Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic

Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic

There are many changes going on at my school. It is very clear, and has been openly stated, that we are being set up to fail. We just went through another wave of departmental mergers. Some faculty members are reacting to this news with email posts about job opportunities at other institutions in other countries. Other faculty members are posting emails about what they have done to keep their vitae current and up-to-date. I have been thinking about how we could respond to the situation in which we find ourselves because I know that these reactions from faculty are not helpful and are in fact, reactions that administration most want to see. They want to see us running scared.

Today, I attended a meeting on campus. The acting Chair (the permanent Chair was out sick) started speaking about how we now have “mega departments #1, #2, etc.” I spoke up to object to this language. I know that he was trying to be funny but that language is the language of administration and not mine. It is bureaucratic, generic, and non-academic. I spoke about how the faculty are doing good work across the campus and that we need to publicize what we do to the outside world using whatever platform we have.

The acting Chair interrupted me to say that he agreed with me. He then spoke about how we could give awards to the best teachers on campus like the county does with cops. His words demonstrated that he did not have a clue as to what I was talking about. The audience followed his lead and moved to the next topic which was how the students at the College responded to a raccoon problem. At that point, I walked out of the meeting.  My attempt to reach the faculty was a colossal failure. 

When faced with an impending reality, some people will ignore the reality. Some people will continue business as usual. Some will get angry and try to expose the destructors. I am all for the last option but it comes with real risk–risks that most are unwilling to take on. 

I was trying today to offer another option.  I was asking the faculty to commit to showcasing the work we are doing on campus in our particular ways to audiences outside the world of this campus. I was asking to commit to shining a light on what makes this place worth holding on to. Today, in the meeting, I failed to recruit a single person to share in a vision of what we could create. 

There are a bunch of what ifs at play here. What if the standing Chair of the Committee was there today? She is a smart and courageous woman. Maybe my vision would have gained traction through her leadership. What if one person on the Committee had asked me a question about how we could implement my idea? What if one person on the Committee had spoken out about how the acting Chair did not understand what I was saying? What if we had an actual conversation about creative responses to the situation in which we find ourselves? Things that each of us could do in our own realms and in our own way? What if I could have been more persuasive? None of these scenarios are reality. The reality is: I spoke, no one really responded to what I said and I left. 

I still believe in the worth of my vision. I still believe in the worth of my work. I still recognize the worth of the work of my fellow faculty members. I still believe that this place is worth fighting for. I just don’t know how we are going to be able to pull it off.