by M. Lionel Bender

Randomly selected faculty are being asked by letter to meet with various high functionaries of the SIUC administrative hierarchy in focus groups to discuss greater faculty involvement in student recruitment and retention and in image building for SIUC. I am surprised that raising money was left out because this was the first of these increased faculty involvement initiatives to be put forward, but perhaps this is because it was under the former regime. It is interesting that SIUC administrations state over and over that 3- percent annual pay raises for faculty are adequate, but at the same time, they are asking for increased workload in very dubious areas. This strikes me as staggering insensitivity.

I suggest that faculty who are among the anointed give some thought to the nature of these focus groups. One should wonder what their real purpose is. For gathering information, wouldn’t a simple questionnaire have served without the investment of valuable administrative and faculty labor required by face-to-face meetings? I suggest that an appropriate response to anointed faculty is to decline the invitation and refer the administration to the current collective-bargaining negotiations because all the issues to be focused on fall under faculty working conditions which are the very subject of the negotiations.

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professor emeritus, foreign languages and literature