Category Archives: Administrator Life

Provost’s update on the GradeFirst “snafu”

Posted on May 15, 2012 by | 20 Comments

Provost Kim Schatzel sent out an email to all EMU personnel this afternoon (I include it after the jump) addressing the GradeFirst mess. The short version is we’re done with GradeFirst, I think.  Two things I thought I’d mention though; first, there’s this passage:

As I have learned in the past four months, the academic business services side of Eastern (e.g., advising, degree audit, application management) is not where it should be from a process/technology perspective and is a high priority for us going forward. Simply put, the snafu by GradesFirst should not have happened.

This seems like a pretty direct way of saying that Schatzel is going to be giving the “academic business services side” of things a lot of attention, and in some likely sensible ways.  For example, Schatzel is moving the communication to students about their academic service to the Registrar’s office, “where it typically resides in universities.”

Second, I’m pleased that Schatzel used the term “snafu” in official EMU correspondence. Continue reading →

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Posted in Academics, Administrator Life, EMU Technology, Faculty Life

And let the Faculty contract bargaining season begin!

Posted on May 9, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Below is an email from EMU-AAUP president Susan Moeller about what is likely to be one of the major topics of negotiations this season, health care costs.  What else is new?  It sounds like the administration is trying to force a plan before negotiations proper begin; still, before the union reacts too negatively, perhaps we ought to see what the administration’s plan actually is all about.

Read on after the break.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Administrator Life, EMU-AAUP, Faculty Life, The Strike of 2006

More accidental dismissal news and a modest proposal to the admissions office

Posted on May 9, 2012 by | 14 Comments

There’s a pretty good article in annarbor.com that goes into some more detail about the whole “you’re kicked out– not” email debacle of last weekend, “EMU reassessing dismissal practices after mistakenly sending notices to 7,700 students.”  The short version is that the cause appears to be (and this is a quote from EMU Director of Communications Walter Kraft) “some sort of operational issue” with this GradesFirst company.  Here’s another passage that really jumped out at me:

The 133 rightly dismissed students were sent additional emails and hard-copy letters confirming their dismissal.

EMU currently has a $15,000-per-year contract with the Alabama-based company.

“Their role is to help us get out communications like this and help us manage the list of people who would receive messages about their academic standing,” said Kraft, who added: “They contacted us fairy early as this was happening on Friday and apologized.”

The article also tries to address the “just how big of a deal was this” debate that has been going on here too, with some students calling the news “devastating” and others seeing it as an obvious mistake.  But really what gets me is this contract EMU has with GradesFirst.  A regular annarbor.com commentator who goes by “Cash” put it this way:

Just wondering….133 students were academically dismissed at the end of winter term, correct?

That couldn’t be handled internally? really?

You are paying $15,000 annually for someone to send out a couple hundred emails for the whole year?

Obviously the list of failing students came from your own internal system, not the vendor’s system.

So how hard is it to send out 133 emails?

Holy smokes.

Please let me know when this gets bid. I’d be glad to send out 133 emails twice per year for $15,000.

I couldn’t have put it any better myself.  And unless GradesFirst is empowered/allowed to go through EMU’s systems to find those 130 or so students who fail to make grades in the first place (I suppose that’s possible, but even if that is the case, how hard is that?), it does kind of sound like we’re paying some entity a lot of money to do something that one would assume would be the job of someone at EMU.

So, I’m with Cash on this:  if this really is the case, I’d like to know how I can get in on that action.  I think I’m qualified.  In my day-job and at the height of the busiest times of the fall and winter semester, it is not at all uncommon for me to receive and deal with 50 email messages a day.  As a program coordinator in my department for writing majors, I routinely send out messages via blind carbon copy or mailing lists to dozens of students at a time.  And since I actually also happen to be a faculty member at EMU who advises lots of students, it even would be kind of legit if I were to contact these students on behalf of the institution.  It’d certainly be better than some anonymous operation in Alabama, right?

So if there’s any way I could pick up this up as a side business, that’d be great.  If someone from the administration admissions wants to contact me at emutalk@gmail.com, I’d be happy to talk terms.

