Illuminator web traffic, we're happy to say the ESEA's communications site is now global! Our followers come from Germany, Australia, Italy, India, Bangladesh, Alaska, and about a dozen states in the lower 48. We seem to be heard everywhere but the Edison Board Room.

Snark's Last Stand

2009-08-06T19:54:00.004-04:00

When I knew that my retirement was coming, I thought I'd finish off my career at Edison with a letter to the board, a tough assignment. But in all my years at Edison, I had some good colleagues, Deans, and Vice Presidents, but never a good President. The good work this faculty has done has largely gone unnoticed and unappreciated, especially by the Board. Then this controversy broke out publicly in the Illuminator Blog, and I thought I'd use this space for my letter. At least someone will read it here.

Dear Board:

In my tenure at Edison—virtually all my working life—the relationship between the board and the two long time Presidents has been wrong. Rather than promoting the good of the school, it promoted the good of the man in the office. Though announced as a retirement, President Seitz left under turmoil that is similar what is happening now. In support of him, the then Board made many of the same mistakes you are making now: a questioning of the depth of the dissatisfaction—it was only a few rabble-rousers who were stirring things up; a dismissal of the understanding that the faculty had of the big issues at stake; and a barely expressed contempt for faculty in the first place.

It was these last years of Seitz's Presidency that convinced a majority of us to unionize. The Board's resistance to reality did not help. For about 2 years there was hard times for the Board and Edison. Why is it that a board acts as if those who do the work of the school—we who work face to face with students—are untrustworthy? What does that say about what you think of our students? When a group of those who deal directly with them meets and overwhelmingly says something is very wrong, that should be a warning flag, unless you think that teachers are morally and intellectually less than the President.

From the reaction you all made when you heard of the Senate's vote of no confidence, you thought it was a selfish reaction to Yowell's plan to send out lay-off notices, and that it came out of nowhere. Yowell's action was profoundly stupid and mean spirited, but the Senate's confidence in his leadership was very low before this action. You'd maybe have known this if your evaluation of his work was important enough to warrant some analysis beyond what he and his sycophants offer you. He does not lead for the good of the school, but to maintain his own position. And you soon got a taste of what his disrespectful leadership is like. At a recent board meeting, Jane Salisbury went through the motions of a report, giving you old information as if it was newly collected—essentially lying—and he commented that he put her up to it. He treats faculty and staff like this all the time, and apparently has no more respect for you.

Countless numbers staff hours that could have been put to much better use have been consumed by just such meetings over the years, the staff listening to his interminable nonsense. Faculty, who have some freedom of action, may leave these meetings openly disdainful, and other staff, who have no freedom, just have to hunker down. You have power the staff does not. He works for you, though it always looks the other way round.

Here are two examples of this waste. Years ago, when the North Hall was planned, Yowell and an architect decided that no longer would the Looney Road facade be the front of Edison. The new North Hall entrance would be. That necessitated the installation of a parking lot and the moving of the entrance road to the building—many hundreds of thousands of dollars. In his typical fashion—called visionary by some—this idea was presented as part of an overall plan that would help to transform Edison's image. It would bring on a new era at the way Edison faces its world.

Did anyone but Yowell and the architect really think that it was possible to change the public perception of what the front of the college really was? It is hard to think why. The building was built, the driveway was moved, and Looney Road stayed the front of the building, both to those of us who worked at the school, and to students and visitors. More to the point, some years later when Emerson Center—that monument to empty space—was built that parking lot was removed, and more money was spent on the driveway. No one with authority called Yowell on this.

Maybe the driveway example is obscure. The Strategic Enrollment Management initiative, SEM, however is more illustrative. Yowell announced this initiative in his typical fashion at one Fall convocation. It was going to be another transforming thing—for years he announced stuff at these meetings that would change Edison as we knew it. But when we got started, SEM, minus Yowell's hyperbole, looked to be a good thing. The second floor, where I spent my time, was excited. It was the beginning of internet researching, and we were all learning how to navigate around the net, and about college enrollment. We heard from one another about what the other committees were doing, and leaning, and planning. It was interesting, and we were looking forward to hearing more. But it all ended in November—three months to change Edison as we know it. There was a kind of academic fair in the Atrium, and that ended all the effort, and all the hope. Committee work stopped, and we barely heard of it again. Just a colossal waste of time and opportunity, and a poignant demotivator to boot. But that is Yowell's general modus oparendi as a leader in a nut shell. Big hype, but no follow through.

Others on the Illuminator Blog have commented about how dysfunctional this school is. But that only depends on what you think its function is. If it is to promote Yowell's glitzy lifestyle interests, it has been astoundingly successful. It absolutely provides him with great wheels, the ability to buy thousand dollar suits, security, the ability to travel, and not many onerous duties. As far as I can tell, travel is Edison's R and D. For all the travel the school has paid for, have you as a Board ever demanded a report and then followed through to see if there was implementation?

I have frankly been puzzled by your relationship to him for years. He advocates core values, has them published in the catalog and on the website, but publicly, and spectacularly violates them and you don't notice. What about those management letters. Did none of them give you, now and then, that uh oh feeling? Yowell is not Edison. He is not acting in Edison's interests. It is then up to you to—he works for you.

David Johnson

Edison Charter Professor of English and Snark Emeritus

Where does all the money go?

2009-08-06T09:21:00.002-04:00

Increasingly in higher education, it goes not to faculty, but to administration and support staff. The following article describes a recent report that found that faculty positions in the past 20 years increased by 50%, while non-faculty positions have doubled.

http://umassmsp.org/support-staff_jobs_double_in_20_years,_outpacing_enrollment_%28chronicle_of_higher_ed%29

"Support staff — like budget analysts, computer specialists, and loan counselors — nearly doubled from 1987 to 2007. Meanwhile, jobs for instructors increased by only about 50 percent, according to a report to be released this week by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity.

Although the report draws no direct link between growth in back-office staff and rising tuition, it does conclude that the scale of the expansion reflects unproductive spending by academe."

The report explains that some positions have arisen due to increases in technology, and others are mandated by government--but that many of the added positions are probably redundant or arbitrary.

Although the report focused on universities, we know that there has been a similar disproportionate increase in non-teaching jobs at two-year colleges.

As the article noted, while much of the economic pressures on community colleges (and all of higher ed) have come from declining state subsidies, the increase in non-teaching jobs has doubtless contributed. Richard K. Vedder, economics professor at Ohio U. and director of the center that released the report, concluded "It's time for higher education to go on a diet."

