In Tennessee it's with a "z" but the idea's the same as Sir Ken's, as we faculty Senators were reminded yesterday when the Chancellor-Emeritus of our governing board spoke to us* of the importance of appeasing state legislators' demands that we meet arbitrary and ill-formed "outcomes-based" targets to justify our very existence.
We dare not speak to our benefactors, if you want to call them that, of the value of a liberal education. They don't like "L" words. Like learnin'. (Or did I misspell that?- A colleague summarizes the Chancellor's message: "TBR -- WE LURN YOU REAL GOOD")
*Chancellor-emeritus Manning delivered a sobering talk to the Senate yesterday afternoon, emphasizing that getting funding for higher ed in Tennessee will always be like squeezing blood from turnips. (And that UT, where "scholar-athletes" rule, will always have first dibs on whatever's on the table.)
He said we should acknowledge the strong anti-intellectual sentiment now re-ascendant across the land, especially here in the Bible belt-buckle. (The irony of a colleague's sharp, pointed question about anti-intellectualism on the TBR board itself was evidently lost.) Our best long-term strategy for survival at MTSU? Shrink [we currently teach more students than UT-Knoxville] and try not to piss off the "deeply religious" zealots who control our purse-strings.
Serve our prime constituency, the C & D students who become community leaders and legislators. Don't waste too much time trying to figure out the political "game" in the state capitol. We may not like the budget allocation formula but we should understand that bizness leaders and politicians (a convergent set) love "outcome-oriented" funding. And the new gov's priority will not be higher ed in any event.
Oh, and when can we hope to get that new science building we've needed for twenty years? Hard to say, ask him again in 2015.
There was also, another colleague reminds, an obnoxious reference to an
"Oriental girl on a mule" outperforming the kids with the big backpacks full of books to show how Tennessee education must compete in a global market (or this is what I tried to draw from it). I have to say this off-hand comment was particularly galling at a school that just landed a Confucius Institute on its campus.And,
And please do not overlook the response to his friend's query on the removal of non-christian professors. I assume he was from the Christine Todd Whitman School of Constitutional Interpretation.Yes, speaking just for me and some other academics from Tennessee: a new higher ed paradigm would be welcome here.
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From the Faculty Senate President, a rosier perspective: On Monday of this week, TBR Chancellor-emeritus Charles Manning met with the Faculty Senate. As expected, he did not paint a rosy budget scenario for the next few years. He did say that eventually ‘the pendulum will swing the other way’, and he advised the Senate to fight the anti-intellectual movement which is gaining momentum across the country. He suggested that the Senate work towards increasing the visibility of the faculty to public audiences beyond our campus and system boundaries. Doing so, he said, will help the public understand the many important contributions which the MTSU faculty makes to the lives of Tennesseans, and in turn will build public support and respect for the faculty. I ask each of you to consider his advice, and to communicate to your Faculty Senator ideas by which the Senate could help promote the public impact of your department programs.
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