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.