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Big teaching cuts this week at CSUF
October 19th, 2009, 6:00 am · 65 Comments · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
Image courtesy of CSUF.
Faculty at Cal State Fullerton will be on furlough Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week as part of a larger move by the California State University system to save hundreds of millions of dollars to help balance the state budget.
The furloughs will affect thousands of students and hundreds of professors and lecturers at Orange County’s largest university, and will be followed on Friday by a general furlough for management and staff workers who aren’t on the faculty.
CSU faculty agreed to a furlough plan in July. The plan, on average, amounts to two furlough days per month. But Cal State Fullerton teachers will be on furlough three days this week.
“While faculty will not be teaching or participating in instructional efforts, the university will be open (this) week as it has been open every week this semester,” Christopher Bugbee, a university spokesman, said in an e-mail.
“The three instructional furlough days are designed to bring the faculty within the operating constraints of California’s continuing budget crisis, they were not intended to provide a holiday or vacation for students.
“Whether students meet in classes with teaching assistants, gather for group study, or pursue more individualized approaches, the university expects that students will be doing assigned reading, or be given alternative assignments, or be working on homework, or pursuing other activities that will create the least disruption to the learning objectives of the course without adding to faculty workload. Campus facilities and services will operate on regularly scheduled hours.”
Campus faculty leaders arranged for the block of days with university administrators, said Jim Dietz, acting associate vice president of academic affairs.
The thinking was that a block of days would create less chaos for classes than randomly selected days, and could allow for more creative group exercises for students.
“It’s a furlough for faculty,” Dietz said, “not a furlough for students.”
Students, for their part, are planning a “furlough fest” — a series of activities during the time teachers won’t be available.
Dietz noted that a couple of other CSU campuses have planned a similar furlough block, while others are leaving it up to deans and individual faculty to select the days they won’t work.
Not all furlough days will be instructional days, he added, and labor laws prevent the school from setting aside a similar block of time during the second term. In all, faculty members will take 18 furlough days over the two semesters.
Daily Titan: Veteran students receiving promised aid months late
Follow Sciencedude on Twitter @grobbins, become a fan on Facebook, and watch his videos on the ocsciencedude channelof YouTube.
Earlier of College Life:
- OC college roundup: Sexual assault at Chapman
- Record number of students apply to CSU campuses
- OC college press: Student assaulted, cars stolen, abortion protested
- Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel to help raise money for Chapman
- Poll: Is it wise for Chapman to recruit aging star professors?
- UCI resumes classes today with deep money woes
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And while young adults cannot get their education to even have the opportunity to compete for jobs… the prisons will be running just fine. The rapist, the murder, the drug dealer will have the finest education, health care, and food that California can buy. Nice job Gov and legislature!
So, Debbie only a cheap college education will keep them from becoming criminals?
I think more bad parenting is the cause of criminal behavior.
I agree with Dina. And moreso lack of parents is a contributor.
There are too many single families (and I know most don’t plan on being single when they have kids) but the lack of both role models has an effect.
Mothers and fathers handle things in different ways to help keep things balanced.
Love your kids, care for your kids and be there for your kids.
Tony
MyAffiliateTrainings.com
You really think prison life is that great, and prisoners have access to great healthcare, education, etc.?
We spend too much money on incarceration, I agree, and that’s nationwide. But, all that money is not going to providing a wonderful environment for criminals.
Debbie, I agree with you I don’t hear about any cuts let alone overhauls of wasteful spending in our prison system. Our motto should be “Education first” or the US will be so far behind compared to more education oriented countries such as the Far East. I heard about a dentist who worked for the prison system and he studied and received his realtor’s license during work hours. Ugh!
Or maybe they should have built up an emergency reserve and not hired staff just because they had funding. How about trimming programs at the CSU that really don’t provide any educational benefits to students? There is already plenty of money in the system to achieve our educational goals but the current legislature, chancellor and administrators have done a horrible job and mismanaged the entire system!
Why don’t they give the ‘furloughs’ around the holidays? I’d love for my son to have a couple of days extra off of school for Thanksgiving so he can come a visit? I’m sure the staff would enjoy an extra day or two off around holidays, paid or not. That would make more sense than three random days in October mid-week.
