"where faculty are committed to teaching and serving students; where enthusiasm and morale are high; and where faculty professionalism and dedication find full expression, working in harmony with students, staff, and administration to fulfill the mission of the college"
Tuesday Teaching Question is a regular feature that attempts to get a conversation going about teaching. Typically, the questions attempt to be very practical. TTQ is brought to you by CAST. If you have a question that you’re dying to have featured in an upcoming TTQ, e-mail me at hwc_cast@ccc.edu.
I nearly forgot to post this week thanks to the holiday yesterday. Anyway, I hope everyone is planning to CAST his/her ballots today. Today’s TTQ has little to do with that. Here goes.
Yesterday, we received word that we’d likely have a new president at HWC. See here and here. Our livess as faculty members are impacted by the person in that position. For my time at HWC thus far, there has always been a ‘John’ in that position. I always new what to expect from our president. So the questions are…
What are you hoping for in our new president? How can the new president positively impact teaching and learning?
What can the new president do to help us (faculty) fulfill HW’s mission?
This is meant to be a wish list of sorts that could possibly be read by our new president so please treat it as such.
11. What message is being sent to students, faculty and staff by this decision?
The message is simple: we are working to make sure our entire institution, from the board, to senior leadership to staff is focused on ensuring students’ success.
Monday Music is a regular feature whose goal is to provide you with some music to get you fired up for another week of doing the yeoperson’s work of educating the citizenry.
I couldn’t decide which of these two songs (with the same title) was better. They both get me completely fired up and seemed appropriate closers to both Black History Month and the events (global, regional, local) of the last fortnight. So, I’m posting them both (in chronological order), and you can decide.
That’s right! It’s a two-fer!!
From the Isley Brothers (you’ll have to click on it twice to watch it on YouTube):
And Public Enemy (same with this one; click it twice, and you’ll jump to YouTube–and I should warn you: the opening of the video is, umm, provocative, but what do you expect from a Spike Lee Joint?):
Next up! is a regular feature on Sundays, showcasing HWC (and beyond) events in the coming week. Use the “Comments” section to provide updates and additions.
Welcome to week 7 of the semester, the close of Black History Month, and the kickoff to Women’s History Month!
Let’s hope it’s a little less eventful than last week was…but you know what they say about March: “In like a lion…”
Monday, 2/28: Business as usual, as far as I know.
Tuesday, 3/1: Union Chapter Nominations Meeting (Time?, rm 1115)
Wednesday, 3/2: Business as usual, as far as I know.
Thursday, 3/3: Women’s History Month Event: Amanda Loos hosts filmmaker and critic Jan Lisa Huttner, Looking Critically at the 2011 Oscars:Women, Film, Film Criticism, and Gender Dynamics at the Box Office (2:00pm, rm 323).
Friday, 3/4: Business as usual, as far as I know.
Saturday, 3/5: Business as usual, as far as I know.
Please post anything I missed in the comments. Thanks!
Post your predictions for who will win the Oscar for: 1) Best Picture, 2) Actor in a Lead, 3) Actress in a Lead, 4) Best Director, 5) Actor in a Supporting Role, 6) Actress in a Supporting Role.
You can click on “the Oscar” above for a link to the nominees (and a ballot if you’re playing along at home with friends).
Lounge Winner gets a firm handshake and some hand sanitizer. Go!
I was intrigued by a part of one of Mathissexy’s comments last week, so I did a little (and I do mean little) research.
In the comment, he asked if the HWC Mission Statement had changed, because it looked different to him. So, I compared the one on our Web site to the one in the catalogs, and they matched word for word. No change that I could see. The last time I looked at the District Mission Statement, though, I thought it looked different than I remembered it. I made a mental note to myself then to check it, but I guess I misplaced that one. Mathissexy’s question reminded me of it, though, so I did a little comparison.
