Thank you, Marcia!!

If I may, I would like to return to the ID issue.  One problem that I have
noticed is that students who attended this university as undergraduates, who
then return here for graduate school, in some cases several years later, are
expected to pay for new student IDs if they did not keep their old ones.
This requirement is absurd!  I doubt that many of the undergrads, once their
Bachelor's degrees have been conferred, know that three or four years down
the line they'll be returning to this place to seek an advanced degree.  And
I doubt that many people that graduate from here are so filled with
nostalgia for their glory-days at UTC that they just keep their student IDs
in perpetuity.  Not everyone is a packrat.  If they pay fees for graduate
school, then they very well ought to be granted new student IDs--treated as
new students to the university--without such adverse treatment simply
because they took their undergraduate degree in the same institution that
they, perhaps, loyally return to.

Also sympathetic,
t.


-----Original Message-----
From: UTC Staff E-Mail List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Marcia Noe
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 1:49 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [UTCSTAFF] Paying for your own replacement I.D.

Hi Steve White:

You may be somewhat new to UTC; I came here in 1986, so perhaps I can put
your comment about having to pay for a replacement I.D. in context.  Some
people, reading your e-mail, may have believed your complaint to be petty.
It is not, if placed in the following context:

One pattern I have seen developing in concert with the University's
becoming technologically more sophisticated is an increase in costs and in
workload for  faculty and/or departmental secretaries.  In other words,
administrative units that used to provide support services for faculty are
now passing on to faculty and to departments many tasks, and corresponding
costs, that these units used to perform:  Examples:

1.  Chalk was provided in all classrooms for many years; now, with white
boards replacing blackboards, professors or departments are required to
purchase  appropriate writing tools for whiteboards. You, the professor,
must remember to bring your whiteboard marker to class; it won't be there
waiting for you.

2. The Records Office used to provide professors with class rosters
periodically.  Records no longer does this.  If your departmental secretary
does not put in a roster request to the computer center, it is up to you,
the professor, to download your own rosters on your own computer, providing
your own supplies (paper and ink cartridge).

3.  Records used to print a schedule of classes each semester.  Records no
longer does this.  It is up to you, the professor, to locate classes
online.  If you need a list of departmental offerings for advisement
purposes, it is up to you, the professor, to print this out, using your own
supplies (paper and ink cartridge).

4.  Records used to print enough copies of the university catalog each year
so that you could get a hard copy to have on hand for advisement and other
purposes.  Now only departments can get the print catalogs; you, the
professor, must use a online, difficult-to-read, and error-filled catalog.
If you need catalog hard copy to have on hand for advisement and other
purposes, you, the professor, must download it yourself, using your own
supplies (paper and ink cartridge).

5.  Interlibrary loan used to provide copies of requested journal articles
to professors.  Interlibrary loan no longer does this.  Now, if you order
an article through interlibrary loan, it is up to you, the professor, to
download what often turns out to be a barely legible article, using your
own supplies (paper and ink cartridge).

6.  University Relations used to maintain a faculty directory and a list of
professors with expertise in various subjects.  All the professor had to do
was send them the information and they would do the rest.  University
Relations no longer uses this procedure. Now, in order to get into the
directory or the list of experts or change your directory information, you,
the professor, must go to a website and follow a cumbersome, frustrating,
confusing, and time-comsuming procedure to fill out an online form for both.

7.  A hard copy of Faculty Senate (it was Faculty Council then) minutes
used to be provided to every faculty member.  Now, you, the professor, must
use an attachment or website and either read a barely legible set of
minutes on the screen or download them, using your own supplies (paper and
ink cartridge).

8.  Hard copies of forms for internal grants (Speakers and Special Events,
Faculty Development, Faculty Research, etc.) used to be provided to each
faculty member.  Now you, the professor, must download such forms from a
website, using your own supplies (paper and ink cartridge).

I'm sure this list could be longer.  Individually, these complaints seem
petty. Cumulatively, they add up to a lot of extra effort, time,
frustration and sometimes expense for the professor.  Put in this context,
your complaint about spending $10.00 for a replacement I.D. is just one
more piece of evidence that we are being paid less and less while we are
asked to do more and more work and assume more and more costs-- in terms of
both time and money.  And what's more, all this extra work does not fall
under any of the traditional rubrics that describe a professor's job:
teaching, research, and service.

Are pay toilets next?  Probably not.  But given the pattern that has been
developing at UTC over the past several years, as outlined above, what's
next is bound to be something worse.
Yours in sympathy,
Marcia
PS.  I am still using the I.D. I was issued in 1986.  I like it because, as
you might imagine after 18 years here, the picture on the I.D. looks a lot
better than I do.  Thank you for giving me a plausible excuse to keep using
it.