The Dirty Western

Dear Silent Sender

2012-02-20T11:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Silent Sender. Please send us that email again -- with any new info you might have. It expired from the service and we can no longer access it. If you post it in the body of a comment, we won't post the comment, but can use the info. Thanks -- dw

Guest Post: Paying Attention on Enrollment and the 10K floor.

2012-02-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

Last spring I wrote a post about admissions and the grid. Today, I want to discuss our enrollment. Many of my colleagues have classes that haven't filled or are massively under enrolled. Tuesday was the 10th day of classes and we haven't heard anything from the administration about enrollment (10 day counts), and I now know why. It will be hard to spin a story about how great it is, and how the Noel-Levitz money was well spent. Spring enrollment numbers can be found here.

(Click image to make it full size.)

All the data in the chart is freely available on the "Institutional Research and Planning" page. If you want to do more digging into the numbers, be my guest. I am sure the Dirty Western will post it. (DW -- We will if it is interesting.) I should add that these are FTE numbers because FTE are the only numbers that we can compare. Total number of students isn't useful because students could take one class and count as a headcount.

What I have done is simple. The "Fall Macomb" and "Spg Macomb" numbers are for the Macomb campus. "F/S Decline" is the change from fall to spring for the last nine years. The decline is due in part to graduation. Notice that the last 4 years, the fall to spring decline has been greater than the five year average before it. This is not a good trend. We might ask why this is, and how can we fix it. I remember that FYE was charged with helping retention.

The "Fall Mac+QC" and "Spg Mac+QC" are the grand totals from IRP that include the QC campus and all extension students. The really bad news. For the first time in the last nine years, (all the years on the IRP page), WIU's fall enrollment was below 11K, and the spring enrollment is below 10K.

From the high in the last nine years, enrollment in the fall was down 10.64%, and this spring down 13.13% on the Macomb campus. But on might complain that the enrollment high is an unfair comparison. Let's look at the five year average then: we are down 8.95% in the fall and 11.64% this spring. Over the last few years, we only get the year to year comparison, and the constant 1 to 2 percent declines really do add up.

Every semester, we are told how many new freshmen we have or how many new transfer students there are or that QC is up a total of 5 students. Rarely is the fact that the total number of students at WIU has declined every semester for the last FIVE years. I would just like to have some transparency from the administration on the seriousness of this problem. I would also like to know what we are doing to try to remedy the decline.

And before people complain in the comments that the administration is being open and honest, let me quote former President Goldfarb's remarks to the BOT on September 24th, 2010. Look at the chart above, and then ask yourself how many of the claims below are really accurate.

"We’re also pleased this fall that enrollment has stabilized and actually moved in the opposite direction, I think we’ve had great success working with our consultants, Noel-Levitz. We had well over 100 more freshmen this fall than last fall. We had more transfer students, and we had more graduate students. I have no reason to believe that that will not continue as we begin to really focus on the further recommendations that were received. Noel-Levitz in the spring actually worked, as Garry could tell you, our numbers are process issues, tinkering with process issues in the Admissions office and that alone made for some very significant changes, and now we are expecting fairly soon our full report from Noel-Levitz that will, I think, provide an even greater recommendations in terms of how we can improve what we are doing and by the way do so without diminishing standards, actually enhancing standards and enhancing the reputation of Western which has been our goal all the way through. Very clearly that has to be our goal if we’re bragging about how well-positioned we are in terms of many of these national recognitions. "

This isn't the only instance of this kind of administrative spin. Just look at last fall's enrollment announcement here: Notice they list the enrollment as 12,554. That's not what IRP lists. What are we to believe?

There. Fixed it for you. -- Guest Post by Bill O'R'lyeh

2012-01-31T21:00:00.000-08:00

The following is a guest post by Bill O'R'lyeh. Some names and identifying text from the original email have been redacted or deleted to protect the innocent. --dw

*****

January 31, 2012

Dear ~~Faculty Member~~ Enrollment Manager:

I am pleased to announce that has been hired as a graduate assistant collections officer ~~retention~~ and specialist attendance enforcer. This newly established position is a joint effort by academic affairs and student services to enhance ~~retention efforts~~ revenue collection on behalf of the University. will be responsible for identifying ~~students~~ clients who should never have been admitted and are missing classes or experiencing academic difficulties~~, following up with those students, connecting students to various offices and collaborating with faculty and staff~~ owing to the fact that they are not prepared for college.

In order to best meet the ~~needs~~ revenue goals of ~~students~~ the administration, will have office hours in the Office of ~~Student Development and Orientation~~ Sustaining Defraudment Opportunities (SDO) weekdays, as well as establishing evening hours once a week in the first year ~~residence halls~~ barracks. ~~has a good working knowledge of the campus and resources available~~ was cheap to hire as he completed his baccalaureate degree from WIU. Currently, is a graduate student, a status unrelated to his newly assigned duties.

Faculty members ~~are encouraged~~ will eventually be required to utilize the attendance tracking system that was released by the Center for Innovation in ~~Teaching and Research~~ Tracking Revenue (CITR). The system allows faculty to access an up-to-date roster of their "students." This roster includes, an image of the "student," if it is available, and provides the ability to identify marks ~~students~~ as ~~absent, present, tardy, or excused~~ paid-in-full, current, or late in their payments. Additionally, faculty can conveniently email a given "student," their academic adviser, and/or the ~~SDO~~ loan officer ~~with any concerns~~ in charge of their account(s).

The information received from this system will assist to identify and contact ~~at-risk students~~ individuals at-risk~~, who may~~ of not ~~be attending classes regularly~~ returning as customers in subsequent semesters. SDO will be able to contact these ~~students~~ individuals and provide services, allowing the University to retain a higher number of ~~students~~ paying saps.

To access the attendance tracking system, please follow these steps:

In your web browser, go to the CITR website: http://www.wiu.edu/citr.
From the "Resources" menu, select "Faculty Electronic Resources". You will be prompted for you ECom username and password.
From the menu on the left, select "Go To Attendance Tracking System." A list of your courses will appear.
Below each course, you will see a variety of links to use the system.

If you are unable to access the system, or need help using one of the features, please feel free to contact the CITR office at 309/298-2434. Whether or not you choose to use the system, you are still ~~encouraged~~ expected to contact SDO at 309/298-1884 or sdo@wiu.edu if you have ~~students~~ clients who are missing ~~classes~~ payments, have undergone a drastic ~~change~~ drop-off in ~~academic performance~~ economic status, or are experiencing difficulties that may be interfering with their ~~academic success~~ ability to obtain further student loans. Your assistance in helping ~~identify students early~~ support the collection of tuition and fees is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Kenneth Hawkinson-Minderbinder, Ph.D.
Provost and Academic Vice President

VP of Technology?

2012-01-27T07:32:00.000-08:00

An anonymous commenter writes:

I know it would mean an additional hire at essentially the VP level, but technology is vital for both the business and academic areas of the university. We need a true Chief Information Officer (CIO) who can provide leadership both in terms of academic technology and in terms of business technology. We are so far behind where other universities are because of the current stagnation that prevents progress and adoption of some of the great things a few are trying to do.

Drop technology from Rives area, drop AIMS from the VP Administrative Affairs area, drop ESS from the VP Student Services area, and hire a CIO in charge of all technology - and no, that is NOT Mike Dickson, but a person who can really do the job not just talk about how good they are.

That strikes us as not a good idea, but a very good idea. Dickson, Rives, and Chamberlain are not the answers to our technology problems, and if you have to have administrative bloatmeal, it might as well be good for you.

LEJA 208 – Testilying* -- By Anonymous

2012-01-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

The following story was submitted anonymously. Comments are open.

Alan Beaman of Rockford, IL was wrongfully convicted in 1995 for the murder in Bloomington two years earlier of former girlfriend Jennifer Lockmiller. Following discovery that Detective Timothy Freesmeyer had deliberately withheld evidence during trial that would have informed the jury of a second possible suspect, the Illinois Supreme Court voted unanimously to overturn the conviction. By this time Beaman had already served 13 years of his 25 year sentence.

Freesmeyer had not taken the fastest route available and so, overestimated the actual drive time required between Beaman’s bank and residence, thus providing false and misleading testimony intended to destroy Beaman's alibi. Because the evidence withheld by the state was sufficient to overturn the conviction, the court was not required to address the issue of Freesmeyer committing perjury while under oath.

As a direct result of former Detective Freesmeyer’s malicious testilying, Alan Beaman was robbed of at least 13 years of his life, while serving his sentence as an innocent man. The good news is that, due to his false testimony, Freesmeyer is currently the subject of a federal lawsuit and is no longer a member of law enforcement. The bad news is that Freesmeyer was a member of WIU’s LEJA faculty as recently as Spring 2011, and he was also formerly employed by CAIT.

Knowledge of this situation poses two questions. First, when exactly did the WIU tagline “Higher Values in Higher Education” officially become “Hire Unscrupulous and Deceitful Former Law Enforcement Members as Faculty”? And lastly, are back-ground checks actually run on new employees?

Further Reading on the Beaman case:

* Testilying – (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Testilying (a portmanteau of "testify" and "lying") is a United States police slang term for the practice of giving false testimony against a defendant in a criminal trial.

DW: The last class we find Freesmeyer teaching was an online class in the Spring of 2011. Star# 55983. LEJA 208, Section I01, INT EXTERN SEC. 21 of 25 students enrolled.

Provost Search Poll 2011

2011-11-13T20:23:00.000-08:00

Who you got? Internal or external? Businessman or not? Great communicator or not? Rocket scientist or not? As always, in Illinois, we encourage you to vote early and often... For a review of who these gentlemen are, check out the post below with links to all the CV glory you can handle...

Quizzes by Quibblo.com | SnapApp Quiz Apps

Provost Search, a fait accompli?

2011-10-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

What is a provost? In simplest terms, a provost is the senior academic administrator at a university. In addition to other duties, a provost usually conducts the supervision of curricular, instructional, and research related activities at a university. The job ad run by WIU can be seen here.

Many people on campus believe the provost search is in some sense a fait accompli. This might be the result of recent internal candidates winning so many of the jobs advertised or the belief that one of the internal candidates will win: the current interim provost.

But you might hope the best candidate would win the job. But there is one problem. We have two internal candidates. If you are wondering why this is the case, so are we. What was the provost search committee thinking? Two internal candidates is a serious lapse of judgement, especially when one of them has the job. Does this mean that the search committee believes that the CBT Dean is better than the current interim provost? Just a bizarre way to handle internal candidates. The committee should have made the hard decision and only had one of these candidates as a finalist, but we digress. This isn't the first time a WIU search committee has shown it has a hard time properly running a search for an upper administrator.

The men who would be provost are listed here (click on the candidate's name below for their CV):

Kenneth Hawkinson (Oct 17-19)
Thomas Erekson (Oct 19-21)
Philip Way (Oct 26-28)
Dale Ostlie (Oct 31-Nov 2)

Just like the presidential search, we will have individual posts for each candidate. We will run a poll toward the end as well.

Enrollment Fall 2011

2011-09-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

An anonymous commenter wants to discuss WIU's enrollment. The relevant university press release can be found here, but all you really need to read is this:

...total enrollment for the University is 12,554, down 31 students from Fall 2010...

We believe this is the fifth straight year of lower enrollment, and we'll see how things stand this coming spring. Remember, retention is also a big issue. Comments are open.

The Dirty Western Down Under...

2011-09-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

Be sure to follow or subscribe to The Dirty Western's music channel on Youtube. Here are two songs from the band down under. You can follow them on Facebook here. Enjoy. -- dw

Guest Post: Perspective. Priorities.

2011-08-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

By Bill O'R'lyeh

The Champaign-Urbana News Gazette reported today that the state's flagship institution of higher education, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is moving forward on the construction of a state-of-the-art building to house its Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The 230,000 sq. ft. structure comes with a price tag of $95 million. That's some serious cash. However, as private donations will cover approximately half the new building's cost, state taxpayers are only being asked to pony up some $44.5 million.

By contrast, taxpayers will foot the entire $67.8 million bill for WIU's vaunted 110,000 sq. ft. Performing Arts Center (PAC).

Let's compare:

UIUC's capital project will support an academic unit that:

serves 1,600 undergraduate and 500 graduate students
generates millions of dollars in external funding each year
has transformed the modern world through the contribution of such major technological breakthroughs as the integrated circuit, transistor, light emitting diode (LED), plasma display, and the first Internet browser.
continues to engage in pioneering research and invention (current UIUC ECE faculty hold 197 active patents)

Taxpayer cost: $44.5 million (approx. $193.47 per sq. ft)

WIU's first major capital project in a generation will support a PAC that:

will provide practice and performance space for approximately 300 students in the music, theater and dance programs
may serve as a new home for the Al Sears Jazz Festival

Taxpayer cost: $67.8 million (approx. $616.36 per sq. ft)

Such is the difference between a serious university and WIU.

DW: For those not fully up to date on the PAC discussion on this blog, we suggest you review these two posts here and here. And even though Bill is concerned with the tax burden cost per square foot, the full price is $413 per square foot for the UIUC building as compared to $616 per square foot for the WIU PAC.

Faculty Assembly, 2011

2011-08-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Fall Faculty Assembly time again, but this year the provost's office has shortened the program once again. The whole thing is down to two hours from last year's three.

Date: Thursday the 18th.
Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Let's hope this isn't a typo!)
Location: University Union Grand Ballroom
Description: The Provost will present the vision and priorities for the Division of Academic Affairs. The deans will introduce new faculty in their colleges, and for a repeat performance, Mr. Joe Watts consultant for Noel-Levitz, will be the guest speaker.

You can ask all the questions that won't be answered Thursday in the comments below.

WIU makes the Chronicle of Higher Ed!

2011-08-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

The first-person interview story, "When It'll Never Be a Good Fit," could only be one place: WIU. Farm King, four-hour train rides, and staying in the student union are only all too familiar. The people making comments on the story don't believe such a place exists, but we know better.

Great Colleges to Work for 2011...

2011-07-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

The Chronicle of Higher Education has released it "Great Colleges to Work for 2011" report. Don't expect WIU's university relations to have press release about WIU being on this list, because it isn't. If you are interested in the list of great campuses, then we suggest reading the report.

Now we didn't expect to see WIU on the list, but these kinds of surveys are always interesting for one reason or another and the report got us thinking. What makes a great workplace? Here is one answer. But as we were reading the report, we thought we saw some of WIU's peer institutions on the list. And we did!

The report ranked schools in 12 key features in 4 categories (three key features in each category): Leadership, Compensation, Careers, and the Workplace. Our two peers who made the list each ranked in four key features with Sam Houston State ranking in three categories.

Sam Houston State: (Also made the Honor Roll)

Leadership: Supervisor or Department-Chair Relationship
Compensation: Job Satisfaction
Compensation: Respect and Appreciation
Workplace: Facilities, Workplace & Safety

Western Washington University:

Leadership: Collaborative Governance
Leadership: Confidence in Senior Leadership
Careers: Teaching Environment
Careers: Tenure Clarity and Process

Congratulations to our peer institutions. Perhaps we can learn something from this reports and make WIU a great college to work for going forward.

Faculty Productivity -- Texas Style!

2011-07-24T07:38:00.000-07:00

A while back a reader emailed us asking us to undertake an analysis of faculty productivity at WIU much like what happened in the state of Texas. (Download the entire Texas report here; it's interesting reading.) The emailer wanted us to make sure to include all administrators with faculty rank and to really pick on those faculty who don't contribute much to helping pay for things around here. Loyal readers may remember, we did this before under the guise of department health. Also, top 10 admin salaries here, and administrative bloat here.

Well, that's a lot of work that we aren't going to be doing for anyone for free. First of all, that's just a lot of data we can't get our hands on very easily. Second of all, you guys have good ideas, but want us to do all the heavy lifting, and sometimes we just can't. Third of all, that's just a lot of work! There are more than 650 faculty and administrators on campus. Fourth of all, we're not sure this is the best way to analyze faculty productivity even if it might make for some interesting reading and commenting.

But then it dawned on us: we don't need to analyze ever single faculty member to get the discussion of faculty productivity going. We could just pick a few faculty members who we think are representative of the faculty as a whole, right? But if we did that, many readers would claim we stacked the deck against enemies and for allies. We could have picked names at random, but we doubt most readers would believe we could do that properly or fairly. What we needed was a ready-made group that is representative of the faculty as a whole. Luckily for us, we have one! It's called the faculty senate. And the nice part is that as a group, they are representative of the faculty and the faculty voted them into office. So we have compiled the list of your faculty senate members and done a Texas size analysis on their productivity as faculty members.

Our methodology is simple. We got their salaries from the published FY 2010 budget. We got their student enrollments form stars for the spring of 2011. (We couldn't get fall 2010.) Each three credit hour class brings in about $1000, and so we use that number to make the math easy. Form there, we derived two pieces of data. How much money a faculty member brought in for the semester after subtracting half their salary, and the ratio of salary to revenue. For example, if half of someone salary is 25K and they generated $75K in fees and tuition money for the semester, then their salary to SCH$ ratio is 3, and they generated a positive cash flow of 50K, and we know WIU's cash flow is important. As always, click on the image to make it bigger.