In the catalog (the brand spanking new one that has all the colleges in it and just came out), it reads:
The City Colleges of Chicago delivers exceptional learning opportunities and educational services for diverse student populations in Chicago. We enhance knowledge, understanding, skills, collaboration, community service, and life-long learning by providing a broad range of quality, affordable courses, programs, and services to prepare students for success in a technologically advanced and increasingly interdependent global society. We work proactively to eliminate barriers to employment and to address and overcome casual [should be 'causal'] factors underlying socio-economic disparities and inequities of access and graduation in higher education.
Through our seven colleges, we deliver exceptional learning opportunities and educational services for diverse student populations in Chicago. We enhance knowledge, understanding, skills, collaboration, community service and life-long learning by providing a broad range of quality, affordable courses, programs, and services to prepare students for success in a technologically advanced and increasingly interdependent global society. We work to eliminate barriers to employment and to address and overcome inequality of access and graduation in higher education.
See the differences? There are two. The one in the first line is a slight paraphrase that doesn’t really change anything. The one in the LAST line, though, seems to me to be a substantive change, changing the whole focus of the passage from a social justice mission (my reading, following what Wayne said about it when he came to visit campus), to an employment focus.
That’s a pretty big shift, I’d say. I remember being rather proud when the district office added that line about working to “address and overcome causal factors of socio-economic disparities and inequities of access and graduation in higher education.” You’d think we’d have heard something about it, no? Did I miss it?
8. When do you expect to have the new Presidents in place?
Our timeline calls for the final candidates to be approved by the Board as early as May. The Chancellor, with assistance from an advisory committee, will supervise the search process and recommend final candidates to the board for approval.
9. How many colleges does this decision impact?
This decision will impact six out of the seven colleges because we just hired a new president for Harold Washington College under the revised job description this week.
10. What is the expectation of a current President during the search?
All City Colleges Presidents are expected to perform their normal roles and responsibilities and lead accordingly.
Post your stories and/or links to your Tumblr (or whatever) for photos.
And if you didn’t go, consider reading this fascinating piece from Forbes Magazine called, “The Wisconsin Lie Exposed” (or this one which is the inspiration for the Forbes article) and support the Wisconsin teachers by spreading the word about the Wisconsin teachers and their pensions:
Many of us are familiar with the concept of deferred compensation from reading about the latest multi-million dollar deal with some professional athlete. As a means of allowing their ball club to have enough money to operate, lowering their own tax obligations and for other benefits, ball players often defer payment of money they are to be paid to a later date. In the meantime, that money is invested for the ball player’s benefit and then paid over at the time and in the manner agreed to in the contract between the parties.
Does anyone believe that, in the case of the ball player, the deferred money belongs to the club owner rather than the ball player? Is the owner simply providing this money to the athlete as some sort of gift? Of course not. The money is salary to be paid to the ball player, deferred for receipt at a later date.
A review of the state’s collective bargaining agreements – many of which are available for review at the Wisconsin Office of State Employees web site - bears out that it is no different for state employees. The numbers are just lower.
In other words:
They are not, in fact, asking state employees to make a larger contribution to their pension and benefits programs as that would not be possible- the employees are already paying 100% of the contributions.
What they are actually asking is that the employees take a pay cut.
Read the rest, and then spend a few minutes lamenting the state of modern journalism (or should it be lauding the non-mainstream media?) by watching a prescient clip about modern journalism from a movie that should have won a boat load of Oscars (7 nominations, zero wins) called Broadcast News. The important part starts at about 1:35.
5. Are you moving to the model of using business leaders to head academic institutions?
Not necessarily. We want to find the best talent – wherever they may be found – to lead a major change effort underway at our institution. We need individuals with a range of skills, including an ability to think strategically and attain goals, and to understand their own strengths and weaknesses and surround themselves with a team that compliments them. As an education institution, we require leaders who can oversee operational and academic goals and drive to increasing student success.
We highly value academic and faculty leadership. That is precisely why we have integrated faculty into the Reinvention process and encourage faculty to provide ongoing input and recommend solutions that will strengthen our institution.
