Virtual Graphic

 

Graphic for most recent t-shirt creations on my zazzle.com site.

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no, you won’t find them on the Sunday news shows

Welcome to the America I love.

 

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why are they protesting, again?: ask a 22 year old

As anyone who’s ever been involved in activism knows, mainstream media is rarely your friend.  Earlier this evening I watched an ABC News Nightline report from 2/18/2011 on the protests, which left me a little sick to my stomach.  As if it weren’t enough for the  the anchor, Cynthia McFadden, frame the issue in ways that reinforces the “budget crisis” narrative championed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, her patronizing snarkiness just about got me to shut the TV off right then and there.  Luckily, the actual reporter does a decent job for a mainstream journalist, even if he never challenges anyone about anything — straight up mainstream journalism: let “different” voices speak and provide no analysis or critical engagement.  So much for the principles of journalism.

A little later on did some poking around on You Tube for some voices from people on the ground, actually involved in the protests.  I came across a video by a 22 year-old student at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.  She begins her video like this:

Alright…I have never made a video blog before and I don’t intend to make a habit of it, but my name is Anna, I am 22 years old and I live in Madison, WI and I’d like to address the current protests that are going on . . . I don’t believe that the national news cycles have been doing a very good job of covering this . . .

Anna the proceeds to lay out the actual case being made by protesters on the ground.  While I can understand her desire not to make a habit of making video blogs, I hope she might reconsider.  Impressive stuff.  Here she is:

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Shock Doctrine, U.S.A. – NYTimes.com

Readers of the XChange will be familiar with Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, as I have referenced her argument frequently regarding the “budget crisis” at Kutztown, PASSHE, and higher education in general (e.g. “we’re on a 48 hour news cycle: Cevallos sends email” posted on 3/10/10, or, more recently, “Naomi Klein: Shock Doctrine in Wisconsin,” on 2/20/11).  Yesterday, noble-prize winning economist, Paul Krugman, makes the case that what’s happening in Wisconsin (and across the country) is not a governor responding to a crisis, but a power grab enabled by a predictable crisis.  Here’s his article:

Shock Doctrine, U.S.A. – NYTimes.com.

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Minding the Managers

An article title at Inside Higher Ed today caught my attention immediately: “Presidential Tenures on the Line. ”

David Moltz describes the recent decision of the Board of Trustees of the City Colleges of Chicago to revise the job description of “college president.” As a result, all current presidents at its seven institutions will have to reapply for their jobs. “The new job descriptions for the college presidents include ‘specific performance measures and goals that these individuals must achieve.'”

In a time when teachers and students are being measured with high stakes assessment tests in primary, secondary and higher education, I at first felt gratified that a board would at the very least extend this principle of “measuring up” to management. That feeling did not last long.

Once again, the performance measures, while intending to increase “student success,” are missing key ingredients. The measures are:

• “Increasing the number of students who earn college credentials of value.”
• “Increasing the rate of transfer to bachelor’s degree programs following CCC graduation.”
• “Significantly improving outcomes for students requiring remediation.”
• “Increasing the number and share of ABE/GED/ESL students who advance to and succeed in college-level courses.”

I think each of these standards are worthy; however, they should be accompanied by measures of the services and resources provided to both students and teachers to make this possible.

Why do so many boards overlook the need to call directly for academic measures like these?

• Increasing the quality and funding of tutoring services available to remediated / ABE / GED / ESL students
• Decreasing class sizes, allowing teachers to provide students with more personalized instruction
• Increasing the  quality and funding of professional development resources for teachers as they work with this population
• Increasing the quality and funding of student advising centers
• Fostering an environment which makes best practices possible.

The need to articulate such measures directly to presidents is made apparent by our own KU administration. As I noted in an earlier post, PASSHE has adopted new performance indicators that focus on the number of students retained and graduated, with no mention of the quality of education. One might assume that an administration would automatically make quality a priority as well.  As fellow XChange writer Kevin Mahoney pointed out in his post, however, KU has eliminated our Advising Center and increased class sizes. Apparently, administrations do need to be told that quality counts, in addition to numbers.