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Posted in Academics, Administrator Life, In the media..., Student Life

Oh Ypsi, Ypsi….

Posted on May 9, 2012 by | 3 Comments

Well, this is kind of a bummer.  This morning I read in annarbor.com “Ypsilanti voters reject Water Street deb retirement milage and income tax,” and by a wide margin.  In my view, it’s a sad day because what it says is that voters in the city aren’t willing to invest in it.  Granted, I’m not crazy about raising taxes either, but given the situation the city is in, it’s difficult to see what other choice we have.  The “no taxes” crowd certainly don’t have an answer.

I suppose these issues are not related, but I can’t but help make the connection with the proposal that is floating around where EMU (along with DTE and Washtenaw County) would give loan incentives to employees who want to live in Ypsilanti.  A loyal reader sent me that article, but I’m also reminded of the piece in annabor.com from last week, “New program could offer EMU employees up to $10,000 to purchase homes in Ypsilanti.”   As is the case with the “no taxes” article, the comments here are negative both about EMU and Ypsilanti.

It’s depressing, really.  I mean, I don’t have any specific or deeply-felt personal loyalty to EMU or to Ypsilanti.  I work at EMU and it’s a fantastic job, but as my Dad told me many years ago, you can love your job but your job will never love you.  I live in Ypsi and have lived in the Normal Park neighborhood for 13 years now.  It’s a great neighborhood and I love living close enough to work to walk or ride my bike.  But I’m not really an “Ypsi proud” kind of guy, largely because even after living in Michigan for as long as I’ve lived anywhere else, I’m not really from here, and if I were buying a house right now– even with the EMU incentive– I’d probably buy in Ann Arbor.

That said, I grow weary of the bashing and even self-loathing of both EMU and Ypsilanti.  The comments on the annabor.com story on incentives to buy a house in Ypsilanti are quite disgusting, and it’s sad that a majority of Ypsilanti citizens would rather drive the city further into the ditch and/or into the hands of an emergency manager than to pitch in to pay the bills to keep the community going.  Sad indeed.

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Posted in Administrator Life, In the media..., Ypsilanti

Oops! EMU dismisses and then undismisses a bunch of students

Posted on May 5, 2012 by | 31 Comments

Last night, I was sitting around with my family, watching a movie and minding my own business, with the intent of staying off the computer through the weekend.  Then I get an email on my phone from a concerned graduate student informing her she has been dismissed from EMU, a student I knew for certain could not have possibly been kicked out of school because of bad performance.  Here’s a screen shot of what that email looked like:

So, I fired off an angry message to the supposed sender of that email– Molly Weir, the associate director of advising– and I cc-ed a bunch of suits, assuming that this horrifying error was limited to one student.  Then I get an email from another student, followed by emails from Walter Kraft and Susan Martin (and others) apologizing.  Here’s what Martin wrote:

I deeply apologize for the incorrect email many of our students received this evening indicating they were dismissed from the University.  This message was a terrible mistake and I regret the undue alarm and concern it caused. I care deeply about student success and for Eastern to send an alarming message to you indicating you were dismissed is an inexcusable mistake that I personally regret.  We will investigate and determine why this happened and make sure it never happens again.  Please disregard the message or any letter you may receive.  Again, my heartfelt apology for this error.

And then a loyal reader sent me this article from the Freep, too.

Checking my email just a few moments ago this morning, I see another loyal reader sent me screen images of Facebook posts, including the screen shot of the dismissal letter I include above.  These posts were subsequently removed from the EMU page, I assume because it’s not exactly good publicity.  Anyway, this loyal reader claims that 7,700 students received this message.

WTF, EMU?

This loyal reader hypothesized this was a security breach of some sort, but this sure doesn’t look and feel like one of the spam messages.  I am assuming that there will be an investigation and at least some public statement as to who did this and how they managed it, but none of the possible reasons for this are exactly comforting.  If it was this big of a security breach which might also expose student records and all kinds of other confidential things– wow, that’s a big problem.  But if it was some knucklehead in advising sending out messages through the automated GradesFirst and accidentally pushed the “fail everybody” button, that’s obviously kind of a problem too, right?