Once Again

2009-07-28T03:56:00.005-04:00

Inside Higher Ed writer David Moltz, who readers may remember for bringing national attention to the situation at Edison with the article "So Sue Me," again weighs in on the situation at the Ohio college.

The latest article is here.

Illinois Trustees to The Woodshed

2009-07-27T16:34:00.005-04:00

In response to the University of Illinois' admissions scandal, two former university presidents called Monday for the resignation of the school's trustees and a sweeping overhaul of how the board is appointed.

Running in Place

2009-07-25T13:40:00.008-04:00

Congratulations to everyone, and especially to ESEA, for righting the wrong that was done to ALL of our contracts. If Steve Marlowe’s contract could be terminated, then so could all of our contracts. But let’s not forget that we are technically no farther ahead than we were in April. We have kept Steve’s position, but we have lost some good people who couldn’t wait for the climate at Edison to change. In other words, we are running as fast as we can just to stay in one place. Change at Edison is going to take more super human effort.

I hope Larry gets his apology, but asking for it may also guarantee that it won’t happen. We have all worked on committees, interviewed candidates, written reports, only to have all of that work swept away by changes in funding and presidential whim. Think about how many times you have worked on a committee (AQIP, CQI, etc.) only to realize after years of work that nothing was going to change except the paperwork. Some of that is par for the course when it comes to public institutions and committees, but lying about results is not typical and our Board must take a forceful stand against it.

The one premise that a Board has the right to assume is that the information being presented to it is truthful. This is kindergarten-simple—You cannot lie to a public board. If you do, you should be asked to resign and suffer the public consequences.

When Jane Salisbury lied to the board about the availability of the 2008/2009 morale survey and manipulated data, someone on the board should have asked if there have been other false reports and asked for her resignation on the spot. At any other public institution it would have happened. Yes, it would.

Dr. Yowell has abused good people, and ignored contracts negotiated in good faith. He has forced talented people to leave and kept others from being rehired. He “punishes” when someone displeases him, and rewards when they fawn over his decisions. He has lied to the Board, misrepresented information, and given biased reports. (Remember last year’s convocation address where the numbers were skewed to misrepresent faculty success?) Someone on the Board needs to rise to the occasion, remember their duty as stewards of the public trust and ask him to resign.

This is not the Roman coliseum where people’s careers live and die based on the Emperor’s thumb. It is a public institution and we need to remember out first responsibility is to the community, not to our colleagues, or even to our Board. I’ll say it again.

This is kindergarten simple: You cannot lie to a public board. Someone on the Board needs to rise to the occasion, remember his public responsibility and ask Dr. Yowell to resign.

... but not the war.

2009-07-24T18:00:00.004-04:00

Congratulations to Steve Marlowe, who is once again among the faculty of Edison Community College. The reinstatement, despite whether it was a concession from Yowell or not, is a noticable momentum shift away from the upper administration. Logic, justice, and sanity all told us that the dismissal of a contracted employee would not stand - it was a matter of how long a resolution would take and how far the parties would have to go.

This, however, is not the war so to speak. With the Marlowe battle won, let us all be reminded of the other fights: A no confidence vote that has been shrugged at, people were "sorta fired," the budget is still in disarray, employees still look to leave Edison when possible, morale continues to remain low, and there is no sign that the president intends to change his tactics of information manipulation, favoritism, lop-sided pay in terms of upper administration, and a social example that leaves much to be desired.

Kick off your shoes, have a drink, and enjoy the battle won. Remember, come fall semester, Yowell and his cadre will assuredly continue their pattern of failing policy spearheaded by people who are allowed to submit false reports to the Board of Trustees.

Contracted employees appear to be safe again. The CBA, along with the union, withheld against the onslaught. Non contracted employees, especially adjuncts, continue to be at the chopping block. Mr. Essinger, as of earlier today, reported no change in the administration's decision to bar him from teaching fall semester for being involved with the "controversial board meeting." Additionally, he reports that he has spoken to legal counsel and is considering legal action.

Two For Flinching

2009-07-23T18:06:00.005-04:00

Marlowe was reinstated today--he will return in fall.

CQIN Bus

2009-07-23T13:06:00.003-04:00

The President and his entourage are soon to leave for the CQIN conference. As a "heads up" (people have started to like using the term of late), expect an amount of ridiculous emails upon their return encouraging you to get on the bus, ride the bus, and whatever else you can do to a bus.

Rumor has it the color of the bus this year is a blue pantsuit.

And now this:

Tuition Increase

2009-07-22T12:26:00.003-04:00

An article in The Daily Advocate, also in an email from Mr. Kramer, states the tuition increase of 3.5% ($4) per semester credit hour. This increase will start fall semester. The current figures for fall semester enrollment are not available at this time, but let's put this into dollar amounts with the stated figures. Summer enrollment was approximately 7,400 credit hours. If the tuition increase were active for the summer courses, it would have produced nearly $30,000 in additional revenue. Money, despite the amount, coming into the system is still money entering the system.

Let's examine some side issues:

Students for fall who have already registered and paid will need to be re-billed. This not only takes physical supplies, but manpower time as well. What is the income increase for fall once this has been done? (The EJ is aware this is a one time scenario, but would like to think it was taken into consideration).
This is now out of the President's bag of scary maneuvers. To paraphrase, "Costs are up, subsidy is down, tuition is frozen." Tuition is no longer frozen, costs are (to say the least, in question), and subsidy values have been stated.
Classes go through purge cycles. These purges are often done based upon a simple yes/no as to has the student paid for the course. What's going to happen to students who have paid, but owe that $12 more because of a re-billing? Are they going to be booted from a course and potentially lose their slot in the class over $12?
What is this new income going to go towards in the budget? If you recall from earlier, the budget team was asked to create a worst case scenario in which the school might operate and was still $205,000 in the positive. (This didn't include any raises or bonus whatsoever). This money is essentially unbudgeted income since they team would not have accounted for a tuition increase. New Lexus anyone?

Someone is in Your Corner

2009-07-18T19:50:00.002-04:00

David Brooks, a NY Times columist, talks about Obama's higher education plan - a plan that brings attention to community colleges. While, yes, it does involve throwing money at the issue, it also discusses the nature of the community college student and the barriers involved with graduation. Compare and contrast Edison's priorites and abilities with those listed in the article.

The full article may be found here.

On Bastille Day, I Sing of Olaf, Glad and Big

2009-07-14T21:10:00.004-04:00

As you may know, today marks the 220 years since the storming of the Bastille, which kick-started the French Revolution in 1789. I had planned a short piece comparing Edison's administration with a terrified King Louis XI and the oblivious Marie Antoinette (let them eat cake), only to learn that my knowledge of the historical even has been obscured and falsified by too much Mel Brooks. So, my tribute to Marlowe's tireless storming of the administration's ivory tower. Alas, it would have made for some wonderful photoshops of various people in 18th century French garb; though, given Yowell's recent concern over the use of his image, it's probably better left alone.

