Dear Colleagues,
First of all, this is a long email, so please delete it now if you are not interested. Secondly, I hate conflict. It makes me sick to my stomach and gives me a headache. People who know me well will tell you that I avoid confrontation even when I shouldn’t. But—there are some things worth fighting for, and I do have trouble keeping my mouth shut about things that are important to me.
As I have reflected on the views expressed about the upcoming meeting on Jan. 31, it seems to me that we are engaging in a debate that is much broader and more important than expressing an opinion over the performance of any one person. We are debating nothing less than the future of our university. How do we define progress and success? Is progress to be measured in bigger, newer buildings, more students and larger class sizes, even if more of those students are alienated and underprepared for university level work? Is success to be measured in admitting more students from underserved populations only to doom those students to failure because we don’t provide the support services to help them succeed? Are we so isolated in our own little corner of academe that we can’t sympathize and strategize with our colleagues whose student loads have tripled or quadrupled in the last year? I would hope that the answer to those questions is a resounding NO. I must admit, however, that my experience at KU over the last few years does not support that answer. I hope that we can center the debate about our future on not what looks good but what is good. If we mean what we say that our students are our top priority, then let’s really act like it and work together to come up with viable solutions that will benefit all of us.
A colleague forwarded me the link to the executive search firm who is vetting candidates for the VP for Finance position. I’ve included the link below, but I’d like to mention some statistics that are in the ad. According to the numbers that I assume the company received from the administration, less than 1% of our students are in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class, and 4% are in the top 25%. 35% of our students come from the top 50%. That leaves 60% of our students coming from the bottom 50% of their high school graduating class. Slightly less than 30% of our students graduate in four years and less than 55% graduate in 6 years. Is this the Kutztown University we want? Frankly, I was stunned by those statistics. Admittedly, I have nothing to compare them to, but if we are growing by admitting more and more marginal students then perhaps we need to revisit the reasons for our growth.
http://www.rhperry.net/clients/profiles/KU_CFO_Profile.pdf
An effective faculty is any university’s greatest resource. If the faculty become cynical and uncaring, education and our students will ultimately suffer. If the faculty believe that we have no stake in the future of this university, we will become cynical. Many of us, including myself, struggle against our own cynicism every day. Why bother? Classes are getting bigger. The administration doesn’t care that students aren’t getting the education they deserve. As long as they’re paying tuition, all is golden. I’ll just do the minimum, focus on my research and spend as little time on campus as possible. Too many universities exist in that world, and I see this attitude becoming more prevalent here. I think Allen Back’s email revealed a cynical undercurrent, but his experience in the classroom mirrors my own. I just finished teaching two sections of the same class and the vast majority of the class was unprepared for class, even though I gave them an extra class to complete the required reading. This experience is becoming normative and less exceptional.
President Cevallos, in his message to the faculty, spoke of his efforts at effective communication. As a member of the APSCUF Meet and Discuss team, I have a different perception of communication. Over the past two years, our meetings with members of the administration have been cordial, but ultimately unproductive. APSCUF presents problems that were brought to us by faculty. We don’t make up issues to bring to management. Sometimes those problems are minor; many times they are significant, but our team believes that our job is to communicate those issues directly to management. Many times we have been told, “we’ll get back to you” or even more frequently, “that’s not our interpretation of the CBA.” Management’s interpretation, by the way, appears to be dictated by Harrisburg. I have been one member of Meet and Discuss who has counseled patience. I have wanted to give the administration the benefit of every doubt, knowing that they are working under strict and dictatorial orders from Harrisburg and are laboring under extreme financial constraints, but I am beginning to wonder if my colleagues and I are simply wasting our time.
There are many issues that have been brought up in the last few days, but I want to focus on only one. President Cevallos stated the ongoing efforts of his administration to combat the problems of indoor air quality, specifically mold. In a letter dated 12 Oct 2007, APSCUF asked management for information on its ongoing efforts. Specifically, we asked for a copy of the mold management program, and answers to specific questions regarding building testing. Recognizing that effective mold remediation is expensive, we informed management that two of our sister institutions, Millersville and IUP, have nationally ranked and respected safety and environmental health programs and suggested that they would perhaps lend their expertise to help us. Kutztown University itself has an environmental studies program as part of the Biology Department. Can we not think outside the box? Can we not take advantage of the expertise of those already among us? To date, we have received no response to our letter or to any of our suggestions, but I personally renew my offer to use the contacts that I have at Millersville and IUP to help seek some creative solutions to this problem.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email. I hope that many of us will come to the meeting on Thursday, not to merely condemn or criticize but to seek ways that we can work to improve Kutztown University. The time for excuses is over. Kutztown University is not a collection of buildings; it is a group of people engaged in something very special. How special our mission will be in the future is up to us.
Patti Derr