So, anyone know anything else?  Any readers get dis’ed last night?

Update:

Here’s the email Walter Kraft sent around Saturday afternoon:

To EMU Students, Faculty and Staff,

First and foremost, we reiterate our sincere apologies for the email students received last night that indicated that due to academic issues they were in the process of being dismissed from Eastern. This was a terrible mistake and we know it caused undue concern for many.The purpose of this email is to update you on our investigation into the cause of the issue. The investigation is under way and we have not yet determined the exact cause, but there are some things we do know.

First, this was not a matter of a security breach, hacking or anything of that sort. There was no inappropriate access to any records or student information. We have confirmed that this was an operational error in our notification system from Academic Advising to students who are subject to dismissal for academic performance. We also have confirmed that Academic Advising prepared the message last night in order to notify approximately 100 students of academic performance issues. For some reason, which remains under investigation, the message went out to the entire student body. An outside company that we contract with for this notification process, GradesFirst, sent the dismissal message to the entire student body instead of the file of 100 or so students who were supposed to receive it. GradesFirst has offered an apology for its role in this matter.

Make no mistake about it, we consider this matter very serious and we take full responsibility. We will continue to investigate to determine exactly what went wrong and take whatever steps are necessary to make sure it never happens again. We will have additional updates as we learn more. Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions or concerns.Sincerely,WalterWalter Kraft

Vice President for Communications
102 Welch Hall
Eastern Michigan University

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Posted in Administrator Life, College Fun, EMU President, EMU Technology, In the media..., Security and Safety, Student Life

Sorry about that….

Posted on April 27, 2012 by | Leave a comment

In response to the EMU-AAUP’s call for a formal apology from EMU Faculty Senate, it would appear that Faculty Senate Matt Evett has responded.  Here’s the email he sent around to faculty:

Dear faculty colleagues,

I have just sent the following letter to Provost Schatzel. I understand
that many of you will not have read the draft resolution that this
letter refers to, as it was never distributed beyond the Senate
membership. Nonetheless, the Senate Executive Board feels that it is
important that this letter be seen by the entire faculty.

Yours, Matt

==========

Dear Provost Schatzel,

The Faculty Senate Executive Board’s process for creating the draft
resolution (20120418.1) for the consideration of the Faculty Senate at
the April 18, 2012 meeting was flawed.

Although the draft resolution was never brought to the Senate floor and
has never been an official position of the Senate, we regret the
dissemination of the resolution’s preliminary draft, which contained
unfounded allegations of wrongful actions attributed to you. We
recognize that your actions were consistent with the EEOC and the AAUP
Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The Executive Board takes full responsibility for any misrepresentations
of your actions in that draft. We apologize for any negative
repercussions to the Office of the Provost and you personally. We are
examining our internal processes to ensure improvement.

Members of the Faculty Senate Executive Board:
Matt Evett
Daryl Barton
Marti Bombyk
Perry Francis
Suzanne Gray
Patrick Koehn
Robert Orrange

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Posted in Administrator Life, EMU-AAUP, Faculty Life

EMU-AAUP vs. Faculty Senate

Posted on April 23, 2012 by | 2 Comments

A loyal EMUTalk reader emailed me this morning wondering why it is that Susan Moeller’s email to faculty on Friday (I include it with the “Continue reading” link) hasn’t generated more discussion on EMUTalk and elsewhere.  Speaking just for myself:  I was super-duper swamped Thursday and Friday last week with the day job, so my basic reaction to this reader’s question was “what email?”   So I just went back now and read it.

Yikes!

The short and non-technical version is that EMU-AAUP President Susan Moeller is strongly critical of the way the Faculty Senate tried to pass some resolutions against Provost Schatzel because she made associate provosts Jim Carroll and Rhonda Longworth permanent.  Here’s the paragraph in Moeller’s letter that jumped out at me:

The Senate President owes the Provost a public apology. In addition, it is imperative that everyone understands that the EMU-AAUP is the sole bargaining authority on the contract and the Senate President does not have the authority to interpret the contract. Contract language that is negotiated at the table is done so with specific intent; we must adhere to the intent of the agreement.

