The Slaughter Continues: The Lecturers Have Their Turn

As this contrived "financial exigency" continues, the next group of CSU employees to walk the plank are our Lecturers, as qualified, dedicated, and professional as any faculty anywhere. Despite their service to the university, despite the need of a number of university programs for their continued employment, this week they got short shrift from this unconscionable administrative committee. Without so much as a "go to hell," they were told to clean out their offices, turn in their keys, and basically get off the campus. On Monday, a scheduled meeting between the faux Provost and our Deans will reportedly decide the fate of the tenured and tenure-track faculty. Although those decisions should be made later in the summer, an early and uninformed cutting session for faculty will apparently satisfy the blood lust of these persons who the Board, in their infinite wisdom, entrusted with the university's future.

What is this really all about? In my estimation, the decision to declare financial exigency stemmed from a desire to insure the continued employment of several high-salaried administrators whose presence has likely mortally wounded the university. These people are still in decision-making positions, still making hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary, while less fortunate and unconnected people suffer the loss of their jobs. In conversations with a number of people the past two weeks, one theme stands out: for a number of victims, the first round of layoffs were personal retribution meted out by our top administrators. The ultimate strategy still seems unclear, however. Is it the intention of these people to take all they might then have the university close? Given the number of simply idiotic administrative decisions in the past several weeks, no other possibility seems rational.

The administrators doing this damage are almost universally disliked by the faculty, staff, and even other administrators here at Chicago State, a situation that obtained long before the current crisis. If all the persons who supported these senior administrators came together, they would fit comfortably in a ten-seat van. This will not change as these layoffs unfold.

In conclusion, I would like to thank for their dedicated service all my colleagues who have been affected by these outrageous administrative excesses.