Before commenters go off the rails complaining, we need to make a few comments about what we have and haven't done. We know we haven't taken into account grants. For example, the chemistry and agriculture faculty, may have grants that help support their salary, programs, and university. We didn't take into account the fact that some faculty members may have had course releases, and others might have been paid more for overload teaching rather than magical PAA points. There is just no easy way to determine this kind of stuff. When a class wasn't 3 SCH, we tried our best to get it to an average of 3. And most of all, we know faculty cost more than just their salaries, but we aren't sure what the benefit rate it. So we are keeping it simple with just salary data and SCH production. And so just like the Texas report on faculty productivity, this analysis is flawed. But even a flawed analysis can be instructive. (Like remembering dividing by zero generates an error on a calculator.) We might all want to ask ourselves the important question: how should my productivity as a member of WIU be calculated?

Houston, we have a problem, right?

2011-05-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

Current WIU Board of Trustees chair, Mike Houston, was elected mayor of Springfield on April 5th of 2011. We congratulate him on his victory. He was mayor for two terms starting in 1979, and we are pretty sure he knows what he is getting into. You might be wondering: "What's the problem?"

As mayor of Springfield, he will be working to get funding for the University of Illinois, Springfield, right? He has a duty to promote the interests of the people of Springfield who voted for him, right? UIS has a new VP and Chancellor, too--you might remember her. There are bound to be real conflicts of interest with his BOT duties for WIU and his duties as Mayor of Springfield. The question is, does he have to step down from the WIU BOT? And if so, where does that leave the already depleted WIU BOT, which has several vacancies and expired terms? (See update below.)

And before for you start telling us that this isn't a big deal and there are no real conflicts of interest, we would like to point out that the new mayor was sworn in on the UIS campus, which was nice. We would also like to point out the WIU BOT Bylaws on conflicts of interest. We have provided the text and a link below. Conflict of interest? You decide!

Section III. Conflict of Interest Policy

Members of the Board of Trustees are expected to refrain from entering into any activity that might constitute a conflict of interest with Western Illinois University, or which would prejudice their ability to carry out their duties and responsibilities as members of the Board. Any situations in which a conflict of interest might exist, or might appear to exist, should be referred to University and Board Legal Counsel or to your personal attorney.

UPDATE: In other BOT related news, the Illinois Senate appointed five members to the SIU BOT on Friday, May 13th.

Blogger Crash...and 150K hits

2011-05-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

On May 11th we put up a post, and then Blogger upgraded and crashed taking 30 hours of post with it. We lost that post and some comments. So, if you submitted a comment that isn't on the blog, please submit it again. We are going to rewrite the Houston post and put up the two comments that wouldn't post during the blogger outage.

Since June 2010 when Blogger started counting page loads, we can report that we have had over 150,000 page loads. Thanks for reading, commenting, and submitting ideas.

Guest Post: Paying Attention talks Admissions and "The Grid"

2011-05-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

Several times on this blog people have commented that one solution to some of the problems we have here at Western Illinois University is to raise the admissions standards. This seems like a cure-all, but these commenters lack a general understanding as to how we admit students into WIU and even more important who applies to WIU.

Many of you might not know, but Western has paid Noel-Levitz to help us with admissions, and I don't know the amount paid for the advice. (DW note: we mentioned Noel-Levitz and Joe Watts here, and we don't know the total dollar amount spent either.) Now what the consultants told us might help some, but what I found most instructive was, what is commonly referred to by those in the know at Western as, "the grid." I am thankful someone showed me this grid. It explained so much to me.

The grid is the admission chart, which shows where we "auto admit" students and where people fall in a gray area, actually it's yellow, and those who are automatic "do not admit." ACT and SAT scores are listed on the Y-axis with corresponding high school GPAs listed on the X-axis. The number of applicants for each intercession of ACT/SAT and GPA are shown in the grid. I don't want to reproduce the entire grid, but I want to point out a few things. (DW note: we were emailed the full grid. It is quite an eye opener. We have placed a summary of the application numbers into a chart for Paying Attention below. The ACT/SAT score is listed and all GPA ranges are included in the "total apps" number for each of the ACT/SAT scores.)

As my grandmother used to tell me: "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." We can't increase admissions standards if those better students aren't even applying to WIU, and they aren't. The issues are historical. The problems are systemic. And, most of all, the issues aren't fixable in one or two years. And some of the problems aren't fixable by WIU: they are Macomb problems. Those readers who were at the Fall Faculty Assembly may remember Joe Watts answering a question about the time frame for achieving our admission goals. Watts said that admissions and standards could be increased successfully over a TWENTY year period! Take a deep breath now.

So before you start demanding a change in admissions standards, think about who currently applies to WIU, what our mission is, and how we just might be able to survive. Prospering is something that will require a significant leadership effort by both the Macomb businessmen and elected officials and WIU's administration in order to change public opinion. Twenty years doesn't seem so long to me now that I understand the task requires a major change in public opinion of WIU.

DW: Paying Attention and the data says quite a bit. Comments are open and suggestions are welcome. We don't think the admissions grid in its full glory should be made public, but we do think relevant university employees should have access to that information. It's up to you to get it. On a final note, we would include that all of our "ranking successes" haven't really yielded a return on quality students applying to WIU. We might ask ourselves: why is that?

Wheeler Block Party 2011 Videos

2011-04-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

A special thanks to the law enforcement officers who risked injury and showed great restraint.

For those of you who maintain the Wheeler Block Party is nothing more than a few "bad apples" or nothing more than undergrads having a "good time" take a look at the videos below.

Not to editorialize too much, we'll leave that to our readers, but this is what happens when we don't hold students accountable for their behavior in the classroom or out. And, you're not doing them or yourselves any favors.

UPDATE: President Goldfarb responds. (New videos added below. Plus, those videos that were removed by the users on youtube are below the fold.)

REMINDER: WIU's core values are: academic excellence, educational opportunity, personal growth, and social responsibility.

These videos have been removed for some reason. We suggest searching youtube for more videos.

A Western Courier Gold Star for Saddler's Fulbright-Hays

2011-04-25T14:27:00.000-07:00

The Western Courier reporter, Alexa Kucera, deserves a gold star for in the story "Saddler rides into dean position" she tells us that Dr. Saddler was a Fulbright-Hays Scholar in 2000.

If you read the WIU announcement on Dr. Saddler's hiring as the new Dean of the College of Education and Human Services, you will see that "Fulbright-Hays" is spelled incorrectly as "Fulbright Hayes" (unless there really is such a thing). But university relations probably just copied it off Dr. Saddler's CV where it is misspelled three times and correctly spelled once. You can see it misspelled on Dr. Saddler's UNLV website too.

We think if you win a prestigious Fulbright-Hays, you should probably know how to spell it. Just sayin'.

Well done Western Courier for vetting and editing your story!

When's The Wheeler Block Party?

2011-03-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

Loyal readers, my remember this post and videos about last year's Wheeler block party. Today, Inside Higher Ed.com ran a story about colleges and universities cracking down on spring parties, Colleges Fling Spring Parties.

An Illinois highlight from the story: "In the Midwest, administrators at Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan Universities are trying to avoid such chaos by discouraging students from attending an April Fool’s Day event whose stated purpose is to congregate thousands of drunk people."

So the question is, will WIU and the city of Macomb get out in front of the Wheeler block party and similar events or are we going to have more bike hangings, bottle throwing, and general lawlessness and destruction that usually arrives with spring around here?

Sing it...

2011-03-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Chronicle and PACs

2011-03-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

We're sure President Goldfarb isn't happy with the most recent Chronicle of Higher Education article "Much Ado About Costly Arts Centers" (full access requires subscription, which the WIU campus has). Our readers should know how we feel about the plans for the PAC, you can read our analysis here.

There is a wonderful picture of an arts center on the branch campus of George Mason University in Manassas, VA (population 36,213). The caption reads: "The Hylton Performing Arts Center, on the Manassas, Va., branch campus of George Mason U., opened last fall at a cost of $46-million. Modeled on 19th-century European opera houses, its 1,121-seat theater includes a copper ceiling and three levels of box seats."

Now that sounds (and looks) like a great place to watch a show. The article is worth reading for both the good and bad for building a PAC. Here are a few of the recent PACs built around the country. We have added the population of the cities and counties where each PAC is located.

Sam Houston State PAC ($38.5 million) in Huntsville, TX (35,078) -- Walker County (61,758)
Montgomery College ($31 million) in Silver Springs, MD (76,540) -- Montgomery County (971,777)
James Madison (five venue PAC) ($82 million) in Harrisonburg, VA (48, 914) But the Harrisonburg statistical area is a better measure of this area, which is (120,271)

We think the article does a good job explaining things. We found this paragraph particularly informative and sums up how things have been going on around here: "Some of the arts projects have been particularly controversial on their own campuses. Faculty members at Sonoma State University, which is also in the Cal State system, spent years heckling President Ruben Armiñana's plan to build a performing-arts center, which ended up costing $120-million by the time it opened, in October. Although the money didn't come from the university's operating budget, some faculty members complained that the institution had been so focused on raising big sums for the arts venue that it neglected other needs. But other professors say the facility could help raise Sonoma State's profile and improve relations with local residents."

For those of you who don't know, Sonoma State and their PAC is in Rohnert Park, CA, which has a population of 40,534 But there are 458,614 people in the county of Sonoma. For those of you who have been around a long time know that Macomb has a population of nearly 20,000, but surely the WIU PAC will support and be supported by the surrounding region, like McDonough County, which has a population of...(32,913)....

Who knew, WIU is the Sonoma State of Illinois...

Presidential Honeymoon...

2011-02-21T16:21:00.000-08:00

On this President's Day, we got to wondering: Does our new president deserve a honeymoon period? We think he does, but how long should it be? Remember, he starts the job on July 1, 2011. Let the polling begin...

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

President and Provost Evaluations

2011-02-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

Several readers have commented in other threads on the president and provost evaluations faculty have recently been asked to fill out. Several concerns have been raised: anonymity, security of data, effectiveness, and retribution of negative comments. All of these are legitimate concerns, but what are we to do about it?

Here are some suggestions:

Make filling out the evaluations like voting. Go to the faculty senate office and fill out a scantron version of the form and put it in a a secure box. Have someone cross off your name and you have filled out the form w/o having the form attached to your name. Anonymity issues are solved as well as only one vote/evaluation.
As for written comments. You can bring printed comments with you, and they will be given to the president and provost. You put the comments in a separate box for review.

The benefits of this kind of system are many. Right now all the comments people provide are digital and once they are given to the committee for review, there is no way to keep track of them. If all the comments are printed ahead of time to give to the president and provost, then there are no digital copies to be "hacked" and shared. There will be a small number of photocopies and they could be controlled so that t
hey don't make it into the world. Plus there is no way to track comments to commenters.

Or we could do it just like student evaluations. We could have a "Spring Faculty Assembly" where the president and provost give us a quick talk about what they've done, and then we get the evaluations to fill out. And just like in class, if you don't go, you don't evaluate.

For those of you who have other suggestions for how the evaluations of the president and provost could be done, as always, comments are open.

Day 19...

2011-02-11T10:10:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrate Lincoln's birthday, but it is the 19th day of semester (25th including weekends). There has been no information flowing from Sherman Hall as to what our enrollment numbers are, i.e., the 10 day count. Several folks have told us that they are going to have to do tutored studies because their classes are under enrolled. Here's a place for everyone to tell us how their enrollment looks.

Reader Advice for Number 11...

2011-01-27T18:50:00.000-08:00

The transition has begun, and now that we know who the next president of WIU is, we would like to offer a place where our loyal readers can give their honest, constructive advice about making WIU better. Think of this as a big policy roundtable. If you want to cut/build programs, make your case here. If you want something organized in a certain way, let him know. Let's see what the collective vision of WIU can produce in terms of ideas and solutions. No topic is off limits: students, money, faculty, buildings, technology, town/gown relations, and more. Everything is on the table for discussion.

We are sure Jack has his own vision of what he wants WIU to be, but perhaps you, the readers can influence and inform his vision. No one person can have all the good ideas, and so we believe he could be open to good ideas no matter where they come from -- at least he should be.

The advice forum is open...

Your provost, your president...

2011-01-18T19:36:00.000-08:00

According to several media sources, Jack Thomas will become the 11th President of Western Illinois University effective July 1, 2011. To hear the announcement and speech of the future president, visit Tri States Public radio here. We at the Dirty Western wish Dr. Thomas well and hope he is successful in his new post.

WIU's website is down, but Zimbra is up...

2011-01-11T06:41:00.000-08:00

The WIU website is down, again. So is Western Online. Anyone know why? We are working on a ticker to track this behavior (any advice or help from readers would be appreciated). Comments open.

UPDATE: The website is back up, but not Western Online.

Guest Post: "QuadCityphrenia" by Bill O'R'lyeh

2011-01-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

Last month, in the midst of the pointless discussions regarding the BOT's selection of someone new to preside over WIU's collapse, several anonymous comments raised the issue of the Quad Cities campus and the extent to which its expansion should or should not be chalked up as yet another Goldfarb-induced fiasco.

One Anony, responding @ 8:34 pm on 12/12 to the "Jack Thomas, Presidential Candidate" post, went so far as to lay down a challenge. S/he demanded, "…5 evidence driven facts that show [Goldfarb's patronage appointee] Joe [Rives] has turned the QC around."

Out of morbid curiosity, I took up Anony's challenge during the recent Winter Break and compiled a few relevant statistics aimed at shedding light on what's happened at "WIU-QC" during Cap'n Al's watch. It wasn't a particularly difficult thing to do (the necessary information is readily available) and the methodology was straight-forward enough. In short, it was the sort of routine investigation that would have already been undertaken formally by some sub-committee or another on a campus possessing a competent Faculty Senate or responsible union.

I don’t claim that my approach was scientific or exhaustive – but I do believe that what follows constitutes the most informative and complete analysis available to the public. I hope that it will generate a lively discussion (and, perhaps, even some thought) over the relationship between "WIU-M" and "WIU-QC." If nothing else, consider this a welcome distraction from the fiscal catastrophe set to descend upon the campus and community.

As always, the facts and figures that accompany this post come courtesy of WIU's very own administrative organs. Relevant data have been compiled from the reports stored on-line by the Office of Institutional Research and Planning and Budget Office.

Following up on Anony's demand for "5 evidence driven facts," I compiled data for the following five WIU-QC "metrics:"

1. Student enrollment

2. Student Full-time Equivalency (FTE)

3. Annual WIU-QC budget

4. Allocation of the annual WIU-QC budget

5. Estimated revenue generated by WIU-QC

Readily available (i.e. on-line) data enable us to trace the evolution of Metric #1 (WIU-QC enrollment trends) from Cap'n Al's first full year as President (AY 02-03) through the Fall 2010 semester. Readily available data for the remaining four metrics generally cover the period from Fiscal Year 2005 through Fall 2010. In each instance, I present the data in the form of a handy chart (or charts) followed by short commentary.

[A pre-emptive note to those individuals who are certain to complain that I should have gone to the trouble of including data for each and every metric dating back to the start of Cap'n Al's tenure in 2002: "Screw you. Do it yourself."]

Metric #1: WIU-QC Enrollment Trends

(Click on images to make them bigger)

As the chart above clearly shows, the number of students enrolled (Fall-to-Fall and Spring-to-Spring) in courses at WIU-QC during Goldfarb's reign of error peaked in AY 02-03 – Al's first year in Sherman Hall. Although enrollments have fluctuated since then, they have never matched the levels which Goldfarb inherited from his predecessor. The "next best" Fall semester (2008) saw 101 fewer students (-6.91%) enrolled than in Fall 2002 while the "next best" Spring semester (2009) saw 75 fewer enrolled students (-5.41%) attending classes in Moline than in Spring 2003.

Although there is justified concern amid five consecutive years of declining enrollment on the Macomb campus, enrollment figures are not, necessarily, the most telling indicator of campus "success" or "failure." All the same, the available data reveal that the considerable time, effort, and money devoted by Sherman Hall over the past decade to maximizing QC enrollments has not led to more students attending classes on the Mississippi floodplain. Those warm bodies may show up at some time in the future, but WIU-QC remains very far away from its "anticipated campus enrollment" of 3,000.

Metric #2: Full-Time Equivalencies

The data related to student FTE appear more positive. As the above chart indicates, the Moline campus has witnessed a gradual increase in both undergraduate and graduate FTE since AY 04-05. Measured against the available "baselines," of Fall 04 (630 FTE) and Spring 05 (590 FTE), the most recent (2010) Fall and Spring semesters numbers represent increases of 85 (13.49%) and 114 (19.32%) FTE, respectively. In short, the fewer students enrolled at WIU-QC are taking more classes. This clear improvement would seem to indicate that Sherman Hall's Master Plan for strengthening WIU's QC "presence" is paying some dividends. But that begs a question: at what cost?

