tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5976758.post2865416419782864070..comments2024-01-27T05:19:03.060-06:00Comments on Library Chronicles: The long slow implosion of UNOUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5976758.post-42349831049626982222014-06-20T14:03:01.000-05:002014-06-20T14:03:01.000-05:00Having worked at UNO for ten years now, which star...Having worked at UNO for ten years now, which started with the crisis of Katrina and hasn't stopped in terms of instability, downsizing, restructuring, forced retirements, firings, program cuts, corporatizing, etc. I continually don't understand the actions of upper admin whether it was Ryan or now Fos. For example, insanity of FYE. The president hadn't even been there a year before he invested a lot of money and staff into what he saw as a surefire way to attract and retain students. Yet, from informal discussions with first year students, I hear it is a waste of time and disruptive to their studies (enforced attendance at events for example was most frowned upon). While there's no doubt, a commuter school like UNO , academics is ultimately why students attend UNO--locale and bang for your buck. We are amazing instructors across the board, considering how little we get paid and how scant the resources are. A critique of FYE programs has been its a diversion from academics and in this case it is doing more harm than good.Feral Rhetornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5976758.post-69805936010869668662014-06-17T16:47:18.728-05:002014-06-17T16:47:18.728-05:00Yes, thanks for that - and it's spot on. Publi...Yes, thanks for that - and it's spot on. Public u's budgets are open to the public. Ours is in the library. FOI requests have to be honored as well. But all the press does is call and get a quote from (can you guess?) a VP of Marketing and Communications.elsbetnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5976758.post-91426588544147704042014-06-17T14:35:11.924-05:002014-06-17T14:35:11.924-05:00This is from a recent Tom Frank column you may hav...This is from a recent Tom Frank column you may have seen. <br />http://www.salon.com/2014/06/08/colleges_are_full_of_it_behind_the_three_decade_scheme_to_raise_tuition_bankrupt_generations_and_hypnotize_the_media/<br /><br /><i>The possibility that higher tuition prices were going to pay for rapidly<br /> multiplying and yet educationally unnecessary administrators was not <br />really raised in earnest until a memorable page-one series published in <br />1996 by the Philadelphia Inquirer. This interpretation had the virtue of<br /> being accurate: Unlike tenured faculty, university administrations <br />actually have grown by 369 percent since the mid-1970s. (As I have noted before.)<br /> But blaming administrators proved difficult for journalists, perhaps <br />because administrators were the very people journalists had been going <br />to for explanations in their tuition-outrage stories. Could their <br />sources actually be the culprits? No way. And so, less than a year after<br /> the Inquirer’s series appeared, USA Today ran its own big tuition-shock<br /> tale in which the blame was pinned on all the familiar blame-objects: <br />Professors, student demands, technology, gummint regulation. A 1997 <br />cover story in Time magazine—“How Colleges Are Gouging U,” the <br />illustration shouted—barely mentioned administrators at all.</i>jeffreynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5976758.post-49250417806395732812014-06-17T14:20:57.529-05:002014-06-17T14:20:57.529-05:00Enrollment is down about 2000 under the current ad...Enrollment is down about 2000 under the current administration; someone will be thrown under the bus for that, but it won't be the top admins, who ought to be judged by that alone. Instead, the college of liberal arts (which has really healthy enrollment, from undergrad through grad levels), will likely take the brunt of the "right-sizing" currently underway. Meanwhile, there are at least 11 vice presidents that I know of, many more assistant VPs, all of whom have received raises in the past two years. None of the faculty have had raises since 2007. Most of the VPs came along with the current president from prior institutions (Tyler, Tx; Hattiesburg, MS; Florida) where they've done the same routine: explode admin costs, drop enrollment, slash and burn academic ranks. Then they move on. What makes it so much worse for UNO is the ongoing budget cuts by the state. <br /><br /><br /><br />Problems are UNO are rarely in the classroom. It's heartbreaking to see this happen.elsbetnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5976758.post-28600199408266113252014-06-17T00:40:35.336-05:002014-06-17T00:40:35.336-05:00It's not something that's applicable to me...It's not something that's applicable to me so I was really surprised when I read an article about that enrollment drop.Nolaresidentnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5976758.post-30999388836485996572014-06-16T15:05:45.764-05:002014-06-16T15:05:45.764-05:00I pay class by class. It's now a little over $...I pay class by class. It's now a little over $1,000 per 3-credit hour class.<br /><br />Let's say you wanted to "bootstrap" your way through UNO for a civil engineering degree, as many people have done.<br /><br />A BSCE is ~120 hours. That's $40k + books (+ whatever you need to live) in order to get your degree... And that's just UNO.<br /><br />We don't care about building people up anymore. We care about throwing people away.Claynoreply@blogger.com