Monthly Archives: November 2007

In recent asbestos news…

Posted on November 30, 2007 by | 1 Comment

I just received this email from Chad Crocker, who I guess is in charge of the Physical Plant:

The Health and Safety office has scheduled an asbestos abatement in the west mechanical room on the first floor of Pray-Harrold.

Abatement activities will begin on Tuesday 12/4/07 and will be completed by the end of the day.

Please contact the Health and Safety Office with any concerns or questions regarding this abatement.

This is the basement, btw– I don’t think most of us would have noticed this had Crocker not sent this email, unlike replacing tiles in classrooms.

Now, on the good side of things, at least they are telling someone about this stuff. But on the bad side, they apparently are only telling faculty and maybe staff since this didn’t go out to students. In any event, something to be aware for folks in PH on 12/4/07.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds

Open Forums with ED of Public Safety Candidates

Posted on November 29, 2007 by | 2 Comments

The campus community is invited to participate in an open forum with each of the candidates for Executive Director of Public Safety. All forums will be held from 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. in 201 Welch as follows: 

Monday, December 3 – Lloyd Collins

Chief of Police, City of South Lyon Police Department 

Wednesday, December 5 – Adam Garcia

Director of Police Services, University of Nevada 

Friday, December 7 – Charles Noffsinger

Police Captain, Department of Public Safety, The University of Michigan 

Wednesday, December 12 – Gregory O’Dell

Deputy Chief, City of Ann Arbor Police Department 

For further information contact Ellen Gold at 487-1107 or egold@emich.edu.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Transparency at EMU: still nonexistent

Posted on November 29, 2007 by | 8 Comments

Back before the term started, members of the EMU faculty, myself included, organized an “Assembly of the Faculty” to discuss vital issues for EMU.   I spoke on the matter of “creating transparency” at Eastern.  I argued that the reasons so many problems erupt into scandals at EMU is because of the willingness of upper management to withhold information from members of the community; along with the willingness to lie on ocassion. I argued that the problem is institutional, not personal, yet it is endemic to upper management.    Provost Don Loppnow echoed, sincerely, I am sure, much of my argument in his thoughtful comments to the Assembly. Now, two months and more later, I want to open a dialog on transparency.  Is it easier now than under Fallon to get basic questions answered?  Is the administration more forthcoming?  Who has tried to get information, and gotten it? Who has been given the run around?  Who has been promised information, and not gotten it?  Who even cares?I won’t mention, right now, any of the handful of issues I have been involved in finding information on. Suffice it to say that these are issues involving health, security, safety, and planning for academic facilities, as well as budgetary questions and academic support services for students.   And sadly, on none of these issues have university officials at the appropriate level willingly provided any documentation or other answers without the threat of Freedom of Information Act requests or other forms of pressure.  Many are the dodges that Welch hall officials and their subordinates elsewhere across the campus use to avoid answering questions. And many administrators, privately, decry this state of affairs. At the Assembly of the Faculty, I argued that creating transparency at EMU would be easy, if upper management would exact a penalty for those of its own who dodge, delay, withhold, evade, or lie when it comes to providing information to members of the EMU community.  Until that is done, there is no accountability.  Evidently the current Welch Hall leadership is unable to put such a system of accountability into place regarding transparency, and the costs to EMU for this failure are immense.   Any suggestions for who to fix this problem?   

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Posted in Board of Regents, Budgets, Buildings and Grounds, EMU President, EMU President Search, Faculty Life, Security and Safety

“When e-mail is outsourced” (or, when is EMU going to wise up?)

Posted on November 27, 2007 by | 25 Comments

There is a very good (detailed and kind of on the long-side of things) in today’s Inside Higher Ed that everyone at EMU who is concerned about the crappy er, problematic email service we have here, “When e-mail is outsourced.” The upshot of the article is that outsourcing things like e-mail to operations like Google or Microsoft is increasing rapidly, and while there are some lingering privacy concerns (which I think are completely bogus, as I’ll get to after the jump), the trend is for higher ed institutions to take advantage of these free services that provide better features and services. It’s a no brainer.
Continue reading →

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Posted in EMU Technology, In the media...