Again, yikes!

Continue reading →

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Posted in Administrator Life, EMU-AAUP, Faculty Life

“Eastern Michigan University appoints Robert Heighes police chief”

Posted on April 19, 2012 by | Leave a comment

From annarbor.com, “Eastern Michigan University appoints Robert Heighes police chief.”  To quote:

Robert Heighes, who has been serving as interim police chief at Eastern Michigan University since December, was named to the permanent post Thursday.

Heighes, 57, is a 28-year veteran of the department and served three stints as interim chief. His appointment as police chief and executive director of public safety is effective Friday and is subject to approval by the EMU regents. Heighes will make $128,000 per year.

Wow, the guy has been some kind of runner-up for job three times before?  About time he got it!  Congrats, Chief Heighes.

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Posted in Administrator Life, In the media..., Security and Safety

“What do professors do, anyway?”

Posted on April 13, 2012 by | 4 Comments

I guess this is in the theme of professors being paid too much for doing too little:  from HuffPo a few days ago comes “What Do Professors Do, Anyway?” by Susan Herbst, who is the President to the University of Connecticut.  It’s a response by a widely condemned op-ed piece by David Levy in the Washington Post where he claims faculty 9-15 hours a week for 30 weeks a year.  Here’s a long quote from Herbst that I think sums it up pretty well:

So perhaps the best question isn’t, “Do college professors work hard enough?” Instead, it might be, “What do professors do, anyway?”

For professors, actual time spent teaching in the classroom is the tip of the iceberg that follows a great deal of preparation: sifting through mountains of books and articles to pick the texts for students to read; creating detailed course plans; producing voluminous notes and presentations for every class and writing a syllabus, among other things. Professors don’t just stroll into class and say what’s on their mind.

Professors can have 20, 30, 40 to 300 students in a class or lecture and they often require individual attention for myriad reasons: help understanding the course material, to discuss their approach to a paper or why they received a particular grade, among many others. This isn’t confined to the set office hours most faculty hold. The advent of e-mail changed the way many students and faculty interact, so many professors are always on duty in this respect.

Advising students and grading their work takes significant time, as does campus life — oh, the committees. Many professors devote a good deal of their time to various other assignments: search committees to hire colleagues or administrators, tenure review committees, curriculum committees, PhD. committees; and a host of task forces and working groups formed to address all the challenges your average college and university can encounter. This takes countless hours, but must be done and is often beneficial for the institution. They must also engage in professional development on a regular basis, to ensure they are at the forefront of their discipline.

By the way, speaking of university presidents supporting faculty:  a shout-out to EMU President Susan Martin for coming to the retirement party/honoring of four of my colleagues in the English department:  Shelia Most, Jeff Duncan, Russ Larson (who used to be the department head too) and Bob Holkeboer (who has done a ton of different things at EMU, including running the graduate college and starting the honors program).  Martin was the only administrator to make it to the event, and I know all of our retirees appreciated her being there.  And we’re losing about 160 years worth of EMU experience from my department this year too, which is kinda sad.

 

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Posted in Administrator Life, EMU President, Faculty Life, In the media...

“New EMU provost plans to bring stability to leadership role”

Posted on April 10, 2012 by | Leave a comment

A loyal reader sent me a link to this piece in annarbor.com,”New Eastern Michigan University provost plans to bring stability to leadership role.”  It’s nothing particularly newsworthy or new, just kind of a gently flattering feature piece about Kim Schatzel.  One comment I do agree with on the site is if you’re going to have a story about the EMU provost, you probably shouldn’t feature a picture with her talking in front of a U of M-Dearborn banner.

Everyone I know who has had some interactions with her has had good things to say, though I haven’t even seen her yet.  At least I don’t think I’ve seen her….

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Posted in Administrator Life, In the media...