Category Archives: Staff Life

“Top 10 EMU officials collect combined $2.4 million”

Posted on February 24, 2012 by | 13 Comments

From annarbor.com, “Top 10 Eastern Michigan University officials collect combined $2.4 million in 2011.”  You know, I have to say that I’m not really bothered too much by this list.  I think the coaches get paid too much money, but unless EMU wants to get out of the big-time sports business (not a bad idea, never gonna happen) we’re going to pay enormous salaries for those people.

It’s a worthwhile read, but here’s the top 10 list:

  • Football coach Ronald English: $367,920
  • President Susan Martin: $295,120
  • Former Provost Jack Kay: $274,083
  • General Counsel Gloria Hage: $227,293
  • Vice President of Development Thomas Russell: $220,645
  • Assistant football coach Phil Snow: $214,481
  • Former basketball coach Edward Ramsey: $202,828
  • Chief Financial Officer John Lumm: $197,277
  • Athletic Director Derrick Gragg: $196,466
  • Social work faculty Donald Loppnow:$194,738

By the way, the next 10 highest paid EMU employees?  All faculty, and all but one of them a College of Business prof.

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

The year that was 2011

Posted on January 1, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Happy New Year, everybody!  I’ve made it back from undisclosed locations and the new year in one piece.  I have a whole series of chores and resolutions to attend to, but I thought I’d start my day looking over the most commented on pieces here at EMUTalk in 2011.  In brief, last year was the year of budget cuts and layoffs.

From February, “Snyder to EMU (and other state supported universities): Drop Dead.”

From April, “Did the Provost quit? Was he fired? What?”

Also from April, “Meanwhile in budget news: think scenarios and not cuts,” which actually turned into a “discussion” about the Bowen parking lot and the expense of sabbaticals and the like.

Then the end of May was pretty busy/popular, with three heavily commented posts right in a row: “Perhaps we can chant “Education First!” at the games…,” Administration asking for unions to give money back during a “fluid” situation,” and “Martin’s budget update, “givebacks,” tuition, and athletics.”

At the end of June there was “Thoughts as the dust settles on lay-offs.” That turned out to be the most commented on post of the year, by the way.

“Glad Ron English is having “fun” with the increased budget,” back in July. It seems to me that the Emus break-even season will save English for another few seasons, though I still don’t think the “fun” he had with the increased budget was worth it.

“EMU planning 9/11 memorial after receiving steel column from World Trade Center” back in early August.

“Pray-Harrold open–sort of,” which wasn’t necessarily the most commented on post of the year but it sure seemed like a big event for me.

“‘Which Core Matters More?’ (featuring Mark Higbee), an October debate on general education.

“Emus beat horses, 14-10″ in November, which kind of turned into a “discussion” about attendance at games.

“Kwame Kilpatrick is coming to EMU, causing controversy already” back in November, though it was pretty much a non-story in the end.

And then sadly (now), there was this post,“Greg O’Dell returns to Eastern Michigan University as executive director of public safety and chief of police.”

Okay, enough with last year and into this year– even though it doesn’t really feel like the new year to me because it’s really just the beginning of the next semester… you get the idea.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Blogosphere, Budgets, EMU Events, EMUtalk.org News, Faculty Life, In the media..., Staff Life, Student Life

It’s the little things….

Posted on August 31, 2011 by | 12 Comments

That should be "Men's Restroom"The first day of classes has come and gone in the new/old Pray-Harrold, and for the most part, things have gone reasonably well.  All of my main complaints have nothing to do with the construction but rather with the local EMU folk who have in various forms dropped the ball:  the keys (OMG, the keys, the keys!), the less than ideal computer lab stuff, “lost” furniture, some of the less than brilliant class scheduling moves, etc.  Sure, the building is still under construction and there is a lot of dust and “new construction” smell about (carpeting, plastic things, paint), but it really is totally workable and it is considerably less “stinky” now than it was.  When I asked one of my classes today what they noticed different, one student responded “it’s like there’s air moving around in here.”  Very true.

Still, there are some little things that bug me.

