Is this Woman on Drugs?

Jennifer Granholm is the Governor of Michigan. She thinks that Michigan has a commitment to education. I disagree.

I would rather get on with the healthy and positive direction of our school, but it is almost impossible until I discuss the dreadful happenings in education that are - right now - ubiquitous if you are at EMU, or have anything to do with it or higher education in Michigan.

We have been asked to take more cuts. Taking the bone from the skeleton is what I call it.

• We at EMU teach more classes than any school in the state, with less resources.
  
• The size of classes keeps increasing and now they are cutting an already meager graduate assistant allowance so that the emails between members of my department are filled with why they need the few assistants we still have.
  
• There is hardly talk of equipment cuts, because we have had no new equipment in years now. The high schools have better equipment than we. Our computers are almost useless because they are the cheapest of the cheap and have no RAM to speak of and can't run the newer programs and software.
  

Everyone of the programs is hurting, and badly. Everyone is stressed. Everyone is sniping. Everyone is fearful that we will be the next ones to be cut - period.

Not unusual in this state. It is a recipe for disaster. How are we supposed to teach our students about the world they will be stepping into if we have little or no access to current trends or happenings? If we can no longer afford to go to conferences, to keep up with our colleagues? Personally, I am tired of going to workshops, conferences, retreats, and find out that not only must I teach more classes (4/4), but they are larger, and with fewer resources or GAs (I have none, and my classes average 40 students per -- other professors are in shock when they hear this). How can you give your students the help they need, they require, they are paying for, when you are barely treading water - never swimming? And yet we are having to cut again. AGAIN.

Our department head is trying to maintain some semblance of integrity, and I know he is under extreme stress, but it has become squeezing blood from a turnip. There is nothing there. his position is thankless, not faculty, lowest of the low in administration.


And now, I read the newspaper and it is just plain bad news. - across the board in MI. Here is a sample:

• Across the state K-12 teachers are being told they will be charged for plugging in a fan or heater into their office. I don't know about every school, but I know at EMU our HVAC system is so antiquated that we have no a/c in summer and no heat in winter. We are either sweating or freezing. The only way to maintain some health (or our office hours) is to plug in. I have had students working on the computer in my office during the winter who are wearing hats and fingerless gloves it is so cold. (Free Press, June 30, 2007)
  
• Our governor still thinks we are working toward a better education for our students:

  I am going to go across the country. I am going to take some international trips to be able to say: Michigan, with the business tax that we have now, with the 21st Century Jobs Fund, and with the commitment we are making to education and investing in the Michigan Promise as well as the standards for high school, we are laying the groundwork for what needs to happen to turn Michigan around. (Free Press, June 30, 2007)
  

• Others see it differently:"It seems to me the message of the value of higher education has been diminished even further," Reid said. "How do you ask a part of society to help pull out of a declining economy, to re-educate a diminishing workforce, and then give the most severe cut to that entity? It's illogical."

  "This is disinvestment, when you're talking about sending a signal that Michigan is positioning itself for an economic comeback," he [Terry Denbow, MSU] said. (Free Press, May 27, 2007)

• "In a state that already ranks fifth highest in college costs and dead last in increasing support for higher education, hefty tuition hikes are being predicted across Michigan's 15 public universities for the academic year ahead. The first to announce was Michigan Tech at 9.5%." (Free Press, June 29, 2007)
  

The Legislators, Republican majority - when Granholm is Democrat (Yes, I know there is really so little difference between the two today) are holding Michigan and its people hostage. Though they ask higher education to take the brunt of the cuts for education, they have not rescinded THEIR 36% increase in salary between 2000 and 2001 (To be fair, the governor has volunteered a 5% cut from her $177,000 salary). The legislators also got a 20% increase in expenses. (We fought for a year to get a 3% increase and the administration is still shoving that in our faces. We have only had what few "expenses" equipment and travel cut to almost nothing - not enough to pay the registration fees for a conference let alone the flight or hotels.).

Michigan legislators begin at $79,650. They are the second highest paid legislators in the nation!!! (after California). They also receive lifetime benefits, but they can't make the budget work without taking away from the future of the state.

As mentioned above, already the first college, Michigan Tech, has announced a 9.5% increase in tuition. Michigan tuition is so high (5th highest in the nation) that it is actually less expensive to send my child to California's schools than here.

How can I talk about sustainability when we are in such a sorry state? Simple: It is another way to approach the problems. By being sustainable one can address both long term and short term goals, but the goals have changed. Certainly what has been happening is not working. And more of the same will give us more of the same. We have already seen this.

We have to think in a new manner. We have to do things differently. We need a new paradigm. I suggest sustainable program emphasizing what our students will be living in the future economy. Educate them for their future, not only our past.