6. How do you plan to conduct the search process?
The Board is hiring a diverse professional search team to help identify candidates. The Chancellor, with assistance from an advisory committee, will supervise the search process and recommend final candidates to the board for approval. The Board hopes to name their selections as early as May.
7. How many if any of those Presidents who are reapplying do you expect to hire back?
We will make sure this is a fair search process and that we get the best candidates to benefit our students and our institution. This means we will hold a nation-wide search and invite all current presidents to apply for the redefined positions. We will have to wait and see who applies – we can’t make any predictions.
Think, Know, Prove is a regular Saturday feature, where a topic with both mystery and importance is posted for community discussion. The title is a shortened version of the Investigative Mantra: What do we think, what do we know, what can we prove? and everything from wild speculation to resource referencing fact is welcome here.
Walking out of the State of the College Address two weeks and a day ago, I was approached by our fabulous English faculty member, Sarah Liston with a request: “Can you put up a post about what the phrase “credential of economic value” means?
Anita Kelley had uttered the phrase during her presentation on Program Portfolio Review Task Force, and it immediately drew some quizzical looks and a little muttering from the crowd around me, leading me to believe, when she asked, that it would make a great TKP forum.
So, this is it. Just what is a “credential of economic value,” anyway? How would you define that term? Do you think that it is a necessary condition for an educational program to have value? Is it a sufficient condition to call a learning path valuable? Is the money that students make from the educational credential a correlate of the value of the education, or a serendipitous but not correlated effect of the value of the education, or is it (the money) the cause and definition of the value of any academic credential?
Feel free to answer any, all or none of the above.
When it comes to “credentials of economic value,” what do you Think? What do you Know? What can you Prove?
(The rally will be held in all 50 states. In Chicago, the rally will be tomorrow, Saturday, at 12:00 PM at the State of Illinois Building.)
In Wisconsin and around our country, the American Dream is under fierce attack. Instead of creating jobs, Republicans are giving tax breaks to corporations and the very rich and then cutting funding for education, police, emergency response, and vital human services.
On Saturday, February 26, at noon local time, we are organizing rallies in front of every statehouse and in every major city to stand in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin. We demand an end to the attacks on worker’s rights and public services across the country. We demand investment, to create decent jobs for the millions of people who desperately want to work. And we demand that the rich and powerful pay their fair share.
We are all Wisconsin. We are all Americans.
This Saturday, we will stand together to Save the American Dream. Be sure to wear Wisconsin Badger colors (red and white) to show your solidarity. Sign up today to join in!
Whaddya Know? is a bi-weekly, featured podcast conversation with the Chair of the HW Assessment Committee highlighting recent assessment activities, results, and consequent recommendations of the college’s hardest working committee. It appears every other Friday afternoon.
Today’s topic is Faculty Motivation.
I have much more to say about all this, and probably will in a long rambling rant sometime this weekend or next, but I raise it here because the motivations of the public sector union members have been somewhat on trial this week in the court of public opinion, with all signs pointing to more and increasing scrutiny and criticism of public workers in the near future (read this for a harrowing preview).
Found another great thing on The Leiter Report. It’s this article on administrative advice, and it’s going in my file of “things to tell people who are about to be department chairs.”
“Masterful Inactivity” is the phrase Jonathan Wolff uses for his best advice to administrators and chairs, and from my own experience as a department chair, he is right on. I didn’t really understand Jim Shultz’s definition that “an administrator is someone who justifies their own existence by the work of others,” until I was a chair and had to do a lot of work–gathering data, writing reports and memos, answering emails, etc.–in order to provide things that the administrator(s) needed to show his/her effectiveness to some other administrator.
Another definition that I’ve always held close to my heart is from a guy who used to write for the Tribune who would say, “If you spend more than half of your work time thinking, writing, or acting in regard to your own institution, you are a bureaucrat.” When I was a chair, I had to use “Masterful Inactivity” a lot to avoid being a bureaucrat rather than an educator.
