The absolute grey and pouring rain outside

[cornerofmadness]

Is probably the collective grief of the faculty at my university. Hell, outside of business, psychology and nursing, there IS no university. The board got what it wanted, it's nothing but a community college now and not even much of one at that.

They cut math, biology, chemistry, english, music and art and all education majors that weren't early childhood including the masters program (which had 40 graduates this month).

Right now I still have a job. Five from my department were cut. I know of three. I don't know who the other two are.

What truly pisses me off about this is a) it should have been done before the school let out so the laid off faculty could have found jobs (One from my department has and now we're going to have to cover those classes this fall and we don't know how)

b) they let us bring in NEW students into these degrees last week. Either they should have canceled that orientation or had the choice done by then so these students could go to another college

c) they let us go to the state science fair last weekend with scholarships to a program that now no longer exists.

d) why the hell did the provost come listen to us about the labs knowing it wasn't going to matter any more? He should have just put the appt off til next week and saved us all an hour of our lives.

I'm going in at 1 to talk about the Welsh fellowship. I don't know if I'll go to Wales now in spite of them paying part of it. I need to know how much cash I'm getting because I don't know if my pay is going to be cut. If it is, I'll have to find a new job too and I need my money to move.

Here's the thing and it really matters. I'm old (because trust me ageism is a thing) but more importantly my university until the last few years actively discouraged us doing research. Our focus was to be teaching only. Most schools want research. I'm not a PhD I'm a medical doctor so I'm not research trained. I've done some here at Rio, nothing that's published (points to the no-research thing). That plus my age is going to knock me out of the running for most jobs.

I have tenure here which helps to protect my job. Most schools don't give that any more and in a way I'm okay with that but a LOT of schools are now making you reapply for jobs every year and that's not okay. They want to hire a bunch of part time faculty because it's cheaper and that's the part that frightens me. I need the health insurance.

So if my pay isn't cut badly, I might stay right where I am teaching nothing but nurses and being bored but safe to a certain degree. About the only other job I'm likely to get at this point would be at a community college teaching nothing but nurses.

I think that's one of the reasons I've been so slow to try and clean this place up. In my head I see how much of a mess it is and I know packing to move would be a nightmare. 13 years of slowly accumulating crap.

Comments

[auroracloud]

I'm sorry, that sounds like an incredibly lousy situation. :-( (And as a Northern European, I always feel freaked out when I'm reminded that in the US, having health insurance is dependent on your job. That's just so fucked up.)

Good luck figuring things out.

[cornerofmadness]

And most jobs are trying to weasel out of the insurance.

thanks

[alexseanchai]

What the fucking hell even

[cornerofmadness]

Right? they basically want to staff this with adjuncts they can pay 500$ a month to and no benefits

[alexseanchai]

Without it apparently occurring to them that the students whose degree programs just evaporated will tell their friends and the school might have a lil trouble getting prospective students to trust them ever!

[cornerofmadness]

No kidding. technically we have to teach out the program but still

[aaronlisa]

I am so sorry. This sounds really rough. What's even worse if the school had an idea that they'd be making these cuts, they should have been up front and honest about it. To both the faculty and the students so that both groups could find another school.

[cornerofmadness]

Exactly so. They're calling ni the secretaries to tell them what 'script' to read to the new incoming students who have no fucking clue their program is gone

[harpers_child]

I read this aloud to my mom so we could be horrified together. This was so poorly handled.

Can I offer you a hug? A cup of tea?

[cornerofmadness]

It is horrifying.

Thanks appreciated

[mdlbear]

*hugs* if wanted; sounds like you can use them.

What a miserable situation! It ever fails to amaze me how short-sighted and uncaring people can be when their only focus is on the next quarter's results.

[cornerofmadness]

Thank you.

They don't seem to realize how cuts this deep screw the programs they DID keep

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Jesus Christ, how can they be so feckless? :C *hug*

[cornerofmadness]

seriously and it got one step worse since i posted. I'll deal with that later.