What is this crap?
I’m a director of an administrative department at a four-year private institution of higher education in the United States. That’s about all I care to share with you about me.
I started this blog out of frustration with comments (which I presume come mostly from faculty members) that display total and utter ignorance of how university administration works. While my instinct is that the people who write such comments are just bitter assholes, I have nothing specific to support that assumption. Most of the faculty I know are (god help me for admitting this) thoughtful, intelligent people. Maybe the people who are writing these absurd comments really are just innocently ignorant of how administration works. So maybe if I explain it to them, they’ll understand…
August 19, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Thanks for this blog; as a director of assessment at a large four-year public institution I don’t get much reinforcement for doing a good job. But if most faculty (and I agree) are thoughtful, intelligent, etc., why are a few ill-tempered ignorant loud-mouths allowed to dominate faculty meetings, campus forums, academic senate debates, etc. with their negativity? I think it is a lack of administrative leadership on the part of everyone from the president on down. My only hope is to wait it out until they all retire or drop dead from apoplexy protesting the latest administrative “blunder.”
August 22, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Your blog is hilarious and I hope you stay with it.
As a former Dean (for 15 years) now in the faculty ranks, I am too often amazed at how little understanding and empathy some faculty have about the running of an academic organization. I am happy to say that most of the time, when someone takes the time to share information and explains how/why decisions are made, 98% of my colleagues can be reasonable. Unfortunately, though, memories are short…