  • Why are apostrophes on signs so hard?  The rule is not one=man, two=men, three or more=mens. (I paraphrased/stole that from a colleague of mine).  It should be “men’s restroom;” how come no one working in signage has an English major on staff?
  • Speaking of the restrooms:  the air dryers in there sound and feel like a freakin’ jet engine, and besides being deafening loud, it more or less limits washing hands to a single file, which isn’t always terribly practical.  I might have to bring some paper towels in from home.
  • As several students and colleagues pointed out, the same old elevators don’t help moving around the building much.  Oh, and if you are new to Pray-Harrold:  there are stairs!  You don’t automatically need to take the elevator to go from floor 2 to floor 3, for example.
  • This might be my imagination, but I swear that the classroom I taught in today maintained a temperature balance by blowing warmish air out of one vent and coldish air out of the other.  It was an odd sensation.
  •  Lots of students still sitting around in the hallways, which was something that the building architects were trying to address in different ways, apparently to no avail.  Yet.  A radical idea:  benches?
  • And lots of weirdly placed/missing stuff in the move.  I was in a classroom looking at something and noticed a mini microwave and a box in a corner.  It turned out to be a colleague’s of mine who had been looking everywhere for it.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, Faculty Life, Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool, Staff Life

When will an “annoying inconvenience” move into “keymageddon”?

Posted on August 30, 2011 by | 9 Comments

I hesitate posting this because, as I commented earlier, I think the adjectives of “ashamed” and “outrage” are a little over the top at this point about the key snafus.  There’s a need for everyone to go into tomorrow’s grand opening of Pray-Harrold for classes with a little bit of optimism and lots of patience.  On the plus-side, I think there are many features in the building that will make it a much more comfortable space for learning and working, and while there will obviously be construction folks doing various construction things for the rest of the semester and adjusting temperatures and everything else, it is pretty impressive how much they’ve been able to accomplish in less than a week.  No one would confuse Pray-Harrold with a “brand new” building, but it’s a heck of a lot nicer than it was, and if you had never been in Pray-Harrold before, you’d wonder why people complained so much about it.

So thumbs up to all that, and patience-patience-patience, happy-thoughts, happy-thoughts, happy-thoughts.

However, I think that the powers that suits at all levels better be aware that there’s a fine line between faculty, staff, and students tolerating a few problems and… well, not.

I wasn’t at the College of Arts and Sciences meeting today in part because I was wrestling with the schizophrenic copier/scanner (that’s nothing new, btw), but I heard President Martin was there and among other things joked about the lack of keys.  Ha.  Ha-ha.

I did run into a guy from the physical plant today in Pray-Harrold who was there to deal with keys.  He seemed like a nice and earnest guy and all, but I did not get a sense from him that he had any idea of the extent of the problem.  There are around 150 people in my department (once you count up all the graduate assistants, part-timers, lecturers, faculty, and staff), and as far as I can tell, there are two keys to open up all those offices.  And don’t get me started talking about getting into locked classrooms and computer labs.

Anyway, everyone knows there are going to be problems and hopefully people are bracing for it as best they can.  I think if the key issues are mostly resolved by early next week, this will all be forgotten.  But what I worry about is that the key shop and the physical plant are so overwhelmed that they simply cannot complete this work without subcontracting some of it on an emergency basis, and that’s money I am certain the administration is going to do all it can to avoid spending.  And if the key problems linger on into September, well, I have a feeling these are problems that will be remembered and adjectives like “outrage” will be more appropriate and nouns like “grievance.”    And key snafus have a way of causing all kinds of problems.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Board of Regents, Buildings and Grounds, Faculty Life, Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool, Staff Life

Let the critiques in the form of ironic parodies begin

Posted on August 10, 2011 by | 14 Comments

This in today from Geoff Larcom (with my favorite part in bold italics):

To EMU students,  faculty and staff:

Eastern Michigan University will unveil its a new messaging campaign at 11 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday, Aug. 11) on the stage in the Student Center food court area.

The first 100 people to attend will receive a free T-shirt promoting the new campaign theme.

The campaign will soon be visible on billboards, online and print ads, campus posters, and television and radio commercials, as part of an integrated effort to unite the university’s student recruitment, image and athletics messaging under a single theme. The new materials feature EMU students and faculty and are from their point of view.

The development of the campaign was led by EMU’s Marketing Department in the Division of Communications. The student-driven process included the review of 11 initial concepts. The concepts were presented in discussion groups and displayed over a three-week period at the EMU Student Center Admissions Office, where current and prospective students and their families had the opportunity to review, make comments and select favorites.

Universities in SE Michigan have dramatically increased efforts to attract prospective students in recent years. This campaign reflects Eastern’s commitment to spreading the word about our outstanding students, faculty, staff, programs and campus in order to continue build on our positive momentum and growth.

The new campaign theme supports “Education First,” which is Eastern’s overall brand promise.

OMG.

It’s bad enough that we have to think of a university’s “brand” the same way that we think of a brand of toothpaste or automobile or fast food product.  The idea that we’re going to somehow unite “Education First” with “First and Ten” is rather rich, and I’m quite impressed with marketing’s efforts to spring for 100 t-shirts, too.