I would have to agree with you. Unfortunately most administrators in public education have a phd in N.C.S. ( no common sense.)
I also agree with you! If your going to have to do furloughs - at least make them work for both staff and students. I know of no teacher at any level (have several friends who teach at all grade levels) who wouldn’t enjoy an extra day or two, paid or not, around Thanksgiving and/or before Christmas/after the new year. Seems more logical AND has the same end result.
Seems lack of common sense has run rampant in California politicians.
Re: The prison system - yes, we spend WAY too much money on making our criminals comfortable. California needs to follow the Arizona Sherriff who said “enough”! Link here for how he turned the animal shelters in his area around followed by his initial overhaul of the jail system. We need more like him! http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/sheriff-joe-is-at-it-again/blog-60647/
Michele,
CSUF usually closes for the full week of Thanksgiving already. They used to only take the two traditional days off, but then noticed that most students missed the week. It’s one of the reasons why the semester starts earlier there.
Actually the university is fully closing during Thanksgiving week for the first time this year. Typically the staff are still working and all offices are open. This will save some additional money since they can shut down all utilities for the week.
They did not have the week off the past 4 years- classes went up until Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. I just checked the schedule- this is the first year since I went there in 1977-1980 that they have the entire week off!
Students and faculty already have the entire week off for Thanksgiving and this year staff too. The fall semester is over by the time xmas and new years gets here, unless a student decides to take classes during the short winter session.
No sympathy for this school, or the tenured dinosaurs.
My sister graduated with a BA in accounting a couple of years ago, I had to help her in her computers for accounting class by teaching her DOS!! The teacher hadn’t updated his curriculum (or brain) in over 15 years!!! And he will be employed and union protected till the day he dies!
Cut ‘em all loose - who’d notice the diff!?!?!?
Does the Government of California make sense? This state has been going downhill eversince Reagan left office!!!
And why is that? Reagan raised taxes … the biggest tax hike in California history (in 1967).
Reagan was the reason California started going downhill. He did the same as president as well.
We live in a state run by democrats elected by those who have come up through our education system. Blaming anyone but those who caused this is fruitless and means you think you are a victim. Take back control. stop electing idiots, stop listening to libs and teaching unions. I graduated from CSF in 1975. Took me 4 years to finish the final 2, had 80 credits lost from transfer etc.. but I worked full time, had 2 kids… and night school was my only option in 1975. I graduated at 30. Today you would expect a government handout and free parking. Grow up. Even a degree from this now liberal college won’t get you a job if all you expect is a system of fairness to get you through life. Move to Michigan and see how they have fared with an all one party system. Not a peep.. can’t say a thing or you get “limbaughed” or “borked”
I got out, went to work and made decisions that allowed me to retire debt free. Sent my daughter to an Ivy League and paid every cent, not a penny in handouts. Now I read in the LA Times how people at 62 can be abused, broke and on disability, sad faced.. always in that paper… and their decisions are not a concern. Guess what, many of you lib studies students are looking at your future. Bleak if you depend on someone to hire you, pay for your retirement and live the good life. You need to be your own boss or make decisions for the future. Don’t go blindly to a career if there is no future in it. HS counselor sounds nice, but jobs? Competition? Better get used to the new reality.
Much like all the other public schools it’s really not affecting people who actually make things happen. Just as with Real estate or Autos you will get returns commensurate with what is ventured. I don’t blame the state, that won’t alter the realities of the current economic funk. As far as the students (most of whom are employed or living at home) being set back this is merely another test of how important their goals are to them and as such the truly strong will be unaffected.
While it makes ideological sense for the taxpayers to send everyone to college so they can get good jobs the reality is the world also needs ditch diggers off whose sweat the top 10% can thrive. Not sure where some of these others are coming from but this is merely how I see the world as it is.
My kid goes to CSF and it’s not a huge deal. The kids are still getting educated.
As long as we can continue to retire firefighters, government officials, and other government employees as millionaires, everything is wonderful!
octaxpayer, all that needs to be done is to have the childrenl apply for government jobs, save the parents the money of sending them to college.
Not bad advice!
Wait a minbute! I just read where a big chunk of the alleged stimulus went to save teachers’ jobs???????? I am so glad I didn’t vote for that LOSER of an alleged president!!