In Moltz’s article, Perry J. Buckley, president of the Cook County College Teachers Union Local 1600, the American Federation of Teachers union describes another concern Chicago teachers have with these numbers-focused measures:

“’There seems to be a push to run education on a business model,’ Buckley said. ‘And the common theme of everything that’s happened in the past year or so is that more of the decisions that are academic and directly affect classroom teaching and students are really slowly being taken away from faculty and given to administration.… If you’re going to change the structure of the college president, and make them more of a CEO and involved less with academics and more in the managing of the school, then who is going to be the chief person for all things academic?’”

Very good question.  Who, indeed?

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APSCUF Supports Wisconsin Workers: A Day of Red and White

TODAY!!!

 

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Recession Leading To Exodus Of University Faculty « Nevada News Bureau

If things keep going the way they are at KU, I can see a similar story running in The Keystone in the not-too-distant future:

Recession Leading To Exodus Of University Faculty « Nevada News Bureau.

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RED AND WHITE for 2/24

To all APSCUF members and those who stand in support of workers in Wisconsin: APSCUF is calling on all members to wear RED AND WHITE tomorrow in solidarity. Here’s an excerpt from APSCUF President, Steve Hicks call:

Governor Scott Walker and the Wisconsin legislature are attempting to strip public unions, including University of Wisconsin faculty, of their collective bargaining rights.  The University of Wisconsin faculty won the right to unionize as recently as 2009.  Wisconsin is being viewed by many as a testing ground for devastating anti-union legislation, which is being considered in at least 10 other states.  Stopping this and similar legislation will require a nationwide show of solidarity.

Get involved!

• To make a public statement supporting the Wisconsin unions and faculty,wear University of Wisconsin red and white this Thursday (February 24).

Hicks also urged members to get involved in actions around the region.  One of those actions is our very own XChange Virtual Rally in Support of Wisconsin Workers.  Learn how to get involved here:

 

XChange Virtual Rally in Support of Wisconsin Workers

While you’re at it, check out APSCUF’s public statement in support of Wisconsin workers and see the full list of events happening around the State.

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Scott Walker Gets Punked By Journalist Pretending To Be David Koch

Huffington Post article on Ian Murphy’s call to WI Gov. Scott Walker.

Scott Walker Gets Punked By Journalist Pretending To Be David Koch.

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what’s Gov. Walker thinking?

I’ve had a few conversations with people recently in which I was asked if I thought Wisconsin Governor Walker was going to “cave” and compromise with the workers who are occupying the State Capitol building and rallying.  My sense of things has been that I do not think that Walker will budge.  He was elected with strong Tea Party support and that group is not interested in supporting politicians who are willing to compromise.  And, it didn’t seem to me that Walker was a Tea Party opportunist…rather, he’s one of them and would rather get voted out than back down.  As we know, there are sectors of the electorate that are looking for figures like this — regardless of whether or not they agree with that person’s policy objectives.  However, I am the first to admit that I am just learning Wisconsin politics along with millions of other people across the country and globe.

Enter Buffalo Beast (thanks to a tip from blue cheddar).  Buffalo Beast is the on-line site for The Beast independent newspaper published out of Buffalo, NY. the Beast is currently run by Ian Murphy, who seems to take pleasure in shock journalism…kind of like a raw version of The Onion without satire.  Yesterday, Murphy posted audio of what he claims to be a conversation he had with Gov. Walker.   How did Murphy score an phone call with Walker? Here’s how the recordings are framed on The Beast’s YouTube channel:

The BEAST’s Ian Murphy calls Walker, posing as archconservative moneybags David Koch, and they casually discuss crushing all public unions.

If this recording proves to be authentic (and I haven’t seen anything yet to suggest it’s not), this recording provides quite a window into what Walker is doing.  If you are unfamiliar with the Koch brother’s, check out the article, “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Funded by the Koch Brothers.” I also think that blue cheddar provides some useful cautions regarding Murphy’s tactics.

For those easily offended, know that Murphy is not exactly competing for a spot on Nickelodeon.  Here’s the recording:

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Kutztown teachers bite back, say ratio math is misleading

It’s not just going on in Wisconsin.  Retrenchments do not only affect KU.  Kutztown teachers push back against threats of layoffs and increasing class size in public schools.  Here’s the article from the Reading Eagle:

Kutztown teachers bite back, say ratio math is misleading.

