Category Archives: Board of Regents

Thoughts as the dust settles on lay-offs

Posted on June 27, 2011 by | 39 Comments

It would appear that the administration’s/Board of Regent’s layoffs have settled out– that is, we seem to know the scope and reach of them.  A few thoughts I thought I’d share:

  • I’m surprised by the number of AP layoffs.  As far as I can tell, nine AP folks were fired, some who had been here as long as 24 years.  I’m not going to speculate too much on the thinking behind all the choices, though I heard from one soon to be former employee that the firing suit seemed to have a certain level of glee dropping the axe.
  • There have been some dean/associate dean-level positions eliminated too, including the dean and associate dean in Extended Program and Educational Outreach (aka Continuing Education).  I’m not really sure what that means; is that program going away and/or what?  That would include lots of online and alternative programs, right?
  • Susan Moeller sent around an email with a link to this all union press release. I’d include text from it here, they put it out in a PDF that can’t be easily copied for some reason.  The tally there is 30:  12 clericals, 14 PTs, and 4 physical plant folks.  I of course understand why the these folks are mad (heck, we’re all mad), though this press release seems a little all over the place and out of control to me.  Don’t write angry, folks.
  • In her email, Moeller also wrote:

    In addition President Martin was not around as the lay offs were occurring. She went out of town after announcing the layoffs at the Board of Regents Tuesday meeting. A real leader would have stayed and personally handled the layoffs to explain the decision to keeps millions in athletics and lay off 40 employees. She should be willing to explain to her employees why she did this.

    As EMU presidents come and go, Sam Kirkpatrick is remembered for the University House mess, John Fallon is remembered for lying about a student’s murder, and Sue Martin will be remembered for needlessly laying off employees and making Athletic’s First at EMU not Education.

    Time will tell how Martin’s legacy is impacted by this, of course. I blame the Board of Regents more than her and this is not the first time employees have been laid off at EMU, but I see Moeller’s point.

  • Just for the sake of argument, let’s say that the top suits (Martin, Lumm, etc.) and the Board of Regents did not have bad intentions.  Let’s assume they held tuition to a completely inadequate 3.65% increase not because they wanted to create a crisis to justify firing some people and/or to play hardball with the unions, but they really were keeping tuition as low as possible to benefit students.  Never mind that they knew they were benefiting students and the football team by firing people; I want to believe the suits and BoR aren’t doing this because they’re evil.  I really need to believe that these people aren’t evil.
  • But I do think these folks have made terribly wrong decisions, and I think the last couple of years focusing on keeping costs low low low (the press release emphasizes “fiscal stewardship,” the lowest increase for any state university three years running, etc.) demonstrate they are both not thinking of other universities around us and they are fundamentally misunderstanding the reasons why people go to a particular college.  Keeping things super cheap benefits students for the short-term at best.  Students don’t pick universities based on the cheapness thriftiness if its administrators; they pick universities based on programs of study, reputation, location, family and friends, social factors, and then costs, especially when costs are in the same basic range.

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Posted in Academics, Administrator Life, Board of Regents, Budgets, EMU President, EMU-AAUP, Faculty Life, Professional-Technical, Staff Life, Student Life

“Editorial: Keep EMU profs out of Detroit Schools”

Posted on June 23, 2011 by | 4 Comments

A couple of loyal EMUTalk.org readers sent me a link to this Detroit News editorial to post here about the whole Education Achievement System thing, “Keep EMU profs out of Detroit Schools.” In my read, it’s just kind of a foaming at the mouth “unions are destroying everything!” kind of piece, but here it is.

Frankly, I think it is just way WAY too early to tell what the EAS is even going to be, let alone what the role of EMU faculty is in relation to it. It might turn out to be the best thing since sliced bread. But I am inherently skeptical of any plan that will automatically “save” the Detroit public schools, and I am doubly skeptical about anything along those lines coming out of the Snyder administration.

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Posted in Board of Regents, EMU-AAUP, Faculty Life, In the media...

A couple BoR items in the news

Posted on June 23, 2011 by | 1 Comment

There’s this from freep, “Eastern Michigan holds tuition hike to 3.65%.” One passage I thought was interesting:

No other Michigan public university has increased tuition less than 6% this year. Several, including Wayne State University, have yet to set rates. WSU will set its rate on Wednesday. Last week, a finance committee received a recommendation for a 7.1% increase, the maximum allowed under a new state budget rule.