But you voted for Bu$h twice lol.
Me too! Remember Obama is a “Community Organizer,” not much training to be a President.
Tom.. i love what u said, its so true! Dina, i think ur missing the point! we paid about a grand extra this semester and got 12 furlough days where teachers are not allowed to answers and e-mails, phone calls, etc… have u ever heard of the term “starving student?” why are we the ones paying for this? i know we all do our part, but w every cut adds on another semester that i dont get to graduate because im not getting the classes i need! it sucks to not be able to be sure when ur graduating…the end of the road seems farther and farther away!
oops…”minute”
Why is my comment still awaiting moderation? There is nothing profane or libelous there.
Debbie, it starts with obama and his cronies…..the state is just following his footsteps of spending money they don’t have!
Are ya saying Bush was a saint?
“Whether students meet in classes with teaching assistants, gather for group study, or pursue more individualized approaches, the university expects that students will be doing assigned reading, or be given alternative assignments, or be working on homework, or pursuing other activities that will create the least disruption to the learning objectives of the course without adding to faculty workload.”
YEAH RIGHT…AND WHERE ARE STUDENTS SUPPOSED TO GET THOSE “ALTERNATIVE ASSIGNMENTS”? Faculty cannot keep up now, let alone make sure there are alternative assignments available during these furloughs.
Students who are naturally adept at filling their off time with studies that enhance their class schedule, will do so…those who are in school to avoid getting a job or to keep mommy and daddy off their back will see this as a holiday.
I guess we’ll see a “thinning of the herd” so to speak.
marinevet0811, the CA budget crisis started *long* before Obama was elected.
Just another sign of the “strong economic recovery” that our government has told us about Toto.
This only happens in California, because this state is so Leftist. These Communists in Sacramento are experts at “redistribution” of wealth. They learned this way before Obama showed up. They would rather take money from schools and give it to illegal immigrants who have tons of kids and continue their siphoning of state resources.
Glad, I will be leaving this Communist state. This doesn’t happen back East. They value education back there. What a sickening shame this state has become.
How much tution and fees should the CSU or UC students pay?…
From the 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac… you could live in Connecticut and pay an average (to attend a public 4 yr college or university) of $7,465, or in Maine $7,250, or Massachusetts $7,922, or New Hampshire $9,610, or New Jersey $9,702, or New York $5,065, or Pennsylvania $9,593, or Rhode Island $7,120, or Vermont $10,401.
The Chronicle lists California public 4 yr (UC and CSU) average at $4,879…
Colleges on the East Coast seem a little more pricey… and I suspect based on recent press coverage of the financial situation back there you will pay comparable sales and property tax in all of the above places…
How much are you willing to pay for a college education for you kid or grandkid? The average for CA 4yr privates is listed at $24,453. Maybe that is the right number for CA public 4 yr education if noone wants to support it.
Without the faculty furloughs creating savings that allowed them to attend this year there would be a lot of recent HS graduates sitting home watching Oprah and not moving towards being the enlightened captalist who gets to contribute to wealth redistribution…
It is sad that both the public and students are being so misled on the impact of State furloughs on faculty in the California State University System. I would suggest that The Register take a closer look at how the “furloughs” are actually affecting faculty and students.
1–First, you must understand that faculty are paid on an academic year basis, but do not teach five days a week. While some come to campus five days a week, others have a 4-day (MTWTh) schedule of teaching classes. Most have a 3-day teaching schedules, and a few who live in Northern or Central California have 2-day schedules. Now, some will whoop and holler that the poor faculty actually work far more than that. Rubbish. The Register need only study the University-generated mystical Faculty Workload Report that reflects the actual data. (To do so would also require they have an understanding of how “directed study” and “directed research” units are assigned to faculty who perform no actual work. And, there are other ways to massage the data to give a false impression to “outsiders”.)
2. While the Memorandum of Understanding between the CSU and Bargaining Unit 3 grants to the administration the *right* to determine which days are to be considered “furlough days”, it must be kept in mind that in actu7al practice it is the *faculty members* themselves who make that decision. It need only be a “day in which they are in pay status”, which is *any day during which the University is open* during the academic year”. In the case of CSU Fullerton, they are taking Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off because these three days are the most heavily-taught days of the week.