Here come the cuts

This is the look we have to attract good students to Michigan higher ed.

The cuts are among us again. They are giving us less than a week to decide how to cut about 10% more of our budget again. How do you take the skin off a skeleton? Take away the bones, and that is what the administrations (state and school) are up to.

Welcome to Michigan, a state in the lower half of the nation for educational attainment (21.8% with a bachelors degree, versus 24.4% average in the US) and determined to keep it that way. Oh, and BTW also the state with a consistently worsening economy, and accelerating job loss.

So the good news? Not really much, except a few people (Rebecca Solnit, Harper's July 2007) are beginning to see that a greening, a greening that is NOT based on the current trend of the affluent getting "off the grid" may be taking place in our forlorn state. There is more we can do to become healthy, but first we have to fix our perceptions and our poor, poor administrative base.

More of those sad times

Just received an email regarding the meeting of the Board of Regents and their lack of action. (However, in my opinion, this is like the pot calling the kettle black). Highlights of the email are:

If it is discovered that the University violated federal law in this matter, then the President should not be allowed to continue to lead Eastern Michigan University. We cannot have leaders of this university who mislead students, faculty, and community about vital safety and security issues. Nor can we accept top leadership that knows nothing about an issue of such importance.”

Professor Mark Higbee presented a very powerful speech to the Board, where a letter that was signed by several faculty members was presented. The most relevant passage of the letter is: “Poor leadership at the top of the Administration has needlessly,
repeatedly, and seriously harmed EMU in recent years. Events of the last six months and new disclosures convince us that Dr. John Fallon is ill suited to run the University. He should be removed for cause immediately.”

The situation demands action, and the AAUP is now developing a survey on the leadership of John Fallon and other top administration officials. We also await the final report from the Department of Education, which is due out in the very near future.

What is very important to note is that the events surrounding this murder has become a true national story, and it puts the university in a terrible light. If you watch the video of today’s Good Morning America broadcast, you will get a sense of how EMU is currently viewed:

To see the news story go to:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3297153&page=1

To see the video, go to:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/gma
Click on top stories
Scroll down to:
Campus Murder Cover-up? School Blamed
On the right is a little link for the video.
Click on it and you will see it.

EMU needs to clean up more than its image. It need to "get clean" by adopting what hundreds of schools across America have already seen: to become sustainable and teach our students about how they will live healthy lives in their future. It is time to get rid of the old and bring in a new and forward thinking administration and Board of Regents to give the students, faculty, and staff a new lease on life in a school devoid of its past corruption. We can begin with an environmental audit. (See May 10 post)

Sad Times at EMU

The University house was built for $6 million. The budget was $3 million and we were promised that no general or student funds would be used. They lied. Though the President did resign (with a full compensation package) we still have appointed regents, who "good old boy'd" the building, much to the chagrin of the university community.


Eastern Michigan University has had more than its share of problems. From the over priced and illegal use of funds for the President's house, resigning administrators and regents, unrepresented administrative appointments, lack of accountability, cuts, cuts, cuts to our budget, and now a cover up about a student's death on campus. Last December Laura Dickinson was brutally raped and killed in her dorm room, and the administrators chose to cover up rather than reveal the ugly truth.

School officials will not say why they kept silent. But some parents and people in the community believe administrators endangered students in an effort to protect the university's image.

And exactly what image is that?


This is unfortunately, run of the mill at EMU. It isn't because of the students or the faculty, but very poor choices of administrators and regents. Unfortunately again, we have no choice in the matter - the regents are political appointees, and the administrators are chosen by them. Something has been rotten in Ypsi for wayyyyyy too long.

If you can't tell by now, it is time for a change on many levels, and certainly the way our school has been run. The students at the very least (who pay about $7,000 annually for old buildings, poor technology, and overworked faculty) deserve much more than they are getting.

What is ticking me off about this today? The sad story of the murder has gone from local, to Grand Rapids, to the Chronicle of Higher Education to the LA Times- the front page of the LA Times today. Great. Just what we need.

Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer. I have written you before, and now I ask again. Can we choose our own Regents? Can we have a say in our own destiny? Can we make a University where we are proud? Can we have accountability? Too many of my colleagues are so unhappy with what has happened at our school. But I for one, will sign my name to a demand for accountability and justice at EMU.

If we spent our money in a sustainable and, dare I say, honest fashion, instead of the skullduggery we have experienced, we could be a model of hope, instead of a model of desperation. I suppose our students are learning from these errors, but why not go toward the new paradigm, and support education, and a sustainable quality of life? Why not teach our students about the way we should be going, about the hope and joy of attaining your ideals, instead of teaching them the about a lack of care, broken promises, and corruption?