And then there’s this from the Echo, “Regents release tuition raise, budget information.” More of what has already been reported elsewhere, but there was this:

Chair of the Board Roy Wilbanks said when factoring the budget, the university conducted business in an open and honest manner.

“We think we have put a pretty transparent process in place,” Wilbanks said. “Each regent on this board, when they agreed to the appointment, signed an oath of office… That oath of office really spells out the duty of the regents… We not only are authorized, but it’s our responsibility to represent all of our constituents. We have done a very diligent task. Not that everyone agrees with that.”

Regent Floyd Clack said he thinks certain individuals at the university are upset about the modest increase.

“At Eastern, we often play the blame game and I can tell you this, the Board of Regents made this decision and I suspect all of you that work at Eastern would have preferred a higher increase in tuition, but if you’re going to be upset and blame somebody, look at the board… just be angry with us,” he said.

The EMU-AAUP and other unions on campus would beg to differ with Wilbanks on the “openness” thing, though the quote there suggests that Wilbanks thinks things were open because they “open” with each other.  Seems like sort of an odd perspective on that.  And as far as Clack’s quote:  what doe that mean, just be angry with us?

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Posted in Board of Regents, Budgets, In the media...

Layoffs coming, and (probably) not a suit among them

Posted on June 22, 2011 by | 113 Comments

I’ve heard from two different sources today that President Martin (and I presume some other administrators) met with leaders from the unions representing clerical workers, food service and janitorial workers, and professional-technical folks. There are going to be more meetings today and tomorrow about all this, but basically, it sounds like somewhere just shy of 40 folks will get fired tomorrow and/or Friday.

I haven’t heard anything about AP positions yet, but don’t bet on it.

Just to think about the lack of necessity in all this for a moment:  let’s say that the average pay and benefits for these positions was $80,000 a year– and I think figure is kind of high.  That’s around $3.2 million.  The general rule of thumb I have heard before is that a one percent rise in tuition is worth about a million dollars, give or take.  So had we raised tuition 6.6%….  But never mind that.

Anyway, to the future laid-off:  I think it would be useful to put some names and faces with these decisions so that folks in the administration and on the board know exactly what they’ve done and to whom.  So if any of you want to share your stories here, let me know– I’ll be sure to make it available on EMUTalk.org

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Posted in Administrator Life, Board of Regents, EMU President, EMU-AAUP

All is not necessarily well with the EAS

Posted on June 22, 2011 by | Leave a comment

And jeez, it hasn’t even started yet.

There’s this from the freep, “Eastern Michigan faculty side with teachers’ unions, says they weren’t consulted about plan.” A quote:

Eastern Michigan University faculty members are promising not to do any work that might help bust existing public school teacher contracts, possibly crimping plans to use the faculty in a new statewide school district run by the university and the Detroit Public Schools.

“We won’t have our membership involved in breaking union contracts,” said Howard Bunsis, the treasurer of the EMU faculty union.

Now, the new DPS Emergency Manager, Roy Roberts, answers these concerns in this freep article, “Roy Roberts to cut non-teaching jobs, cancel supplier contracts in effort to transform DPS.”

Responding to pronouncements from some Eastern Michigan University faculty that they would not teach in city schools in support of DPS unions, Roberts said no one has asked them to.

“Eastern was selected because of its long history of being a great teaching school,” Roberts said. “I haven’t heard one person, including the governor or anyone else suggest that Eastern Michigan would have people in Detroit. There was no expectation for them to do that.”

Well, we’ll see.  Maybe EMU faculty won’t be teaching in Detroit schools, but presumably they will be involved in some aspects that could create some potential union problems.  Besides that, Roberts sounds like quite the slash ‘n burn kinda guy.

“This is fun,” he said, adding that he doesn’t take lightly having to remove people from jobs.

“I know how to do this. I have people who know how to do this. None of us woke up this morning and said ‘I think I’ll change today. People change because there are external stimuli. I’m going to provide the stimuli. I want to change the conversation about education. I’m concerned about jobs only to the degree that they help teach kids to be successful.”