Metric #3: WIU-QC Annual Budget

The rise in overall AY FTE has coincided with a massive increase in the money annually budgeted for WIU-QC. In the 2005 Fiscal Year, annual expenditures to support QC programs totaled some $2.27 million. By contrast, in the most recent 2010 FY, Sherman Hall spent more than $6.85 million on WIU-QC. During the period from FY 05 to FY 10, the portion of WIU's overall budget devoted to WIU-QC more than doubled from 2.41% to 5.83%.

Metric #4: Allocation of the WIU-QC Annual Budget

And just where is all that money going, anyway? As the above chart clearly indicates, a very large chunk of the WIU-QC budget (more than 30%) is going to support administrative overhead. No surprise there.

Metric #5: Estimated Revenue Generated by WIU-QC

So, what's the "bottom line?" How much money does WIU-QC bring in on an annual basis? And how does this revenue stream compare to the costs of maintaining WIU-QC programs?

METHODOLOGY:

In an attempt to gauge the overall costs/benefits of WIU's Quad City "presence," I used available FTE data to estimate the revenue generated from tuition and fees on the Moline campus during the period from AY 05-06 to AY 09-10.

Applying institutional standards, I multiplied each semester's reported undergraduate and graduate FTEs by their appropriate factor (1 undergraduate FTE = 15 credit hours; 1 graduate FTE = 12 credit hours) to arrive at the total number of credit hours generated each AY for both categories of students. I then multiplied these total semester hours by the hourly tuition rate + fees assessed in each given year to arrive at estimated revenues.

[Note: Under WIU's much ballyhooed "Four-Year Cost Guarantee," tuition and fees are calculated based on the semester in which a student first enrolls in courses at WIU. As it is impossible to determine who enrolled when and who was charged what, I simply multiplied each year's total number of credit hours by the hourly tuition and fee rates charged students who first enrolled in that same year. As the student body did not completely "turn over" each and every fall semester, the final figures represent the most generous approximation of revenue collected by WIU-QC.]

The results?

As the above charts clearly show, WIU-QC has been operating at a considerable loss over the last five years.

From AY 05-06 through AY 09-10, the Moline campus has generated an approximate total of $20.2 million in revenue from the tuition and fees collected during Fall and Spring semesters. Measured against budgeted expenditures totaling $29.7 million over the same period, this constitutes a five-year deficit of -$9.52 million.

Even when one credits summertime revenues to the WIU-QC AY accounting ledger (a calculation not applied by the administration to WIU's main campus in Macomb where summer school programs are expected to be "self-supporting"), the Moline-based campus still operates at a considerable loss (-$709,992 in the most recent FY 10 and more than –$3.0 million, total, since FY 05).

So what can one conclude from the foregoing data?

1. Despite ongoing efforts to increase the number of students attending classes at WIU-QC, student enrollment has never matched the totals which Al Goldfarb inherited during his first AY as President.

2. The drop-off in the absolute number of students enrolled at WIU-QC has been partially offset by the fact that these fewer students are taking more classes; thus producing a gradual increase in AY FTE production rising to a 17% gain over AY 04-05.

3. The increase in AY FTE has come with a hefty price tag: the more than doubling of WIU-QC's budget.

4. A substantial portion (close to 1/3) of the money being spent on WIU-QC is going to pay for administrative overhead.

5. Even by the most generous estimation, WIU-QC is currently costing WIU considerably more money than it brings in via tuition and fees.

Is it possible that WIU-QC will eventually reach "break even" by consistently generating at least as much revenue as it consumes? Perhaps. But it is clearly not doing so now, has not come close to doing so for the past half decade, and appears unlikely to do so in the near future.

Factor in the more than $80 million (plus interest) that politicians in the bankrupt State of Illinois have committed to WIU-QC Riverfront expansion and it seems pretty clear that even given the best possible circumstances, it will take decades before the Moline campus even comes close to providing an equal return on total investment.

It is reasonable to conclude that taxpayers will be paying for this enterprise as long as WIU continues to exist – which, given the way this institution is administered, may not be so long after all.

WIU Web/Zimbra???...

2010-12-30T11:02:00.000-08:00

Zimbra and WIU webpages are down. Anyone know why?

The WIU Mission...?

2010-12-20T19:26:00.000-08:00

WIU has a new mission statement, and this commenter didn't like what they read. The new mission statement is:

"By enacting our values and creating a synergy between instruction, research, creativity and service, Western Illinois University prepares and supports a socially responsible, diverse student, faculty, and staff population to lead in the global society."

We understand the point of a mission statement, or vision statement, and we know there are some really bad mission statements out there (including WIU's). A quick Google search of "bad mission statements" will return a bunch of blogs with collections of bad mission statements. The problem is that our statement was most likely written by committee and edited by committee with all the interest groups on campus being involved for a sense of inclusiveness. Unless the committee writing your mission statement consists of Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin, you are going to have a hard time getting something good. What we need is someone with some vision (the Jefferson) to write the statement and that's it -- with a few fine edits by the Adams and Franklins of the world of course.

Every group doesn't need to be represented in the statement, and words like synergy should be avoided at all costs. So, let's see what kind of Jeffersons we have among us. Let's see if an anonymous individual can pull off something with flair and vision, i.e., a mission statement that isn't laughable. Oh, and on a final note, we dare you to find the mission statement (old or new) on WIU's homepage or website somewhere.

80,000 Dirty Hits...

2010-12-20T19:07:00.000-08:00

Blogger started counting page views for us in June. Friday we went over 80,000 hits -- in just under 7 months! Thank you for reading. Thank you for commenting. Thank you for all your contributions to our experiment. We would love to have more guest posts. We know you have stuff to say. We'll give you the forum, and you know, people are reading.

UPDATE: We don't track IP addresses and as far as we can tell, neither does blogger. We have it set up not to count our page views, but who else is reading is a good question. Enjoy the image below taken on January 7th. (Click on the image to make it bigger).

The Period...

2010-12-15T16:54:00.000-08:00

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

-- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

New WIU Presidential Polls...

2010-12-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, they have all been to campus. You have heard their speeches and they have answered your questions. Who do you want now? And who do you think the BOT will choose? You will get about a week of voting until we have the 11th president of WIU announced by the BOT, which should be next Friday. (Here's a link to the old poll for those of you who want to see the earlier results.)

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Round 5: Jack Thomas (Dec 8-10)

2010-12-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

Please share questions you would like to have Dr. Thomas answer in the public forums. Also, you may leave comments about your impression of Dr. Thomas as a candidate for president of WIU.

Jack Thomas, provost and vice president of academic affairs, Western Illinois University, CV and campus visit itinerary

Identifying yourself as faculty, student, civil service, or community member (or other) will help place your comments about the candidate in some context. Of course, you can always comment anonymously.

Round4: Carlos Vargas-Aburto (Dec 6-8)

2010-12-05T11:20:00.000-08:00

Please share questions you would like to have Dr. Vargas-Aburto answer in the public forums. Also, you may leave comments about your impression of Dr. Vargas-Aburto as a candidate for president of WIU.

Carlos Vargas-Aburto, provost and vice president of academic affairs, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, CV and campus visit itinerary

Identifying yourself as faculty, student, civil service, or community member (or other) will help place your comments about the candidate in some context. Of course, you can always comment anonymously.

Web Got You Down -- what's up uTech!

2010-12-02T21:14:00.000-08:00

We haven't had a post about uTech in what seems like forever. They really deserve a gold star for getting us the Microsoft products for about $10 for home use.

We were hoping to look at the next presidential candidate, but couldn't because WIU's website is currently down (12/2/10 at 8 p.m.). See photo below. We have been getting emails about Western Online security certificates expiring and causing problems (security officer Rodriguez? Hello...). Zimbra was down a few days ago for several hours -- we hope everyone emailed Richard Chamberlain and the support desk, oh, never mind.... Students are getting more bandwidth in the residence halls, but classrooms and faculty offices are nearly at capacity during the day. Hey Dickson, where's all that dark fiber you promised for extra capacity?

So, you know we like polls, let us know which person is most responsible for the poor running of uTech recently? (Remember: These are not scientific polls; they are for fun. Vote early and vote often -- because there are no winners here, just varying degrees of losers.)

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Round 3: Tim Hudson (Dec 1-3)

2010-12-01T17:15:00.000-08:00

Please share questions you would like to have Dr. Hudson answer in the public forums. Also, you may leave comments about your impression of Dr. Hudson as a candidate for president of WIU.

Tim Hudson, special assistant to the chancellor, University of Houston System, CV and campus visit itinerary

Identifying yourself as faculty, student, civil service, or community member (or other) will help place your comments about the candidate in some context. Of course, you can always comment anonymously.

Round 2: Susan J. Koch (Nov 29-Dec 1)

2010-11-19T07:54:00.000-08:00

Please share questions you would like to have Dr. Koch answer in the public forums. Also, you may leave comments about your impression of Dr. Koch as a candidate for president of WIU.

Susan J. Koch, provost and vice president of academic affairs, Northern Michigan University
CV and campus visit itinerary

Identifying yourself as faculty, student, civil service, or community member (or other) will help place your comments about the candidate in some context. Of course, you can always comment anonymously.

Mold on Campus, esp. Waggoner...

2010-11-16T17:02:00.000-08:00

A student sent us the following email, and we are sharing it with our readers. This student has some important points to share as well as a few question about how capital improvement funds are spent: football field and scoreboard or mold abatement. We provide the email in full:

I was just wondering if you had touched upon or had any comments about the ongoing toxic mold problem in Waggoner. Waggoner has always had a mildewy smell to it since I have been going to school here, but apparently over this summer, lightening struck the building and shut down the air conditioning for several days, allowing the mold to grow. I am a grad student who is in the building quite often, as are other grad students/faculty/staff, and I have been having an allergic reaction to the toxic mold and have to take medication because of it. I do not normally have any problems with allergies and have never had to be on medication for allergies. Several students have been to the health center and have been given information on "sick building syndrome" and have been told to spend as little time as possible in the building that's making them sick. However, for many grad students, this is next to impossible as we work long hours and most of the classes we attend are in Waggoner.

I had heard that a mycologist had identified 3 different species of carcinogenic mold in the building. I had also heard that the only thing being done about it is spot clean up. Workers from the physical plant have come in and bleached the areas where mold is visible, but that does not take care of the problem entirely. There was a student who had to go off one of the anti-allergy pills that was prescribed due to the high cost of the pills and the student started getting sick again almost immediately. I'm not sure of the number of complaints that have been made, or any further efforts to resolve the problem. Waggoner is an old, dilapidated, outdated building that is in desperate need of repair, and when I say repair, I mean it needs to be torn down and a new building should be put in its place. As far as I know, nothing has been done to remedy this problem. I am still on medication--4 pills a day---and I still get bad headaches when I am in the building for longer periods.

I had seen on WIU's website and in the Western Courier comments about the updates and repairs that are needed at Western, and there was no mention of using funds to resolve this hazardous problem. I did see comments about repairs needing to be done for the football field though.

I do know of some grad students who had complained to their department chair, so those who are in charge are aware of the problem, but apparently due to the University's limited funds, nothing is being done. It would only take one person to have a very bad reaction, or someone with severe allergies to have a horrible reaction due to what we are breathing in constantly. I want more people to make a fuss about this because it is not only affecting my health, but the health of many others. If this problem was put in the spotlight, then perhaps more would be done to take care of it. Or not. After all, it's Waggoner, and it's Western.

I simply wanted a response to find out if you have already covered this topic on your blog, or if others had commented on it.

We haven't written on this topic in particular and some people have commented on mold in Currens, but we do think that if the buildings on campus are making people sick, then something should be done about it. If our readers have information on what is being done (or not done) to remedy this or other similar situations on campus, please comment.

Round 1: Jeremy Brown (Nov 15-17)

2010-11-15T14:57:00.000-08:00

Please share questions you would like to have Dr. Brown answer in the public forums. Also, you may leave comments about your impression of Dr. Brown as a candidate for president of WIU.

Jeremy Brown, president, Edinboro State University of Pennsylvania

CV and list of publications and campus visit itinerary

Identifying yourself as faculty, student, civil service, or community member (or other) will help place your comments about the candidate in some context. Of course, you can always comment anonymously.

528 Million Dollar Question!

2010-11-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

Here is a simple question to ask the five candidates while they are visiting campus:

UPDATE (November 23, 2010): The link to the file created by physical plant has been ~~deleted~~ moved. So, we are including images of each of the 8 slides from that file.

Given that the State of Illinois isn't paying its bills and won't provide capital improvement money, how are you going to secure the $528 million needed to repair WIU's Macomb campus?

You might be wondering where we got the $528 million number? Well, Gary Johnson was quoted in the Western Courier, here, ''Johnson stated that the estimated cost of all of the repairs needed at Western is $500 million.'' And a reader sent us this link to a document created by physical plant. (This link was ~~killed~~ moved by someone at WIU -- see below for the contents of the file. The link has been corrected and works. We will, however, leave the images up for ease of viewing. See comment here for an explanation of the change of location.)

The $60 million endowment push isn't enough. The $67.8 million PAC is a waste of money. But then again, politicians and university presidents don't get praised for fixing things like they do for creating new things. So we shouldn't be surprise by any of this.

According to the physical plant data, the cost of repairs is $528 million with $27 million being super critical. We're not sure what the second chart is representing, but the value is between $15 and $20 million at this point and going down. Have a look and let us and our readers know what other questions you would like to have these presidential candidates answer.

The Candidates! For WIU President that is...

2010-11-09T06:21:00.000-08:00

According to this news release, we have a list of candidates.

Jeremy Brown, CV, president, Edinboro State University of Pennsylvania
Susan Koch, CV, provost and academic vice president, Northern Michigan University
Tim Hudson, CV, special assistant to the chancellor for international studies and initiatives for the University of Houston system
Carlos Vargas-Aburto, CV, provost and vice president for academic affairs, Kutztown University
Jack Thomas, CV, provost and academic vice president, Western Illinois University

Comments are open, and of course we have a very unscientific poll below. (The poll below should read "Jeremy Brown" not "Jerry" and we would fix it if we could, but it would wipe out the data. Sorry Dr. Brown.)

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Missouri Compromise...coming to Illinois?

2010-11-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

An anonymous commenter sent us a nice summary of events in the "Show Me" state. We had been hearing rumors about the elimination of programs that don't graduate at least 10 students a year. Here is what our reader provided us -- see the original comment here:

Public universities in Missouri have submitted plans to close or restructure low-enrollment degree programs. The University of Missouri’s flagship campus plans to close five programs and to reconfigure 34 others, the Columbia Missourian reported today. According to other news reports, Northwest Missouri State University intends to shutter seven programs, and Missouri State University will discontinue six. Determining factors - programs that do not meet three-year graduation minimums: an average of 10 per year for undergraduate, an average of five per year for master’s level and an average of three per year for doctoral level.

University of Missouri - The education specialist degree offered through the special education program, and the education specialist degree offered through the Career and Technical Education program, will be immediately removed from MU’s list of active program degree offerings.

The report indicates three degrees that currently have students — the master's degree offered through Natural Resources, the doctoral degree offered through Communication Science and Disorders and the baccalaureate degree offered through Environmental Geology — are projected to be closed, meaning students would be allowed to complete their degrees before the program is phased out.

Northwest Missouri State University - Undergraduate programs targeted for elimination at Northwest include a comprehensive major in statistics, humanities , alternative energy, physics, sociology, and a comprehensive major in foods and nutrition. The sole graduate program tagged for elimination is a master’s degree in quality management processes.

Missouri State University - Program terminations are Emerging Technologies Mgmt, Antiquities, Engineering Physics, Public Administration, Dance, and Engineering Mgmt.

There are lots of ways to think about programs and departments other than by numbers of majors; we have crunched the numbers before, but we can't help but think change is coming to the Land of Lincoln after the election results are in.

PayScale.com and Undergraduate Majors

2010-10-08T16:24:00.000-07:00

Several commenters have written some very silly things here and here about indicating on the diploma how much money someone might earn given a particular degree. It seem they believe the function of a university is to produce technical workers or business students or as one commenter says here, accountants. And of course some of our readers have, we believe jokingly, said we should eliminate CAS and COFAC in a comment found here.

We believe in data, and so, we are going to share with you some data from PayScale.com. You can view the 2010-11 College Salary Report where each undergraduate major is compared by starting salary and mid career salaries at 15 years. It is important to note that his data does NOT contain those graduates who have advanced degrees. So doctors and lawyers aren't skewing the results of some of these majors. You can view the methodology used by payscale.com here.

We have copied the complete results below the fold for those who might want to look at this data. It is interesting to see which CAS and COFAC majors do just fine and which don't. WIU has been touting the nursing program, but how does it stack up against the humanities and social sciences? How does business or dietetics or fashion merchandising stack up to the CAS and COFAC majors? Be prepared to be surprised below the fold. Comments open!

