Adjunct faculty, not administration hurt most in budget cuts

As Craig Brandon’s insightful 2/17/12 letter to the editor in The Keene Sentinel, College Could Do Better notes that KSC is rife with administrative bloat and financial abuse.As an adjunct I am ‘costly’ so the majority of part-time faculty are reduced to two classes or let go.

All this short-term cutting is to make up $250,000 in the adjunct budget.  I don’t see KSC planning for the long-term.  Nor do I see administrators taking pay cuts like those at New England College so they could keep valued teachers.

KSC’s institutional disregard shows you who is seen as ‘disposable.’

KSC is not cutting its bloated administration (I’ve included a listing of personnel—many of whom I have no clue what they do other than write reports about reports about reports).

Benjamin Ginsberg’s The Fall of The Faculty: The rise of the All Administrative University is an excellent exploration of how most of higher education is rife with what he calls non-essential bureaucrats or ‘deanlets’ who produce nothing.

Why do the most vulnerable get the pink slips?  Mel Netzhammer and Giles-Gee are leaving—we do not need a Provost, and one could argue even a president—hundreds of thousands of dollars and useless work hours will be spent replacing them—for what purpose—if students woke up tomorrow and most administrators were no longer here—there’d be no change, maybe they’d even have their tuitions lowered!

They’ve left a legacy of unaffordable tuition and cuts to the most vulnerable workers at the institution.

They used KSC as a stepping-stone—there should be no monies spent on their leaving this institution.

The hundreds of adjuncts cut will get no recognition for their hard work.

Increased tuition, fewer classes, higher course enrollments and the useless Integrative Studies Program and lots of useless tweets are the legacy of these bureaucrats.  Good riddance to exploitative capitalists.  Netzhammer & Giles-Gee had no interaction with students like the hundreds of adjuncts who made differences in students’ lives.

At KSC the 1% are the overpaid administrators—your time is running out, injustice will not stand.

I’ve been here ten years with no pension, health insurance, nor job security—I get nothing but—‘you’re down to two classes and don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out’—that is my parting gift.

Most administrators write reports about reports and conduct useless meetings—Ben Ginsberg notes that a minimal cut of 10% in management would have no effect on the operations of most campuses.

The agenda is PROFIT to maintain managerial bloat.  KSC is 95-98% tuition driven.  Sports, Alumni monies, and contracts with corporations like Pepsi do nothing to help with funding.  KSC spent $450,000 last semester to redo the gym floor (which the students said was soon peeling afterwards).

They spent hundreds of thousands just hiring a firm to create a BRAND.  This doesn’t include the funds to pay for a specific font—the stuff looks like clip art.

Also, another firm was hired to create three new Owls (ah, we do have graphic design majors at the College).   All these financial decisions came after the State cuts—nice job.

Officials will say the TDS $15.5 million building came from ‘different’ funds—that’s crap—if you can find money to spend on this stuff you should prioritize education and make sure NH students can get an education.

Each new faculty gets $5,000 for ‘start-up’ funds and $1,100 each subsequent year.  Also many faculty get course releases for various duties.  It’s the adjuncts that teach the bulk of high enrollment courses and do the most work.

I disagree with Adjunct Union President Mike McCarthy who stated in The Keene Sentinel 2/3/12, “we’re your best deal.”  Plus he still has three classes—wonder why his course load wasn’t reduced?

I don’t particularly like being exploited and then given the boot after ten years—no benefits etc.  We must speak and act against exploitation, workers and students.

The bureaucrats aren’t getting pink slips—yet.

The education bubble is going to burst and I hope all the useless administrators and anti-intellectual Legislators feel the financial pain that they are needlessly pushing onto students and adjuncts.

Some of these folks do certainly earn their monies—but it seems business as usual at KSC since none of these folks were cut. (I did not include full-time faculty—but notice the overlap of many of these positions listed—Associate, Assistant, VP, blah blah).

These figures do not factor in benefits, expense accounts for travel etc. nor Giles-Gee’s free housing!

Leigh Corrette is an adjunct in the Sociology Department.  She has taught for seventeen years—ten of which have been at Keene State.