Yippee.

And it is worth keeping an eye on a completely different connection between EMU and DPS in all this.  Sure, EMU is known for its education programs, but then there might also be some other connections.  The Michigan Citizen article, “DPS CEO hides fraud secret,” more or less says that there was (is?) a sketchy relationship between BoR member James Stapleton, former DPS CEO Ken Burnley (and, interestingly enough, candidate for the EMU president job way back when), and a bunch of other Detroit movers and/or shakers. The article has a bit too much of a conspiratorial for my tastes, but hey, who knows? Stranger and sketchier things have happened.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Board of Regents, EMU-AAUP, In the media...

But it wasn’t all about tuition at the BoR

Posted on June 22, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Here’s a link to President Martin’s statement, the one where she choked up a bit about firing people.  There has been some good news– and/or “news” of a different sort.

First off, EMU has received its largest gift in its history ($3.2 million) to establish the Delores Soderquist Brehm Center for Special Education Scholarship and Research. Here’s a link to the press release. That’s pocket change money to the like of U of Michigan, but hey, it’s good for EMU.  And as Martin pointed out, we’re almost at the $50 million fundraising goal of the “Invest Inspire” campaign, so that’s good.

Then there’s the Education Achievement Authority, which I think is mostly “news,” both good and bad.  It’s good, I guess, because it is acknowledging EMU’s leadership in all things education.  But I’m not so sure how “good” it is to be tied to some of the controversies around the Detroit Public School system and the “Emergency Manager” stuff that has come out of the state.  I’m not so sure it’s clear how this is going to be paid for, and, as I understand it, there were speakers at the board meeting from the College of Education yesterday who were complaining that no one clued in any of the faculty over there about this project.  So we’ll see how that works out.

In other “good news” (or maybe just news), one of my colleagues spoke at the meeting and reported that her invitation to board members to visit her classes was well received.  We’ll see how that plays out, but I do think it might (maybe?) make a difference.  It certainly couldn’t hurt.

 

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Posted in Administrator Life, Board of Regents, EMU President, Staff Life

A few thoughts on 3.65%

Posted on June 22, 2011 by | 3 Comments

So, let’s start with the bad news from yesterday’s Board of Regents meeting, the 3.65% increase in tuition.

First off, if someone where to ask me “what does the phrase ‘throw under the bus’ mean?” I’d say it means not raising tuition enough to cover your obvious operating expenses, and balancing the books that are tilted out of whack by administrative salaries and football by firing a bunch of people you were barely paying a living wage to begin with.  The press release says that all the cost savings will be in “administrative positions” and “cost containment.”  I call bullshit on that. The way the Board of Regents is going to try to make this work (and btw, I think the BoR made the call on this, not the actual administrators, and I am willing to bet that this was the last straw that caused everyone in the Provost’s office to quit) is by firing secretaries, PTs, janitors, etc.  If there is a single honest-to-goodness administrator actually fired/laid off in this deal, I will be shocked.

Second, I have a feeling this 3.65% is temporary:  I will bet anyone a dollar that tuition goes up again before the end of the school year.  You read it here first.

Third, this strikes me as a stooopid message to send to the state, obviously in the mood to slash and burn budgets wherever it can.  By not raising tuition more like six or seven percent– which is what every other university in the state has done– EMU is sending the message “hey, we don’t really need the state funding that bad, thanks.”  Everyone who runs a budget– certainly everyone who runs a budget as part of a big entity like a state office, a hospital, a university– knows that you spend the money. Otherwise, you run the risk of having your next year’s budget cut on the grounds that you don’t really need it.  Everyone who has ever had anything to do with a department budget at EMU knows exactly what I’m talking about here.

Again, read it here first:  I predict in 2012-13, the money that EMU gets from the state will be less than whatever CMU, WMU, etc. get from the state.

Finally, as I have pointed out many MANY times before, no one is coming to EMU because it costs less.  If that were the case, enrollment would be up (and it’s not) and we would only be accepting about half or less of the students who apply (like the more pricy U of M or MSU).  Sure, students and their families make choices on price when the numbers are significant– going to a community college for gen ed instead of EMU, for example, or going to a public university instead of a private one.  But there is no freakin’ way that a student will choose EMU over CMU, WMU, Oakland, or Wayne State based on tuition.