3. NO CLASSES NEED BE CANCELED!!!! Compare the “furlough days” with the days they were supposed to teach. You will find the preponderance of faculty are taking one of their “teaching days” off, not one of the days they are never on campus to begin with. It is just a way to weasel out of work.
While faculty members have the freedom to use a non-teaching day as their “furlough day”. In this way, they could honor their obligation to their students. Historically, academe has always put the students first.
Unfortunately, today the faculty union (”Unit 3″), the California Faculty Association, has pressured its members to exercise union power by punishing both students and the taxpayers of California. They have sought to have faculty refuse to teach classes, and instead take as a furlough day one on which they would not be on campus or teaching anyway. Worse, in the MOU, the CSU Trustees caved in to union pressure and actually *forbids” any faculty member from doing ANY work, teaching or otherwise, on a “furlough day”.
This is most certainly NOT to say that these are the actions of ALL faculty. Their are many young and dedicated junior faculty–assistant and associate professors–who do put in the extra time. But, that is during the period when they are the lowest-paid, yet most productive of faculty members. Alas, as faculty gain seniority, and especially after they have reached full professor, the less productive they become, and having learned the ropes, how to use the system to their advantage.
Bravo, etripsha!
I actually assigned my students an email to be sent to me on Thursday, in defiance of this ridiculous decision to furlough during the heaviest teaching days. I intend to reply to each and every email, too - and do so on Thursday!
Gary:
What do you think of Nancy’s response relative to substantiating her claims?
More money for education in California means one thing, raises for teachers and nothing more.
etirpsha: You made a lot of provocative claims but didn’t provide a speck of evidence to support your point.
And Gary, you do not provide a speck of evidence to refute any of etirpsha’s points. So what is the point of your post?
Gary Robbins, science writer-editor says: etirpsha: You made a lot of provocative claims but didn’t provide a speck of evidence to support your point.
Ah, tis evidence you want. (Something noticeably missing in news reportage these days.)
What do you know about faculty workload reports? Have you ever heard of them? Seen one? Well, they are massive and daunting computer generated reports prepared for the Chancellor’s Office that detail how each faculty member is meeting his/her obligations. They include, among other things, the individual’s position number, what courses are being taught, how many Weighted Teaching Units are credited (WTU), how many students or Student Contact Hours (SCH) per Full Time Equivalent Student (FTE), their meeting times of their classes, how many units of assigned time (away from teaching) they were granted, and much more. It is a complicated document, and takes a great deal of skill to read and interpret. It is a document that is not available on-line, and because of its volume, not generally available to the public. What the workload report does not reflect is that over 50% of the faculty are employed by outside firms to do research and consulting, most of it with CSU space, libraries and equipment. This has risen from 38% in 1991! (http://tinyurl.com/yhnylxp).
Historically, the CSU considered a full teaching load to be 15 WTU. However, before the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA), 3 WTU were waived in order for the faculty member to perform responsibilities such as student advising, committee work, services to the department, school or university. This was enshrined in the Memorandum of Understanding between the CSU and the California Faculty Association (CFA). (http://tinyurl.com/ykvb7f3). However, with the institution of collective bargaining, the Union gain even more advantages, and today CSU faculty receive an average of 5.04 WTU of assigned time, thereby reducing their required teaching time to 6.96 WTU. (http://tinyurl.com/yhnylxp) This is then further reduced by the number of units students sign up for in independent studies, directed studies, independent research and directed research to maintain enrollment or to meet minimal course requirements for various financial aid programs or other needs to carry six units or more. These units are in the class schedule do not reflect a faculty member’s name, but in practice the WTUs are divided up among the faculty to further reduce their teaching requirements.
Historically, Fridays are the least utilized days on campus; fewer students are there, and fewer faculty on campus. But although the CSU Fullerton Academic Senate initially recommended taking Fridays off as a furlough day to lessen the impact on students, militant faculty won out. The story above tells of the CSUF president declaring Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the most heavily attended days of the week, to be furlough days. (http://tinyurl.com/ylmkxwo) Further, having three furlough days in one week is a violation of the MOU between the CSU and CFA. (http://tinyurl.com/yfk7hcg)
Finally, with regard to the faculty union urging its members to punish the students, I would refer you to articles published earlier this year, one from the Sacramento Bee: http://tinyurl.com/ptr3sj , http://tinyurl.com/35bl7 and http://tinyurl.com/yg5l8bq .