My short history lesson of the Bastille Day does yield some remarkable similarities. For instance, the prison of the Bastille (sought after for its store of gunpowder) was the frequent residence of political prisoners who had violated certain lettres de cachet, which bear a striking resemblance to some cryptic emails, missives, edicts that have appeared in my inbox, and are to be followed and believed without question (as Yowell stated in his response to Brad Reed during the April board meeting" you should listen to what I say and not listen to what’s in the newspaper"). Then, of course, there are the unwritten rules, such as no video taping the board meeting, which is grounds for immediate termination (I guess we're all on double secret probation). There's a word for this sort of thing. Several, actually, as our good friend Wikipedia notes, these letters "were a prominent symbol of the abuses of the ancien régime monarchy, and as such were suppressed during the French Revolution." I think we'll leave it at that.

So, our history lesson seems to be that tyrants (oops, I said it. Please understand I mean this metaphorically using the most hyperbolic rhetoric imaginable) who unfairly use their power to take out people who speak ill of them or disobey some double secret ruling based on that tyrants personal whims need to be taken out and replaced. Right? Now, I'm not calling for anyone's heads. That wouldn't be nice. In fact, there's another lesson. Louis XI and his lovely wife Marie (who probably never uttered those words about the cake in the first place) weren't "taken out" (i.e. relieved of the burden of their heads) until a couple of years later in 1791. The real lesson: revolution and change take time.

Of course, many would argue that time is something we ain't got. With highly qualified and well respected staff leaving at alarming rates and other desperately needed and highly skilled faculty are being forced out (despite staffing shortages in key departments), change can't come soon enough. Recent events, low employee morale, and a new memo from Yowell telling us he'll force whatever excrement sandwich down our throats he wants, have even more faculty and staff polishing their resumes and sending them out to other schools. Meanwhile, the Board meets in a "retreat" at a remote, backwoods location in Darke County tomorrow, Wednesday, July 15th before convening on July 22 for their Board meaning. Who knows what lettres de cachet will be dreamed up during tomorrow's event.

In closing, I'll leave you with the ending lines form an e. e. cummings poem, "I sing of olaf." Afterall, I wrote about Pee Punch before encouraging everyone to go Galt (how's that working, by the way?).

. . .

Olaf (upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat
"there is some shit I will not eat"

our president,being of which
assertions duly notified
threw the yellowsonofabitch
into a dungeon,where he died

Christ (of His mercy infinite)
i pray to see; and Olaf, too

preponderatingly because
unless statistics lie he was
more brave than me: more blond than you.

Corrections & Retractions: KY

2009-07-11T09:24:00.005-04:00

Dear Trustee

I felt the need to clear up some miscommunication in the letter to you from President Yowell dated June 10, 2009.

Reference page 4, discussion about my participation on the budget team;

Dr. Yowell attended one budget meeting where I was present. Where did he get the notion that I was surly? I have always been professional in every meeting and committee I serve. I take offense to this comment and want an apology at the next board meeting, July 22, 2009; and I want the minutes of that meeting to reflect his apology. I fully understand my role and that I am not a decision maker. Others on the committee will testify to the value of my input.

Brad and I did leave the room to discuss delaying the payment of our enrollment bonus at the last budget meeting. I informed Brad that the enrollment bonus was not part of the budget for academic year July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010; but had already been included in the current budget for academic year ending June 30, 2009. Brad and I were always very aware of budget issues that could cross the lines into negotiations and did not attend or excused ourselves from meetings when that happened. Others on the committee will testify to our professionalism in regards to this point.

Reference pages 4 and 5, discussion about the union deciding the raise and number of overload hours taught by faculty;

The union does not decide the raise. We negotiate in good faith. Past negotiation have been very productive with both sides having a give and take attitude. You can get verification of this from Dr. Jane Salisbury, chief negotiator for the college. We can decide the raise if that is what you wish. Just let me know and I will call a union meeting and we will decide.

Faculty who teach overload teach those hours because of their commitment to the quality of their program. Quality does not suffer. Commitments to holding office hours, participation on committees, advising students and involvement in community service have never suffered. I have testimony from faculty that the opposite of what Dr. Yowell has communicated is the truth.

As President of the union, a leader among faculty, and a member of the Edison family I want you to ask Dr. Yowell to publically apologize for these comments at his convocation address to Edison Community College faculty and employees on August 17, 2009.

Thank you for listening,

Sincerely,

Larry J. Dragosavac

Edison's Plight in Other Blogs

2009-07-10T12:26:00.004-04:00

Two more blogs have recent posts about Edison Community College's problem keeping good faculty.

National Student News Service posts a short note (titled "Controversial Staffing Decisions at Edison Community College") focusing on Dr. Yowell's rational for the firing of Stephen Marlowe and Quincy Essinger. Though, they incorrectly write that Essinger was present at the vote of no-confidence, writing Yowell "refused to rehire Professor Quincy Essinger, an adjunct humanities professor, after Essinger refused to shut off a video camera filming a board meeting where the faculty took a vote of no confidence." Not quite the case. Essinger filmed the April Board meeting which followed Yowell's ordering of issuing pre-cautionary and preemptive non-renewal notices as a favor to all 100+ faculty and staff so they wouldn't feel like they needed to sue for not being given an official 90 day notice of non-renewal in case the college needed to cut faculty and staff if the possible state budget cuts proved they might be imminent.

The blog Unasked Advice also points to the Inside Higher Ed article. Blogger Brokeharvardgrad, in the posting "Add Eddison Community College in Ohio to the list of openly censoring professors by firing them–as deemed necessary by President Yowell," links the firings of Marlowe and non-rehire of Essigner to other colleges who have been doing the same thing, going so far as to give Edison and Dr. Yowell the "Assshole Business Award of the Week for their firing of Professor Stephen D. Marlowe, an English professor who was possibly fired fro criticizing the president of the university, Yowell. Yowell is running two for two in squelching dissent as he also fired an adjunct who refused to turn off his video camera during a public meeting."

Finally, Networkedblogs.com provides another way for the public to read our blog by tracking the Illuminator's updates.

Inside Higher Education Article Examines KY's Management

2009-07-06T08:08:00.003-04:00

Inside Higher Education. Top Story. Tick tock.

