I enjoy reading a blog by a community college dean. He seems to chime in with surprisingly good timing on topics that prey on my administrative mind. A few months ago I (and a few friends I forwarded it to) enjoyed his post on the curious desire of many faculty members to be spared any in-the-trenches sort of work and their concurrent insistence that they be consulted on everything. This is particularly evident in the summer months when the right of total absence is asserted followed by shock when come September, departmental life has marched on. Attempts at consultation enter an email vacuum. I am amazed by the number of people who swear that they don't have email access in whatever nook or cranny they hide in over these months. Last time I checked even Budapest and Spain have the internet and internet cafes. This week someone assured me that they had had no access to email in New York. Yea, and your check is in the mail.
This evening has seen a delightful exchange in which a faculty member has taken umbrage at the addition of a course to the spring schedule without their input. Never mind that in the weeks of the fall semester we took on the full weight of supervising, training, cajoling etc. in the area that the person now feels has been usurped. Here is the quote:
"I feel that my rights as a faculty have been violated." Hmmmm. There seems to be a word missing after 'faculty'. Could it be "in absentia"?
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