Welcome to My World

Jason Fertig

If there is one way to sum up my first three months as a Faculty Senate Chair, it’s that I’ve taken the red pill that unearthed the reality of 2014 higher education.  If there is a second way, it’s in this “Plight of the Public Regional College” article in the Chronicle (warning: paywall).

This red pill exposed me to conversations where previously, I was not fully in the know.  As a faculty member, I’m in the center of my world of teaching and research.  But, when I learned what kept upper administration up at night, I saw that many colleges face declining enrollments, which forced discussions on ways to either bend the curve upwards or to right-size.  While the latter is a viable option in the strategy textbooks, it’s not the go-to plan for schools that depend on state aid.

I get to straddle the fence between administration and faculty, which, pun intended, can lead to painful situations at times.  Some faculty think that administrators just want to make faculty lives miserable, and some administrators have good intentions, but the lack of (or time away from) classroom experience can lead to decisions that are not in sync with conditions on the ground.  A less confrontational view of this struggle is that because of a career that involves tunnel vision, faculty may find it difficult to grasp university-level problems, while administrators have to make tough decisions to appease multiple stakeholders – which ultimately will not make everyone happy.

There are days where I wish I had my own school.  But, in the big picture, this is a valuable “internship” in modern university life.

Image: BitcoinExaminer.com

  • Share

Most Commented

March 24, 2025

1.

A Reckoning for Higher Education?

Are American colleges and universities finally getting their comeuppance?...

March 31, 2025

2.

Keeping Watch

Columbia's descent into chaos is by its own hand. Actions to right the university must be swift and tough....

January 27, 2025

3.

Exclusive Documents: UC-Boulder Breaks Civil Rights Law to Advance Racial Preferences

New FOIA documents grant a window into how the University of Colorado-Boulder, in the name of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, discriminates on the basis of protected class and upholds a co......

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

April 15, 2025

2.

Fighting Harvard and the Other Cultural Warlords

The academic bureaucracies and professoriate are so deeply committed to their radical program of replacing American society with their own vision of a new order that we have no real choice b......

October 12, 2010

3.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...