Major	Starting	Mid Career
Petroleum Engineering	$93,000	$157,000
Aerospace Engineering	$59,400	$108,000
Chemical Engineering	$64,800	$108,000
Electrical Engineering	$60,800	$104,000
Nuclear Engineering	$63,900	$104,000
Applied Mathematics	$56,400	$101,000
Biomedical Engineering	$54,800	$101,000
Physics	$50,700	$99,600
Computer Engineering	$61,200	$99,500
Economics	$48,800	$97,800
Computer Science	$56,200	$97,700
Industrial Engineering	$58,200	$97,600
Mechanical Engineering	$58,300	$97,400
Building Construction	$52,900	$94,500
Materials Science & Engineering	$59,400	$93,600
Civil Engineering	$53,500	$93,400
Statistics	$50,000	$92,900
Finance	$47,500	$91,500
Software Engineering	$56,700	$91,300
Management Information Systems	$50,900	$90,300
Mathematics	$46,400	$88,300
Government	$41,500	$87,300
Information Systems	$49,300	$87,100
Construction Management	$50,400	$87,000
Environmental Engineering	$51,000	$85,500
Electrical Engineering Technology	$55,500	$85,300
Supply Chain Management	$49,400	$84,500
Mechanical Engineering Technology	$53,300	$84,300
Chemistry	$42,400	$83,700
Computer Information Systems	$48,300	$83,100
International Relations	$42,400	$83,000
Molecular Biology	$40,200	$82,900
Urban Planning	$41,600	$82,800
Industrial Design	$42,100	$82,300
Geology	$44,600	$82,200
Biochemistry	$39,800	$82,000
Political Science	$40,100	$81,700
Industrial Technology	$49,400	$81,500
Food Science	$48,500	$81,100
Information Technology	$49,600	$79,300
Architecture	$41,900	$78,400
Telecommunications	$40,000	$78,300
Film Production	$36,100	$77,800
Accounting	$44,600	$77,500
Marketing	$38,600	$77,300
Occupational Health and Safety	$52,300	$77,000
Civil Engineering Technology	$48,100	$75,600
International Business	$42,600	$73,700
Advertising	$37,800	$73,200
History	$38,500	$73,000
Philosophy	$39,100	$72,900
Biology	$38,400	$72,800
Microbiology	$40,600	$72,600
American Studies	$40,900	$72,500
Fashion Design	$37,700	$72,200
Communications	$38,200	$72,200
Environmental Science	$41,600	$71,600
Global & International Studies	$38,400	$71,400
Geography	$39,600	$71,200
Business	$41,100	$70,600
Public Administration	$39,000	$70,600
Landscape Architecture	$43,200	$70,300
Biotechnology	$47,500	$70,100
Zoology	$34,600	$68,800
Drama	$40,700	$68,300
Nursing	$52,700	$68,200
Health Sciences	$38,300	$68,100
Radio & Television	$39,200	$67,800
Hotel Management	$37,900	$67,600
English	$37,800	$67,500
Forestry	$37,000	$67,200
Journalism	$35,800	$66,600
Hospitality & Tourism	$36,200	$65,800
Literature	$37,500	$65,700
Public Health	$37,800	$65,700
Liberal Arts	$35,700	$63,900
Public Relations	$35,700	$63,400
Anthropology	$36,200	$62,900
Psychology	$35,300	$62,500
Animal Science	$34,600	$62,100
Sociology	$36,600	$62,100
Human Resources	$38,100	$61,900
Kinesiology	$34,400	$61,600
French	$39,600	$61,400
Multimedia & Web Design	$40,100	$61,200
Photography	$35,100	$61,200
Health Care Administration	$37,700	$60,800
Organizational Management	$41,500	$60,500
Fine Arts	$35,400	$60,300
Humanities	$38,600	$60,100
Sports Management	$37,300	$59,800
Agriculture	$42,300	$59,700
Theater	$35,300	$59,600
Fashion Merchandising	$35,000	$59,300
Medical Technology	$43,800	$59,300
Exercise Science	$32,800	$59,000
Spanish	$37,100	$58,200
Criminal Justice	$35,600	$58,000
Visual Communication	$36,800	$57,700
Social Science	$38,100	$57,200
Art History	$39,400	$57,100
Music	$36,700	$57,000
Graphic Design	$35,400	$56,800
Nutrition	$42,200	$56,700
Interior Design	$34,400	$56,600
Interdisciplinary Studies	$35,600	$55,700
Education	$35,100	$54,900
Art	$33,500	$54,800
Religious Studies	$34,700	$54,400
Dietetics	$40,400	$54,200
Special Education	$36,000	$53,800
Recreation & Leisure Studies	$33,300	$53,200
Theology	$34,700	$51,300
Paralegal Studies/Law	$35,100	$51,300
Horticulture	$35,000	$50,800
Culinary Arts	$35,900	$50,600
Athletic Training	$32,800	$45,700
Social Work	$31,800	$44,900
Elementary Education	$31,600	$44,400
Child and Family Studies	$29,500	$38,400

40,000 Dirty Hits!

2010-10-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks for reading! The Dirty Western just went over 40,000 page loads. We appreciate you visiting us and making comments! Tell your friends, enjoy the archives, and keep the comments coming. If you have a story or a story idea, send us an email or make the suggestion in a comment.

Presidential Search Criteria: College Town?

2010-10-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

Some of you have asked about the changing search criteria for the new president. We have it on good authority that every candidate will have to have a Facebook account and compete in EPSNU's College Town. According to ESPN.com, the function of the game is to:

Build your own university and recruit the best athletes to challenge your rivals! Construct everything from dorms and classrooms to huge sports stadiums! Will you be revered for creating the best university, or will you be crushed by the competition?

We can think of no better way to pick the new leader than this because we are supposed to be the leading comprehensive university. This game has all we need to pick the best president -- winner takes over WIU. We'll see you on Facebook! (Thanks to the reader who made this game suggestion.)

Distinguished (sic) Faculty Lecturer?

2010-10-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

A reader emailed us the following:

Doesn't anyone in the WIU community have the nerve to critique last week's Distinguished Faculty Lecture?

I did not attend, as I had a conflict, but I heard it was full of factual errors about the history of home ownership in the US. The real historians in the audience nearly walked out, but if they had, no one would have remained to hear the lecture. Maybe that's why no one has commented on it.

The Provost cut off questions when they started to get contentious. Too bad -- it would have been amusing to see an academic riot.

Is this an award that should be rehabbed somehow? I also heard it's being passed around from department to department, and thus has lost all meaning. Figures.

Just asking...

So, we open it up for discussion. We are sure our readers have something to say on this matter.

David Rovics/WTND

2010-09-27T16:46:00.000-07:00

We've been asked to share this with you...

Tomorrow, at 7:30 p.m., David Rovics will perform in D.J.'s Steakhouse Ballroom (located at 127 E. Carroll). This event is a benefit concert for Macomb's not-for-profit low-power community radio station--WTND-FM, 106.3.

Admission is only $5.

Visit www.wtnd.us for more details.

And the next president is...

2010-09-22T17:27:00.000-07:00

We're looking for a new leader here at WIU. View the announcement for details. We are just curious as to what our readers think about the internal candidates.

According to an online Chronicle of Higher Education piece from September 2 some schools have only had ONE candidate apply for their presidency. Robin Wilson's piece, "At 2 Public Universities, Candidates for President Are Scarce" tells the story of the University of Montana and the University of Louisiana at Monroe. ULM only had one candidate. Given that we think we will have at least three internal candidates (not counting Levi), tell us what you think.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Broken Levi...

2010-09-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

According to the Ledger-Enquirer headline, "CSU Provost and vice president Dr. Inessa Levi resigns, effectively today." (To read the story you must register for an account with the Ledger-Enquirer.)

For those of you who don't know, Dr. Levi came to WIU to be the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from the University of Louisville in 2004. She left in the Spring of 2009 to take up the post of Provost and academic vp at CSU. After a vote of no confidence by the faculty last April, Dr. Levi has now resigned as provost effective immediately. She will, however, return to the faculty in the department of mathematics.

Whistleblowing and the Media

2010-09-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at noon in the Malpass Library 2nd floor classroom there will be a panel discussion on whistleblowing and the media. The event is being sponsored by the Department of English and Journalism and the WIU Libraries.

The participants include Ray Long (Chicago Tribune), Larry Whitaker (politician and former journalist), and little ol' us. The discussion will be moderated by Bill Thompson and Bill Knight.

Here are the questions we were asked by Bill Thompson and Bill Knight with our replies.

Bill Thompson: Q1) Do you see your blog's primary mission / purpose as that of being a "whistleblower?" If so, what is it you are trying uncover?

DW: We think of ourselves as muckrakers and whistleblowers. Certainly, one could say there is an element of whistleblowing inherent in the blog. We do, after all, point our little fingers at anything that seems awry, questionable, or otherwise untoward. But, as our readers know, we're not above tweaking the institution on lesser things either. We began the blog out of frustration; we have a vision of how things should and possibly could be better around here and that’s what we write about and report in the hopes that some administrator is listening, that we help the community to become more engaged in the oversight of THEIR university, and to let others who feel the same way we do, know they're not alone.

Bill Thompson: Q2) How do you decide which stories to pursue? For example, the great brouhaha over last year's Provost and Presidential Evaluations, which given your knowledge of Faculty Senate I suspect you were aware of, did not receive any notice from the Dirty Western. That seemed like a natural story for you. Yet you chose not to pursue it. That's one example. To put it another way: Every news organization prioritizes which stories it will follow and to what degree (front page, or page 14), etc. How do you make these choices? Are there kinds of stories you won't publish?

DW: We choose stories in three ways: we write about things that annoy/interest us, we write about things people bring to our attention, and we post pieces by guest authors (when they do their homework and write with some flair). As for the particular situation you're referencing...we don’t/can't know everything, and being anonymous we can't exactly go around pumping our sources, unlike professional/traditional journalists. Our blog really is a community effort, and it's only as good as the community involvement--that waxes and wanes as people become busy or lose interest. We will say, though, that we have a few loyal readers who routinely funnel information our way, have a great sense of humor, and make running the blog a lot of fun. If we could, we'd take them all out for drinks!

But, BIll, back to your question...no one emailed us about the Provost and Presidential Evaluations or that there was a brouhaha. We do read the faculty senate minutes when they are put online, but we haven’t seen anything in the minutes about the evaluations that gave us any reason to persue a story. Feel free, however, to drop us a line about what you know, or to write the piece yourself. We'll publish it.

Stories we won’t post: poorly written and poorly informed, but we do welcome different viewpoints--just not diatribes.

Bill Thompson: Q3) What sorts of verification do you use before going ahead with a story?

DW: Given our anonymous nature, this is tough. Basically, we skulk around gathering information without being too obvious, surreptitiously working what we know into various conversations and verifying what we can via documents, press releases, and other published information. I think the real question you might be asking is how do we decide what leads to follow. Again, because we're anonymous there are some stories we simply can't pursue without lots of help from our readers (who often either don't know the details or don't want to do the necessary work). There have been a few instances where we think a lead is good, but we simply can't do the legwork without revealing one or all of our members. And, of course, there is the occasional disagreement among members about the tenor or tone of certain pieces, and in those instances after serious discussion, one or or more members browbeat the others until they capitulate.

Bill Thompson: Q4) What sorts of limitations do you see to your kind of media? What are the sorts of stories, if any, that blogs aren't good at?

DW: Honestly, we don't think there are limitations to this kind of media--if you simply mean blogging. Blogs can be good at any story as long as they have the information, documentation and good writing. Certainly being anonymous is a limitation--it's hard to stay anonymous and dig up material without help--but that's not specific to blogging. One thing, in particular, that makes anonymous blogging difficult is, to preserve anonymity, very few people can work on the "inside," and it really is a lot of work. This isn’t our job, and so sometimes we just don’t want to do it.

Bill Thompson: Q5) What problems, if any, does crowd sourcing present?

DW: Well, we don't have other people writing the blog, so that's not a problem. Although, as we said before, we do have guests, but we verify their stories, too.

Comments are trickier; we've had a few slip by us that we've then had to go back and delete. We want to be as open as possible, but we want to protect ourselves and our commenters. Luckily, people, for the most part, are restrained, and only a handful of times have we rejected comments as unworthy for various reasons. Without doubt, having more people engaged, throwing ideas around, brainstorming solutions, and the like, is good for the university and good for the administrators. Though to administrators it might sometimes feel like "taking your medicine" without the spoonful of sugar.

Bill Thompson: Q6) Can you imagine a time when you will shut down the Dirty Western? Or do you see this as a long term commitment?

DW: Yes to both. Like we said it's a lot of work, it isn't our day job, and it does pose some professional risk. We regularly discuss shutting it down (especially when stories are slow and we're busy), but we've talked, too, of giving it away to another anonymous person or group. This fits nicely with our desire to see people invested in what happens here, and then we could just be snarky commenters! Seriously, though, it might be good to have another group's perspective directing the blog.

Bill Thompson: Q7) Who do you imagine your audience to be?

DW: The editorial board and everyone else associated with WIU in any way shape or form.

Bill Knight: 1. Given that Shirley Sherrod says she's suing blogger Andrew Breitbart for libel, do you think blogs must adhere to journalistic standards comparable to other news outlets with editorial input, vetting or oversight? (After all, even WikiLeaks had three prestigious news organizations verify and edit its release of military records.)

DW: Of course blogs should adhere to journalistic standards, if you mean telling the truth. We have people helping us make sure we don’t commit libel. We also stick to the truth, which is our main defense against libel. And when we express an opinion or provide an analysis of a situation, we try to make that clear that it is our opinion/analysis, so that it doesn’t count as libel or defamation. Moreover, these are public matters, and we are allowed to have fair comment on matters of public interest while not being subject to libel. And WIU as a public university and the main employer in the region, is fair game for this kind of public comment -- especially the academics and the administration.

Bill Knight: 2. Since identifying sources lends credibility with the audience (who's then less suspicious of axes to grind or hidden agendas), why does Dirty Western remain anonymous? I.F. Stone -- a journalist and "blogger" decades before there was an Internet, in some eyes -- presented material for readers to check out for themselves, like some bloggers, but he also took a public stand.

DW: Well, we aren’t I.F. Stone--we're not journalists, not all of us have tenure, declaring ourselves openly might make it more difficult to gather some stories, and there would certainly be retribution. As to credibility, we provide links and citations when we can, but if people know who we are, they might be biased immediately without even reading the story -- think Rush Limbaugh or Ralph Nader. We point people to stories and things that interest us; we provide some analysis; and we give people the chance to reply. That should be enough. Knowing who we are would only hurt the focus of the blog. Plus, papers wanted Stone as a writer to sell papers. Syndicated radio wants Rush to sell advertising. We aren’t selling anything but ideas and analysis and it doesn’t cost you anything. Our credibility comes not from the byline, but from the content and clarity of analysis we provide – period.

Bill Knight: 3. Some people have tried to blow the whistle through channels and, after being ignored or rebuffed, eventually turned to journalists to get their stories out. Have DW contributors tried to go through channels or, failing any results, gone to professional journalists to get stories told (WIUM, the McDonough County Voice, the Associated Press...). If so, did those journalists fail to report? If not, why not?

DW: We don’t know what all our contributors have done. We know that many of them have tried to do work internally. But let’s face it, we aren’t called “Forgottonia” for nothing. We don’t think there is a lot of desire to rock the boat around here even when it is sinking. People in power aren’t particularly interested in change whether for good or bad. There are a host of issues we believe the local medial won’t cover (their family knows the person, or they're afraid of losing advertising, or any number of things--exacerbated by the size of the town), the surrounding media don’t particularly care about, and the national media would laugh at. For example, compare how Coach Patterson was treated in the local, state, and national, media vs. Montana State’s former coach Mike Kramer. Coach Patterson's case didn't make ESPN, but nine days later Kramer’s less interesting case sure did: Mike Kremer Settles Lawsuit. And the Patterson situation was much, much worse. You won't see critical stories of the Wheeler block party in the paper, or any stories about shady hiring practices. For example, we hear complaints about people getting hired where there is no advertisement or search and so and so’s friend is promoted--this is a problem. You might say, "Ah, what's the big deal, this happens everywhere." Sure it does, but sometimes these are marginal people who stay in their post for decades and run it INTO THE GROUND. This university isn't large enough to compensate for that kind of abuse.

In our opinion, people are confident that no one is paying attention to our little hamlet stuck in the cornfields, so they can do what they like for as long as they like. It's not about this administration, nor the next. It's about accountability--not just on the part of local media and university administrators, but on the part of the people, too. And, if no one else is willing to take people to task and hold their feet to the flames, then we will. The DW IS paying attention, and pointing their finger, and shouting about it for all to hear.

Bill Knight: 4. Apart from the focus on WIU, how would you distinguish for your target audience the difference between DW and outfits like Perez Hilton or TMZ?

DW: Very simple: Perez Hilton and TMZ are for profit, entertainment outfits, and Perez Hilton wants to be famous. We just want WIU and Macomb to be better. We want a forum for people to feel free to discuss and disagree about the topics and issues affecting them most. We have no desire to make money on this blog nor do we want to be famous because of it (well, ok..a little, but that damn anonymity thing keeps screwing it up).

when is 67.8 million more than 1.5 billion?