...in the state of Denmark

2009-07-02T13:57:00.000-04:00

Fret not, faithful educators, for The Illuminator is here to keep spreading the word about the condition of ECC. While information for upcoming posts is checked for accuracy, here are some recent tidbits from campus:

The Board passed a resolution changing mileage reimbursement from 55 cents a mile to 45 cents a mile - 10 cents less than the IRS rate. No word, as of yet, if this has any impact on the travel of off campus administration.

Contracts for 8 week courses were emailed ... over two weeks past when the courses actually started. With innovative, expensive HR software, one would think contract production wouldn't be a drawn out ordeal.

The Dimbulbs have reported on a partnership between Urbana University and Troy. This partnership brings a four year educational branch to directly within Edison's service area. President Yowell, a member of the Troy Development Council, would have been involved in this planning process. While still abiding by conflict of interest ideals, would it not be wise to prepare the Edison community (Board, teachers, staff, etc) for this new, direct competition to Edison? Wouldn't it be wise to plan, prepare, and strengthen the image of Edison in the community so that a potentially large market share of students are not lost? After reviewing all documents available, not a bit of this has apparently been done.

Staffing coordinators report staffing for fall courses continue. Projections for fall place a further growth in students. Due to retirements, professors moving to other institutions, dismissals, and adjunct paranoia, some coordinators are becoming hard pressed to meet the demands of matching courses with instructors. Now isn't the time to be removing instructors!

The Board of Trustee meeting of June held a variety of information:

The chairman stated he had, "no problem with the blog."
Several members expressed concern over the next FY budget and the CBA.
The finance committee was asked to prepare a worst case scenario budget in order to have all bases covered for the upcoming FY. This budget included the salary packages for positions which Edison needs (registrar, web master, etc), but does not contain the faculty pay raise or the faculty bonus. In fact, after preparing a worst case scenario budget, the team projects a surplus of $205,000. Yes, even with extensive perks and compensation, a surplus.
A member, in attending a professional development conference, participated in a seminar about "no confidence votes." Despite this member presumably sharing the information with the Board and the President, the vote continues to be disregarded. The contrary seems to be case by the Chairman stating, "there will be no change in leadership at Edison."

That hiring debaucle? Only more! If Edison is hiring or not seems to be like spinning a magic wheel and seeing what the ticker falls on. Depending on the perception needed by the administration, there may be a freeze, there might be hiring of essential positions, there might be no ice block. A recent email listed the following positions in which people may apply: PT Librarian, Bookstore Clerk, PT Secretary (HR), Registrar, PT Medical Assisting Director, and Math Faculty. Please note, some of these jobs are pre-budgeted or required for certification. Other jobs seem to be out of the blue, don't include Webmaster, a search was already done that resulted in nobody being hired, or in the eyes of this writer require some big justification.

Our publication, however, would like to thank Dr. McNutt for her extensive service to Edison. Administrators all over, especially at Edison, could learn a great deal from her. Too bad the President was on vacation.

Coming soon ... the President's "heads up" rationale for the termination of Professor Marlowe as well as the projected ramifications! Summer reading: Emotional Intelligence!

Grievance Poem

2009-06-27T13:42:00.003-04:00

Taylor Mali is a teacher and poet. In fact, he is a multiple time winner of the National Poetry Slam. His work often comments about being an educator, the school system, and the perception of teaching.

"How to Write a Grievance Poem" is here to remind us of the lighter side of life. The form and style are a mirror to Mali's "How to Write a Politcal Poem."

Enjoy.

How to Write a Grievance Poem

for my soon-to-be-former friends at ECC

However it begins, it’s gotta be loud
And then it’s gotta get a little bit louder.
Because this is how you write a grievance poem
and how you deliver it with power.

Mix current events with letters of
non-renewal.
Wrap it up with a heads-up or header it in CC until it
sounds true.

July first will sink in.

Because somewhere in Edison, grievances are still
being written.
I said somewhere in Edison, grievances are still being
written!

See, that’s the crook, and you gotta have a crook.
More than the book, it’s the crook that is the most
important part.
The crook has to hit and the crook’s not gonna fit.
Crook’s gotta hit hard in the heart.

Because somewhere in Edison, grievances are still
being written.

And The Board is blindfolding themselves in
an unaware plight.
Make fun of administration, it’s easy, especially with
The Bus
like censored, censored, and … censored.
Create real juxtapositions of personalities
and administration philosophies
as if monarchism were the opposite of
organizational charts,
as if we needed Bow Tie, not Tae Bo.

Peep this: When I say “Petition,”
you all say, “Yes.”

Petition! Yes! Petition! Yes! Petition!

May the circle, be –

Stop in the middle of a song that everyone knows
and loves.
This will give your grievance a sense of urgency.
Because there is always a sense of urgency in a
grievance poem.

There is no time to waste!
Corruption doesn’t have a curfew,
idiocy doesn’t care what teacher you are
and the Office of the President
is filled with people who wear skirts on their hips
and carry dollar signs pinned over their eyes.
Injustice isn’t injustice it’s just in us as we are
just in ice.
That’s the only segregation of this Marlowe nation
in which you either fight against non-renewal
or else you are not renewed!

And even as I say this somewhere in Edison
grievances are
still being written.

And it makes me wanna wear jeans!

Because I have read The Chronicle of
Higher Education
and can speak with great articulation
about classroom situation, and budgetary
condition.
I’ve read the President’s Everyone at Edison
but preferred Illumination.
Like a confession, I will give you the
explanation

of why Management Assumptions is the ultimate manifestation
of legal discrimination and maniacal
manipulation.

And maybe they are still writing grievances
somewhere in Edison,
but by the time you get to the end of a grievance poem it
won’t matter anymore.

Because all you have to do is open your eyes,
pick up your pen, and end by saying:

sign here three times,
sign here three times,
sign here three times.

Keeping up the Public Pressure

2009-06-24T17:22:00.002-04:00

In the wake of the two most recent Editorial Junta postings, the restoration of the Dimbulbs to speak out, and a the urgent please for more public discourse in the comments section, perhaps it's time for speak louder.

As Marlowe wrote a few days ago, both attempts to fire him were meant to silence criticism. As if that wasn't enough, the Board has indirectly (inconsequential) and directly tried to silence criticism. It's clear Yowell and the Board (collectively) aren't going to listen to us.

So, what are we supposed to do? We can start by letting people know what's going on--not just our friends, but people who need to know and will ask questions. Below is a list of contacts, local and national. Link them to the Illuminator, give names of administrators and Board members. Let them call; let them come and visit.

Dave Larsen, Dayton Daily News: (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com.

