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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsJust need to vent...
I'm a faculty member at a University of Wisconsin system university. I've fortunately found work at another university in another state beginning next year. However, it is depressing to be a faculty member in the state right now.
I sat in another faculty member's office yesterday. As we were talking tears started welling up in their eyes as they talked about just needing to be somewhere else where they don't remember how it was before...
The politicians in the state have been routinely attacking the faculty, implying that we are lazy and greedy. The person that I was talking to yesterday routinely puts in 12 hours days and is overwhelmed. They barely get to see their family. People in the state have been sending in Freedom of Information Act requests to search through faculty e-mails to see if anyone has written anything bad about the governor.
The budget cuts and demonizing by the state politicians have resulted in high turnover in the faculty. This creates significantly more work for the faculty as we serve on more hiring committees and have to pick up extra classes, student advising, and administrative tasks of the faculty members are being replaced. Additionally, academia is a small world. People on the job market know the conditions in the state right now, which makes it even more difficult to hire good people. In my college, we have had several failed faculty searches in the past few years.
What is infuriating is that the university administrators just sit by and do nothing. In fact, at my university, the faculty are rarely brought into the discussion on how the university will deal with the budget issues and are just informed of the outcome after the fact.
Vent all you need.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)people, animals, nature, common sense, education, you name it. And a significant chunk of voters just think, yeah, I like those people because they're not wimps. I'm voting for them!
I'm very sorry. Wisconsin used to be a truly great public university. Of course Republicans felt the need to ruin it.
mnhtnbb
(31,401 posts)They won't be happy until they've ripped it apart.
It's very sad. This is another piece of Ronnie's legacy: it started with destroying the UC system
when he was governor.
Fuck the Republicans.
lastlib
(23,271 posts)"An insightful and informed citizenry is the archenemy of tyranny." The last thing the GOP wants is that insightful and informed (and educated) citizenry to oppose the tyranny they have in mind. That is why they are taking bludgeons to public education and trying to privatize it so the privateers can loot it for the profits and dump the carcass onto the taxpayers. I may be wrong, but I firmly believe that that is their intention. Uneducated peons make for better, more docile slaves, dependent on the corporate masters for survival, and thus less likely to upset the existing order. Makes for more profit for those masters.
elleng
(131,074 posts)I've been referring to Jefferson in this context for a long time, and trying to remind/inform people that this is what 'they' want. And are succeeding at, obviously.
snacker
(3,619 posts)I live in Wisconsin and weep with you. I have been encouraging my children to move out of state. They are teachers and social workers, and sadly, Wisconsin has no respect for either anymore. They deserve better, you deserve better...
annabanana
(52,791 posts)you. Would you say the student body is primarily liberal or conservative?
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)"...People in the state have been sending in Freedom of Information Act requests to search through faculty e-mails to see if anyone has written anything bad about the governor..."
Since when can't you write anything bad about the governor?
snacker
(3,619 posts)This was done extensively during and after the Act 10 protests. Public school teachers were targeted. Now, the targets are UW faculty members. Wisconsin has waged a war on educators since Walker took office. Every teacher I know is beyond discouraged by the vitriol. Just so sad for my state.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)lovemydog
(11,833 posts)So sad that the right wing governor is causing distress at the faculty there. The faculty and students deserve much better.