2010-09-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

Originally Posted 8/27/09: Since people are talking about the PAC and it's the start of football season, we are reposting this story for those who might not have seen it.
__________________________________________

Do you know what the university theme is? Dollars and Sense: Personal Finance to World Poverty, i.e. fiscal responsibility. (This was last year's theme when this was originally posted.)

So, to honor the theme we're revisiting the Performing Arts Center. Here's a question for you: when is 67.8 million more than 1.5 billion?

Let's do some math and put the cost of the PAC in perspective.

Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, just spent 1.15 billion dollars on the New Dallas Cowboys Stadium. You can see it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboys_Stadium.

It seats 80,000.
That's roughly $14,375 per seat to build a state of the art football stadium in a town of 1.3 million people in the city of Dallas.
If you calculate by citizens, it's only $885 per Dallas citizen.

The state of Illinois and President Goldfarb, however, are not to be outdone by a billionaire football team owner. They've got their own multimillion dollar building: the Performing Arts Center. We can't know exactly what the PAC will look like once built, but you can view the watercolors and 3-D model (new link).

Here are the fiscal details for the building project:

WIU's PAC seats roughly 1,500 people at a cost of 67.8 million (the Multicultural Cente R cost $4 million; Macomb City Hall cost roughly $5 million).
That's $45,200 per seat for the PAC!
That's $3,390 per Macomb citizen!

The PAC is 3.8 times as expensive per citizen and 3.14 times as expensive per seat to build than the greatest football stadium ever. We just hope the PAC wins a playoff game.

Here's the thing--we love the arts. We love the idea of having a performing arts center, but we also think there are other needs at the university that warrant more immediate attention.

Lastly, we want to ask the question: why didn't McDonough county or Macomb receive any capital improvement funds? ~~Were the city and county leaders asleep at the wheel or what?~~

UPDATE: An anonymous reader explained that we had it wrong. Funds were only available to state owned properties. We think this may not be exactly right (mostly right)--like most legislation, it's complicated and difficult to understand. We've looked at the 998 page House Bil l, and several other reports that seem to indicate there is some money available for projects that don't appear to be state owned. You can view one such list here at the Chicago Tribune.

At any rate, their admonishment is duly noted. We'll be more careful next time. Oh, and anonymous, thanks for the love.

"Be careful with your criticisms of city/county government here... capital renewal funds are for state owned properties. City streets, sewers, etc. are not eligible. Local school districts only got money from the 2002 capital bill that was pulled back. I love the Dirty Western, but calling out organizations that are totally unrelated hurts credibility. "

You can see the entire list of capital funds and proposed projects by county here .

As always, if you have additional information, post it anonymously in the comments section or send an anonymous email to dirtywestern@gmail.com

Sherman Hall's Royal Flush

2010-08-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of months there have been rumblings about the new chair of English and Journalism. A few months ago it was reported to us that there wasn't going to be a new chair of E & J, but we refrained from reporting the story because lawyers were involved, and, until very recently, could not confirm what we'd heard. Seeing as how the cat is officially out of the bag, we now feel free to share what we know.

Here are the facts as have been reported to us by multiple sources (both anonymous and not):

Dr. Derek Royal, who once worked at Texas A&M Commerce, was offered a job by WIU last spring. He signed a contract of employment to be the chair of E & J--he may have even popped the cork on a bottle of champagne for all we know. What we are certain of, however, is that he attended a chairs council meeting last spring and was introduced as the new chair!

But then something strange happened (as is wont at Western). Dr. R's date of employment, which was to have begun on July 1 was pushed back to August 1. Funny, do you remember any mention of him at the fall faculty assembly? No? Well that's because last Monday the Provost informed the E & J faculty that Derek won't be joining us at WIU after all.

Not so fast, Sherlock--it's not that he reneged on the contract. Nope. He wants the job, especially since he quite his previous post (he did have a signed contract with WIU)! It's Sherman Hall that has reneged on the offer.

It's a personnel matter, however, and no one in Sherman will talk. We do know that both parties have retained counsel. Speaking of counsel, do you remember this?

"Under new business, BOT Chair Steve Nelson reported that Bruce Biagini has resigned as the University's ethics officer and will not provide legal services for the University or its Board. Heidi Benson has been appointed as the ethics officer, as well as the University's and Board's attorney." Read it here. Interesting, given that we're told both Heidi Benson and Biagini are representing the university in the Royal Flush.

In case you didn't know, this is the second "failed" search for a chair of English and Journalism in as many years. As someone said, and we're paraphrasing, the people qualified for the job are just waiting to meet us at the next MLA meeting for their chance to come to Western.

Welcome back to the shenanigan ride.

UPDATE: Texas A&M Commerce Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Removed

Forbes' Best Colleges List: WIU is 575 of 610

2010-08-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

Forbes magazine has a "student's point of view" ranking of universities and colleges. Forbes explains the methodology here, and we think it is interesting). WIU ranked 575 out of 610, and we bet it won't be highlight on the homepage. Here is the list of schools in Illinois.

18	Northwestern University
20	University of Chicago
68	Principia College
75	Knox College
97	University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
154	Lake Forest College
189	Illinois Wesleyan University
244	Wheaton College
283	Augustana College
299	North Central College
345	Elmhurst College
359	DePaul University
370	Illinois College
383	Bradley University
405	Illinois State University
406	Illinois Institute of Technology
435	Trinity International University
440	Millikin University
468	Loyola University Chicago
563	University of Illinois, Chicago
564	Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
565	Northern Illinois University
575	Western Illinois University
600	Columbia College Chicago

Let's all have a look at the methodology and see why we are so much closer to the bottom than the top. That is, what can we do to make WIU more desirable in the eyes of students? Perhaps Mr. Watts from Noel-Levits can explain to us how to move up this list. After all, freshmen retention is a criterion.

Faculty Assembly, Fall 2010

2010-08-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

Date: Thursday the 19th.
Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: University Union Grand Ballroom

Description: The Provost will present the vision and priorities for the Division of Academic Affairs for 2010-2011 and the deans will introduce new faculty in their colleges.

Also, according to the provost's recent e-mail: "Our guest speaker for the 2010 Fall Faculty Assembly will be Mr. Joe Watts, Associate Consultant for Noel-Levitz. Mr. Watts is currently consulting with WIU on freshman recruitment and retention and will speak on the topic: Student Recruitment at Western Illinois University: Challenges and Opportunities."

Three hours to give the vision, introduce new hires, and a guest speaker? We take it there will be a Q and A session like past years. So, let's start thinking about the questions faculty want to ask administration with everyone present...remember attendance is mandatory for faculty...we're not so sure about admin, uTech, or legal council...

Coach Patterson Update

2010-08-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like we have a settlement. For those of you who've been e-mailing and asking us if we had any news, we do now.

From WGEM linked here:

Here is the complete statement released by Don Patterson:

I am pleased to announce that Western Illinois University and I have reached a resolution regarding the termination of my employment as Head Football Coach. While I cannot comment on the nature of this resolution, I can state that the matter is resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.

The University's Office of Equal Opportunity and Access conducted an internal investigation and concluded that I was the victim of discrimination. I wish to thank the University for allowing the impartial internal investigation to occur. This is an example of the system working the way it should.

I want everyone to know that I have had no recurrence of cancer and that I am in excellent health. I still have a strong desire to coach college football, and I will continue to pursue opportunities that allow me to return to the game that I love.

I have fond memories of leading the Leathernecks and I wish all the best for the young men that I have been so privileged to coach. While I will always regret that my career at Western Illinois University was abruptly terminated, I wish the institution, President Goldfarb, the Board of Trustees and the student-athletes nothing but the best. It has been our privilege to be part of the Macomb and University communities now for more than a decade, and Lisa and I will be forever grateful for the support that we have received from family, friends, former players and loyal alumni.

We don't know of a public statement by WIU and doubt one will come. We hope, however, Patterson finds the right job and coaches again, and for those responsible for this situation, we hope they have to work on their resumes.

Gotta serve somebody: Guest Post by Bill O'R'lyeh

2010-07-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, WIU’s University Relations Office announced that Dr. Russ Morgan (Professor, Dept. of Psychology) has been appointed “Interim Associate Dean of Curriculum and Student Affairs” effective immediately.

A new position in name only, the IAD of CSA can’t be considered a fresh example of WIU’s administrative bloat as the appointment entails duties previously assigned to Associate Dean Jim Schmidt who has now shifted over to handling the responsibilities of recently retired Associate Dean Rick Anderson. (Think of it as an effort on the part of Dean Martinelli-Fernandez to shuffle a few deck chairs aboard the SS Goldfarb.)

As Interim Associate Dean, Morgan will “administer all aspects of graduate and undergraduate student studies and secondary teacher education issues within the college; manage the CAS undergraduate and graduate curriculum; coordinate CAS academic advising; and manage assessment of student learning.”

I don’t really know Russ Morgan. I have only met him a handful of times. I am not sufficiently familiar with his professional accomplishments and personal abilities (or lack thereof) to know if he is qualified for the job. And I really don’t care. Secondary teacher education issues, curriculum, and student assessment are as interesting as pus. If Morgan wants to sacrifice a portion of his life on the altar of thankless administrative busywork for a few dollars more, so be it. That’s his business.

Except for one thing…

Morgan moves into his position of mid-level administrative servitude straight from his gig as the Grievance Office for UPI Local 4100 on the WIU campus.

This, I care about. And so should you.

Why?

As Grievance Officer, Morgan was responsible for representing and defending faculty and staff employees against administrative violations of the contract and departmental criteria. He was privy to highly confidential information about the personal and professional lives of every single member who turned to the union for guidance and help. He was closely involved in crafting union strategy and tactics on a wide-range of sensitive issues. Arguably the most important union officer on campus after UPI Chapter President John Miller, he was, literally, the voice and face of aggrieved employees seeking to assert their rights before a malfeasant and, at times, malicious administration.

Morgan’s new responsibilities are not limited to issues involving teacher education, curriculum, and assessment. In his official capacity as the new CAS Interim Associate Dean, Morgan will also “serve as the primary liaison with faculty governance bodies within the college.” [!!]

In less than 24-hours Morgan has switched roles from faculty defender to administrative lackey. This makes Morgan’s appointment everybody’s business. Or, that is, everybody on campus who is concerned about the incestuous ties between Sherman Hall and our so-called “union.”

At the very least, Morgan’s pursuit of the new position suggests his lack of concern for principle and propriety. At worst, it’s an example of another high-ranking UPI official hawking union service for an administrative post.

In announcing the appointment of the new Interim Associate Dean, Martinelli-Fernandez noted, "Dr. Morgan brings a variety of experience to this position that will serve this college well."

A “variety of experience,” indeed. From the look of it, though, it appears Morgan’s primary concern is serving himself.

--Bill O’R’lyeh

What's a University for anyway?

2010-06-26T13:01:00.000-07:00

This comment from anon 5:02 on June 25th, struck us as particularly tone deaf as to the point of a university:

"Next president: What about somebody who will enlarge programs where the students are all getting jobs at good salaries? And at the same time if a dept has very few majors, or if their students have trouble getting jobs related to their fields, eliminate the major, dept and faculty and use those savings to fund the degrees where students are getting jobs at good pay."

The policy advocated by this person is particularly silly as stated. We have also explained that majors alone isn't enough to determine the health of a department, sometimes you have to look at SCH too. We don't have time to explain that a university isn't just about making sure students get good jobs, but hey, we'll let our readers help out on this one.

Reader Inquiry: AFSCME at WIU/Macomb?

2010-06-04T17:12:00.000-07:00

A reader asked us:

"Are you aware of AFSCME recruiting on campus for those who used to be covered by the defunct union for civil service employees? I heard about them on campus... "

We're not sure what's going on, but if anyone wants to chime in with details... For more info on AFSCME.

Your Next President?

2010-05-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

(Moving to the top from the 18th)

Ladies and Gentlemen of WIU/Macomb:

Now that we've hit the halfway point of the lame duck period of Dr. Goldfarb's tenure as retiring president of WIU, we think it is time to ask: what do you want in a new president? No doubt the bloated search committee will draft a laundry list of requirements, but let's get down to brass tacks. Each of us live in a particular bubble of WIU information. Some of us know what the real problems are. Let's air it all out. Share with us, the search committee, and ideally the next president, what you want from the 11th president of WIU. Perhaps someone on the BOT will be reading. At least we will have a public record of what we need to steer the Leatherneck ship forward.

To make things easier, why don't we use faculty, staff, citizen, and student for the anonymous titles to give context to the comments. Of course you can always go with the regular anonymous.

If you want to send information to the consulting firm about what you want in a president, that contact person is Dr. David Mead-Fox and his e-mail address is: david.mead-fox [at] kornferry.com.

To "Walter Sobchak" Commenters

2010-05-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Commenters:

We love your comments and the information you provide. But let's try to stay on topic. If you have a topic you want to talk about, let us know in a comment or via e-mail. We are happy to provide a forum for you. We also know we are involved in two wars, but as the Dude says: "Dammit Walter, not everything is about Vietnam!" Not everything is about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a note to tell you all that we are going to stop publishing comments that are way off topic. We don't want to do it, so keep it relevant. Jus' saying.

Dirty "Shop Talk" on NPR

2010-05-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

Last October 20th, Rich Egger, Bill Knight, and Mark Dial discussed whether or not The Dirty Western is journalism. Listen to the nearly 9 minute conversation via podcast called "shop talk."

We appreciate Bill Knight and his understanding of why we need to be anonymous. We like that Rich Egger realizes we are treating WIU as our beat. And Mark Dial nails it when he says that in these times "truth is a revolutionary thought." We do consider ourselves to be muckrakers, whistleblowers, and citizen journalists. This is why we ask for your input.

Gentlemen, thank you for shop talk. We agree with Rich when he claimed the Biagini story wouldn't have gone mainstream without our post. We do our best to be both accurate and critical for bettering WIU even though there is "sharp speech" at times. We also hope more readers will provide insightful comments to our posts. Without our readers, we would just be whistling past the graveyard. Jus' saying.

Wheeler Block Party Videos!

2010-05-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

Update: New video
Here is a small sample of the youtube videos from the Wheeler Block party last Saturday. Hopefully more will arrive in the coming days.

Pay special attention to the 1:45 mark, when a car tries to drive through the street.

uTech Talk

2010-05-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

You asked for it, you got it. A thread space dedicated to talking about uTech and all things computers at WIU. If you don't understand a policy and want it explained, here's your place to ask. If you work for uTech and you want to explain the policies people don't understand, here you go.

Discussion is open.

Well Endowed? WIU, not so much!

2010-05-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

The health and reputation of a university can be measured by its endowment -- the amount of money people give to support the place. And every year business publications tell us who the best endowment fund managers are. Rarely do these lists contain the fund managers at schools like WIU. Why? Because WIU isn't endowed enough to matter. We don't know who is running the fund or the fund raising campaigns, but given the list of other public universities in Illinois, WIU is well below average, and we didn't include the University of Illinois into the equation.

When it comes to WIU's peers outside the state, WIU doesn't fare much better. Perhaps WIU alumni don't want to give more than tuition and fees to this place. Perhaps our students don't get the kinds of jobs that allow them to give back. Perhaps they didn't really enjoy their time here and don't want to give back to WIU because they don't think WIU matters. We don't know why WIU is so poorly endowed, but it is.

Endowments allow universities to do lots of things (protect jobs for example), but one thing it does quite clearly is offer a level of permanence and seriousness about a place. One would think a university that has been around over 110 years could muster more than 20 million in the bank. Oh, we're not the smallest, Central Washington and Chicago State are less well endowed than WIU, but at least Central Washington is clearly asking for money on its nice webpage. That's better than WIU and Chicago State. We're not going to wield the endowment power of a University of Chicago (5.1 billion) or even the University of Illinois, but it would be nice to be a touch bigger than average. Jus' saying.

We all know size matters. How then do we fluff up the endowment to get to average?

Contract Talk: WIU/UPI Extension Language

2010-04-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

Several readers have asked us to weigh in on the UPI contract extension. We don't really have time to do a proper job of it, but we are going to give everyone with a vested interest a forum to ask questions and provide comments.

Here are the links provided courtesy of the Provost's webpage.

WIU/UPI Agreement: Extension Language - 2010-15

The faculty vote will occur on April 27th and 28th in the university union. If you can't make it to the open sessions or you want clarification, we will do our best to answer your questions.

Guest Post by Bill O'R'lyeh: AL-SHAT, we swallowed

2010-04-17T05:25:00.000-07:00

Less than one year after leaving the “Al Goldfarb School of Higher Administrative Talent” (or, Al-SHAT™) on the WIU campus to take up the position of Provost at Columbus State University, Dr. Inessa Levi has made a surprising discovery. Years of training as Dean of WIU’s College of Arts & Sciences utterly failed to prepare her for coping with the unknown: competent and professional university faculty members.

Last week, the Faculty Senate at Columbus State University voted by more than a 3-to-1 margin (16-5) to subject Provost Levi to a campus-wide no confidence vote. The referendum will take place this coming week. CSU President Tim Mescon will appear separately on the ballot.