WHIOTV (channel 7): (937) 259-2111 7online@whiotv.com

WDTN: http://www.wdtn.com/subindex/About_Us/Contact_Us/

The Chronicle of Higher Education: editor@chronicle.com

Inside Higher Ed: Ideas for articles, opinion pieces, columns, and other editorial features should be sent to Scott Jaschik, editor, orDoug Lederman, editor.

The Ohio Association of Community Colleges: Phone: (614) 221-OACC (6222)

Toll-Free: 1-888-533-6222 info@ohiocc.org

The Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Fingerhut: efingerhut@regents.state.oh.us 614-466-0887

I apologize for the crazy fonts, copy and paste does that. Notes: Chancellor Fingerhut doesn't seem to be reliable in responding to email. He hasn't responded to my email from April, and I don't believe anyone else has heard from him. In case you haven't heard, the Ohio Assoc. of Comm. Colleges recently appointed Edison Board of Trustee Darryl Mehaffie to be Vice-Chair. Good for him. I don't know him but have heard he's not the worst of the Board members. He might learn he's an awkward spot.

Start writing. Express your concern. Be polite.

Two Letters from the English Deptarment

2009-06-23T13:54:00.004-04:00

The English Department would like to respond to the rationale used in the letter sent on June 11, 2009 to Steve Marlowe terminating his contract with Edison Community College and eliminating a full time position from the English department. The letter states that his contract was terminated because budget dollars needed to be reallocated from the English Department Staff to the Math Department Staff.

The full contents of this letter can be found here.

Same Song, Different Voice.

The Edison English department is writing this letter in response to your letter of nonrenewal to Steve Marlowe. This action is illegal, unethical, unnecessary and shamefully vindictive.

The full contents of this letter can be found here.

Elvis Has, But Steve Only Sort Of

2009-06-22T22:20:00.005-04:00

KY played his last card with me. It's a predictable, amateur move I, and others, expected.

The man is nothing if not consistent. His M.O. remains the same: lie until he perceives the right moment to strike a perceived enemy, then do his dirty work behind a lame excuse. He's done it before. It's the "Taint" maneuver. It's lame.

Anybody remember his insinuating at a Board meeting that I lied when I called him out for giving me a verbal, telephoned "heads up?" Anybody believe we have to fire a full-timer before hiring another full-timer? Probably not even KY believes those things, but who knows?

The intent of my "firing" is to quiet you.

Remember, KY and his minions control through fear. They think they've made an example of a troublemaker, and that starting in the fall, you'll all behave because you know they'll fire you if you don't.

Again? Really, really?

In my case, KY fired a fully tenured member of Edison's faculty in the second year of a continuing contract. The Taint maneuver is usually only effective on untenured folks, even when they've got steel in their spines. KY did not rely on any contractual reasons for firing me. He doesn't have them.

Instead, he made up a literally insane rationale that serves only to encourage more people to associate the man's rationales with his general state of being. With KY, you're watching someone who doesn't seem to be quite in possession of all his reasoning faculties lash out at folks with whatever weapons he has handy.

The poor administration is all-in now, and those of us fighting for Edison are sitting on a wealth of good will and excellent legal footing. I am overwhelmed by all the good words and kindness you've all sent my way in the past week. Yes, KY has told me not to come back in the fall, but he tried to do that once already, to me and you, and you, and you, and he tail-tucked (by equivocation, of course, but that's a bow) when we--the Edison Community--reminded him and the board that it's the Edison family, and our trio of counties, he works for.

This isn't over. Unless you let them get back to business as usual.

This ain't about Marlowe, or Marlowe's job, or Marlowe's family, or showing KY who's boss (though watching KY leave the building the last time will be a sweet moment, when it happens).

Our movement is about saving the College from a maniacal cadre who will destroy it rather than realize their time at its helm is long past, and about showing a slow-to-action and slow-to-understanding Board of Trustees that their jobs are to shepherd the college, not protect a fool whose reckless behavior has cost, and will cost, dollars, sense and perhaps existence.

I'll give up on Edison when the doors are padlocked. Until then, we're all still in this together, and I'd be horrified to think the tired, boring Taint maneuver spooked anybody if it hasn't spooked the fella KY performed it on.

Victory is certain, if not near. Keep heart! Keep faith! Don't let up on these wretches!

by Steve Marlowe, under the Editorial Junta account.

Board Meeting Recap

2009-06-18T13:25:00.002-04:00

Here is a recap of the work session discussion and board meeting discussion as it pertains to faculty:

Tuesday evening I called Doug Murray, board chairman to inform him about a potential contract violation. The attached budget assumption will show you that our 3.25% raise has been removed from the budget. This is different than what the budget team presented to Dr. Yowell at Presidents cabinet. He indicated to me that he would inform the board.

Work session, Wednesday 2-3;

Chairman Murray informed the board of our discussion. Followed by the statement that he did not see a problem with the budget not including the raise, if the budget was preliminary and subject to revision. The raise does not take effect until the second August pay, August 31. He also indicated that the union would be negotiating in August (I do not know where he got this information from).

The board agreed to remove the budget from the consent agenda so they could discuss further during the regular meeting.

Regular meeting, Wednesday 3 to ?

The budget was removed from the consent agenda and discussion centered around a preliminary budget or a month to month continuing budget. The board opted for a preliminary budget that could be subject to change. Trustee MeHaffe raised the question of violating the contract. The board agreed they would not willfully violate the contract and hoped that once the State budget is approved, the raise could be paid. Again there was mention of negotiation in August.

The budget was approved.

The board went into executive session, but I spoke to Chairman Murray and indicated to him that the budget the board saw is different than the budget the team gave to Dr. Yowell at Presidents Cabinet.

I will contact our legal representative at OEA to get a clearer picture and to see what Ohio Revised Code can be used if and when we need to file suit.

Wrong-sizing

2009-06-17T12:27:00.005-04:00

The story goes that we needed to lose an English faculty position because the department was wrong-sized. I'm here to document that, indeed, the English department has the wrong ratio of full-time to part-time, as do most departments in the college. But far from agreeing that there are too many full-time faculty, the facts indicate the opposite; there are too many part-timers.

The guidelines set by the Ohio Board of Regents hold that 60% of the credit-hours in any degree program should be taught by full-time faculty or administrators at the college. There has been no enforcement of that provision, but many nearby state colleges and universities have done better. Sinclair has maintained a 60/40 FT/PT ratio all along, though recently their president announced that they were going to reduce to 50/50, primarily by attrition.

