Our Journey, Day 91
Yesterday I had a couple of conversations with small groups of students after class. I no longer spend that much time on campus and I have stopped attending all the campus forum events hosted by the administration. So it was an opportunity for me to catch up with how students are feeling about Bemidji State. It was a bit grimmer than I had expected.
Several of the students who stayed after class were History majors in the first year or so of their programs. They were all quite worried about whether the two history professors who will remain after I'm let go at the end of the academic year will be able to keep a program going. One asked if I thought there would be enough classes for her to finish a History major in four years. I said I imagine getting the rotation of required courses right would be a top priority for the faculty. Another said she was on the verge of giving up and moving back home. I didn't really feel like I could urge her not to give up hope.
Part of the problem is that the Administration has more shoes to drop. Contractually, the people running BSU don't have to even announce what programs and majors they will be eliminating until January. Students said they had been assured no programs were going to be eliminated, but that isn't precisely true. The administration said they hoped they would not have to eliminate programs. But it's an open secret, for example, that all the languages except Ojibwe are being eliminated. Why is that being hidden from students who this week are choosing their courses for the spring?
The unknowns of program elimination, incidentally, are why I can't really answer the the question the outgoing VP of Enrollment Management asked me a couple of days ago regarding the status of the Z-Degree at BSU. Additionally, the Deans and the faculty association are still working out the details of the consolidation of twenty-two departments into a half-dozen "schools", so it's completely unclear which departments are going to be combining, what their priorities might to be, and who is going to be in charge. So far, I've heard some weird things that seem like distractions from what's important. My own department is apparently excited about trying to get a large video screen installed in the hallway where their offices are, to announce courses and flash news and information to students. I'm not sure if the logic behind this is simply, "use it or lose it", but I might be a bit cautious -- especially when the consolidations might include physical moves on campus.
The students were also puzzled and frustrated by the faculty cuts. They're not happy I'm leaving. I was teaching a bunch of the non-Western, modern, and post-colonial courses; so majors will not have most of those to choose from. Even if the remaining faculty pick up some of those courses, it will probably not be in the very near future. Managing a complex course rotation with two people is going to be difficult. The students also questioned how the choices were made. I told them it was strictly based on seniority. Neither student interest in courses, nor even enrollment numbers, was a factor.
A big element of student frustration and lack of confidence in a future at BSU relates to what they perceive as a lack of candid communication from the administration. While the people running BSU seem to believe they're doing a good job of "message control", at least the students I talked with seem to feel otherwise. One said he attended the recent Student Forum hosted by the president and heard once again that changes wouldn't be felt by students until next academic year, when faculty like me are gone. The student said he doesn't feel that is the case, as faculty morale and planning are already being affected. The administration touted the high levels of energy faculty have been putting into pulling together and coming up with solutions. Students scoffed.
The people running BSU from their third floor administration suite seem to be spending too little time on the ground, actually hearing what students are saying. One student said his recent question at the forum had been received with eye-rolling and basically shut down. The result of this ongoing lack of transparency seems to be that a lot of students are planning for an academic future that doesn't necessarily include BSU. I think that's a rational response on their part, but it's just about the worst thing that could happen to the university.