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APSCUF-KU President Paul Quinn interview on KUR re: Wisconsin Protests

***updated 2.23.11***
[shortened clip of Quinn interview in .wav ]

Earlier today APSCUF-KU President, Paul Quinn was interviewed on Kutztown University radio station, KUR, on the protests in Wisconsin.  This is the first time I’m trying to include audio files on this particular blog, so please let me know if there are any problems listening to the show.  To check out just the interview with Quinn, click on the link below to listen.

KUR Interview with Paul Quinn about Wisconsin Protests

If you want to listen to the full show, here’s the link:

APSCUF-KU President Paul Quinn KUR Interview + Complete Radio Show (Quinn interview begins ~ 32:02)

The interview was from Feb. 22nd show, “JKast” w/ James Kastle (Current Affairs Talk) Tuesday from 2-3pm on KUR.

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XChange Virtual Rally: latest pics loaded

As our little experiment in virtual solidarity gets up and running, the spirit of Wisconsin is spreading to Ohio and Indiana — with additional mass protests and occupations of State Capitols.  The XChange will continue the Virtual Rally in Support of Wisconsin (Ohio & Indiana, too!) workers as long and the people of Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and other states are standing up and saying, “Enough!”

So, keep sending in your pics and participate in our small act of virtual solidarity.  Check out our rally site to see who’s participating so far.  Thanks for all of you who participated in Day One of this on-going Rally.  Click the image to be taken to the Rally Gallery.

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Video: Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill Protest

Check out this video of the first three days of the protests in Madison, WI.  Here’s what the AFL-CIO had to say about the video:

When Matthew Wisniewski created an incredible video about what’s been taking place in Wisconsin over the past few days, he said, “Please pass on this video if you like it. It needs more publicity. People need to see why we’re protesting.”

I’m not sure having the AFL-CIO send this video out to our entire e-mail list is quite what Matthew had in mind—but our staff loved this video, and we think you will, too. Matthew’s video shows the unbelievable people-powered energy behind what’s happening in Wisconsin.

Here it is:

Take a few minutes to sign the AFL-CIO “We Are One” petition and then head on over to the XChange Virtual Rally and learn how you can participate!

Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill Protest from Matt Wisniewski on Vimeo.

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Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education faculty members condemn Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s tactics | PennLive.com

APSCUF’s statement of support for Wisconsin workers covered in the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education faculty members condemn Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s tactics | PennLive.com.

Check out APSCUF’s official statement here:

PENNSYLVANIA FACULTY ASSOCIATION SUPPORTS WISCONSIN STATE EMPLOYEES

 

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Who Does that Help? (redux) by Seth Kahn

If you check out the side bar on the right side of this blog, you’ll see I have a feed for posts from the blog, “Here Comes Trouble,” written by Seth Kahn of West Chester.  A couple of weeks ago he wrote a post titled, “Who Does that Help” which began like this:

At last weekend’s APSCUF Legislative Assembly, delegates were treated to a Q&A session from our recently hired Chief Negotiator Stewart (or Stuart?) Davidson.  I won’t talk here about the specifics of what he said, except to say that he was impressive.

A comment he made about how he approaches negotiations (something to the effect of always reminding the other side that we do, in fact, have a shared mission) got me thinking (long chain of associations, the underlying rationale behind it between me and God) about one way we (all of us APSCUF members) ought to be responding to just about every management “initiative” or “challenge” we face these days.

What happens if we insist on asking one simple question: Who does this help?

Earlier today, Seth posted “Who Does that Help? (redux),” which extends the logic of asking “who does that help” to the current protests in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and others.  I think it’s worth reading his post in its entirety, so here it is:

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post contending that our faculty union ask the question, “Who does that help?” in response to every management initiative that seems to benefit nobody in any clear way.  The point is to remind management that beyond the spreadsheets, formulae, and policies are actual human lives that count for something–including their own!

The events in Wisconsin, that is, the proposal that state employees lose collective bargaining rights so that the Governor can balance the budget (a claim that’s nonsense on its face), invite the same question.