But what does research say about FT/PT ratios? For years, publication on this question concentrated on opinions: "We think that part-time faculty are an asset because..." or "...are a problem because...". The only empirical truth widely known was that part-time faculty were cheap.

Recently, a number of empirical studies explored issues related to PT faculty--and the results are dismal. Among them:

Graduation rates decrease as the ratio of part-time faculty increases.
Students are more likely to drop out if their required introductory courses are taught by part-time instructors.
Students receive less service.Part-timers rarely are available to students outside of scheduled class time.
Part-timers spend less time preparing for classes—a condition made worse by last-minute hiring and scheduling decisions that, in some cases, lead to an instructor being hired to teach a course after it has held its first meeting.
Part-time instructors are often assigned to teach courses outside their areas of expertise.
Essential non-teaching functions—student advising, campus governance, curriculum development—are not performed by part-time faculty; these responsibilities are increased to unacceptable levels for the remaining full-time faculty.
Campuses fail to provide administrative guidance or access to resources for part-time faculty.

The research does not conclude that all part-time faculty are detrimental. It shows that there are actually two types of part-timer. One type consists of retired teachers or active professionals who take on classes for supplemental income or as a sort of community service; they usually perform just as well as full-timers. The other type is the "gypsy" adjunct who takes on 3-4 classes apiece at 3-4 different colleges, driving to and fro with the backseat of the car as office space, desperately hoping to break into a full-time tenure-track position somewhere. This overworked, undersupported drudge worker is most often the source of shortcomings.

A close examination of these points shows that eliminating full-time positions is contradictory to the administration's stated goals. We will not increase retention by pursuing policies shown to reduce it. We will not recruit successfully if there are insufficient full-time faculty to pursue it. We will not deliver "a personal experience" if significant numbers of our faculty are too busy to answer email, meet a student after class, or sponsor a student organization.

Of course, it's going to require rather deep changes at all levels of higher education administration in Ohio to reverse this sort of counterproductive decision-making overall. But there are probably things that can be done about it locally.

I've summarized the research I've condensed above in a short precis, with references, that I'll be happy to share with anyone interested.

Transition To Community College Police State? Complete.

2009-06-16T16:29:00.000-04:00

The Editorial Junta has learned from reliable sources that KY's administration intends to install video cameras throughout the building, in addition to the immense, ancient Egyptian cameras already monitoring strategic areas.

Our sources could not speculate on the cost of the installation, but the decision to install them was taken recently, between budget cycles, and would not likely have been accounted for in previous budgets--i.e., an emergency or discretionary expenditure.

The Illuminator can only suppose the cameras will help KY and his minions keep better tabs on which administrators, faculty and staff enjoy eating lunch together, sharing a laugh in the hallway, or refraining from obligatory salaams and receipts-of-salaams, all activities in which the Empire has shown an abiding interest, for whatever reason, in this crisis.

Now, this:

Setting Down the Cups, A Tale of Two Speeches, Pt. 2

2009-06-16T14:33:00.000-04:00

Two days ago, I posted on our college president's attempt to shame us into compliance (how dare we be unhappy) by drawing a metaphor of someone serving you pee punch at a party and them blaming you for ruining the party because you wouldn't drink the pee.

Most of us know it's pee and drink the punch anyway because we've been coerced into believing it's for the good of the college and our students. We drink because we believe that in doing so, others will benefit. Yowell & Co. know we'll drink because it's who we are: we care about our students and colleagues. We drink because we might be worried about what will happen if we don't drink, that we'll be fired for not drinking, demoted, arrested, or what ever form of retribution is available. We drink and watch friends suffer or leave, maybe even feeling relief that it wasn't us who bore the brunt the administration's inexplicable whims. And all for the "greater good" of the college.

It's time to put down the cups, stop drinking the pee.

Most of us are silently protesting. Some are visibly and vocally protesting, often at great personal cost. These people are our heros. In standing out, they are telling KY & Co. that they will not be coerced or threatened to accept what isn't right. This, of course, infuriates KY & Co. because their destructive actions require our cooperation.

Ayn Rand's character John Galt gives a 65 page speech outlining Rand's principles of Objectivism in Atlas Shrugged. The novel attempts to illustrate that when the powers-that-be call for continued sacrifice of the individual for the great good of a group, nobody benefits. Galt calls it a society of cannibalism: “As a basic step of self-esteem, learn to treat as the mark of a cannibal any man’s demand for your help. To demand it is to claim that your life is his property--and loathsome as such claim might be, there’s something still more loathsome: your agreement. Do you ask if it’s ever proper to help another man? No--if he claims it as his right or as a moral duty that you owe him. Yes--if such is your own desire based on your own selfish pleasure in the value of his person and his struggle."

My sister is fond of quoting Elanor Roosevelt: "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." Essentially, Galt (and Rand) are saying the same thing.

Galt/Rand's solution to this sort of problem is to stop playing a part in our own destruction:

Now that you know the truth about your world stop supporting your own destroyers. The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction to give it. Withdraw your sanction. Withdraw your support. Do not try to live on your enemies’ terms or to win at a game where they’re setting the rules. Do not seek the favor of those who enslaved you, do not beg for alms from those who have robbed you, be it subsidies, loans or jobs, do not join their team to recoup what they’ve taken by helping them rob your neighbors. One cannot hope to maintain one’s life by accepting bribes to condone one’s destruction. . . Use your mind and skill in private, extend your knowledge, develop your ability, but do not share your achievements with others. Do not try to produce a fortune, with a looter riding on your back. Stay on the lowest rung of their ladder, earn no more than your barest survival, do not make an extra penny to support the looters’ state. Since you’re captive, act as a captive, do not help them pretend that you’re free. Be the silent, incorruptible enemy they dread. When they force you, obey--but do not volunteer. Never volunteer a step in their direction, or a wish, or a plea, or a purpose. Do not help a holdup man to claim that he acts as your friend and benefactor. Do not help your jailers to pretend that their jail is your natural state of existence. Do not help them to fake reality. That fake is the only dam holding off their secret terror, the terror of knowing they’re unfit to exist; remove it and let them drown; your sanction is their only life belt."

This sounds hard. It may seem next to impossible. It may seem unfair to your students. It may seem unfair to you, asking you to give up doing what you love. But how do you benefit from giving away your abilities? You, who goes beyond what you are contractually obligated to do, who takes overload hours either because you need the money or your department is short staffed, who serve as de facto administrators, advisers, IT Support, Custodial, or delivery staff--who benefits from your work? Is it you from extra compensation or recognition? Is it your students, who appreciate what you are doing? Is it the college, who, in turn for your extra work, reduces your pay, increases your duties and your restrictions, fires your colleagues and replaces them with sometimes under-qualified and always under-paid part time replacements, and expects you to remain silent?