According to a story appearing this past Tuesday in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, the vote is an outgrowth of faculty anger over initiatives enacted by Levi and Mescon relating to:

The promotion and tenure evaluation processes.
The position and status of the library within the university structure.
The administrative searches at the levels of provost and dean.
The reorganization of academic colleges and departments.
The creation and composition of university-level committees and task forces.
The handling of personnel matters.
The faculty role in institutional governance.

Susan Hrach, executive officer of the CSU faculty senate, reports that the decision to hold the no confidence vote is a move that “some members of the faculty senate had been pushing for since late last year.” [emphasis added]

In other words, it took a little over five months for the CSU faculty to recognize and react against the same stinking shit that WIU’s peasant minions’ silently swallowed for nearly five years.

Things don’t look good at the moment for Cap’n Al’s former crew-person. Still, it’s too early to write off Provost Levi as a failed WIU administrative alum. Even when next week’s vote goes against her there’ll still be hope. All she must do to salvage her career is to find the right institutional match for her talent and temperament; a place where indolent and docile faculty are too ignorant to recognize manifest incompetence and too cowardly to stand up in defense of their interests. That shouldn’t be difficult.

Press Release: WTND-FM 106.3

2010-04-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

WTND-FM 106.3
A Low Power Community Radio Station for Macomb
PO Box 665, Macomb, IL 61455
http:// www.wtnd.us
309/252-1850

For Immediate Release More information:
Lisa Barr 607/267-9337;   repealpatriotact@gmail.com
Elaine Hopkins, 309/231-5758;   ehopkins7@prodigy.net

PLEASE JOIN US AT NOON on Friday, April 16   IN THE CHANDLER PARK GAZEBO FOR A PRESS CONFERENCE/PICNIC WITH A MINI-CONCERT IN HONOR OF WTND-FM (Low Power, Macomb) AND ITS NEW PROGRAMMING and WEBSITE.

WTND-FM 106.3, a low power community radio station for Macomb, has added new national news programming to its 24-hour broadcast schedule. These significant shows are not available anywhere else on the radio in west-central Illinois, and provide alternative information and perspectives not heard on the news and talk shows on commercial or public radio.

It is now presenting Democracy Now, Free Speech Radio News, Making Contact, This Way Out, Between the Lines, Counterspin, and LeShow.

The mini-concert on Friday will feature folk singer, songwriter and activist Anne Feeney and her colleague Evan Greer, who are on a Generations of Resistence tour through the Midwest.

        WTND is owned by an Illinois not-for-profit corporation and operated by Macomb residents Tom DePauw and Darryl Roberts. It has been on the air since 2003 thanks to the volunteer efforts of dozens of radio fans.

           Barr and Hopkins worked over the past year to get WTND back on firmer financial footing. Barr said the effort began with rumors about the station at the Macomb Area Alliance for Peace and Justice weekly vigils held Saturday mornings during the Bush Administration.

           The 2009 “Celebration of Resistance to War and Waste” brought Darryl and Tom out with recording equipment. DePauw and Roberts recorded:

Iraq war veteran and WIU student Adam Brown “THE PLIGHT OF IRAQI WAR VETS: Invisible Injuries Uncounted,”

WIU graduate Kristy Dykema “WHAT WAR?: Psychological Distancing of Americans from War on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan;”

IL Green Gubernatorial Candidate Rich Whitney “The 100 Days Campaign to End Torture and the State of Civil Liberties in America,” or “The Need to Continue Opposition to the Occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.

   DePauw and Roberts are also digitizing musical performances from that day in Middle Earth’s open area (which saw over 100 attend despite a late winter snowstorm) which include: Music by Erin and Chris and David Rovics.

    David Rovics’ Fall appearance in Macomb thankfully brought Tom and Darryl out again. "This time Elaine Hopkins jumped into action and, thanks to Elaine’s daughter, Ginger Wheeler, we now have a sustainable web presence which will ensure fundraising for a continued on-air presence,” said Barr.

              Hopkins says David Rovics will be featured in a Fall fundraiser party the radio station hopes to turn into an annual, fun event. “The Carbondale community radio station is something we’re trying to model ourselves after, eventually,” said Hopkins, adding “We hope to make this a place where lots of new local voices can also be heard, in additional to the unique national and international perspectives WTND brings Macomb.”

            For more information on the station, its schedule and coverage area, see its newly revamped website at www.wtnd.us.

Moving Time: Quinn, Goldfarb, & Rives plan to move WIU to QC!!

2010-04-01T04:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's Quad Cities groundbreaking for the new Riverfront Campus was supposed to be THE big news for the QC this year. But early this morning we have learned that President Goldfarb along with the BOT have been working very hard behind the scenes to move WIU to the Quad Cities. After talking with Joe Rives, VP of planning and the architect of the "master plan" AND the front runner to be the next President of WIU, Governor Quinn was finally convinced of the idea.

Quinn was heard saying: "I come to the QC so much more than Macomb. I cannot remember the last time I was in Macomb, really. It makes so much sense, WIU should be in the QC. Politicians like to build things not repair them, and the Macomb campus is falling apart and the will of the people of Illinois isn't there to fix it. The will wasn't there to maintain it for the last 20 years either. But we can build a new WIU right here on the river. Student will want to attend WIU after it is moved to the Quad Cities because of the restaurants and four downtown bar scenes. It will also allow for more summer school classes to be offered. I cannot think of a better use of our tax dollars."

A UPI representative asked the Governor about jobs at the new WIU: Would the faculty and staff be allowed to keep their jobs and move to the new campus? The governor was less specific on this matter, but he did say: "We are looking into the possibility of officially closing WIU's Macomb campus and starting a new campus at the QC. This will have the advantage of not requiring us to keep all the expensive, underworked tenured professors and allow the new WIU QC to hire all new, more energetic assistant professors who will need to work hard to get tenure. The new professors will not only be less expensive, but our students will be able to relate to them better. Overall, we think the state can save nearly 100 million dollars over the next 3 years by doing this. Of course we are talking with lawyers to see just how difficult the dismissals will be. But I have been assured, we have the ability to fire them all if we need to, and we will. Something similar was recently done in Dallas. But once again, I will do what is in the best interest of the people footing the bill in this state. And fixing up a broken down campus when we can build a better one for less is foolish, n'est-ce pas?"

So DW says, get ready to try to sell your Macomb home. It's moving time!

See the Governor's complete statement on WIU's closure and move to the QC here.

reader rant: "counted out" or "a few bad apples"?

2010-03-26T05:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, we get it. You REALLY want to talk about the drinking, the state of the city, and generally vent.

Count me out wrote:

"I can't speak to all the reasons for declining enrollment, but I can tell you why this family won't be sending our child to Western: the evidence of rampant alcohol abuse and the infliction of an Animal House mentality upon neighborhoods bordering the college.... Our high school band has marched in the Homecoming parade for several years and it is the only event where we have to put adults among the band in order to protect them from assaults by onlookers (drunk or high WIU students). That the University tolerates this behavior tells me everything I need to know about how seriously they take education."

Can't say we disagree--our children won't attend WIU either.

WE've attended the fall parade and stood on Adams between Albert and Clay to the cacophony of profane music and students yelling offensive things to passers by. Not exactly your idea of a quaint small town parade, now is it?

Let's be clear: the town of Macomb and WIU tolerate a whole lot of misbehavin'. And no matter how much you say it's a few bad apples, it ain't!

Every time someone comes to Macomb, they are judging the city and it's leadership, the university and it's leadership, and the people who live here. Take a walk down trash alley Adams! On most days you'll find yards littered with beer bottles and Keystone cans, not to mention a whole lotta dog excrement. All this right across form Sherman Hall. Don't forget, with warmer weather Beer Pong Olympics will be in full swing soon, too.

Here's what realcollegetour.com has to say about WIU:

"The party scene is awesome. ______ is out-of-control. Here, you can expect a few hundred students partying it up until 3-4am during the warmer months."

"There were more drinking games going on in one place than I have ever seen in my life."

For comparison, we suggest you check out ISU or SIU on the site.

But it's not just WIU, it's the city of Macomb's weak leadership too. It starts with the Mayor, the city attorney, and zoning and enforcement office. If they don't set the tone, then you get what we have: a freaking mess.

Hey, city leaders this one's for you: A little over a year ago The Pace was busted for underage drinking. The punishment meted out by Mick Wisslead: close down over a short 2 day break. Yep, that'll teach 'em. The pace undoubtedly made more money by selling alcohol to minors than they lost by closing when students were gone. Hardly a deterrent.

AND the overall condition of the town is depressing and dirty, not to mention the roads are bad enough to bruise internal organs and induce labor. Yep, I can see how this place could draw students like pigs to shit bees to honey.

Oh, we know some of you will accuse us of tearing down WIU and the town, but take a good long look around--and then tell us we're wrong.

id(10)t

2010-03-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

In other news, let's celebrate the IDT department.

Who knew that getting a graduate degree in IDT at Western could open up so many opportunities in Administration? Wow. Photoshop + Dreamweaver = WIU Administrator. That's it! We're getting IDT degrees, so watch your back administrator...we might get YOUR job.

So, help us out readers...who is a Photoshop/Dreamweaver Ninja and an administrator? We can think of two right off the top of our heads, but we don't want to spoil your fun. Bonus points for adding the WIU news link announcing their hiring.

musical chairs

2010-03-09T10:46:00.000-08:00

Do you remember playing musical chairs in elementary school? We do too! It was fun until some bully knocked you the hell off right after the music stopped.

It seems the university is a fan of the game, too.

We've gotten several e-mails about department chairs, so this is what we know -- help us fill in the gaps. Over the last three years there have been some interesting developments: hiring chairs from outside the university, chairs quitting (for administrative assistant positions elsewhere, we hear), and failed searches. While we're at it...why are there so many interim chairs? And should CAS really be hiring a new dean so close to Al's departure and the hiring of a new pres (who historically fires deans).

A disclaimer: since the department chair is the link between the faculty and administration and has to answer to a dean, this is a difficult position.

Here is just a partial list:

English
African American Studies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwara_State_University
Women's Studies
LEJA
Political Science
Communication
Physics
Chemistry
Special Education
Kinesiology
Accountancy
Management

plus/minus grading...mission accomplished?

2010-02-25T11:34:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Since +/- has been a big topic lately, we are moving this post to the front from 8/17/09.

In Oct. of 2003, President Bush declared Mission Accomplished as an end to major combat operations in Iraq.

Is the plus/minus grading system Goldfarb's Mission Accomplished moment? In 2005, President Goldfarb approved "without delay" Faculty Senate's vote to move toward a plus/minus grading system. Nearly four years later it has yet to be implemented.

Sorry, Al. Just 'cause you deemed it so, didn't make it so; the plus/minus war rages on. Perhaps the professors who claim it conflicts with their grading systems (frankly, calling what some of our colleagues do systematic is too kind), or the students who've cried out against it have unduly influenced its implementation?

Oops, that's not it. It's this:

WIU Registrar Software: D+.

If WIU's website is correct (HAHAHA), then we'll have plus/minus grades after the online grade submission system is built. See proposed system below:

Proposed Design: C-

*Per unofficial policy, all grades inflated to 'B'.

Guest Post: Bill O'R'lyeh responds to calls for "more context"

2010-02-19T11:25:00.000-08:00

Bill has decided to respond to reader requests for more context concerning his post yesterday. The DW really appreciates his efforts. If other readers want to provide comments, analyses, or guest posts, but are afraid to e-mail us, you can always do it anonymously through the comment forms or create a free anonymous e-mail account. No serious effort will be denied a forum. -- dw

In response to my post from yesterday, two anonymous commentators (February 18 @ 7:26am and 4:30pm) asked for more “context” regarding the history of faculty/staff lines in those departments currently undertaking hires. I’m not surprised that this question was raised. It is a subject I had considered addressing when I began researching the post. I quickly realized, however, that given the available information, it wasn’t feasible to trace the history of these departments based on their number of faculty & instructional lines. [Once again, the open sources are here and here.] In any event, while the Anonys are entitled to note that historical “context” may be helpful, their focus on “lines” is misplaced.

It’s not enough to simply compare the number of faculty and instructional lines then and now. If you want to accurately measure a department’s contribution to past/present SCH demand based on “lines,” you’d need to know more than simply how many lines were/are in the department. You’d need to know what (and how much) each line contributed (i.e. who taught which courses, how many SCH they each produced, and whether or not some lines made other, non-quantifiable contributions, etc.) Just because a line existed then, doesn’t mean that its occupant was carrying a full SCH load. [This is particularly important in departments/units where faculty who work under the auspices of external grants, for example, may be doing less teaching. It also applies to Chairs, some of whom teach during the summers.] Even then, this “context” would do nothing to measure the presumed qualitative differences between the ever-shifting ratios of tenure-track versus adjunct faculty.

This is not to say that you can’t estimate contributions on the basis of the rough number of faculty/instructional lines. But if you think that this type of a rough estimate is relevant, you don’t understand the nature of the administrative-bureaucratic mindset.

Bureaucrats (especially those who function at smaller, less-significant institutions) have tiny, narrow minds. They desire simple things. They especially desire simple things that will enable them to demonstrate "Results." For "Results," in turn, make it possible for the Bureaucrat to move upward to bigger, more-important institutions.

Above all, Bureaucrats desire “Numbers.” These are their talismans. Numbers are magical devices that make things easier. Numbers reduce complex and difficult “problems” into simplistic “solutions.” They enable the Bureaucrat to cover broadly subjective decisions with a thin veneer of pseudo-social scientific “objectivity.” The Bureaucrat knows that “there is safety in numbers.” “Numbers” and their offspring, “Data,” “Statistics,” and “Metrics,” provide cover for the Bureaucrat’s ass.

The fetish for “objective,” “quantifiable” Numbers is particularly strong among a bureaucratic sub-species known as the "Educrat." Don’t believe me? Think Course Evaluation Questionnaires, monthly reports, GenEd Assessment, PAA documents, and the constant barrage of “Please rank from 1 to 5” surveys that fill your “in-box” every semester. These are the building blocks of “institutional data.” Data are the masturbatory objects of Educratic desire.

When the cuts come, the Administration isn’t going to respond to the plaintive wail, “Ohh, but President Hackenslash, you don’t understand my unit still hasn’t replaced Dr. Picknose’s line from 2004.” The Administration will satisfy Itself by looking to The Data. And The Data that they will look to (for reasons described here) is the ratio of SCH production vs. departmental faculty overhead.

Here, as a continuing public service, are the relevant Data for yesterday's SCH “Loss Leaders:”

As should be clear, in the context of this Data, few of these departments appear to be suffering under the load of “lost” lines. This is “context” of the sort you asked for.

Ultimately, however, yesterday’s Anony @ 7:22pm is correct when s/he observed that you are missing the real point of my post. The point is not which departments should currently be filling lines. None of them should. Why? Because of the context of what’s going on everywhere in the country except Macomb, Illinois. To repeat from yesterday’s post, institutions of all shapes and sizes are shedding faculty/staff and downsizing departments/units on a scale we’ve never seen before. Here, for good measure, is another one, just announced yesterday. It’s in Texas where (to repeat still more essential "context" from yesterday) the economic outlook is vastly superior to the State of Ill.

The call to focus on the “context” of past/present lines misses the bigger picture. To put it another way, you’re asking for more details about the relative sizes and shapes of the Spruce pines and Douglas firs while standing in the middle of a fucking forest fire.

Finally, my posts may be “cute” (as one put it), but there is nothing “fun” about them in the least. I do not enjoy watching this institution spiral to its death thanks to the serial incompetence of its administration and the cowardly apathy of its faculty. But I will admit I am a cynic. And I will laugh bitterly and long at the irony of fate should our elected representatives in Springfield, following measures being discussed in a neighboring state, decide upon an obvious cost-cutting solution: downsizing WIU into Illinois State University—Macomb campus.

Now that, President Goldfarb, would be one helluva legacy.

3 Questions for President Goldfarb about his recent cash flow letter

2010-02-18T15:40:00.000-08:00

Dear President Goldfarb:

We read your most recent cash flow letter with interest. We have three questions:

First, what do you mean by: "All vacant positions for the Spring 2010 Semester are being held"?

Second, what do you mean by: "Since the Fall 2009 semester, we have asked all departments to limit spending to immediate operational needs only"

Given the recent comments on this blog about hiring faculty and administrators and the on going searches, we want to know what you mean and how are the considerible costs of these searches deemed "immediate operational needs only"?

Third, who is going to lend WIU money? The state owns us, and we have no real assets. Moreover, why would a bank lend to a state institution given the State of Illinois isn't paying its bills to universities or hospitals or insurance agencies? Remember when the state of California was providing IOUs to everyone, it was the bankers who put a stop to it and wouldn't take them any more. I bet the bankers realize Illinois isn't going to pay anything quickly if past practices are any indication, and won't lend to us. And if they did, what would it solve?

We just don't understand, and neither do our readers.

Guest Post: Bill O'R'lyeh on “When, how many, and whom?”