We’ll see how this evolves, but is anyone out there up for a counter/protest campaign?  Maybe one that highlights employees who were fired and/or thrown under the bus in the recent effort at holding down expenses yet again?  I mean, there’s no reason why what sounds like a fake social media marketing campaign has to stay completely fake, right?

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Posted in EMU Branding, EMU Events, Staff Life

Pray-Harrold in Exile: The end/beginning is near

Posted on August 3, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I really am still on “summer break” from the blog (sorta, kinda) and I will be retreating to a secret fortress of solitude a bit next week, so don’t expect much to happen here.  But I thought I’d write a bit today about a tour of the nearly remodeled Pray-Harrold I went on last week.

It’s been quite the journey.  Just about 3 years ago, I thought we’d have an amusing time trying to guess about renovation work that would never actually begin.  I started going to meetings (off and on) about the project as a representative for my department, meetings that were at times important and interesting and at other times mind-numbing and frustrating.  All along the way, just about everyone I talked to about the project expressed all sorts of doubts, second guesses, and cynicism.  I mean, when I was at a meeting about a year ago where the construction guys said that they guaranteed that we would be back in the building for the fall 2011 semester, no one believed that.

But here we are, almost done.

They were kind of picky about us not taking pictures and video on the tour, so while I did actually take a couple pictures of some of the finished offices they showed us, I won’t be sharing them here.  But I must say what we saw that was finished (the seventh floor) was pretty impressive, with all new floors, walls, lighting, doors, furniture, windows, etc.  I think the best comparison without pictures I can make is the remodeled Mark-Jefferson:  not luxurious or anything, but still quite nice.

So surprisingly, this is likely to turn out after all.  Oh sure, it’s far from perfect.  In hindsight, I think it probably would have made more sense for EMU to get money to renovate some old dorms like Jones/Goddard into office space and thus have more classroom space in Pray-Harrold.  The renovations are nice, but the budget did not allow for all the changes that many folks wanted, and it doesn’t make the building any bigger.  Interestingly though, the move out of Pray-Harrold into various “swing spaces” on campus has resulted in what is likely to be some permanent moves out of the building, which will help make PH seem a bit “bigger” and make better use of less used offices and classrooms on campus.

And moving out of the building entirely turned out to be a very very good idea.  I overheard some of the construction workers talking at the tour and the consensus was it would have taken at least another 16 months to finish the project if it could have been done at all.

Moving back in might prove to be pretty chaotic.  We’ve heard some mixed messages about the process for packing and preparing, faculty will more or less be “homeless” from August 12 to August 24 or so, and even though we are indeed moving back in this fall, that doesn’t mean that construction will necessarily be done.  You know those “extreme makeover” shows where they are putting on the last coat of paint right just a few minutes before the deadline?  It’s going to be a lot like that.

But again, I’m just surprised that the project got started and then completed at all.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Buildings and Grounds, Faculty Life, Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool, Staff Life, Student Life

Facebook folks: cast your vote in the Echo FB poll

Posted on June 29, 2011 by | 1 Comment

I noticed that the Eastern Echo has rolled out a poll on Facebook about the tuition hike.  Here’s a link to it; I think this should work to click on and then to vote, but I’m not positive.  Anyway, the question and answers are:

How do you feel about EMU’s 3.65 tuition increase?

  • It’s great!  The university kept students in mind when tackling the budget.
  • The university shouldn’t have raised tuition at all.
  • EMU should have raised it more to help balance the budget and save jobs.
  • I don’t care either way because I still have to pay tuition.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Board of Regents, Budgets, EMU President, In the media..., Professional-Technical, Staff Life, Student Life

“EMU saves 5.4 million”

Posted on June 29, 2011 by | 6 Comments

Well, that’s the headline on annarbor.com at least: “Eastern Michigan University will save $5.4 million from layoffs, attrition.” Here’s a quote:

Eastern Michigan University will save $3 million from the layoff of 38 employees and $2.4 million by not filling about 30 vacant positions.

The university laid off 38 employees last week, including 28 unionized workers and 10 from administrative positions as a result of the budget approved by the Board of Regents June 21, said Walter Kraft, vice president of communications.

Like I said before, if the rule of thumb notion that a percentage point raise in tuition raises a million dollars, then this merely confirms that these firings and layoffs– or at many of them– were avoidable.

There is some dispute about the number of people losing their jobs:  Kraft said there was 12 PTs laid off and the number in the union press release was 14.  I am sure someone who knows will chime in on that sooner than later.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Board of Regents, Budgets, EMU President, In the media..., Professional-Technical, Staff Life

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

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