EMU presidential search posts ad in CHRONICLE

Posted on November 26, 2007 by | 17 Comments

An ad soliciting applicants for the open EMU presidency is posted to the online CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION today. Copied below:

PRESIDENT

Eastern Michigan University

The Board of Regents and the Presidential Search Advisory Committee announce a search to recruit the next President of Eastern Michigan University.Founded in 1849, Eastern Michigan University is a public institution grounded on a proud tradition of public education encompassing five Colleges including the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Health and Human Services and Technology. Eastern Michigan University emphasizes a student-focused learning environment positively affecting the lives of students and the community, as well as the strong commitment beyond campus boundaries to the broader community through service initiatives and partnerships. Eastern Michigan University is committed to excellence in teaching, the extension of knowledge through basic and applied research, and creative and artistic expression. Eastern Michigan University maximizes educational opportunities for professional and personal growth for students from diverse backgrounds.Eastern Michigan University is a fully accredited educational institution by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The Princeton Review named EMU a “Best Midwestern College” for the fourth straight year and also selected the College of Business as one of the “Best 282 Business Schools” in the nation. Eastern Michigan University is a member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC).Eastern Michigan University, located in Ypsilanti, MI, is conveniently situated between Detroit and Lansing, and its 450+ acre campus is graced by 18 miles of walkways and jogging trails and more than 200 acres of scenic lawn and wooded areas. Eastern Michigan serves 23,000 students annually.Visit Eastern Michigan University at www.emich.edu.Interested candidates must possess a graduate degree. An earned terminal degree is desirable. Please forward your resume and cover letter by February 1, 2008 to the following address:Paul Czamanske, President & CEO Michelle Olmsted, ConsultantCompass Group Ltd.401 S. Old Woodward, Suite 460 Birmingham, Michigan 48009 molmsted@compassgroup.comT: (248) 540-9110; F: (248) 647-8288www.compassgroup.com Member of Association of Executive Search Consultants since 1988.Eastern Michigan University is an equal opportunity employer.

Other ads from this institution

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Posted in Board of Regents, EMU President Search

Let’s take the whole week off (or, a real Thanksgiving post)

Posted on November 23, 2007 by | 3 Comments

I should have posted this yesterday but I just didn’t see the article until now: Inside Higher Ed has a piece titled “The Pilgrimage Home,” which is about different rules at different schools for the Thanksgiving break– to have or not have classes on Wednesday, for example.

I know that EMU has played around with this over the years, and while I think the current rule of the university being open but having no classes is good, I’ve often thought it would be worth it to start the fall semester a few days earlier and get the whole week off. In any event, today is a day off for everyone. Don’t trample each other shopping, okay?

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Posted in Faculty Life, In the media..., Staff Life, Student Life

The Feds on EMU’s violation of Clery Act (oh yeah, and Happy Thanksgiving)

Posted on November 22, 2007 by | Leave a comment

From an undisclosed location on the road to see in-laws, sitedad wishes one and all a Happy Thanksgiving. May you and yours enjoy some turkey, tofurkey, or whatever is the tradition with your family.

In any event, I also thought I’d point folks to a couple of articles about the Department of Education’s report on EMU’s violation of the Clery Act, stuff that at this point is kind of old news around here:

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Posted in Dickinson Murder, In the media..., Security and Safety

U. of Chicago grad student murdered

Posted on November 20, 2007 by | 9 Comments

Today’s online CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION covers the murder of a chemistry graduate student near the campus of the University of Chicago, and its coverage worth reading. I have pasted the article below, along with some of the “comments” appended to it. The student had just defended his dissertation.
Continue reading →

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, Security and Safety

Decline of the Tenure Track

Posted on November 20, 2007 by | 4 Comments

There is a good article about the decreasing number of tenure-track faculty, reduced to around 30% of all college teachers.   There are bills being introduced in some states to reverse that proportion, which seems like an excellent proposition to me. 

Lecturers are not only poorly paid, over-worked, non-tenured, and without almost any benefits (from basic health care to basic office supplies), but they are also seldom able to find full-time, tenure-track positions of their own.  Ironically and tragically, that is precisely because college administrations are outsourcing the work to them rather than hiring teachers in the proper way–with the proper compensation and the proper protections–to do the work that is necessary to educate students.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Academics, EMU-AAUP, Faculty Life

Update on the Laura Dickinson Memorial Endowed Scholarship

Posted on November 19, 2007 by | 1 Comment

I’d like to give readers, posters and the general EMU community an update on the Laura Dickinson Memorial Scholarship that I first proposed in August. At that time I thought and still feel strongly, that this scholarship fund would be a way to honor Laura’s memory at EMU and provide some healing for those of us in the EMU community as well as for the larger metro Detroit community. At this point, we have a committee formed of four members: myself, Cheryl Cassidy, English Department, Mark Higbee, History and Philosphy, Lydia Kret and Judi Brooks from Dietetics and Human Nutrition, and Cassie Gasidlo, crew member of Laura’s and a student in Dietetics. We continue to work with the EMU Foundation, and we have the approval and support of the Dickinson family.

We have been working toward making this Scholarship happen, and while we don’t want to publicly discuss any of the details at this point, we do want all EMUtalk readers toknow that this project is underway. We anticipate soliciting donations for a Laura Dickinson Memorial Endowed Scholarship sometime during winter 2008. When that time comes, you’ll be sure to hear about it here on EMUtalk.org.

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Posted in Dickinson Murder, Student Life