tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132657781219607153.post1950146932450243265..comments2024-03-27T08:17:22.445-04:00Comments on Chancellor's Blog: Ready. Willing. Able. Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Educationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07400532400819969260noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132657781219607153.post-45640367802913608702019-07-09T21:16:29.147-04:002019-07-09T21:16:29.147-04:00Some streamlining ideas to destroy the system.
Ce...Some streamlining ideas to destroy the system.<br /><br />Central purchasing. The promise: lower prices because of the greater bargaining power. The reality: Long waits, then you get the wrong stuff if you get anything at all. You don't get as good a deal as you would have got by ten minutes googling. This used to be the system before we broke off from the Pa Dept of Ed. It stifled everything.<br /><br />Centralized computing. The promise - system-wide interoperability. We did this some years back by adopting SAP. West Chester had to switch from People-soft at immense expense the retrain everybody. No evident benefit. Same with the switch from Blackboard to D2L.<br /><br />Centralized calendar. The promise, students will be able to take classes conveniently at multiple institutions. Out here at WCU have not seem much exchange with Edinboro, or even Millersville. But we have zero flexibility to deal with weather cancellations. It's been a long time since we had a complete spring semester.<br /><br />Centralized travel<br />The promise: cheaper travel because of purchasing power. The reasonable expectation: Your hotel is 90 minutes from the meeting site. You don't get your tickets until the meeting is over. There will be a surcharge on travel to pay the people who don't get you your tickets. <br /><br />Centralized curriculum, The promise: free exchange of students from one institution to another. The expectation: standards set in each discipline by the weakest department statewide. A race to the bottom. Turf wars.<br /><br />Centralized Anything<br />Slow, expensive, unresponsive, impersonal. <br /> Roger from WCUhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17779082906610033583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132657781219607153.post-27448351503292312512019-06-26T09:37:02.059-04:002019-06-26T09:37:02.059-04:00A good look at what is duplicated in our 14 univer...A good look at what is duplicated in our 14 universities may be a start.Sharing and locating equipment needs from our whole state system,IE;vehicles,tools,supplies,could save even more.Whittle down the amount of managers in departments,there are too many chiefs running things.Dedicated Employeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03258610300866273798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132657781219607153.post-81673712365451953122019-06-26T00:24:44.858-04:002019-06-26T00:24:44.858-04:00These first two comments ^ , assuming they are com...These first two comments ^ , assuming they are coming from professors or administrators, are ample evidence of why traditional higher ed is fast on its way becoming an utterly irrelevant institution and deserves to die.<br /><br />The second one apparently doesn't even know how the university was originally conceived (or that the "lives of millions" on this planet are far better than they have ever been in all of human history!). This was in the Middle Ages as a training ground for three specific professions (a profession being some field of endeavor wherein one had to profess an oath) -- theology for the clergy, medicine for physicians, and the law for lawyers. All other courses of study were added later under the general heading of Philosophy, sort of a grab bag of secular knowledge, which later became organized into the various faculties we are familiar with today.<br /><br />Nonetheless, "promoting cultural enlightenment" might be a fine thing (depending on what you mean by that, and I suspect this person ^ means something very different than I would). Indeed, I used to regret that the four-year university (at least, the state school) was becoming more and more a place that was devoted to merely getting a degree and a credential for some specific job, rather than simply a place to learn for the sake of learning. But as college has become so expensive, people can no longer afford that luxury--they have big loans to pay off and need a job. Therefore it makes sense that we move in a more practical direction (although seriously, how many Recreation Managers and Sports Administrators does the world need? Never mind the really absurd majors like Gender Studies).<br /><br />I'd estimate that about half the students attending PASSHE schools should probably be doing something else--maybe working at a menial job for a gap year (as I did) so that they can appreciate and not waste the opportunity they are getting when they do attend college. Many should be going to technical schools. Few are really interested in learning, which is convenient because the many of the faculty aren't really interested in teaching. They have abandoned rigor, standards, and teaching basic facts which their students are terribly ignorant of, having come up through the awful public school system. No, they are interested mainly in indoctrinating their students, and hanging on to their cushy jobs with their 12-hour workweeks and five months off per year and their tenure and sabbaticals and alternate workload leave and lavish benefits. And they claim to be concerned about the high cost of higher ed! Where do you suppose the money is going? Traditional Higher Ed is the most inefficient enterprise there is.<br /><br />There certainly needs to be a dramatic redesign, but I have zero faith that people who have come up through the system are capable of executing the kind of redesign which would save higher ed. Administrators generally make the problems even worse. Look at Oberlin, for example, which has been making the news recently. I'm sure these two ^ would fit right in over there.<br /><br />I just hope I can make it out of this burning house before it collapses all around me. Good Luck Mr. Chancellor, you will need it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03760750388107269518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132657781219607153.post-37769906494184777922019-06-24T21:24:22.852-04:002019-06-24T21:24:22.852-04:00"System redesign" reeks of the logic of ..."System redesign" reeks of the logic of corporatization and the obsession with productivity that are wrecking our planet and degrading the lives of millions. The university was originally conceived as an institution for promoting cultural enlightenment, not as ancillary to the needs of the free market.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09034909139841610003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132657781219607153.post-66305840088499856832019-06-24T19:12:15.472-04:002019-06-24T19:12:15.472-04:00Dear Dan,
Thanks for taking the time to share th...Dear Dan, <br /><br />Thanks for taking the time to share the reflections. <br /><br />We are wondering if folks might be more "ready, willing, and able" to carry out transformations at all levels, inside and outside universities, if serious conversations were encouraged and engaged regarding what are arguably the greatest threats (and the root causes of those threats) humanity has ever faced, i.e. earth life disaster linked to climate disruption; the Sixth Great Extinction; eco-systems breaking down across the planet; continuing threats of war that could lead to nuclear annihilation; the spread of tyranny and authoritarianism in both the economic and political theaters; expanding inequality and injustices; continuing assaults on and attempts to corporatize/privatize all public spaces including the space of public schools and universities. Linked to those problems could be conversations about how young people (elementary, secondary and university students and others) across the planet are rising up in support and solidarity to challenge the systems of economic and political power that they see as wrecking their future and wrecking the present for all too many people across the planet. Education is always about the future because education is also always about young people. Do we owe it to young people to open possibilities for education to help people address these existential threats and also work to create social systems that decent people would be happy to support? <br /><br />This recent article (and hundreds of similar pieces in both scientific and non-scientific journals) might assist in stimulating the readiness, willingness and ability of people to participate in and contribute to the meaningful, creative and effective transformations called for by current realities: <br /><br />https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/21/permafrost-collapses-70-years-early/ <br /><br />Looking forward to your comments on these matters of grave import.<br /><br />Sincerely, <br /><br />ddmorrisscotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08217170363285246931noreply@blogger.com