2010-02-17T18:40:00.000-08:00

Bill O’R’lyeh says: The question isn’t “If?”, but “When, how many, and whom?”

Well, that’s progress for you.

Just over a week ago, President Goldfarb, together with chancellors and presidents of Illinois public universities, sent off another letter to Governor Quinn and the state comptroller urging them to deliver funding to higher education or…or…

Or what, exactly?

The letter read, in part:

"We have done what we can to forestall this crisis by enacting countless measures to save resources and postpone payments until the last possible moment. We have drawn down our available resources, and we are now counting on tuition dollars to keep our doors open for students beginning in the new spring semester…”

I won’t address what’s going on elsewhere in the state. Here at WIU, however, it is certainly true that in the face of an “unprecedented crisis” Al’s leadership team is taking “countless” measures. But that’s only because doing nothing is impossible to quantify.

DW readers are doubtless aware that with all signs pointing to nation-wide fiscal Armageddon and despite chronic, long-term enrollment declines, WIU is in the midst of a hiring binge. As of this moment, searches are currently underway for fifteen administrative positions and thirty-three faculty/staff lines.

What DW readers may not know is that twenty-two of WIU’s open tenure-track lines (including Chair searches) are anchored in departments that have seen their Student Credit Hours (SCH) drop over the past five years. Among these shrinking departments, ten (!) have experienced SCH reductions in excess of 10%.

Here are the top (or should that be “bottom”?) Loss Leaders.

The numbers speak for themselves, and they’re begging a question: How large of a drop-off in SCH must a WIU department experience before its faculty is down-sized?

The answer appears to be “countless.” After all, if an enrollment collapse of 25-30% isn’t sufficient "counsel" for eliminating a line, then no department is “too small to fail.” (And what must the Incredibly Shrinking Department of History be thinking?)

The problem with this fantasy-based approach is that economic reality will inevitably come a-callin’.
In the world that exists beyond the borders of our little Imaginationland, innumerable

searches have long since been cancelled and tenure-track faculty positions left unfilled while entire programs, departments, and units are being eliminated by colleges and universities of all shapes and sizes. Significantly, these personnel and programmatic reductions are occurring in states where near- and long-term fiscal conditions are downright rosy compared to the State of Ill.

The reason these actions are being taken elsewhere is simple. Competent administrators and clear-eyed faculty understand what WIU’s deluded minions refuse to see. When the budget axe falls, it must snicker-snack its way through the necks of faculty & staff. Why? Because personnel costs account for the overwhelming majority of a university’s budget. The only way to reduce institutional expenses in a meaningful way is to reduce the number of faculty, staff, and bureaucrats. The only rational approach to making unavoidable, targeted reductions is to cease replacement hires. Doing so during a protracted period of declining enrollment requires damned little courage. Failing to do so during a protracted period of declining enrollment requires damned little brains.

So here’s an obvious suggestion. Cancel every one of the faculty searches listed above (and all of the on-going administrative hires). The annual savings from eliminating the Loss Leaders’ lines alone would amount to at least $1.18 million (including fringe).

This is not a particularly insightful suggestion. (But then again, ‘round these-here parts the blindingly obvious long goes unnoticed). Admittedly, this won’t do anything to address WIU’s “countless” systemic dysfunctions. But, it would be a start.

Whatever the case, one thing should be abundantly clear.

It is not in the interest of any current WIU employee to have Cap’n Al’s sinking ship taking on additional ballast.

If these positions aren’t cut now, then other personnel cuts will come later. And those future cuts will be made on the basis of economic terms dictated to campus by a new, in-coming administration.

What’s that, you say? There’s no cause for concern? Your job is safe because you have tenure? The UPI Contract language is clear: “Last hired, first fired”? The Union will protect you?

Tell that to the former employees of Florida Atlantic University.

$pend your $ummer at We$tern.....

2010-02-15T20:10:00.000-08:00

The administration has a great idea: summer school enrollment = mo money, mo money, mo money! Let's see if that snazzy poster ends in a deluge of 18 to 22 year olds taking summer classes (purple billboard, anyone?)

What's all the money for, you ask...

Let's look at the numbers (in case you haven't noticed, we like numbers):

$5,500 (or 1/9th their salary) = cost for an assistant professor to teach a summer class.
$30,000 (roughly) = tuition and fees generated by a class with 30 students.
$24,500 = amount left over after paying the assistant prof.

Where does that extra 24.5K (per class) go? To pay for administration's extra months of pay, or as we like to say--admin bloat!

Bonus! If the classes are online, they don't even have to turn on the lights or the air. Smart thinking, Al.

But wait, who will teach the classes? Oops...

Assistant professors are a good bet; they're cheap and always need money as many are still grad-student poor. But, they should spend their summers writing and doing research so they can become tenured.
Full professors, on the other hand, are more expensive, but they don't have the pressures of assistant professors. Therefore, they should teach summer school. Problem is they don't always have the same financial incentives to take on summer teaching. The biggest problem with this option is that admin doesn't want full professors teaching summer classes because they are too expensive, which, as you guessed it, means less money for admin bloat.
That's why administration wants to cap how much faculty can make teaching summer classes.

So, who the hell is gonna teach the classes? And if it's the assistant profs, are they sacrificing their scholarship to line the pockets of overpaid-underthinking-underperforming-administrators?!!

Memo to the undergraduates: Here is all you need to know about the admin at Western: $how We$tern the money! Congratulations, we're still your university.

dear registrar....Al says small actions for big savings!!!

2010-02-04T18:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Registrar,

We are in a cash flow crisis. Al wants us to turn out the lights as "small actions can result in significant savings," and we think you should save paper and man hours by no longer mailing out rosters twice a semester to both the faculty and the departments. We love those green and white sheets, but we can download more accurate rosters and save them to our desktop. No paper needed! No collating on your behalf! No mailing! We won't even try to calculate the number of wasted dollars trees pages. Nor will we try to figure out just how much faculty travel might have been sacrificed to pay for outdated class rosters!

E-mail to faculty from WIU Registrar:

Attached are your class rosters from the Office of the Registrar. Printed class rosters are in the process of being distributed via campus mail to academic departments. (bold added) Faculty rosters are also available through the RSTR screen on WIUP at http://mvs.wiu.edu/ or the Registrar's website athttp://www.wiu.edu/Registrar/lists.php.

guest post: another outsider's view of WIU

2010-01-28T20:35:00.000-08:00

Here is another outsider's view, sent in by a reader who wishes to remain anonymous.
--d.w.

I am not a student or an employee of WIU but I am closely related to an employee at the University and I am friends with others. I have read every entry on your site along with the comments and some I strongly agree with and some I do not. I have read with interest the entries about the budget, faculty issues, and enrollment/retainment issues at WIU. I have been talking about these matters for quite some time with others in Macomb and those I know or that I am related to that are students or employed at WIU. You have had a couple other "outsider" commentary on your site and I'd like to add one more.

Budget: I totally agree that WIU is "bloated" with administration. As someone that attended and graduated from a college with an administration that consisted of 3 deans and a president for the entire institution (and 2 secretaries the 3 deans shared and one secretary for the president) I can't believe how many "administrators" this college seems to think it needs to operate. Granted the school I attended was a smaller school. That being said however, if you take the percentage of administrators to students at my school and compare it to WIU, the bloat is obvious. How many assistants to assistants does WIU really need? How many deans? Has it gotten to the point where WIU needs a dean of urinals and toilets yet? I have seen ads for jobs at the university that seem to duplicate jobs that others already have or jobs that I believe could be done by an already existing employee. It's pretty much a fact in any kind of business or institution, including a university, that the more administration you get, the more bureaucracy you get...and the more bureaucracy, the less gets done, communication gets more difficult and becomes nonexistant, and a slew of other problems arise.

Faculty: As I said, I am not a student, but I live around and talk to many, I read the WC and comments on the articles, and I am acquainted with and am related to current and former students at WIU. Your assessment of some faculty is spot on from what I have heard. I have been told by one person that he/she is in their final year for their undergraduate degree and this person is taking 300 level courses and told me how disappointed he/she is with the quality of the courses they have taken and that he/she can't name one course that he/she has taken that this person feels was at all challenging or intellectually stimulating. This person has gotten A's and B's and feels like he/she has coasted through.

Another complaint I have heard from this person and others as well is how some faculty (and it seems to be becoming a trend) are allowing the students who are unprepared and/or lazy to drag the rest of the class down and to lower expectations. Frequently assignments and papers that students have had more than sufficient time to complete are not getting completed by a number of students on time so instead of penalizing these students, faculty is moving the due date farther out, sometimes doing this numerous times for one assignment. The students that have been responsible and have done the work then feel like they have been treated unfairly and have no incentive to continue to show good work and study habits. This also causes the class to move more slowly through the material because the instructor has to go over things that they should already know and also instructors may not be able to cover as much material or cover it as in depth as they should be because they frankly run out of time and the semester ends. Students are being enabled by some faculty to continue to be or become lazy and irresponsible and that is impacting the education of all students and is not helping students to become better students.

I have heard some students complain about the english speaking skills of some professors. I have heard this from enough different students that I have to believe there's something to it. If an instructor is not able to be understood by his or her students, there is little learning taking place no matter how knowledgeable an instructor is in that particular subject.

I have heard of students that are almost done with their degree and have never once met their faculty advisor in person! This should not happen. It should be mandatory that students meet with their advisor in person at least once a school year, perhaps once a semester in the case of freshmen and sophomores. Many problems could potentially be dealt with early or headed off entirely by such meetings (if they're done right!).

Student Enrollment/Retainment: I have much to say about this subject (as I listen to the students living next door screaming and yelling as they are playing drinking games.)

I think this is not only a problem that can be pinned on WIU itself, but also the city of Macomb. No, I'm not going to go into the lack of activities/entertainment in town. Personally, I think that's somewhat irrelevant. I attended college in a town with no more "to do" than Macomb and I have been to other campuses in the same situation and not seen the things I see almost daily taking place in Macomb. I think the issue lies with the university and the city failing to really have a close relationship where they truly work together to bring about what's best for both entities. The university and Macomb are attempting to operate as if they are two completely seperate entities....there's Macomb and then there's WIU so to speak. As much as it should be obvious that one is dependent on the other, neither administration seems to truly realize this and act on it. Neither honestly really seems to care. All I hear from both are excuses for why they can't do this or that. We have a mayor that thinks the biggest problem in the NW quadrant of Macomb is a student occassionally urinating on the railroad tracks. We have a city administration/public works dept. that basically consists of one person that doesn't seem capable, either due to too much workload, laziness, or having their hands tied by the city (I've heard all these given as reasons) to properly enforce codes. We have law enforcement that is tied up by an ineffective complaint driven system where they won't act on many problems unless there is a complaint called in and frankly, people get very tired of having to call multiple times a week. All of these things lead to an environment where students that are living completely on their own for the first time have no one and nothing to "reign them in." The conditions where most students live, the NW quadrant, have become so oversaturated with student rental housing due to lack of foresight by the city in their zoning laws, lack of enforcement of existing zoning laws, and these things leading to an exodus of single families from the area, that there is no balance between rental and single family and thus they do not learn how to be a good and respectful citizens and neighbors and when they do live around a few single family homes, are not able to think beyond themselves to the rights of others and how their actions affect those around them.

How does this affect student enrollment and retention? Students that are living in an environment with few and poorly enforced boundaries are more likely to fall into bad habits and engage in behaviors like excessive drinking/partying instead of putting their education and their responsibilities to that as a top priority. Therefore their grades suffer and they drop out or move back home to attend a community college or smaller school closer to home, or get a job. Sometimes parents pull the plug on them. Sometimes they feel that their grades have suffered so badly and they have dug themselves so deep into a hole that there's no point continuing even though they haven't technically "flunked out."

Some students come here with their priorities being to party and go crazy with their new "freedoms" and actually getting an education is somewhere further down their priority list. I feel that the college is putting quantity before quality when it comes to admissions. Of course a public institution is probably not going to have as high a quality of students on the whole as some private, big name universities, but I feel a lot more could be done to improve the quality of the students at WIU, to attract higher quality students, and to start tearing down the image of WIU as a "party school" (which has a part to play in enrollment because it deters many good students from coming here) and end the alcohol/party culture that has taken root here for quite some time. However, a culture shift can't be accomplished by WIU alone, the city has a big part to play in that too. Unfortunately, neither side really seems to be serious about or willing to do what's necessary to achieve that. Until that happens, we will continue to see the snowball effect of more and more poor to mediocre quality students coming to WIU thus turning off the higher quality students from attending and thus increasing the "party" image and culture. I truly feel that until the image and culture issues are truly dealt with and changed, WIU will never be the institution of higher education that it has the potential to be and the "higher" in the adage of "Higher Values in Higher Education" will continue to mean something totally different than what it was intended to mean. The university does little to nothing to truly attempt to change this culture. They allow alcohol establishments to use copyrighted images of WIU's mascot as advertisement (West Pierce Liquors...and yes the admin at WIU is aware they are doing this and have been for some time.) They allow the university newspaper to be saturated with stories and references to alcohol use and abuse. The behavior of students leads community members to despise instead of support and have pride in WIU. There's, at least in my opinion, little to no pride in WIU or the city from students or community members. That is a major problem and one that is bred by the culture that has been allowed to become entrenched at WIU and affects so many things. People are told it is a "minority" of students, which is probably true, but this minority is growing each year and even a minority of a student body of thousands can be quite a sizeable number and create a lot of issues both for WIU and Macomb.

There's much more on these subjects I could say, but I feel that this I've made this long enough for now. You have my permission to post this if you so choose but please do not post my email address and I won't include my name. This is not because I'm any sort of "coward" but for the privacy of those that have spoken to me and those that I am related to that attend or are employed by WIU.

the faculty problem(s)!

2010-01-23T16:34:00.000-08:00

Faculty, you know we can't let you off so easy! Oh, sure, there are some really good faculty doing a great job and trying to make WIU a place to be proud of...

But...there's also this:

APATHY: We've said it before, and we'll say it again--too many faculty are not engaged in their disciplines (if they ever were).

This makes them not particularly interesting as teachers and even less interesting as colleagues.
If students find their teachers boring, just imagine how their colleagues feel.
This is a university, at least pretend to be interested in something!

Service work, especially the useless make-work-kind, doesn't count as something interesting.

HIRING: If only we had a nickle for the number of times we've heard: "This person isn't a good fit because they won't stay in Macomb" or "They are too good and they will try to leave in a few years."

Weak faculty, in general, tend to hire weaker faculty.
Why? Weak faculty can't compete with strong, competent candidates, and God forbid, we should actually have standards!
And with every weak/bad hire the standards erode further (and few people on campus have the credentials and guts to judge others as not worthy of having a job here).

WIU should make the best possible hires--period! It is a buyer's market for most disciplines! So what if they only stay for a few years and leave? In the interim we got the best person for as long as we could, and now we can go get another hotshot to energize the place for the next 3 to 5 years. The take away:

HIRE PEOPLE WHO MAKE YOU WANT TO STAY HERE NOT PEOPLE WHO JUST STAY HERE!

*Right now this isn't an issue, of course, because we shouldn't be hiring anyone.

MACOMB: Why do so many faculty live outside Macomb and get special teaching arrangements?

If you teach here, but don't live here you are leaching off the community.
Faculty from all corners of the state (and beyond) call WIU their academic home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but don't live here.
Not being here is a burden to those who are here, but once again, few of our colleagues hold each other accountable.

4:35

Why is the campus a ghost town at 4:35?
There is no energy on campus; it begins and ends with the faculty.

FACULTY TO ADMIN: Why do so many of the current administration either have no academic experience (never held a tenure track job or don't have advanced degrees) or have weak academic records?

Other than the President (CV online), we dare our readers to find the CV of a person with any of the following in their title: vice-president (any! -- academic, associate, or assistant), director, or dean. There may be a few, but not many.
Put the link to their CV in a comment and we will give them a gold star for academic honesty.

FACULTY RECORDS: While we're at it...the faculty aren't so good at publicly displaying their academic CVs either.

What are they hiding?
Some department are better than others, but most department webpages (and faculty) information is so sparse and uninformative that it is embarrassing.
It's hard to find any relevant faculty information, and students don't know what we care about or what are interests are. Maybe that's what's keeping them away.

INCESTUOUSNESS: The current undergraduate catalog (pdf) lists 1003 "faculty and professional staff" members.

220 of those people have their highest academic degree from Western. (57 have no degree listed.)
Just over 23% of the faculty/professional staff have their highest degrees from Western.
This dysfunctional feedback loop has fed the WIU-way and created a lot of the problems we see on campus today.
It won't be easy, but that loop needs to be broken, busted, and buried.

Remember, the faculty are the university. Unless they take a real leadership role and reclaim their rightful position as stewards of this academic institution, there won't be an academic institution! Presidents, provosts, deans, and students come and go, but the faculty remain. Since faculty are going to be left holding this bag, they should at least properly decide what's in it and who stands beside them carrying the weight.

shuffle up and deal: hand 1

2010-01-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

We love cards, and one of our favorite games is Bullshit. And right now we have to call it on an administrator. Here we go...