And again, the math doesn’t lie here:  0/0/0% failed in increasing enrollment.  Period. If anything, I think this ABC Warehouse/”Prices so low they are insane!” approach to marketing the costs at EMU is a turn-off, making us look cheap.

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Posted in Board of Regents, Budgets, EMU President, Staff Life

Any BoR highlights?

Posted on June 21, 2011 by | 7 Comments

Alas, I won’t be able to be at the meeting today because of life and work.  A colleague of mine who is on the docket for speaking to the board asked me what I would say, and I guess I go back to what I’ve said many times before:  I don’t really think the Board of Regents has a very good handle on what it is faculty and students do on a regular basis, so I once again want to extend an opportunity for to show one of them.  A sort of “take a member of the Board of Regents to work” day.  But that hasn’t gotten very far yet.

Anyway, any reactions from today’s meeting to share here?

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Posted in Board of Regents

“Budget shortfalls put more pressure on Eastern Michigan athletic department”

Posted on June 21, 2011 by | 29 Comments

There’s a pretty good article on annarbor.com this morning about sports at EMU, “Budget shortfalls put more pressure on Eastern Michigan athletic department.” Basically, the story reports just in time for today’s Board of Regents meeting something we already know, that athletics costs way too much money.  But I think Pete Bigelow does a good job of presenting some of the less than fun facts about the money we spend on sports in general and football in particular.  A few highlights:

  • “83.4 percent of the school’s athletic budget” comes out of the EMU general fund (fees, tuition, etc.), “the highest percentage of direct institutional support any athletic department received among the Mid-American Conference’s 13 member institutions.”
  • “Athletes make up 2.5 percent of EMU’s overall student body, but receive more than 20 percent of the university’s financial aid budget.”
  • The only reason why EMU is in division I for football is Pepsi buys $150,000 worth of tickets to the games every year (though as I understand it, this is hardly a unique arrangement).
  • EMU sponsors 21 sports, which is “the highest number of varsity programs of any MAC school.”

The administration’s and BoR’s take on this is that the investment in athletics at EMU is just about to pay off.  “I believe we are on the rise here,” [EMU President Susan] Martin said. “I think you’re seeing a turnaround in our programs, our legendary greats are coming back to campus to support us, and we’re generating excitement and attention for Eastern.”   And this: “What we need to do is get football right,” [Regent Jim] Stapleton said. “When we do, I think a lot of the discussion and debate about what we’ve done things this way will go away.” And so forth.  I dunno, but this sure sounds like wishful thinking to me, and not very sound wishful thinking at that.  A number of clichés apply here, but I think “throwing good money after bad” applies most clearly.

In any event, it sure sounds like the decision has been made here, both by the BoR and by Martin.  The closing paragraphs:

“The faculty is entitled to ask those tough questions and know exactly where every dollar is spent and why,” Stapleton said. “I want them to know we are serious about hearing their input and our commitment to listening is genuine.

“But this board is committed to Division I athletics, and at the end of the day, how we manage those concerns is at the discretion of the president and board.”

In other words, “say what you want, but we’ve made up our mind on this.”  It’ll be interesting to see what happens if/when the football team finishes near the bottom of the MAC again.

 

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Posted in Board of Regents, EMU President, In the media..., Sports

“Wayne State needs 7.1% tuition hike, university official say”

Posted on June 16, 2011 by | 1 Comment

This in from the freep web site: “Wayne State needs 7.1% tuition hike, university official say.” Besides reporting on the raise in tuition at WSU and the problems of a lack of faculty input, it also lists some other tuition hikes from Michigan universities similar in many ways to EMU:  ”Oakland University raised tuition by 7% for next year; Western Michigan University bumped tuition up 6.6%, and Saginaw Valley State University increased tuition by 6.9%.”

I heard a rumor that EMU will raise tuition next year 5%, though I don’t know what that means in terms of threatened layoffs and the like.  For the life of me, I do not understand why we’re not raising tuition by 7% or at least 6.5%– assuming that 5% rumor is correct.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Board of Regents, Budgets, EMU President, In the media...