Issue II Vol I thehowlingpig@yahoo.com
Issue II Vol I thehowlingpig@yahoo.com
Burned
Many
students may have noticed a distinct lack of enthusiasm from their professors
lately. Last year this would have seemed
unlikely since (with a few vocal exceptions from the business school) the
faculty voted to take a pay cut rather than leave students in the lurch by
eliminating actual teaching staff. Let
me say that again, these folks were so dedicated to their profession and to the
institution and students that they decided to put up with the academic rat race
for less money, keeping in mind that UNC had already historically
underpaid its faculty.
So
what could then piss off such a gung-ho, hardcore bunch of educators? How about watching their sacrifice become a
drop in the budget bucket as they watch colleagues and entire departments fall
to the ax anyway? How about seeing the
students they’re here to teach get shortchanged as budget conserving measures
include bulking up class sizes to the point that lecture halls are overflowing? How about combining that with the overwork of
teaching ever more courses? Maybe the
truly dedicated will get a chance to surface from the tsunami of grading to actually
get something published so they can stay on that tenure track or possibly do
their part to work on “Charting the Future” starting with filling out the form
that more or less says “Give us three good reasons why we should continue to
pay you.” Perhaps these highly educated
professionals will spend the precious free time they might spend justifying
themselves to the budget gods reworking their resumes instead.
Students,
enjoy the insightful instruction you may gain this year because after being
burned this badly what good professor is going to continue to stick around
here?
NNNNNNNN
Thanks
For Nothing
The
new Charting the Future process is in full swing with mountains of paperwork
slowly working its way out the colon we call our university bureaucracy. Before the end of the year, the various
reports and justifications from every department will shit out on Kay Norton’s
desk at which point we can be pretty sure that she’ll look them over carefully
and then do what she’s been planning since last year anyway. How do I know this? University funding is in the shitter because
of state legislative priorities. We have
the privilege of having one of the most powerful people in the Colorado
Republican party at the helm of our school but where other, more student
oriented schools are lobbying their asses off to find ways to up their funding,
the tax-cutting, fiscal responsibility crowd in the legislature are saying “up
yours.” President Norton’s role in
this? Somewhere between conspirator and
cheerleader as the administration has taken the far backseat in any funding
discussion and then actively worked to get rid of student representation down
at the capital. It wouldn’t do to short
circuit any future political aspirations by going against the party line. Good thing we still have a nice cozy
relationship with the corporate sponsors or else the business school, the
athletics program, and all of the pretty street-facing construction would be
fucked as much as the rest of the school.
NNNNNNNN
Puke’s Talking PointsI don’t normally care much about the question of daycare since my kids are grown and other people’s children give me the willies, but I have noticed that there aren’t any kids around anymore at all. I remember two years ago there was a thriving
childcare center on campus where students and staff used to warehouse their
kids during the day, but it seems to have disappeared. I heard it was an award-winning sort of
place, so it seems odd that it was simply eliminated. I know they were in the old