The irony is that faculty in the University of California System are *prohibited* from taking a furlough on one of their teaching days!
etirpsha is right on target.
Flipchik, Debbie, Josh, Chris….
You have all made a good point about the high spending in the prison system. But you also have to look into the *reasons* so much money is spent. The problem is two-fold, and does not involve Schwarznegger.
The first problem is that courts and the manner in which they have effectively determined much of the administrative and policy formulation for the State prisons. It is the courts that have dictated to the people of the State of California on how much space each criminal inmate is to have and how many criminal inmates to a cell. The notorious 11th District Court of Appeal has already issued orders to reduce the California prison population by 32% ( 55,000 out of a total of 150,000) because of what it considers “overcrowding” in the State’s 22 prisons. The only alternative would be to build more prisons. (One Federal judge has already put the prisons’ medical services into receivership, and the receiver has demanded billions for new medical facilities.) The courts‘ imposition of these costly changes, as well as perks (television, etc.) and other liberal policies all have higher costs associated with them.
Then, you have the legislature. The liberal Democratic members of both the State Senate and Assembly have adopted a multitude of “social laws” dealing with the prisons, all with a cost. And what do criminal inmates do in return? Virtually nothing. The California Prison Industry Authority is *proud” that it puts 5,900 criminal inmates to work making license plates, government furniture, etc. That is 5,900 out of a total prison population of more than 150,000!
Then, of course, you have the prison guards’ union. By becoming the biggest political campaign contributor to senators and assemblymen, the union has bought themselves a very compliant legislature. When it comes to salaries and pensions, the legislature has made prison guards the obscenely high paid group of California State employees. Beginning at $70,000 a year (compared to $40,000 for teachers), thousands of guards are now paid more than $100,000 a years. Why don’t State bureaucrats and the State legislature dig in their heels at such extortion? Simple. The bureaucrats have nothing to lose, because it is not *their* money, and the Legislature does not want to bite the hand that feeds them. As ol’ Jess Unruh famously once intoned, “Money is the mother’s milk of politics!”
I’m not paying tuition to the University, so my kid can be “home schooled”. They just finished mid terms which included questions on subject matter that the faculty “didn’t get around to teaching because of furlough days”. In one course, the instructor got HALFWAY through the course material covered on the mid term. I know that the furlough days program is unfair to teachers, but don’t try and tell me that two days a month resulted in such poor performance by staff. Tuition went up three times this year and I’m about to eat an extra grand because my kid is a business major.
Did you see the article where the CS and UC system will start charging more tuition for classes that actually lead to compensated employment??
This will be an incentive for our extremely expensive, tax-payer subsidized, public institutions to graduate more useless anthropology, history or chicano-studies degrees.
No wonder CS students can’t find a job, no one want to hire an expert in post-revolution mexican culture.
And then you wonder why the system is broken.
I might not be completely aware of the political climate but it seems that people are blaming one party or another for the universities problems. Isn’t this a university issue and not completely a political issue in terms of who is responsible for the situation they are in? Take, for example, my own financial standing. It was my personal responsibility to plan for a rainy day…choose wisely how I spent my money in times of prosperity and also in times of weakening economy. It seems to me that CSUF as well as other universities may not have planned appropriately and they are in worst situations than they really could have been by their own doing. There’s probably a lot of places they could have cut back years ago on spending and programs that weren’t the best investments.
Well, a good example of how they cut back can be found in their decision to change mascots. They had to remove everything with the image of an elephant and replace it with the image of a tree.
yep! they wasted a lot of money on that one but justified the spending anyhow saying that the money had already been allocated i believe.
Gary Robbins, science writer-editor says: etirpsha: You made a lot of provocative claims but didn�t provide a speck of evidence to support your point.
Ah, �tis �evidence� you want. (Something noticeably missing in news reportage these days.)