Let's end the wretched unsustainable model we have been tied to, one dedicated to ignoring students, faculty, and spending money without accountability - and move on to a sustainable healthy, happy, and honest life.

Local Food or "Artificial, Plastified, Genetically Modified"

Growing your own garden annually, and freezing or canning your produce for use throughout the year is healthy in more ways than one.

I have been on a fact finding trip across the mid-Atlantic states and into the interior plateau (Kentucky and Tennessee) over the past few weeks. The reason behind the trip was to enhance my knowledge of sustainable living in the area. Over the next week the blog will reflect on what I learned, but for now, let me start with an article I found in one of the newspapers I am just now reading. My boyfriend saves his newspapers when I am gone and I go thru them catching up on local and regional news. On June 11, last Monday, the editorial page provided me with the first reflection on the trip.

The author of the piece, Kami Pothokuchi, teaches Urban Planning at Wayne State, and it seems that she is on the same track I am - we need to change how we manage our food and food dollars. We are out of balance.

"One problem with the farm bill has been its historical lack of balance. Only 39% of all U.S. farmers and ranchers received crop subsidies in 2005, very few of which were fruit and vegetable farmers. Also left out are African-American, Hispanic and Native American farmers whose mistreatment by federal programs over the years has prevented them from obtaining financial credit and conservation assistance. This has led to the loss of 97% of black-owned farms.

These extraordinary imbalances have consequences for eaters as well. Between 1985 and 2000, the real price of fruits and vegetables increased by 40%, while soft drinks and other sugary and high-fat foods declined in cost by as much as 20%."

Somehow people still don't seem to "get it," that our food is being manipulated in ways that are harming our health and our economy. The fruit and vegetable farm market in the US and Canada have taken multiple hits because of their lack of subsidies which make it hard for them to compete within the global market. Imported fruits and vegetables travel even farther to reach our tables. All this travel of our food interferes with its taste (there is no comparison of fresh fruit and the traveled varieties) and our energy consumption. Food production also burns about one-sixth (17%) of our fossil fuels, and that is not counting the amount of petroleum products used in fertilizers.

Worst of all the food that is receiving most of the subsidies (you'll have to take a class to understand our plight in the subsidies question) are the foods that we don't need more of - they provide calories, but empty calories, and nutrition is absent. They are the foods that are most used in food processing - wheat, corn, soy and, of course, sugar. I am not against any of these products, but the way we use them, and abuse them to "feed" that overweight populace that is America.

If we focused on how we eat, and favored more local foods over processed foods, many of our health issues would evaporate along with our waistlines.

Across America and Canada schools are making the choice to eat local, to buy their produce from CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture), to not have their food transported the average of 1500 miles to reach their tummies. Even food service corporations are joining in the belief for a healthy America.

Some of the schools and corporations that are beginning the switch are:

• University of Northern Iowa
• University of Pennsylvania
  
• University of Wisconsin
• Hendrix College
  
• University of California system
• Drake University
• University of Toronto
• Washington State University
• University of Kentucky
• University of Connecticut
• University of Montana
• Oberlin College
• Berea College
• University of Vermont
• University of Minnesota
• University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• University of Nebraska
• Denison University
• University of Virginia
• University of Kansas
• University of Illinois Extension
• University of Illinois
  
• University of Maine
  
• Sodexho
• Aramark, BAMCO, Sodexho
  

Interestingly, Michigan has not done so well in this area, though we have no reason to be so slow, especially since we are often in the top states for our overweight population.

• University of Michigan
• Michigan State University

We have plenty of problems in Michigan these days, but one way to create a healthy attitude and can do spirit is to eat right. Universities can lead the way, educating our students and faculty into the light.

Gardens

At Appalachian State University in North Carolina they have strong sustainable development and interdisciplinary programs, AND, they have a garden maintained by students.

When I first arrived at EMU in 1999 there was a beautiful greenhouse that was being dismantled in favor of I don't know what, but it sure wasn't in favor of a garden. I was dismayed to hear this happening at the time and still don't understand the decision. Growing a greenhouse garden at EMU would help cut down on transportation costs, fossil fuel burning, and of course, provide students, faculty and administrators with healthy food, something in short supply.

Gardens have many advantages at a school. They are a ready source for food and landscape compost, gets students involved with nature, improves nutrition, just tastes good, and teaches students about where their food comes from! I have experienced having students over to my home for dinner and they have told me they never had a meal cooked from scratch before. It seems unbelievable to me, but true. There is so much to learn. Our health costs are going up, up, up and still people don't eat healthy - such an easy beginning to a more healthy life.