...a situation perhaps most obvious with the proliferation of centers and initiatives devoted to diversity at schools where the diversity of the students or faculty has either been unchanged or in some cases gotten worse at the same time. https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-diversity-initiatives-fail/ … 34/50
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Finally I should note that most universities have a 'faculty senate.' In theory that makes the faculty self-governing; in practice the faculty senate can't do anything without approval from the chancellor/president/whatever,who in turn wants to keep the trustees happy. 45/50
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Thus even tenured professors mostly (adjuncts don't get represented by most faculty senates; also staff are even less represented, which is not great) have little control over the university's direction. Often their best option is to raise a stink in the local papers... 46/50
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...or, I suppose on twitter, like I am doing now. So how do we fix this stuff? There are a lot of little answers. I think the first step is putting leadership back in the hands of faculty, as I stressed before. The business model has to go. 47/50
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States and the federal government need to reassess the compliance and regulatory burden they are putting on schools, which just grows and grows (yes, under this admin. too - try processing a student visa or foreign faculty hire). 48/50
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Finally, states and university leaders need to then ask real questions about if these centers, initiatives and offices just *sound good* (or chase the most recent passing academic fad) or if they *do good.* In many cases, rather than creating new offices...49/50
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...it would be better to make and keep decision-makers responsible for achieving outcomes - with due appreciation that a universities also cannot solve broader social problems on their own. 50/50
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ADDENDA: First, I want to note that my solutions on this thread are probably a lot less complete here. I am not a university staff member and while I try to talk to staff folks and understand what they do (more than most faculty, perhaps), a lot of them know more....
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...so perhaps the ultimate solution here is 'talk to staff more.' Second: I want to stress again, every university and university system is different. Internal organizations and effectiveness vary wildly. Some are better run. Some are more focused on education....
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...if you are reading this and thinking, "but hey, our XYZ center actually works and <does what it's supposed to do/saves money/etc>" - you are probably right. You'd know better than me. Every university is different and I am only speaking in generalities!
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Third: I would not have come across some of the information here about university organization if it wasn't brought to my attention by a study my better half was involved with on a tangential topic (improving staff-faculty interactions); https://hr.unc.edu/files/2020/04/Transforming-Faculty-Staff-Relationships_ULEAD-2019.pdf …
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...so I wanted to be sure that I called some attention to that. Especially since one of its points is the point I make above: talking to university staff - esp. mid/low level - is the best way for faculty or the general public to get a handle on what works/doesn't.
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