If public employees in Wisconsin give up their right to bargain anything other than salary, who does that help?  It helps the insurance companies that can change fees and coverages willy-nilly because they’re not negotiable anymore; it benefits school system managers who can make and enforce absurd curricular and other working conditions demands; it benefits employees NOT AT ALL.  And neither does it solve a single penny of the budget “crisis.”

If the public employees accept the requirement that they have recertify their unions every year, who does that help?  It helps opponents of unions who get much more frequent opportunities to intervene in organizing efforts.  While some people might contend, “Well, that’s just democracy,” the fact that unions all have had certification elections in the first place (and could vote to decertify any time they wanted) makes that claim ancillary if not dishonest.  That is, for those of you who like to shout “Elections have consequences,” yes, they do!

If public employees agree that non-union-members don’t have to pay fair share, who does that help?  It helps the employees who then ditch their union membership but still benefit from the work the unions do–unless the unions then decide not to represent those workers.  The reptilian part of my brain is OK with the idea that people could bail on their union memberships–if they then chose to negotiate their own salaries and benefits; if they never filed any grievances; if they never accepted any of the workplace protections the unions won for them; and so on.  No, I wouldn’t really want to see that.

The short version is this: Governor Walker’s proposal helps the public-sector workers of Wisconsin NOT AT ALL.  It helps the working people of Wisconsin NOT AT ALL.  It helps wealthy private interests who want to bust unions.  It helps one political party that hates unions.  That is, it concedes huge amounts of political power to people whose ethics are already so questionable that to give them even more power is, at best, utterly and completely foolhardy.

And who does THAT help?

 

 

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Anthem for Wisconsin Workers

Anthem for Wisconsin Workers’ Rights from Joe Salvo on Vimeo.

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virtual rally pics coming in!

The first few pics for the XChange virtual solidarity rally in support of Wisconsin workers started coming in this morning.  Click the image below to check out the slideshow or click HERE to view thumbnails of the photos I’ve posted so far.

Hopefully, I’ll have some time tonight to post a bunch more.  In the meantime, check out info about the virtual rally and send us your photo at kuxchange@gmail.com!

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squirrel futures for golden bears

Readers of the XChange won’t be surprised if I were to say that Kutztown University suffers from a lack vision.  The administration has aggressively retrenched faculty members and programs with a logic that escapes nearly everyone who cares to pay attention.  What’s KU’s response to the Commonwealth’s need for nurses?  Cut the nursing program of course!  How does KU ensure that our strong tradition of educating the next generation of teachers is further strengthened to meet the demands of the 20th Century?  Why, you cut the Early Learning Center — a signature Lab School that has given KU Early Education graduates a distinct advantage over their counterparts from other institutions!  I could go on and on (as you know).

Last week’s APSCUF-KU Representative Council meeting served to take KU’s squirrel logic to new heights (or lows — depending on where you sit, I guess).  XChange writer, Amy Lynch-Biniek addressed some of what we heard at Rep Council in her recent post, “Indicators of Good Business.”  Amy concluded her discussion of PASSHE’s new performance indicators — especially that one called “faculty productivity,” which means the # of students per faculty member — as follows:

I want knowing my students’ names to be a performance indicator. I want working in material circumstances that facilitate best practices to be a performance indicator. I want a challenging curriculum to be a performance indicator.

But that’s not good business.

Amy is, of course, dead on in her call for quality teaching and best practices.  And yet, what struck me as even more bizarre and infuriating was the fact that Kutztown doesn’t even do “good business” right.  If we were to follow the logic of the performance indicators — let’s take the “transitional” ones for fall 2011 for the moment — “faculty productivity,” as Amy points out, is one of the key indicators (the order of the items does not indicate priority as far as I know).  However, on that very same slide we also see “Second-Year Persistence” (that is, do first year students come back) and “Graduation Rates.”  In other words, while PASSHE seems keen on continuing its recent push to stuff more students into each class, the System also seems to place some significance on retention.  One could say (that “one” wouldn’t be me) that PASSHE recognizes — at least formally — that as you push to increase class size (faculty productitivity) there is the potential that such a move will have an adverse impact on student retention.  Because of this, PASSHE includes TWO performance indicators related to retention in order to ensure that PASSHE does not attract an increasing number of students on the one hand, only to have them leave after a couple of years (carrying with them a nice little bag of debt).  In a rational world, this make sense.  You want to dissuade university administrations from treating students like cash cows in order to secure much coveted performance funds.  So, in that world, it’s in the interest of a university President and his/her administration to BOTH increase the number of students in each class while investing in retention strategies and programs to prevent students from leaving once they realize their college experience is dominated by 200 seat auditoriums, not the one-on-one attention that they were promised.

