Extraordinary Merit

This morning, the voting will begin on extraordinary merit for the campus. Although I oppose it strongly, I have made my peace with the outcome and will accept whatever happens with equanimity.

The chancellor made the proposal back in November and, originally, it would have given the administration carte blanche to reward whomever they wanted. The union, through patient and diligent negotiation, has improved the thing a great deal and mitigated several of the most egregious problems -- and gotten a few small, but truly good things, on top. But, on the whole, I think the thing is a bad piece of work which will hurt the campus.

On Monday, my mood about the whole thing was quite black. It looked to me like it was going to pass off without much consideration on the part of the faculty. But then, it became clear that the deans had been giving marching orders to sell it to the faculty (and librarians). Once that happened, everyone began to give it second looks and to consider the matter far more suspiciously. I don't know how the vote is going to turn out, but if it fails, I will credit the administration with the outcome.

There was a well-attended public meeting called by the union to discuss the question in the late afternoon that ran for two hours. I should never have questioned the ability of the faculty to look carefully at the issue and see the thing for what it is. I was, again, seized with admiration for my colleagues and their sense of solidarity. Many are horrified at the idea that non-tenure-system faculty and librarians are excluded by virtue of their caste, rather than their merits. But they also perceive how trying to win the lottery ticket will influence how faculty spend their time -- and resent it. Many became faculty precisely because it gave them the freedom to use their time to do what they thought was right, and not to be managed by the central office with lures and bonuses.

Although I recognize that the proposal does have some positive aspects -- and I do not begrudge any of the faculty the higher salary it will bring -- I hope it does not pass. Its failure would send a message to the administration that if they wanted to seriously address the problem, they should have come to the faculty and worked in a collaborative way to achieve their ends. If it does pass, it will have divisive and perverse effects on the faculty -- indeed it's hard for me to conceive that this was not an ulterior motive in the first place. But good or ill, I have made my peace with it and am ready for the faculty to vote.

But thank goodness we have a union that can stand up to the administration -- but for the union, I think they'd have us down on all fours like a beast.