What do you know about faculty workload reports? Have you ever heard of them? Seen one? Well, they are massive and daunting computer generated reports prepared for the Chancellor�s Office that detail how each faculty member is meeting his/her obligations. They include, among other things, the individual�s position number, what courses are being taught, how many Weighted Teaching Units are credited (WTU), how many students or Student Contact Hours (SCH) per Full Time Equivalent Student (FTE), their meeting times of their classes, how many units of assigned time (away from teaching) they were granted, and much more. It is a complicated document, and takes a great deal of skill to read and interpret. It is a document that is not available on-line, and because of its volume, not generally available to the public. What the workload report does not reflect is that over 50% of the faculty are employed by outside firms to do research and consulting, most of it with CSU space, libraries and equipment. This has risen from 38% in 1991! (http://tinyurl.com/yhnylxp).
Historically, the CSU considered a full �teaching load� to be 15 WTU. However, before the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA), 3 WTU were waived in order for the faculty member to perform responsibilities such as student advising, committee work, services to the department, school or university. This was enshrined in the Memorandum of Understanding between the CSU and the California Faculty Association (CFA). (http://tinyurl.com/ykvb7f3). However, with the institution of collective bargaining, the Union gain even more advantages, and today CSU faculty receive an average of 5.04 WTU of assigned time, thereby reducing their required teaching time to 6.96 WTU. (http://tinyurl.com/yhnylxp) This is then further reduced by the number of units students sign up for in �directed studies� and �directed research� to maintain enrollment or to meet minimal course requirements for various financial aid programs or other needs to carry six units or more. These units are in the class schedule do not reflect a faculty member�s name, but in practice the WTUs are divided up among the faculty to further reduce their teaching requirements.
Historically, Fridays are the least utilized days on campus; fewer students are there, and fewer faculty on campus. But although the CSU Fullerton Academic Senate initially recommended taking Friday�s off as a furlough day to lessen the impact on students, militant faculty won out. The story above tells of the CSUF president declaring Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the most heavily attended days of the week, to be furlough days. (http://tinyurl.com/ylmkxwo) Further, having three furlough days in one week is a violation of the MOU between the CSU and CFA. (http://tinyurl.com/yfk7hcg)
Finally, with regard to the faculty union urging its members to punish the students, I would refer you to articles published earlier this year, one from the Sacramento Bee: http://tinyurl.com/ptr3sj , http://tinyurl.com/35bl7 and http://tinyurl.com/yg5l8bq
The irony is that faculty in the University of California System are *prohibited* from taking a furlough on one of their teaching days!
Gary:
It appears as though “etirpsha” might be close to the CSU system, given the previous posts. “etirpsha’s” posts are among the most interesting and factual here, in my opinion.
I have a friend who works for the CSU system. I won’t post here what I have heard about what the Chancellor thinks of himself. The word “Imperial” comes to mind.
As I have posted in the past, it would be an eye-opener to have an independent CFO take an unemotional look at the State University ledgers, and see how we can continue educating students without erratic fee increases.
You still don’t provide any evidence to support your claims. You refer to one document by saying, ” It is a complicated document, and takes a great deal of skill to read and interpret. It is a document that is not available on-line, and because of its volume, not generally available to the public.” The Internet makes it easy to put documents online. Also, your posts don’t seem to recognize that people in every industry are suffering. Literally millions of people outside of higher education have lost jobs or had their work hours cut. The latest Chapman economic report I saw says that positive job growth won’t return until the first or second quarter next year. I hate to see anyone — anyone — lose a job. Your posts would be more meaningful if you put your claims into perspective.
Gary:
Looks like an opportunity for a great “expose” article!
Go get ‘em!
I teach at CSUF. The only teaching day I am taking as a furlough day is Wednesday, October 21, and only because Dr. Gordon is requiring me to take it as a furlough day. Naturally, a few of my colleagues are trying to “game” the system by taking as many furlough days as possible on teaching days. I’d like to think that my approach describes the vast majority of CSUF faculty. P.S. I answered two students’ e-mails yesterday (furlough day)…will I suffer any negative consequences for working? BTW, I have been known to actually work on weekends, too!
Thank you CHS for being reasonable. Honestly I don’t know of many professions that if you did get an email, phone call or whatever from your client, (because thats esentially what the students are) that you would ignore them because you aren’t paid for those hours. Especially when they are willing to ask for help in the first place. We need more teachers like you!