Put down the cup of pee.

Our departments are strung along with promises and excuses of "it will get better," "it's only temporary," or "it's beyond our control." How many of us are suckered, coerced, or forced to go beyond what would normally be expected of us for that single catch-all: it's for the good of the college or for good of our students? There are departments without chairs, where the dwindling full time faculty act as undesignated department chairs without recognition and without pay.

Yes, there is a clause in our contracts stipulating "other duties" of our position. Who is to decide what those duties are? What if we were to stop doing all of our extras? It's not your job until you're asked to take it, so stop doing it. If you have no department chair, go to your Dean for every decision you need to make. If you're the Dean and are over-stretched, over-burdened because your VP's refuse to give you support, ask your VP to decide what can fail. If your VP says nothing can fail, ask how you're supposed to do the impossible.

Let's stop doing what's best for the college and focus on only doing our jobs well. How many gaps will that expose? Let's stop attending non-required events and meetings, those mindless social gatherings that make us wonder "where is the money coming from to support this when my department can't afford XYZ?" If they bemoan our lack of attendance, ask if they require us to come to the party to pretend everything is OK. For Academic Senate, stop sharing your good ideas for the collge and simply turn to KY & Co. to ask "what would you order us to do?" Create your ideas, share them with each other, but only bring them out when the "destroyers" are gone. Many faculty take on overload hours. Stop. The school is having trouble finding adjuncts to fill classes--too bad. For those of you leading clubs or acting as unpaid advisers, give them up. Is your program or work giving back to the people who use your work against you? Stop doing it. What sort of press releases would Jack Kramer write if nothing was happening on campus?

As an adjuct, who had hoped for the opportunity to interview for a full-time position once a full time faculty member retired, I know now that there is no future for me at Edison as long as KY & Co. are in charge. My department's chair retired and then another full time member was fired. As enrollments increase, there is no justification for this firing--especially since every student has to take a class in my department. My ideas, lessons I've developed, will remain mine. I will be silent in departmental meetings unless I am asked to contribute something, even though I hold the people in my department in high regard and consider many to be friends. There is no future for me at Edison, there is no future for any adjunct at Edison except for the continued need for adjuncts. So I plan to take my talents elsewhere, even though I am doing it more slowly than I like.

It's the hardest thing to ask of you, to give up what you love to do as a member of the college. It's your love of your discipline that KY & Co. are exploiting. You can still do what you love, but do it for yourself.

You will point out that the college will suffer, that students will suffer. It's true, they will suffer, but only on campus. You can still give your time to your students, but don't do it as part of the college or pretending that you're being compensated by the college. KY & Co. decided that they could run a college like a business and treat us like common barristas rather than the educated professionals we are. Their vision of short-term gain and self-interest through cutting the very heart of the college is destructive and unsustainable. A department cannot exist with one full time faculty and 20+ adjuncts, no matter how much money it saves.

From now on, when you hear the words "for the good of the college" or "for the good of your students," know that the person telling you this really means for the benefit of the administration, who don't care about you at all.

Drinking the Pee Punch, A Tale of Two Speeches Pt. 1

2009-06-14T21:24:00.000-04:00

As we know, things are f-ed up big time. Quality faculty and staff are being fired, others are bolting, and others who were non-renewed/fired then told they weren't non-renewed/fired are now being non-renewed/fired so names are being besmirched. Morale is touching bottom and KY & Co. want us to know that it's all our fault.

I keep recalling KY's April Board tirade, partly because I transcribed it, but mostly because something bothered me about it. It's this line: "The no confidence vote is once thing, the crap that’s going on around it is something entirely else. I am disappointed, but I am mostly ashamed of the handful of people on this campus, who, for their deliberate distortions and exaggeration if not outright [uncertain] have created a second story here."

For further elaboration, allow me to put together a scene for you: The president of some organization, say Starbucks, Walmart, or a small community college, holds a party for all his or her employees. There's hors d'oeuvres, cocktail weenies, and punch. Only instead of Hi-C or Orange drink, it's a big ol' bowl of pee. And this president is serving the pee punch and not calling it pee punch, but Fruity Yellow Banana Pineapple punch or something.

So, everyone's drinking the punch, thinking it tastes like pee, but trusting their president. Then, when you point out to the president that the punch is really pee, and the president finally says "yeah, it's pee" and everybody gets mad and leaves (except for a few people who love the taste of pee), the president blames you for ruining the party. Here it is as a skit--and just so no one believes I'm trying to insinuate our college president would make us drink pee, I'm going to use a public utilities company and a fictitious president: Yen Ko of Con Edison Electric.

Yen Ko: Welcome to Con Edison's Employee Respect and Recognition Party, have some Fruity Yellow Banana Pineapple Punch, a nice big glass.

You: Thanks! You know, you're not as bad as I thought.

YK: Well, that's what all new employees say when they first meet me.

You: You're right, this is the first time we've met. I've worked here for three years.

YK: Great! Glad to have you aboard. Have another glass of punch.

You: This smells funny and looks like urine.

YK: I assure you with all my integrity that it's not pee.

You: No, I think it's pee. I have a toddler old and an incontinent dog. I know pee.

YK: You're right, it's pee. I pissed in every single cup.

Marv Steelowe, Reed Drab, & Harry Savitch (Overhearing the conversation): OMFG! Hey everybody, you're drinking pee! Put down your plastic punch cups!

(everybody leaves)

YK: Way to go, jerk, you just ruined the party! If you cared anything about Con Edison, you wouldn't have said anything about my pee in everyone's drinks. It's your fault no one likes me now! I hate you and have no respect for you!

So, metaphorically, we're drinking pee and most are pretending not to mind and doing it for the good of the college. Some of us have put down the cups and walked away. Others have called attention to the pee punch and been kicked in the face (fired).

Meanwhile, the punch keeps coming. A new bowl is being poured (with flavorings of salary increase cuts) while we still struggle to swallow the previous bowl. Just how bitter is it?

As the Illuminator points out, while "Edison faculty, in a previous year, took a pay raise of ~1% in good faith to not only help the college, but also in the understanding the following two years would carry a 4% increase," KY is receiving annual salary as the Illuminator reported the his salary and extra compensation ($22K per Brad's comment below) at $179,706. The number isn't that important--I'm not going to begrudge someone his pay just because he makes 18 times the salary of an adjunct teaching a full load at the top of the pay scale. That's not the issue (though I can be bitter!).