My point is not to bag on administrators here–I know a bunch of them and like them, too. I also recognize that they do some valuable work. But there’s also a dog chasing it’s tail element to some of it, which can lead to the sort of faculty frustration that occasionally strikes faculty, as here and here and here. One possible solution? “Masterful Inactivity:”
In his writings on scientific laws, the Scottish philosopher David Hume asked what reason we have to believe that the future would resemble the past. Hume never worked in a university – he couldn’t get a job – but if he was with us in the English education system now he wouldn’t even bother to ask the question. We have achieved – in one way at least – something like Trotsky’s vision of world communism: permanent revolution.
Why do we have to keep changing? Obviously because we are not teaching properly. Or researching the right things. Or bringing in enough cash from business or alumni. Or embedding ourselves deeply enough into the community. Or exchanging knowledge with the right partners. Or having sufficient impact. Or widening participation. Or ensuring that every student has the right visa. By way of penance we need to run round and round with bits of paper in our hands, and then fire off lots of emails…
If the background environment keeps changing, you cannot predict the consequences of your actions. What looks like a smart move one year may leave you smarting the next. What do you do? Masterful inactivity, of course. It has two advantages. First, it doesn’t waste your time. Second, if you cannot sensibly plan on other grounds, you should at least make sure that what you do is sound in intellectual, scholarly and pedagogical terms. And here, as Iris Murdoch once said about philosophy, if you are not making progress at a snail’s pace, you are not making progress at all.
Next, though I have no answers about who wrote it, my guess is that it is one of their “Internal Communications” people who drafted the initial version (after discussions about what was covered and most likely some review of the faculty questions and assertions in the comments to the post here), which was then run up the chain for review and approval by the powers that be. At least that’s how it used to go when I was at the CTA (often doing the drafting). It happened fast enough that they were likely already working on it when the announcement was made (reviews and revisions for stuff like this take some time), but it could have happened between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning when it went out.
I give credit to the District Office people for recognizing the need to provide some explanation for such a drastic move, and being willing to go on the record. Whether you agree with that or not, I think we’d all agree that these questions and answers deserve some discussion, so I’ve broken them out into chunks, which I’ll be posting through the weekend for consideration and commentary. Here’s the first bunch:
1. How did the decision to expand the college presidents’ job description and undertake a national search for candidates come about?
The Board believes that we must all be held accountable to the primary goal of our institution, which is ensuring student success. The Board made itself accountable for student outcomes and passed a resolution to that effect at the January board meeting. The decision to expand the Presidents’ job description to include student success goals is an effort to align the entire institution around these same goals.
In the previous version of the Presidents’ job description, there was no mention of academic objectives. This decision expands the job description to incorporate the following: 1) increasing the number of students earning credentials of economic value, 2) increasing the rate of transfer to bachelor’s degree programs, 3) improving outcomes for students requiring remediation, and 4) increasing the number and share of ABE/GED/ESL students who advance to and succeed in college-level courses.
The decision to hold a nation-wide search for candidates will ensure CCC has made every attempt to find the best leadership to oversee academic and operational aspects of the colleges. Current presidents are encouraged to apply for the expanded position.
2. How is this tied to the Reinvention process?
This decision was an administrative decision, and did not come from a taskforce workstream. It is part of an ongoing effort to align the entire institution around the primary Reinvention goal of ensuring student success.
3. Do you think CCC gave the current Presidents ample time and a fair chance to succeed?
Our students, our city, our nation has no time for us to wait to improve. City Colleges must be in a position to prepare our students for the jobs of today and tomorrow. By 2018, 63% of the jobs in this country will be held by someone with a post secondary education. We have a great deal of work to do to prepare our students to succeed in this new global economy.
4. Are the presidents being held accountable for low graduation rates?
This is not just about completion rates, though we very much need to improve from the current level of 7%. The fact of the matter is that our institution is not serving our students as it should be. Our entire team – from the Board on down – is going to be held accountable for student success.
PhiloDave
cnepstad
mathissexy
itejeda
writingisthinking
Kamran Swanson
Realist
Matt U.
domenicorocco
speechfromtheblock
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