Let's see if you can figure it out:

Since basketball is in full swing, and Coach Molinari is from Peoria, we are reminded of a story told to us by an administrator who is an alumnus of Pekin High. Our administrator has made three bold, basketball related claims.

Played on the 1967 Pekin High School Basketball Team, which won the Illinois State Title. Box scores for the Pekin High run at the 1967 title are available here.
Was the very first basketball recruit by Norm Stewart to play at the University of Missouri
Played college basketball at Missouri against his Pekin High teammates who played at Illinois.

So there you have it.

For our basketball history buffs, you can view and search the entire history of Missouri Basketball in a PDF file here. If you played one minute at Missouri, they have you listed. That's no BS. Jus' Saying.

COAP-ting "faculty governance"

2010-01-17T12:58:00.000-08:00

Remember that letter to the campus community? Y'know, the one where Goldfarb said, "I ask each of you to assist in conserving costs by reducing energy consumption as much as possible. Please make the effort to shut off lights, computers, etc. Such small actions can result in significant savings."

Compare that to the COAP letter sent out last week, where Schuyler Miexner said, "...the University Cabinet has estimated that our financial reserves will sustain University payroll only through March." AND, "In light of these concerns the COAP executive board recognizes an impending and urgent need for a proactive discussion with the University regarding fiscal solutions for the remainder of the current budget year and through FY2011. "

Here's the thing, the university knew months ago (November at least) that there was only enough money to cover payroll through March. But, did anyone tell YOU?

-- d.w.

Guest Poster Bill O'R'lyeh:

"[Illinois is facing] the worst financial calamity the state has ever had."

--Governor Pat Quinn, "State of the State Address" (13 January 2010) State of the State Address

"As Illinois enters the third quarter of fiscal year 2010, the state must be prepared to confront the most dangerous fiscal conditions in modern history."

-- Dan Hynes, Illinois Comptroller in Comptroller's Quarterly, Edition 34 (January 2010) Comptroller's Quarterly

Late Friday afternoon, the Executive Committee of the Council of Administrative Personnel dispatched a "Letter to COAP Membership Regarding State of Illinois Cash Flow." The letter was accompanied by a short survey requesting COAP members' feedback on "solutions that could be recommended to the President and University Cabinet" to "ease the burden" of WIU's impending budget crisis.

Kudos to COAP President Schuyler Meixner and the COAP Executive Board for being upfront and engaged regarding the seriousness of WIU's fiscal train wreck. It's nice to see that someone on campus has finally gotten the message. Click on the letter at left to view larger image.

Not surprisingly, though, it's business as usual for those pliant and craven employees who have the privilege of participating in the formation of university policy.

Whatever the outcome, COAP members can take cold comfort that when the budget axe begins a-choppin', faculty will be right behind them…at least the newest ones.

crunching #s: majors vs. sch production & department health

2010-01-08T05:25:00.000-08:00

What's your department's BMI?

A department's health (and contribution to the university) can be calculated in many ways.

Number of Majors
One simple metric is # of majors, but since departments serve more than just majors, this isn't a particularly good metric (some department/programs don't even have majors -- this was the case with Anthropology and Religious Studies until recently). Majors are a zero sum game. For one program to get majors another has to lose them (unless we let more students into the university). This makes counting majors a poor metric for determining overall dept. health.

Student Credit Hours
Another, more accurate, measurement is student credit hours (SCH). SCH calculations are particularly important when it comes to understanding the contributions made by departments in the College of Arts & Sciences. Not incidentally, CAS departments like anthropology, history, math, philosophy, religious studies, political science, biology, English, and physics are the heart and soul of a liberal arts education -- the foundation of a university. They are the core of what this institution claims to do in serving the educational needs of Illinois citizens.

So, Dirty looked at the FY09 budget and the student credit hours report for FY09 and crunched the numbers. We have included two data images below the fold. The first represents, in descending order, the personnel cost of each department/program divided by the number of SCH it produces (i.e. how much money it brought in for the university). For example, politcal science generated 6,360 SCH where roughly $150 of the $300 paid per credit hour went towards personnel costs. Leaving $150 per credit hour to go to the university for a total "profit" of $954,000. Basically, political science pays for itself twice over.

Here are all the SCH producing departments and programs including the library (their credit hours are an over estimated guess given this year's performance according to STARS)

Comparing Student Credit Hours against personnel costs gives an idea of how expensive each department really is to maintain. And how much they bring in to the university relative to personnel.

Now, in the next image, let's take a look at operational costs and personnel budgets combined and compare those numbers against the total SCH for each department. Remember, some departments have few majors and small personnel budgets, but lots of operational costs (i.e., the sciences).

Notice that there is a change, though not dramatic, in department ordering.

Things to note:

The library, nursing and music require more total funding, than they generate--in some cases a lot more. We suspect they are the curricular loss leaders at WIU. Theatre and dance and art are really costly given what they produce in SCH in real dollars. For the record, we're not in favor of eliminating the arts, music, nor the library.

So, having few majors doesn't mean a department is part of the economic problem or part of the fat that needs to be trimmed. We suggest that someone else calculate how much non-SCH producing programs cost. That, we claim, is where the bloat/fat resides. If you do the math right, we'll post it.

important budget information

2010-01-05T21:01:00.001-08:00

UPDATE! We got our letter. Everything's fine. Just make sure to turn off the lights...oh, and if it's yellow let it mellow, but if it's brown flush it down. WTF!?

COMPARE: Al's letter, linked above, with Ikenberry's letter, below the fold.
UPDATE! NIU's Budget Letter -- Illinois State's Budget Letter -- Eastern Illinois's Budget Letter

For those of you who, like Robert Hironimus-Wendt, think we're using scare-tactics (we're not), here's a dose of reality from President Stanley Ikenberry at U of I.

Where's our letter? What's our plan?

Thanks to a reader for sending the link (and the Ikenberry letter).

More Info: Details about the furlough program at U of I.

Guest Post: Bill O'R'lyeh on "WIU's Top 10 Administrative Salaries"

2010-01-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

Given on-going conversations here at the DW concerning the state's mounting budget crisis, the administration's priorities, and the ~~possibility~~ inevitability of cuts to campus programs/personnel in the coming year, I thought that it might be worth taking a closer look at the compensation that members of the Sherman Hall Gang receive in exchange for their Leadership and Vision. I've compiled a list of the institution's "Top Ten Administrative Salaries" for the current fiscal year which I'm posting here for your edification and entertainment.

In each instance, what you'll find is a name, salary, and official title – followed by a brief editorial comment and a suggestion regarding how taxpayers' (i.e. your) money might be otherwise spent.

Before anyone gets upset and starts ranting about secrecy, veils, terrorism, and evil-spewers, please be aware that all of this information is open to the public and readily available via the WIU homepage. Nevertheless, I suspect that what follows will be news to most. The salary figures have been taken directly from WIU's FY 2010 Appropriated Funds Budget. I apologize for posting this now, when so many other interesting stories are vying for your attention. I wanted to send it to the DW during the break when things were quiet, but the list took longer to put together than I anticipated. (My white sheet kept getting in the way of typing.)

Remember, this list represents the top ten only. The total number of administrative appointees earning $100,000+ salaries at WIU runs more than fifty (50) deep. Is this too many making too much for doing too little? And should faculty and staff be expected to "do more with less" while the administration appears to be "doing less with more?" DW readers need to decide for themselves.

[Note: The figures appearing below represent each individual's official yearly salary. They do not take into account the costs associated with fringe benefits. For a ballpark figure of the total cost of each of these appointments, add 30%.]

NUMBER TEN

Who?: Dr. Nick DiGrino

How Much?: $150,000

What For?: Interim Dean, College of Education and Human Services

Title-wise, DiGrino is a rather small fish in WIU's sizable pool of highly paid movers and shakers. A whelp of a bureaucrat as mere "Interim Dean," he's still livin' large pulling in a salary nearly six times greater than Macomb's median household income. That's enough for a real nice double-wide.

What Else Could We Get?:

$150,000 would fund $2,500 MAP grants for sixty WIU students.

NUMBER NINE

Who?: TBD

How Much?: est. approx. $150,000

What For?: Vice-President for Advancement & Public Services

According to the job description accompanying the ad for this currently vacant position, "the Vice President for Advancement and Public Services provides leadership and administration of programs and operations related to University Advancement including: Alumni Programs, Foundation and Development, University Relations and Visual Productions Center, Scholarship Office and University Marketing. Working with the President and the senior management in the division, the Vice President establishes priorities for institutional advancement and implements policies and guidelines for each area in the division... The Vice President provides executive leadership and planning to the University’s fund raising campaigns, serves as Executive Officer of the WIU Foundation, and maintains interactive relationships with the WIU Alumni Association. In addition the Vice President for Advancement and Public Services works with the President, leadership in the division, and other campus administrators to articulate the University’s mission to government officials."

That's not a job. It’s a laundry list.

What Else Could We Get?:

A nice warm fire. Rather than filling this post, Illinois taxpayers should simply take 150,000 $1 bills out to an open field and burn them. We'd generate a good 15-minutes or so of useful energy while saving on fringe. But that's not going to happen. Instead, look for President Al to fill this position as quickly as possible…before announcing that the suddenly discovered budgetary crisis requires cancelling all "non-essential" searches.

NUMBER EIGHT

Who?: Dr. Paul Kreider

How Much?: $153,540

What Far?: Dean, College of Fine Arts and Communication

Who says degrees in the Fine Arts don’t pay? A baritone who has appeared on operatic stages around the world (and with numerous recordings to his credit), Kreider is the anomaly on this list: a WIU administrator possessing demonstrable talent. Then again, he's not being paid to sing…

What Else Could We Get?:

640 GB of iTunes. (Enough to buy every student enrolled at WIU the 15 songs they need to suffer through an hour-long class with Robert Hironimus-Rant.)

NUMBER SEVEN

Who?: Coach Don Patterson

How Much?: $154,716…and counting?

What For?: Executive Assistant, Athletics Department

After compiling a record of 63-47 in his ten years as Head Coach of the Fighting Leathernecks football squad, Patterson "retired" in September of last year. Did he step down? Was he pushed? I don’t know. I don’t care. If you get worked up over junior-varsity college football (aka, "FCS") you have too much free time on your hands. Whatever the case, one thing is certain. Patterson is the only person on this list who's ever given the campus something to cheer about.

What Else Could We Get?:

$154,176 will buy a really expensive legal team.

NUMBER SIX

Who?: Dr. Joe Rives

How Much?: $160,692

What For?: Vice-President for Quad Cities, Planning & Technology

Definitive proof that God has a sense of humor and is laughing at your expense, Joe Rives embodies much that's wrong with WIU. A patronage appointment possessing third-rate credentials, Rives excels at making plans and moving on up, largely by producing a never-ending stream of reports that no one ever reads. He takes the "Peter principle" to a whole new level. First at ISU, and now in Macomb, Joe's made his entire career riding Al Goldfarb's back. Not that there's anything wrong with that…

What Else Could We Get?:

Full-ride scholarships (tuition & fees) plus books for twelve students to complete WIU's doctoral program in "Educational Leadership." Sure, adding more bodies to the ever-expanding ranks of educratic hacks is a terrible idea. But if people are stupid enough to think that leadership is conferred by a diploma, you may as well waste the money here on campus.

NUMBER FIVE

Who?: Dr. Hassanali Espahbodi

How Much?: $166,737

What For?: Chair, Department of Accountancy

I'm not sure which is more impressive, Espahbodi's high-flying salary or the fact that he rakes it in while directing a department with no more majors (123) than the Department of Sociology & Anthropology (120). Then again, I suppose it's no surprise that the highest paid Chair on campus heads the Department of Accountancy. You pretty much need that type of expertise to count that much money.

What Else Could We Get?:

$166,737 is enough to buy every graduating senior their own copy of Turbo Tax Home and Business 2009.

NUMBER FOUR

Who?: Dr. Thomas L. Erekson

How Much?: $168,000

What For?: Dean, College of Business & Technology

The fourth highest paid administrator (and the highest paid Dean) on campus, Erekson is in charge of CBT at WIU. Can't say that I'm a fan, but based on Erekson's salary CBT seems to be an administrative priority.

What Else Could We Get?:

With $168,000 Illinois taxpayers could feed 636 starving Third World children for a full year. Alternatively, around 200 of us could treat ourselves to two-hours of CBT in a Chicago dungeon.

NUMBER THREE

Who?: W. Garry Johnson

How Much?: $170,628

What For?: Vice President of Student Services

Want to know where all the money's gone over the past eight years? Look no further than Student Services. As head honcho of the division charged with keeping WIU's paying customers content, Johnson oversees everything from orientation sessions and bus routes, to health services, housing, and wholesome entertainment for the 10,446 (and falling!) snowflakes on campus. Just think of all the cool shit he could do with the time and money we'd save by eliminating classes and the faculty!

What Else Could We Get?:

4,265 bottles of decent scotch, 6,825 Ecstasy tablets, or 25 pounds of weed (give or take). Pick your preference. Or mix and match. If you've lived in Macomb more than a couple of days, you know that sanity here depends on finding the combination that's right for you.

NUMBER TWO

Who?: Ms. Jacqueline Thompson

How Much?: $178,512

What For?: Vice-President of Administrative Services

OK, admit it. You have no idea what a Vice President of Administrative Services does. But you figure it must be pretty important to justify $178,000+ a year, right?

According to the official homepage:

"Administrative Services is a service-oriented area dedicated to supporting Western Illinois University in its mission to have a profound and positive impact on the changing world through instruction, research, and public service as the University educates and prepares a diverse student population to thrive in and contribute to a global society. Administrative Services is a support organization which provides quality, effective, efficient, and timely leadership and administrative support services responding to the ever-changing needs of students, faculty, and staff"

What the…? Let's cut through the bullshit and get to the heart of the matter:

"Administrative services is a service-oriented area. Administrative services is a support organization which provides…administrative support services. "

Translation: Ms. Thompson is paid to get paid.

What Else Could We Get?:

240 credit hours in doctoral-level courses from the University of Phoenix. Honestly, it's pretty demoralizing when the second highest-paid administrator at your institution is a former secretary with a Master's degree...from your institution! Sherman Hall should have the decency to require at least an on-line diploma for upper administrative positions. It's hard enough as it is for the few competent faculty on campus to live with the fact that this is as far as their Ph.D.s could take them.

NUMBER ONE

Who?: Dr. Jackie "Jack" Thomas

How Much?: $198,180

What For?: Provost and Academic Vice President

As WIU's Provost and Academic Vice-President, Jackie "Jack" Thomas is President Al's right-hand man. When the Prez needs a hand, he knows that Jack will finish the job. Most of the time, however, Jack keeps busy conferring with members of his "executive leadership team." If you think he knows what's going on, then you don’t know Jack.

What Else Could We Get?:

With the money the state spends on Jack's salary, Illinois taxpayers could purchase 198,180 "Mega-Millions" lottery tickets. Odds are we'd still end up with nothing, but at least the lottery gives us a chance at a winner.

HONORABLE MENTION:

Who?: Dr. Alvin Goldfarb

How Much?: $270,000

What For?: President

As Master of this three-ring circus, President Al is less "of" the administration than he is "above" the administration. So it seemed a bit impolite to lump him in with his posse. To no one's surprise, President Al is WIU's most generously compensated bureaucrat. Of course, his published salary doesn’t take into account the long-term costs associated with his tenure in office. But that's the great thing about being the guy in charge – long after you've bailed, the institution will continue paying the price.

What Else Will We Get?:

At $270,000 Al's salary is enough to cover 0.39% of the $68.7 million Performing Arts Center.

furloughs and more at u of i

2010-01-05T10:02:00.000-08:00

For those of you who, like Robert Hironimus-Wendt, think we're using scare-tactics (we're not), here's a dose of reality from President Stanley Ikenberry at U of I.

Where's our letter? What's our plan?

Thanks to a reader for sending the link.

More Info: Details about the furlough program at U of I.

UPDATE! We got our letter. Everything's fine. Just make sure to turn off the lights...oh, and if it's yellow let it mellow, but if it's brown, flush it down. WTF!?

coach patterson update (chickens come home to roost in Sherman Hall)

2010-01-04T19:04:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Coach Patterson's representatives filed an administrative notice with Illinois Secretary of State Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office in a preemptive move to begin a lawsuit against Western Illinois University.

Thanks to a reader for alerting us to the news story.

Taken from the WGEM website

For all Don Patterson accomplished during his decade-long tenure as head football coach at Western Illinois, Patterson says it was swiftly wiped away following a late September meeting with Athletic Director Tim VanAlstine and Vice President for Student Services Garry Johnson.

A few hours later, a press release was issued claiming Patterson had stepped down for health reasons. The release included quotes from Patterson which his agent, Barry Nadler, said was complete fabrication.

"When the University President was informed that false information was released to the public, nothing happened," Nadler said.

"There was no consequences to the athletic director that we know about, and the fraud upon the public was just continued."

Read the rest of the story here
See our original post here
UPDATE: Read Patterson's Letter To WIU