Making EMU Great (A primer for Administrators and the Board of Regents)

We all love teaching in Traverse City because the classes are small and the area and facilities are beautiful.

Yeah, it has a long way to go, but if you don't try, you won't get there. So my wish list. This list is aimed at faculty needs. If you have a happy faculty they will be predisposed to being more helpful, and caring about students. And this doesn't mean that faculty do not care, but the way we are treated at EMU makes it hard to focus on what is most important, giving a good, solid, and state of the art education to our students. (I naturally think that part of the state of the art is providing an education in sustainable development across the disciplines).

After looking at what makes people LOVE the places they work, I have come up with a list of things EMU can do to make it one of the great schools to work in America.

• Respect, value and trust your hard working faculty
  
• TRANSPARENCY
• Make the workload reasonable so faculty have time to pursue the state of their art
• Smaller classes
• Provide Graduate Assistants to faculty who have large classes
  
• Have administrators be "in the trenches" and know (or remember) what it is to teach
• Break down the hierarchy
  
• Really listen to those "in the trenches"
  
• Offer training support
  
• Offer better educational opportunities for faculty
• Have a mentoring program for new faculty
• Have a daily communications blog where concerns can be discussed
• Treat faculty to rewards for their good work, instead of using them until they are no more
• Have a "local" hero reward program that honestly recognizes those who go out of their way
• Don't treat the school as a business. It is not. It is an educational institution that is creating the next generation of leaders, doers, and VERY IMPORTANTLY the next generation of teachers. Education is about caring about individual needs, not mass classes where you don't know your students.
  
• Smaller classes - once again I emphasize this.
  
• Have get togethers that are joyful, fun, offer good food, and camaraderie.
  
• Have a fun health fitness and healthy food place for all to retreat.