Kutztown’s commitment to increasing class size to meet “faculty productivity” benchmarks is clear: one only need look to the arrival of the Academic Forum and the proposed North Campus Academic Building (aka New Lytle), to see how increasing class size is being written into our built environment. The Kutztown administration’s corresponding commitment to investing in rention strategies is just plain squirrely.

For example, one might think that given PASSHE’s performance indicators, KU might pay attention to the published literature which recommends strategies such as orientation, college transition courses, enrollment managment programs, faculty and peer mentoring, and intervention programs.  Such programs would be all the more important since KU expanded to serve a more diverse student body.  Best practices should guide KU’s plans.  A decent plan?  Well, this is not just a decent plan, but a paraphrase from a report, “Kutztown University Early Intervention Initiatives,” authored by Dr. Carole Wells (now Vice Provost, then Professor of Psychology) as the Chair of the KU Senate Enrollment Management Committee.  The report was written April, 2004 and was part of the last Middle-States report. The report focuses on interviews conducted with six units, highlighting their retention efforts: ACT 101, Advisement Center, Athletics Department, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Student Support Services Program, and Services to Students with Disabilities Office.  While both Athletics and the College of VPA reported retention efforts, they are not programs designed for retention purposes.  Of the remaining four, the administration has cut two of them this past year: ACT 101 and the Advising Center.  SSSP was in danger of being cut had they not been able to secure full grant funding.

Rob Peter to pay Paul?  I guess?

So, just to review. KU commits to rapidly expanding class size, not for any academically defensible reason, but because the administration wants to increase its share of PASSHE’s performance funding.  Given that larger classes can dramatically impact student retention, PASSHE (ostensibly) offsets the “faculty productivity” indicator with two other indicators focusing on retrenchment.  Kutztown University decides to continue to increase class size, building more large classrooms, while eliminiating programs designed to retain students.  Make sense?

One might ask about the effectiveness of these programs.  I’ll let you judge for yourself about the effectiveness of ACT 101…check out one of sister institutions ACT 101 site or contact one of the more than 70 ACT 101 programs at colleges and universities across the state. And what of the Advising Center?  The “Kutztown Uniersity Early Intervention Initiatives” report suggests a long-term goal of the university is to “develop a professional advising center” (8).  One might object that KU already had a professional Advising Center.  But, the administration could retort, “we want one based upon ‘best practices’ as outlined in the ‘published literature’.”  Fair point.

The KU Administration must have eagerly awaited the publication of The Handbook of Career Advising in 2009 by the National Academic Advising Association.  Here, administrators committed to best practices and facing concerns about the budget could find the best practices they were seeking. And there it was: “Appendix A: Exemplary Practices: Integrated Academic and Career Advising Centers.”  And, they must have been all the more pleased to find on page 326 Kutztown University’s Advising Center!!!  That’s right.  Without lifting a finger, the KU administration had acheived one of the goals laid out in the 2004 report!  Not only that, having the KU Advising Center singled out by the National Academic Advising Association would help build a case for those coveted perfomance funds — especially as a KU “budget crisis” loomed.  So, the KU administration made the only choice that made any sense.

They eliminated the Advising Center. (click here to see an excerpt from the Handbook of Carrer Advising, including pages signed by all the books authors…a copy of which was provide to President Cevallos when the book was published).

It’s one thing to have to suck it up and work together in difficult circumstances.  What does one do with this?

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Possible Solidarity Rally

Tentative plans are in the works for a Solidarity Rally at KU Tuesday, 2/22 in support of workers in Wisconsin and Ohio. I’m still working out the particulars, so stay tuned!

Update, 2/21: I’m having trouble organizing a meat-space rally on short notice for Tuesday. I hope to plan something for later in the week. Stay tuned! In the meantime, please participate in  our blog’s virtual solidarity rally tomorrow!

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