Page two of a Dayton Daily News article from May 2007 reports Yowell made $152,440 without disclosing other compensation. Are Yowell & Co. bearing the same "sacrifice" as the rest? I would love to believe they were and that his annual increase is not above that of the rest of faculty and staff (as I had previously reported--thank you Brad for your quick correction).

Finally, that garnish in last year's Infinity-sized pee punch bowl? A new lease agreement on a "complimentary car worth twice a newly-hired faculty member's salary?"

While the majority of us doing the actual work of the school (teaching, advising, registering, collecting money, cleaning up, keeping the place running), we're being told to make sacrifices for the good of the college so it can continue for the good of the students during this rough time that is completely out of the college's control, those who are making these demands of sacrifice don't appear to be sacrificing a damn thing (Why an Infinity? Why not a nice Nissan or a Ford Escape or Ford Fusion?) .

Since it's all talk and no action, why should we listen? How do we not listen?

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we'll find inspiration in another speech.

McNutt's & Lootens' Selfless Dedication Remembered With New Scholarships

2009-06-13T23:14:00.001-04:00

Dean Michael of Darke County Endows New Awards Personally...

The Dim Bulbs have announced that Dean Janice Michael, of Edison's Darke County Campus, has endowed two new scholarships in recognition of Mindy McNutt and Phil Lootens. Read more here.

Darrel Pleads Guilty to Remaining Charges

2009-06-10T19:18:00.000-04:00

Check the DDN for the scoop.

Like Déjà Vu All Over Again

2009-06-05T11:51:00.000-04:00

By Mike Taint. Really.

By invitation of the editorial powers-that-be of this esteemed blog I’ve been invited to make a guest posting. I’m honored. I’m also very much dismayed at the current crisis, and the grief it’s caused my former colleagues and co-workers, good people and dedicated educators and staff who’ve dedicated their lives to Edison. Unfortunately, trouble at Edison caused by KY’s poor leadership is not a new thing. My first reaction when I heard of the mass non-renewals was the old Yogi Berra observation – “it’s like déjà’ vu all over again”.

Just to be clear - I haven’t kept in contact much with my former colleagues since I left 4 years ago …… having spent most of my life in the Air Force I’m used to moving away and moving on, I guess. I first heard of the current crisis a couple months ago from friends, and then followed the newspaper articles and found THE ILLUMINATOR blog, which I read daily (I think I’m the guy in Lower Elbonia they mentioned a few months ago). To put it mildly, I never thought much of KY’s leadership while on the faculty, but it’s really hard to believe what’s transpired in the last few months. This is deception, double talk and just plain foolishness taken to a whole new level; if the esteemed historian Barbara Tuchman was still alive this affair would make a worthy final chapter to one of her best books, THE MARCH OF FOLLY (about governments that deliberately pursue self-destructive agendas).

In my case, here’s how it went down (I’ve been told there are arguments about this still on campus). Late February 2005 I was told by my dean to meet with the VP for Education in a couple days – out of the blue. My intuition immediately went off that something was wrong ….. it just seemed funny. I seriously doubt if my dean had any idea of what was going to happen – the VP may not have, for that matter. Contrary to rumors, I was not under any “double secret probation” or anything of the sort (I can understand why people would think that, though). Of course, I HAD fought for over a year against the administration to change the “mid year hire pay policy”, a great deal they have going where you teach full time starting in January (50% of the academic year) but get paid less than 40% of a year’s salary. Unfortunately, the ESEA and I lost the arbitration on that one.

At the meeting I was told by the VP that my contract would not be renewed … naturally I asked “Why?” and the reply was “according to the contract, in the first 3 years of year employment we don’t have to give a cause”. But you had to be there – the body language from the VP, as I read it, said “I’m embarrassed beyond belief to be doing this” … ditto for the dean. I then asked each one another question: “do you think this is right?” ….. not much of a response from either. I believed then and now that both my dean and VP – good people - were compelled to do something they didn’t agree with at all. I have never doubted that the direction to do this came from KY himself, who doesn’t seem to like strong outspoken figures.

I immediately shot out an email to the entire college to let them know what happened. My goal in doing this was not to spark a rebellion but merely to get the facts – at least my version of them – out in the open to keep rumors at bay. I didn’t want people thinking I’d left because of some malfeasance on my part. What happened next was one of the most humbling moments of my life – my colleagues in the faculty cast an overwhelming no confidence vote in the president and requested my re-instatement. Of course, nothing happened but I did decide to speak to the Board at their end of year meeting. Alas, this was before the wonders of YouTube, but in a nutshell what I told them was:

- Things on the surface at Edison look fine, but they really aren’t. There is an unhealthy atmosphere where people are afraid to speak out, lest they end up like me. In fact, there was more “academic freedom” in the Air Force (based on 21 years experience) than at Edison
- I know good leaders from bad; I’ve been a leader myself. What you have here is bad leadership. And it’s been in place for far too long. Change is needed – now

As expected, they listened politely, said nothing, and that was that.

Interestingly – and most of you don’t know about this – about a year after I left Edison I got a call from B&I asking me if I wanted to teach a project management course for a local firm that needed training. Of course my reaction was – are you serious? They were, so I agreed (verbally) to do so. I made arrangements for texts, course times, etc, and then a week before the course was to start I was told it was cancelled – a little probing over the phone revealed that decision came from KY himself. No concern for a local company that needed training (I don’t know if they ever received it or not), just the need to take another shot at me. Think about this, Board members - this is the character of the leader of your college.

What happened to me wasn’t a big deal. Within a couple months I was back in industry, at double my Edison salary and with nights free again to pursue my opera and theater interests. But what KY is doing now is wrecking Edison as an institution, driving away its best people and attempting to create a environment of “KY-think” that is the complete antithesis of what higher education stands for.

Board of Trustees – I’m calling you out. You have the responsibility to oversee the college and provide strategic direction – do your job, and get Edison new leadership, the leadership it deserves.

'Dim Bulbs' Speak Out!

2009-06-04T20:11:00.000-04:00

A group of retirees and former longtime employees, informally known as the 'Dim Bulbs,' have decided to speak out about the leadership crisis at Edison. The group's website masthead explains:

We are retirees and other longtime former employees of Edison Community College, Piqua, Ohio. Many members of our infomal club are now following the current crisis of leadership at Edison Community College. Our group, once primarily social, feels compelled to provide an opportunity for comment on the declining morale of our beloved institution and the loss of our joint legacy. We welcome former Board of Trustees members to the discussion.

The Illuminator's Editorial Junta welcomes our more seasoned brothers and sisters to the fight, and we look forward to the wise comment, and effective action, sure to come.