I understand the reason behind the furlough. I am a student at CSUF. Most my classes are online so it doesn’t really effect me. My question is though, if “the university expects that students will be doing assigned reading, or be given alternative assignments, or be working on homework, or pursuing other activities that will create the least disruption to the learning objectives of the course without adding to faculty workload” if the students can continue the necessary work without direction of the teachers, and are expected to uphold the same standards, then what are we paying the teachers for in the first place? Seriously, I am a parent, I don’t need busy work from some professor while they sit at home and take a few days off. This is ridiculous.
“Naturally, a few of my colleagues are trying to “game” the system by taking as many furlough days as possible on teaching days.”
They have a myopic vision of their job; work as little as possible, and hold on for the big payoff: the generous retirement.
Where I am employed, the staff were given substantial pay cuts.
We actually work more hours than before the cuts. I would have much preferred a “furlough”, as I could use the time for myself rather than performing the same job for less compensation.
Oh and as for, “find another job”, they aren’t out there.
In hindsight, I sometimes wish that I had pursued a career working for the Government.
I go to Cal State Fullerton and it’s not that big of a deal for the students. I love having the random days off from school and it’s giving me the extra time to just do nothing and work on an esay for class.
Gary Robbins, science writer-editor says: “You still don’t provide any evidence to support your claims. You refer to one document by saying, ” It is a complicated document, and takes a great deal of skill to read and interpret. It is a document that is not available on-line, and because of its volume, not generally available to the public.” The Internet makes it easy to put documents online.”
Why did you refuse to counter the issues I raised, and instead neglect to even admit that I did provide documentary proof for the issues that can be found on the Internet? Among the citations I provided but you chose to ignore was to YOUR OWN story about how “Cal State Fullerton professors urged to weaken courses”. (http://tinyurl.com/ylmkxwo) Why did you take the obfuscator’s way out by making an issue of the one issue for which there is no way to cite a source because it is among the documents hidden by the CSU and its campuses?
You are also obviously ignorant of the large number of other documents that do not appear on the Internet. Example: Neither the CSU System makes available on the Internet the Budget Allocations made to all categories. More importantly, they do not publish actual year-end expenditures in each budget category. Neither the press nor the public can understand how legislative intent is thwarted by the system and the campuses. They cannot know how many faculty and staff positions have been made by the legislature, only to have them converted into “play” money to be used for faculty travel, faculty research ad infinitum ad nauseum. (Your Physics Department appointment as a part-time lecturer was one of those saved from conversion to “play” money.)
One other piece of information not put on the Internet is how many students enroll for two semesters, then drop out, never to return. (I had many students who never came to class, and admitted they had only enrolled to get “my money”. That money is the plethora of financial aid given away by the State and Federal government, but for which there is no effort made to assess value for money.
Neither do the campuses publish their census information; that information that illustrates how many students are actually enrolled in courses after three weeks.
No, there is a massive amount of data that the media never knows about, and is not interested to sweat out the work required to analysis. Instead, they too often simply regurgitate the universities’ demand for more money and threats of dire consequences.
“there is a massive amount of data that the media never knows about.”
Looks like a good story lead to me!
Time to go digging!
Here is the link to all CSU Campus Analytical Studies websites http://www.asd.calstate.edu/ir/campus-ir-links.shtml .
and two pretty good enrollment pieces I found on the fullerton website: http://vpadmin.fullerton.edu/VP/ReportsAndPresentations/FiscalStateFall2009.pdf (see page 20 of 25) and http://www.fullerton.edu/analyticalstudies/enrollment_history/TRENDShcftes.pdf
I suspect you may want to consider these for the census data topic…
another good enrollment source is the CSU In Brief Report that comes out annually in late November http://www.calstate.edu/as/inbrief/inbrief08.shtml
these two links are pretty good too.
http://www.calstate.edu/budget/fybudget/coded-memos/B-09-02-attachment.pdf
and
http://www.calstate.edu/budget/fybudget/coded-memos/
seems to be alot of info in public view…
Excellent! Thanks for sharing. It’s very interesting to look at where the largest budget increases are. Very interesting.